Arkham Asylum - A Serious House On A Serious Earth

[The Dark Knight]

Here's a review of one of my favourite graphic novels.

Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on a Serious Earth. That title says it all. There are no heroics here. This tale is bleak indeed, forged in the pitchest of black. "Suggested for Mature Readers" is placed on the back cover for good reason.

This is not a super hero story. It is instead a psychological graphic novel with such great intensity. It includes probing and thought provoking representations of well known characters. This graphic novel may well and truly have gone a little overboard in the sombre mood of this piece. It most likely is one of the most unnecessarily violent and ghastly graphic novels ever published under the Batman title, although, I definitely think - regardless of it being at times disgusting ? it is also one of the most original and beautifully illustrated narratives ever created for the genre.

In this groundbreaking graphic novel, the inmates of Arkham Asylum have taken over the detention centre for the criminally insane on April Fools Day. They demand Batman to be enter the Asylum, and be taken into their possession, in exchange for their hostages. Accepting this demented challenge, Batman is forced to live and endure the personal hells of the Joker, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Two-Face and many other sworn enemies in order to save the innocents. During his run through this absurd gauntlet, Batman has his own sanity in jeopardy.

The villains are not the black-and-white, impossible to think as real men, villains of old. They are re created, as real people who suffer from some horrible physical and psychological violence or disorder. So horrific that the only possible mental, human response is insanity.

It is a dual story, told in interwoven parallels. It explores the asylum?s past and also focuses on Batman's present day task to go inside the asylum and, while confronting the insecurities about his own sanity, regain control of the facility.

The book uses confusing tricks, like Joker's dialogue written in a jumbled red font that means it is, literally, hard to read - and it even spills off the page at times, losing words. Small things such as this create an almost dream like quality, a haunting feel. The artwork itself is murky and confusing. It can be extremely hard to pick characters out, who they are and what they look like. Some pages use the splatter effect, creating the feel of somebody walking through dark hallways in confusion. In a panel, Batman cold-bloodedly kicks a man in a wheelchair down some stairs. He doesn?t know what is going on either, he just wants to get through this alive.

Interestingly, this makes Batman question whether the treatment inmates like Two-Face have been receiving is really helpful, or even humane in such an environment.

If you have read this graphic novel, feel free to add your thoughts.

[Azrael]

An excellent graphic novel. A dreamy trip in the villains' madness

[The Dark Knight]

It sure is. The art for The Joker is very reminiscent of Heath Ledger's version.

[BatmanForever]

I was given this as a present when i was 13 and i had to return it as i was scared stiff by the ultraviolent themes and the photorealistic art for the joker the i've eaten part freaks me out

[The Dark Knight]

Yeah, this book is not for the faint hearted. It is pretty confronting.

I have the 15th Anniversary Edition trade paperback, which also reproduces the original script with comments by Morrison and editor Karen Berger. If you haven't read it, I'd definitely check it out.

[The Laughing Fish]

I found Amadeus Arkham's tragedy and descent to insanity to be a lot more compelling than the actual story itself. There's a twisted irony of a doctor dedicating his life to treat the mentally ill, and yet he becomes crazy himself. Perhaps because of prolong exposure to mentally ill patients drove him nuts - after all, he had been taking care of his own mother since he was a boy. Particularly how he puts his mother out of her misery after spending years terrified by the bat in her bedroom, and how he snapped back to insanity yet again to take revenge at his patient for brutally murdering his wife and child. There are big Psycho vibes here, even a distorted grinning picture of Norman Bates appears in one of the pages.

It's less of a superhero story than it is a horror story, where Amadeus casts a spell and curses the asylum, and the image of the bat too, which would doom Batman as well as everybody else exposed to the lunatics he send to the asylum. Instead of treating and curing the sick, it only persists and torments in a hellhole and corrupts every person working there. Maybe that's why Batman broke free of all the villains in the end, as if he had some twisted sense of guilt, and wanted to break the spell.

