Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth

[cyberghostface]

"The original first draft of the script included the character of Robin as Batman's sidekick. Robin appeared in a few scenes at the beginning then remained at Police Headquarters for the bulk of the book, where he spent his time studying plans and histories of the house, in order to find a way in to help his mentor. Dave McKean, however, felt that he had already compromised his artistic integrity sufficiently by drawing Batman and refused point blank to bend over for the Boy Wonder — so after one brave but ridiculous attempt to put him in a trenchcoat, I wisely removed him from the script." - Grant Morrison

As an introduction I'd add that if this is your first time reading this and if you like it, you should definitely seek out the full version. There's an entire subplot involving the origins of Arkham Asylum and the recent editions include the script with commentary that explain all the psychological and religious symbolism and what the heck is going on.

The story begins with Gordon telling Batman that the inmates have taken over Arkham Asylum and are holding everyone hostage. Their final request is Batman.





Joker's face is referenced from a mask sculpted by McKean which you can view here. There are a few variations but it's why he has the same expression for most of the book.







An interesting aside: the original script had Joker dressed up like Madonna from the 'Open Your Heart' music video.

Comments

[kthorjensen]

I really loved this when it came out but a part of me wishes they'd reprint it with a better lettering treatment. These painted comics always struggled when it came to word balloons and sound effects, and a lot of them just don't work at all here

[icon_uk]

Agreed. The Joker's in particular is almost impossible to read.

[leahandillyana]

Bad choice on the artist's part.

[alicemacher]

One of my favourite Batman books. And yes, Morrison's annotated script is pretty much required reading in order to fully appreciate the work. Especially crucial is the author's clarification that the story is a dream Batman has one night. A cathartic dream that enables him to work through his more psychologically debilitating issues and thus become the more grounded Batman seen in Morrison's JLA run. (That it's a dream also explains why the Caped Crusader apparently kills Killer Croc and, earlier, Doctor Destiny in cold blood, then sets the remaining inmates free.)

I agree with Morrison that cutting the Robin subplot was for the best. Even more so was editorial nixing his idea to have Amadeus Arkham react to the sight of his violated and murdered wife and daughter by cannibalizing them, while dressed in his wife's wedding gown, in some sort of shamanistic ritual. (The only hint of that in the published version, as Morrison points out, is Amadeus, still wearing the gown, throwing up afterwards.) That would've been a bit too much, taste-wise, even for a novella already featuring a pedophilic Mad Hatter. The latter can at least be justified as a dark extension of the whole "arrested childhood" thing Jervis has going on with his Alice obsession. Ritual cannibalism, though... yeah, that's rather out of nowhere.

That said, Joker in Madonna's "Open Your Heart" bustier not only would've been cringingly funny, it also would've fit with his getting under Batman's skin through sexual taunts ("Loosen up, tight ass!", "How is the Boy Wonder? Started shaving yet?").

[crinos]

I like this story, but I hate the characterization of Mad hatter as a pedophile, which as far as I could tell started here and has been used on and off since then.

I mean, he's already a creepy mind controlling stalker and he canonically fucks hats. Was making him a pedophile really necessary?

[icon_uk]

Agreed that making a recurring Bat-villain also a paedophile pretty much ruined him for me, much like Dr Light being a rapist tainted the character irreperably.

I did wonder if the tendency first showed up in Gaiman's Black Orchid, also by McKean which came out in 1988 a year before this, but looking at my TPB, he's weird,but not a paedophile.

[alicemacher]

Yeah. In that mini he's childlike ("I got a flower! Hey everybody! I got a flower!"), but that's all.

[lordultimus]

It's a good story, and reading the annotations and scripts are basically required, but I don't know how I feel about Morrison putting forth that Batman is a closet misogynist.

[silverhammerman]

This book has never quite clicked for me. I do quite like the art and some of the takes on the villains (which, as others have said, are really only explained in the script), but I just can't love it. I think it's just a little too cute, a little too self-serious in the way that you see from guys in Morrison and Moore in the early days of their careers when everyone still had a chip on their shoulder about making comics seem respectable and literary. Some of the distortion effects on the art are excessive, the Joker's dialogue is borderline unreadable, the story leaves something to be desired, and there's a lot of stuff that should have been included in the actual text. Those ideas in the script and the conceit that this is a dream as Batman transitions from the unbalanced Miller-inspired version to what would become Morrison's all-encompassing version are great ideas, but they're not in the actual script. I don't know if others would agree, but personally I'm pretty hardline that if a text, any text, requires you to do a bunch of homework, that text has failed on some level. Serialized super comics can maybe get a bit of wiggle room on this since by their nature they require you to already know about the characters and setting, but having to look to interviews and scripts is a step too far, for me. I rush to add that I don't hate or even dislike Arkham Asylum, I'm just not in love with it. It's fun as a strange object, and as a series of semi-related ideas and beats, but it's not a definitive or revelatory take on the characters for me.

Two only semi-related thoughts: The first is that having made all these complaints, I still would really love to see Morrison do the Damian-Wayne-Batman Arkham Asylum 2 which was announced years ago and seems to be dead in the water. The second is that it's pretty funny that this artsy, obtuse graphic novel went on to be one of the primary inspirations for the original Arkham Asylum game, which is its opposite in many ways.

[kurenai_tenka]

Funny that they're still reprinting this with all the flirting and groping, but yet they felt the need to censor out all of Joker's flirting in the Death of the Family trades.

I need to sit down and read this properly, but I find the font for Joker a bit exhausting to read.