10 Untold Secrets About The Batcave

The caves that make up the Batcave have had a historical history long before Batman hung his first cape there. The caverns were the home of the prehistoric Miagani Tribes, who were also known as the “Bat People”, having changed their name from the “Deer People” after encountering and being saved by a time-displaced Batman who saved the tribe from caveman Vandal Adg’s Blood Tribe. Adg becomes the immortal who would evolve into the villain Vandal Savage.

In the 18th Century, frontier hero Tomahawk encountered a humongous bat said to be conjured by Arthurian sorceress Morgaine le Fey. Jon Valor, The Black Pirate, a privateer and vigilante used the caves as a hideout in the early days of Gotham City’s construction as a seaport. In the 19th Century, during the American Civil War, ancestors of the Wayne family used the caves as an instrumental “stop” for ferrying escaped slaves to the North along the Underground Railroad.

Businessman Joshua Wayne was one such ancestor and, along with his brother Judge Solomon Wayne, they helped build Gotham City by day and helped free countless enslaved people within the caverns by night. Joshua began the construction of the huge manor house to hide his other activities. He was killed by a bounty hunter in 1860 and his nephew Alan, Solomon’s son, finished the manor’s construction, oblivious to the caverns and their significance.