Do you consider yourself a legitimate comic book enthusiast or a psychotic zealot when it comes to Batman? If you happen to fall into all of these categories, do not worry; we have taken care of both of your needs! What we will be discussing is a graphic novel that is not only regarded as one of the greatest Batman stories of all time but is also regarded as one of Grant Morrison’s best works to this day.
Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, written by Morrison and illustrated by Dave McKean, is the comic book we are teasing today. Would you believe us if we told you that this graphic novel was Grant Morrison’s debut work on the DC Superhero and that the story was originally intended to be the start of his own Batman saga? Surprised? Oh, we have got some more fascinating facts in store for you.
Apparently, during the early stages of conceiving the novel, Morrison and his friend Jim Clements were both attracted by Len Wein’s [len+wine] small yet evocative paragraphs about the history of Arkham Asylum in the Who is Who series. Of course, Morrison conducted an extensive study before deciding to include Amadeus Arkham’s hardship in the story he planned to tell his readers.
To be honest, it was Frank Miller’s 1986 comic book mini-series The Dark Knight Returns, as well as Alan Moore’s Watchmen, that inspired the Scottish comic book writer to write his own Batman story, one that pushed the boundaries of the medium to new heights.
Now, in terms of Batman: Arkham Asylum’s strong plotline, the movie features Batman being summoned to put an end to irritating chaos that is raging inside Gotham’s Arkham Asylum. After entering the psychiatric hospital, Batman sees a slew of his long-time foes but quickly finds that there is a lot more to the facility than he could have expected.
So get ready for today’s video, in which we will take a deeper look at Batman: Arkham Asylum and go over every detail of the graphic novel.
The World On The Dark Side – Complete Issue Explained
The story introduces Amadeus Arkham and the readers are made to dive into his world of journals. We learn that his father is dead and his mother has been ill for a prolonged period. Amadeus doesn’t seem to be in a good shape either. What initially felt like some ghost haunting the corridors of his vast mansion soon transforms into something way more sinister on a particular night in 1901.
That is when he first caught the glimpse of the world on the dark side. We see him bringing a food tray for his mother and telling her to eat but his mother tells him that she has already eaten. The sight of her munching on beetles came as a total shock to Amadeus and for the first time, he truly felt alone.
It was years later when Amadeus actually became aware of the implication of the beetle – the insect was a sign of rebirth. He could gradually figure out that his mother was simply trying to protect herself from something in a manner that only she could comprehend.
The scene next shifts to Batman having a conversation with commissioner Gordon; the latter informing the vigilante of a riot taking place at the Arkham Asylum, one where the inmates have taken control of the entire building, how they are holding the entire staff as prisoners and making the wildest of demands.
Their conversation is interrupted by a phone call from the Joker, who tells Batman how he along with the rest of the inmates wants him inside the madhouse further telling him that the asylum is where he truly belongs.
When Batman asks him what would happen if he turns down his request, the Joker seemingly kills one of the hostages thereby answering his question. Before hanging up, the Joker tells him that he only has half an hour. The commissioner tries to talk Batman out of it but the latter has already made up his mind by then. The conversation with the Joker is also showing its effects leading Batman to think what if he actually belongs there.
The readers are taken to another flashback; the year is 1920 and we are back in Amadeus’ journal. Amadeus’s mother has passed away by then; we get to know that she had slashed her very own throat with a pearl-handled razor. But by the looks of it, there is a fair chance that Amadeus may have put her mentally disturbed mother out of her misery by ending her life.
Amadeus returns back to the family home and sleeps the night in his old room. It is a restless night for him, he is constantly haunted by the sound of beating wings. He returns back to his family in Metropolis the very next day. We further learn from his journal that he is employed at the State Psychiatric Hospital. Soon Amadeus gets a patient called Martin Hawkins from the Metropolis Penitentiary referred to him.
Also known as ‘Mad Dog’ Hawkins, the patient discloses to him how he was sexually abused and beaten by his father, something that eventually led him to destroy the faces and sexual body parts of his victims later on. We are also introduced to Amadeus’ wife Constance and his young daughter Harriet and soon learn that the former has plans of coming back to his family home in Gotham, which is being converted into a psychiatric facility along with his wife and child.
Cut to the present, Batman is finally seen making his way toward the asylum. Post getting greeted by the Joker, he tells him to release the hostages. Amongst the hostages released is the one that the Joker had earlier fooled Batman into believing that he killed her. Batman is shocked when the Joker tells him he played an April Fools prank on him and is beyond rage when he realizes how easily he fell for it.
Inside, Batman is stunned to find more hostages– the psycho-therapist Ruth Adams and the current administrator of Arkham, Dr. Charles Cavendish. That’s not all; Batman is even more stunned to discover the deteriorating mental state of Two-Face.
Dr. Adams’ treatment of him, has made him incapacitated to an extent where he cannot even make the most basic decisions such as going to the bathroom for instance without consulting a pack of tarot cards. Of course, Batman blames the doctor for effectively destroying whatever was left of Two-Face’s personality.
With the Joker fooling around with Batman, the inmates of the asylum start getting impatient. They want to take off his mask and see his real face but the Joker stops them, clearly hinting to the readers that he has his own plans of wanting to go way deeper than just taking a peek at Batman’s face.
Meanwhile, in a parallel flashback, work has already begun at Amadeus’ family home in Gotham. With the family shifting in, Harriet seems to be tormented by nightmares, which of course is a matter of concern to Amadeus, who thinks that things will get better after the work on the house gets completed.
