| Wayne Manor Estate | |
|---|---|
| Batman location | |
 Wayne Manor inBatman vol. 3 #16 (April 2017) Art by David Finch | |
| First appearance | Detective Comics #28 June 1939 |
| Created by | Bob Kane Bill Finger |
| Genre | Superhero comics |
| In-universe information | |
| Type | Mansion |
| Locations | Gotham City |
| Characters |
|
| Publisher | DC Comics |
Wayne Manor is a fictionalmansion appearing inAmerican comic books published byDC Comics. It is the home of Bruce Wayne, owner of Wayne Enterprises, who is also thesuperheroBatman.
The house is depicted as a large mansion on the outskirts ofGotham City and is maintained by the Wayne family's butler,Alfred Pennyworth. While the earliest stories showed Bruce Wayne buying the house himself, by the 1950s at the latest,retroactive continuity established that the manor had belonged to the Wayne family for several generations. Along with serving as a personal residence, the mansion sits above theBatcave, which Batman uses as his secret headquarters. The vast majority of DC Comics references place Wayne Manor just outside of Gotham City in the state ofNew Jersey.[1][2][3][4]
The manor, indicative of Wayne's ancestral wealth, is designed in aGothic Revival architectural style, matching theGothic architecture present in Gotham. For live-action films,English country house locations inNottinghamshire,Hertfordshire, andBuckinghamshire, as well asStevenson Taylor Hall in New York, have been used to depict Wayne Manor.
Wayne Manor appears in the 1960sBatman television series and in filmsBatman (1989),Batman Returns (1992),Batman Forever (1995),Batman & Robin (1997), inThe Dark Knight Trilogy (2005–2012), in theDC Extended Universe (2016–2023) andThe Batman (2022).
Wayne Manor is depicted in earlier comics as being on the outskirts ofGotham City in the state ofNew Jersey.[1][2][3][4] Comic book portrayals place the mansion within driving distance of Gotham City, close enough that theBat-Signal can be seen from Wayne Manor alerting Batman of distress in the city.
Wayne Manor's grounds include a surrounding gate around the perimeter with a larger front gate at the main entrance. Batman's subterranean headquarters, theBatcave, is located beneath the mansion.[5]
The grounds also includes a large hill that was partially hollowed out for Batman's aerial vehicles, with the most prominent being the batcave, and there is also an underground river system that is large enough to accommodate docking space for theBatboat and has a large opening for said vehicle.
InBatman: The Return of Bruce Wayne, it is revealed that Wayne Manor was designed by Nathan Van Derm for Darius Wayne, forming a stylized "W", although the additional gardens that existed at the time the manor was built add on to this symbol to create the image of a bat.
During the events ofBatman: Cataclysm a massive earthquake struck Gotham City, the epicenter of which was less than a mile from Wayne Manor. The mansion was seriously damaged, as was the cave network beneath. The ground beneath the mansion shifted significantly, and actually revealed the Batcave below, although the Bat-family were able to relocate all of Batman's equipment before official rescue came to the manor so that nobody would learn Bruce Wayne's secrets. The original Manor was damaged beyond repair, forcing Bruce Wayne to redesign the Manor along with the Batcave. The new Manor is a veritable fortress, a pastiche ofGothic architecture combined with features ofcastellated architecture. Solar panels are installed in the new Manor, providing sustainable and environmentally-friendly electricity generation for the complex.[6] It also includes a heliport for commercial helicopters.[7]
DuringBatman Eternal, Hush's machinations result in Wayne Enterprises being ruined and Bruce Wayne essentially bankrupt after the villain detonates various weapons caches Batman had concealed around Gotham.[8] As part of this bankruptcy, Wayne Manor is repossessed by the city and turned into the new Arkham Asylum following the destruction of the original,[9] but Bruce decides to accept this new status quo, reasoning that he can at least make sure that his enemies remain contained in the new manor given his intimate knowledge of its entrances and exits.[10]
The manor is eventually reclaimed by Bruce's lawyers, but it is temporarily left empty due to Bruce's death and amnesic resurrection as Alfred wanted to give Bruce a chance to have a life without Batman. However, Bruce returns to the manor when he realizes who he used to be.
InGotham War, Batman loses most of his money to theJoker. Afterward,Vandal Savage buys Wayne Manor and the Batcave.[11][12]
The manor grounds include theBatcave, an extensive cave system that Bruce Wayne discovered as a boy and uses as his base of operations. Its method of access has varied, though it is typically accessible from a hidden door behind a grandfather clock.
While these grounds are the regular home of Bruce Wayne, he temporarily vacated it in the stories from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, preferring to live in apenthouse apartment on top of the Wayne Foundation building in the city, which also included a secret sub-basement acting as a Batcave.
Wayne came to this decision when Dick Grayson went off to college, which led him to decide that the mansion was now impractical with only one resident and one servant. Furthermore, Wayne decided he wanted to be closer to his main field of operations in Gotham City than a home situated outside the main urban area would allow. However, by the early 1980s, Wayne came to reconsider that purpose and decided that being less accessible to the public was more advantageous for his Batman activities and returned to Wayne Manor.
InBatman & Dracula: Red Rain, Wayne Manor is destroyed as part of a plan to destroy Dracula's vampire family, bombs exposing the interior of the Batcave to sunlight after Batman lured the vampires into the cave following a chase through Gotham's sewers that ended in the Batcave just as the sun rose. Although the manor collapses into the cavern system after a second series of bombs are set off, thus concealing Bruce Wayne's secret, Batman and Alfred relocate to a brownstone in the center of town, Batman residing in a mausoleum in the basement while Alfred prepares his equipment in the main house. Although Alfred and Gordon stake Batman at the conclusion ofBatman: Bloodstorm after he succumbs to his vampire instincts and drinks the Joker's blood, he is restored to life after Alfred removes the stake inCrimson Mist, subsequently relocating to the catacombs underneath the remains of Wayne Manor. The manor's remains are finally destroyed for good when Gordon, Alfred,Two-Face,Killer Croc, and Two-Face's gang plant bombs on the cave roof, exposing the interior to sunlight and ending Batman's reign of terror once and for all.
InKingdom Come, the Manor was mostly destroyed by Two-Face andBane after Batman's true identity was exposed; the Batcave, however, remained relatively untouched. By the end of the graphic novel, the Manor has been rebuilt as a hospital/hospice forGulag battle victims.
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The lyrics to the song "She Looks Like Fun" on the albumTranquility Base Hotel and Casino byArctic Monkeys mention Wayne Manor.[26]
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| Locations inGotham City | |||||
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