This article analyzes the phenomenon of virtual heterotopy based on the example of the fictional comic city of Gotham. Raising the question of the mediation of modern man and the transformation of the subject into an object of mass culture, the author turns to the ideas of the French poststructuralist M. Foucault and proves the fact that virtual heterotopies play a very important role in the formation of a real cultural landscape through the creation of theme parks, , fan communities, as well as the imitation of real cities and urban settlements in these virtual spaces. Analyzing their mythological model and its structure, the author comes to the conclusion that in them, as in real heterotopia, the sociocultural laws function differently, and the structural elements seem to be "inverted", having a different meaning than in homogeneous spaces, acquiring a completely different denotative meaning. Being a mirror image of reality, such heterotopies, on the one hand, act as collective images of individual cities and settlements of the United States and not only, but on the other, perform a culturally-forming function. The very fact, in the opinion of the author, makes us look differently at the role of products of mass culture in the formation of the modern cultural landscape.
