Why don't Gotham and Metropolis ever have memorable mayors?

[justinslot]

Real-life LOLing at the fact a list of Gotham City mayors is an actual Wikipedia article.

[DrNewGod]

Yes, a good character. And let’s not forget his political opponent Arthur Reeves, whose campaign fell apart after it was discovered that his Batman identity photos were fake. All with great Don Newton art. That whole Conway run is underrated.

Edit: I see you mentioned Reeves in a later post. Feeling redundant over here.

All good dude.

[daBronzeBomma]

I think not having immediately identifiable "permanent"/ status quo mayors for two locales that define themselves as "cities" is a big oversight on the part of DC.

And I think the best long-term solution is promoting a longtime secondary or tertiary franchise character to the role and leaving them in office indefinitely / till the Next Reboot.

For Gotham: it HAS to be someone corrupt. Someone holding back all the supposed progress Batman's vigilantism should be bringing. Someone keeping Gotham a city of nightmares despite the highest concentration of masked vigilantes in the world.

My vote goes to Mayor Oswald Cobblepot. The Penguin has always been the lamest of the famous rogues. Not as smart as the Riddler, not as tragic as Two-Face, not as scary as the Joker, not as impressive as Ras al Ghul, not as imposing as Bane, not as exotic as Poison Ivy, not as horrifying as Clayface, not as crazy as Scarface, etc ...

And as Batman became more Batgod, Penguin posed even less of a direct threat. Also, compared to the other rogues, Oswald is usually not that evil and just insecure and selfish.

Which makes him perfect for politics. And also, have him shift more to the center: still a bad guy who will hurt people but with a newfound sense of civic duty that as often puts him against his former accomplices as often as he is against Batman.

Metropolis? That choice is harder. Who to promote from the ranks of the Superverse? Has to be a human with no alter ego. Hmmmm ... I'll come back to this.

[Flash Gordon]

Penguin for mayor 100%.

[Osiris-Rex]

Penguin for mayor 100%.

Richard Kind as Mayor Aubrey James on Gotham was probably one of the most prominent live action mayors of Gotham City. And of course he was as corrupt as the day is long.
Oswald Cobblepot was also mayor for a while on Gotham

[daBronzeBomma]

Gotham: as far as super-villains (as opposed to mere recurring gangsters) go ... is the Penguin a failure? When was the last storyline that focused on him as the centerpiece? When was the last time he held a candle to Two-Face or the Riddler?

Oswald needs a change like this. And if you think the citizens of Gotham would never cleanly choose someone like Cobblepot for elected office ... I would point you to real world politics.

Now, for this to work, there has to be an editorial mandate from on high that this is the status quo going forward and no writers will be allowed to remove him from office any more than Jim Gordon being kicked off the GCPD would last. In return, Cobblepot helps almost as much as he hurts Gotham, squarely in the grey area of morality.


Metropolis: this one will seem a wee bit out of left field, as this character has no prior political experience (again, see: Donald Trump), but it could happen with the right amount of groundwork.

Metropolis' next (permanent) mayor is ...

Catherine "Cat" Grant.