Gotham’s pet cemetery’s twisted secret is perfect for the city — and helps prove the city is the worst setting in the DC Universe.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Batman: Urban Legends #13, now on sale from DC Comics
Gotham City is the perpetual setting of Batman and Bat-Family-related stories, and has become one of the most iconic locations in western media. Gotham has even come to be shorthand for how bad urban environments can become, recalling the various twisted secrets and brutal conspiracies at the heart of Gotham. Some of the most twisted are even some of the most down-to-earth, with a memorial service being revealed to even be caught up in the city’s crimes.
The story “Hound: Chapter Three” from Batman: Urban Legends #13 by Mark Russell, Karl Mostert, Trish Mulvihill, and Steve Wands reveals that the Gotham Pet Cemetary is actually a front for a criminal body disposal conspiracy — another entry in a long line of proofs that Gotham is just the worst city to live in.
“Hound” has focused on an adventure starring Batman and Ace, and what happens when the pair are separated after Batman’s capture by a vicious Oligarch. Ace is taken to the Gotham Pet Cemetery and Crematorium, where he’s meant to be sold to the highest bidder. But instead Ace leads a break-out of the other animals, venturing out in search of Batman. Meanwhile, Mr. Schwann — who runs the Pet Cemetery — is absolutely horrified. As he explains to one of his agents, they can’t allow the animals to draw attention to the pet cemetery. It turns out that Schwann only ever uses an incinerator to dispose of dead animals and pets.
In reality, the graveyard full of tombstones memorizing the animal companions that families miss is are actually full of human bodies. The animal cemetery is actually a secret place to hide bodies from various Gotham crimes, and likely contains the corpses of countless cold case victims. Schwann describes the cemetery as housing “half of Gotham’s murders,” and that any authorities poking around the cemetery will either expose the crime or get Schwann’s ruthless criminal clients gunning for him to hide their secrets. Regardless of how things play out in the story, it’s worth commenting on just how twisted and dark Schwaan’s business is — and how it could only really work in a city like Gotham. He’s found a way to help hide bodies in Gotham under the pretense of offering families closure for their pets.
With “Hound” highlighting the bond between Batman and Ace, the story has been making it clear how important that connection can be. And Schwann has been abusing it as a means of helping Gotham’s criminals hide their misdeeds. It’s also a perfectly good plan for someone as cruel as Schwann, as the cover of being a pet cemetery would make it unlikely anyone would think to actually check those graves. There are likely numerous mysteries Batman and other heroes could help finally solve if they discover the truth about the pet cemetery. It’s just another reminder of how twisted Gotham City is. Even when compared to other terrible places in the DC Universe like the often-corrupt Hub City or the brutal slums of Metropolis, Gotham is a special kind of rough.
It’s a city where clown murders are an expected part of life, and multiple world-changing disasters have caused widespread chaos. And now, it’s apparently a place where trying to bury a family pet might mean you’re inadvertently helping support a criminal cleaner who uses that pain to hide murders from across the city. It’s stuff like this that makes Gotham into such an iconic location, the kind of setting where everything can (and likely will) turn out to be far darker than you first realize.
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