trappedslider
Legend
Jim Corrigan (The Spectre) has gone under the city and there is a whole lot of evil magical stuff down there that he isn't able to fight, and he is one of the most powerful sorcerers in DC,
The modern-age Batman stories (POST-COIE onwards) introduced the idea that Gotham is basically cursed to a supernatural degree.
The story "Dark Knight, Dark City" explained that an 18th-century group of demon worshippers (including Thomas Jefferson for some reason) summoned a Bat-demon named Barbatos and locked it in the center of Gotham for a few centuries (which Grant Morrison would later sort of reference in his Batman run).
In Dennis O'Neil's short story "Cityscape", he goes back even further and says Gotham was built around a makeshift asylum co-founded by a serial killer who wanted a 'home' in the New World for himself and equally insane spiritual 'brothers and sisters' (the story also invoked the real-life legend of the "Wise Men of Gotham" for the reason the city in the comics got its name).
And within Gotham, it's been suggested that Arkham Asylum exists within another nexus of crazy. In the miniseries 'Living Hell', it was explained that in the asylums' early days an occultist was sacrificing inmates to open an actual portal to hell which was barely sealed by Jason Blood. While the portal was closed, it actively called on inmates and people in Gotham to open it back up for a couple of hundred years.
Going off sort of tangentially, there was a literal 'there's something in the water' explanation was used in a Legends of the Dark Knight story called "The Wise Men of Gotham", the novel "Wayne of Gotham", and the Arkham series of videogames.
In both of the first stories, it was suggested that Bruce's dad, Thomas, was indirectly responsible for releasing some faint psychoactive drugs into Gotham's water supply many years ago, which could be blamed for creating both Batman and his villains. In the former story Bruce mostly ends up debunking it, but in the "Wayne of Gotham" novel it's presented as the actual fact.
And in the Arkham videogame continuity, it's revealed that that is a cluster of Lazarus Pits deep under Gotham, and it's implicitly suggested that the chemicals from the pit have always been seeping into Gotham's water and soil, and its psychotic properties are responsible for Gotham's specific brand of eccentricity.
The curse was also mentioned in Detective Comics #982, where Deacon Blackfire's ghost tells Batman about it and tries to convince him that he's fighting a losing battle. It ended with Batman not believing there is a curse (nothing really happened to disprove it, it's just a thing Batman chooses to believe).
The story "Dark Knight, Dark City" explained that an 18th-century group of demon worshippers (including Thomas Jefferson for some reason) summoned a Bat-demon named Barbatos and locked it in the center of Gotham for a few centuries (which Grant Morrison would later sort of reference in his Batman run).
In Dennis O'Neil's short story "Cityscape", he goes back even further and says Gotham was built around a makeshift asylum co-founded by a serial killer who wanted a 'home' in the New World for himself and equally insane spiritual 'brothers and sisters' (the story also invoked the real-life legend of the "Wise Men of Gotham" for the reason the city in the comics got its name).
And within Gotham, it's been suggested that Arkham Asylum exists within another nexus of crazy. In the miniseries 'Living Hell', it was explained that in the asylums' early days an occultist was sacrificing inmates to open an actual portal to hell which was barely sealed by Jason Blood. While the portal was closed, it actively called on inmates and people in Gotham to open it back up for a couple of hundred years.
Going off sort of tangentially, there was a literal 'there's something in the water' explanation was used in a Legends of the Dark Knight story called "The Wise Men of Gotham", the novel "Wayne of Gotham", and the Arkham series of videogames.
In both of the first stories, it was suggested that Bruce's dad, Thomas, was indirectly responsible for releasing some faint psychoactive drugs into Gotham's water supply many years ago, which could be blamed for creating both Batman and his villains. In the former story Bruce mostly ends up debunking it, but in the "Wayne of Gotham" novel it's presented as the actual fact.
And in the Arkham videogame continuity, it's revealed that that is a cluster of Lazarus Pits deep under Gotham, and it's implicitly suggested that the chemicals from the pit have always been seeping into Gotham's water and soil, and its psychotic properties are responsible for Gotham's specific brand of eccentricity.
The curse was also mentioned in Detective Comics #982, where Deacon Blackfire's ghost tells Batman about it and tries to convince him that he's fighting a losing battle. It ended with Batman not believing there is a curse (nothing really happened to disprove it, it's just a thing Batman chooses to believe).
TL;DR It's like DC Earth's equivalent to Sunnydale.