It's a very abstract book. Batman is deconstructed where he appears useless and out-of-character from his detective/genius self because he's stuck in a nightmare world that he belongs to. There's a lot of material to take in that I haven't thought about yet, but it's a story to analyse and interpret rather than to enjoy. I won't speak badly about it because of it has an enormous influence on Rocksteady Arkham video games, specifically 2009's Arkham Asylum. To put it this way, I admire its impact rather than the story itself. I just find playing as Batman and make him overcome psychological trauma and abuse as he saves the day a lot more entertaining than reading how he arguably succumbs to the madness himself.

Speaking of the Arkham Asylum game, it's quite obvious how it took elements from Grant Morrison's story. The narration and scene where Amadeus treats Mad Dog Hawkins as he berates him and describes how he murdered his wife and daughter, as well as the psychopath's supposed "accident" would be adapted in the game's Spirit of Arkham audio tapes.

Batman calling the Joker a "filthy degenerate" after he was touched from behind was the same line recited by warden Quincy Sharp, when Batman took the Joker back to the asylum at the start of the game, and again, in one of the Spirit of Arkham audio tapes.

Quincy Sharp, himself, is loosely based on Dr. Cavendish - the mad doctor in Morrison's story. According to the game's character biography, Sharp was a schizophrenic who became obsessed with Amadeus Arkham's writings. Dr. Cavendish stumbled across Arkham's secret room and journal, and learned about the history behind the Amadeus. The only difference between the two is Sharp secretly wants to destroy all the mental patients in the asylum, whereas Cavendish was responsible for releasing all the inmates as part of a plan to set Batman up, with the intention to trap him and stop the evil spell.

Amadeus Arkham's fingernail carvings of the spell he cast on the asylum appear to have inspired the game's Spirit of Arkham findings, where you navigate Batman to scan these messages carved around the asylum to unlock those audio tapes.

[The Laughing Fish]

Two years ago, Grant Morrison announced his plans on writing a sequel. I had no idea.

Explaining that he once joked that the idea of creating a sequel to the fan-favorite title was his personal "jumping the shark" moment, Morrison said that he decided to embrace the ludicrousness of the concept. "Let's take that 'jump the shark' idea and do the best Batman book there's ever been," he said, describing the project as an over-the-top, Luc Besson-esque thriller that will take place in the future timeline he created where Batman's son Damian has grown up to become an adult Batman of his own.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/grant-morrison-unveils-arkham-asylum-2-batman-graphic-novel-plans-at-comic-con-1023154

I think he should leave it alone. I see Arkham Asylum as nothing more than an experimental tale, albeit a beloved one at that. What are the odds AA2 ends up becoming a real jump the shark moment like Frank Miller's sequels to The Dark Knight Returns? Besides, if I'm yet to be wowed by Damian Wayne as Robin, I doubt I will care to read about him being Batman.

[Travesty]

I always have a hard time coming back to this book because of the lettering. I always open it up, think the art looks amazing, try to read the first line, and then immediately put it down. lol

[The Laughing Fish]

I always have a hard time coming back to this book because of the lettering. I always open it up, think the art looks amazing, try to read the first line, and then immediately put it down. lol

I personally never had a problem with the lettering. But the art of the asylum, the drawings of Batman and the rest of his rogues gallery wasn't my cup of tea. Although I suppose it made sense from a visual perspective. You look at Amadeus Arkham's past and how photorealistic it can be sometimes, and you look at how exaggerated modern day Arkham Asylum looks because of it's condemned as a haunting, cursed hellhole. Some of the inmates there look like they're possessed by demons: the Joker with his exaggerated long chin, evil red eyes and long green fingernails, a sickly Clayface, the electrifying Maxie Zeus, the hulking Killer Croc - even Batman himself is exaggerated as a shadow lost in the abyss as his image is being blamed for this place's existence. If Amadeus really did cast a spell on this place, it definitely worked.

Would a more traditional comic art style, like we see in the rough story draft of this book, have the same creepy effect? Probably not.

Speaking of the art, it came to my attention that I've seen Dave McKean's art before. He did a lot of music album covers in the past, this is one example he did for the heavy metal band Testament. It definitely looks like something that could've been pulled from Arkham Asylum.