Coming back to the current scenario, the Joker forces Batman into participating in his favorite card game, which in the end brings Batman a lot of despairing memories back. Anyway, we are again taken back to the time when Amadeus comes home to his family for Christmas. The family is seen celebrating when they get interrupted by a sudden telephone call. We along with Amadeus learn that Martin Hawkins has managed to escape from the Penitentiary.
Coming back to the present times, the Joker is seen coercing Batman into playing Hide and Seek, telling him that he has an hour to escape and post that he will be hunted down by his ‘dearest of friends. It has only been ten minutes and the inmates are already bored. Each of them wants to go after Batman and they surely have their reasons. The Joker happily gives in to their demands telling them, “Let’s just pretend it’s been an hour”.
The readers are again taken back to a flashback; it is April 1st, 1921 and Amadeus comes home to find that the front door is wide open. Oblivious to the unspeakable tragedy that lays right in front of him, he is seen venturing inside his home and calling out to his wife but there’s no answer. What lies in front is a merciless sight; he first gets a glimpse of the lifeless body of his wife and next to her lies his daughter, indescribably violated.
With the past and current both moving at a parallel speed, we are back to the present day. As Batman wanders through the madhouse, he comes face to face with many of his enduring rogue galleries – Clayface, Doctor Destiny, Scarecrow, Mad Hatter, Maxie Zeus, Killer Croc, and just about manages to escape all of them.
Meanwhile, back in the flashback, it is November 1921 and despite the occurrence of the horrific tragedy, the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane has finally opened its gates. We learn the name of the first patient – Martin Hawkins.
As part of the plan, Amadeus treats him for six whole months and in the process gains a lot of commendation for having on the display such acts of valor and kindness. On the first-year death anniversary of his wife and daughter, he takes his due vengeance on Hawkins during a shock therapy session deliberately burning him to death and simply calling it an accident later.
The current scenario shows Batman meandering his way into a secret room in the towers. He is startled to find Cavendish there holding Adams as a hostage. It is finally disclosed that the real person responsible for the entire thing happens to be none other than Dr. Charles Cavendish himself. He had orchestrated everything from setting free the inmates to causing the riot.
When Batman asks him why Cavendish makes him read the journal of Amadeus Arkham. It is from the diary that Batman learns about Amadeus’ mentally deranged mother, Elizabeth, and how she kept suffering from delusions of being plagued by some kind of supernatural entity. The entity was finally revealed to be a bat and Amadeus had no other choice but to kill his mother and put her out of her own misery.
With time passing by, he had blocked out this memory but as fate would have it, the suppressed memories came back when his patient Martin Hawkins carried out heinous acts of crime on his wife and daughter.
There are no second thoughts regarding the degree of psychological trauma that this particular incident had inflicted on Amadeus; so much so that he actually promised to bind the evil spirit of ‘the bat’ using magic. While Amadeus was able to take his revenge on Hawkins, he was held as a prisoner in his own asylum till the day he breathed his last.
Coming back to Cavendish, he only did what he believed was his destiny, in short, to finish what Amadeus Arkham started. Therefore, he selected April Fools’ Day, the very date that Amadeus’ family was slaughtered, and as part of the plan, set free all the inmates. Next, he made Batman come to the very asylum as he was certain that he was ‘the bat’ that Amadeus had mentioned in his journal.
No wonder, he puts the entire blame on Batman telling the latter how he was accountable for feeding the asylum with the maddest of souls. He calls him the bat and a fight ensues between the duo ending only with Adams slashing the throat of Cavendish in order to make things work in favor of Batman.
The vigilante asks Adams to hand him over the coin of Two-Face post which he breaks down the main door of the asylum with an ax. Next, he tells all the inmates inside that they are free and returns back the coin he took earlier to Two-Face. Batman also makes Two-Face in charge of his fate to which the latter states that if the unmarked face of his coin comes up Batman gets to live but if it is the scarred face that comes up, he dies.
Batman agrees to his terms and Two-Face flips the coin only to declare that Batman goes free. Soon, the police arrive to take back control of the asylum. The readers get to see a glimpse of the coin that Two-Face is seen looking at. It is finally disclosed that the coin had actually landed with the scarred face but in spite of that, he decided to let Batman go. Two-Face is next seen staring at the stack of his tarot cards. He simply knocks them over saying, “Who cares for you? You’re nothing but a pack of cards”.
Want To Know What Do We Think Of?
Batman: Arkham Asylum is categorically one of the finest Batman stories you will ever come across. The fact that it is simply groundbreaking shows that even the critics worldwide are full of praise. As ardent fans of this DC Superhero here, we can barely thank enough Grant Morrison and Dave McKean for their spectacular contribution. What we have here is the notorious Arkham Asylum, one that is specifically known for keeping the most dangerous supervillians in Gotham.
Then we have Batman coming face to face with his enduring rogue’s gallery only to have the supernatural and psychological mystery revolving around the old facility unfold and show its true colors. Believe us when we say that this graphic novel here is dark and it is bound to take you on a psychological ride, one that you have possibly never experienced before. The storyline is intense, no doubt about that but what is even more interesting is how flattering and creative the artwork by Dave McKean happens to be.
But speaking of creativity, there is this one particular concern with the graphic novel, the only issue to be honest – is there are times when the creative artwork does make the lines a little bit harder to read, especially when we have the Joker babbling. So, perhaps a traditional layout could have been nicer but if we minus that, it is a brilliant comic and there are no second thoughts about it.
If you call yourself a true fan of Batman, you have got to read this!