Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth

Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth
Dave McKean's cover to the Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth hardcover edition
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
Publication date	1989
Main character(s)	Batman The Joker Amadeus Arkham
Creative team
Writer(s)	Grant Morrison
Artist(s)	Dave McKean
Creator(s)	Grant Morrison Dave McKean

Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth is a Batman graphic novel written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Dave McKean. It was originally published in the United States in both hardcover and softcover editions by DC Comics in 1989. The subtitle is taken from line 55 of the poem "Church Going", by Philip Larkin.

Conception and Influences

In his annotations for the original script printed in the 15th Anniversary Edition (2004), Morrison remarks on several details behind the genesis of the work: "Len Wein... had written a few short and evocative paragraphs on the history of Arkham Asylum [in the DC WHO'S WHO series] and it was here I learned of poor Amadeus Arkham, the hospital's founder.... [Arkham]'s themes were inspired by Lewis Carroll, quantum physics, Jung, and Crowley; its visual style by surrealism, Eastern European creepiness, Cocteau, Artaud, Svankmajer, the Brothers Quay, etc. The intention was to create something that was more like a piece of music or an experimental film than a typical adventure comic book. I wanted to approach Batman from the point of view of the dreamlike, emotional and irrational hemisphere, as a response to the very literal, 'realistic', 'left brain' treatment of superheroes which was in vogue at the time, in the wake of The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, and others."

An additional reference to the work as a "response" to trends of the time is made in a later note: "The repressed, armored, uncertain and sexually frozen [Bat]man in Arkham Asylum was intended as a critique of the '80s interpretation of Batman as violent, driven, and borderline psychopathic." He goes on to explain that this conception of the character is for this book alone, and that his other work involving Batman has cast him in a far different (and more positive) light.

Morrison explains, "the story is woven tightly around a small number of symbolic elements, which combine and recombine throughout, as if in a dream: the Moon, the Shadow, the Mirror, the Tower, and the Mother's Son. The construction of the story was influenced by the architecture of a house — the past and the tale of Amadeus Arkham forms the basement levels. Secret passages connect ideas and segments of the book. There are upper stories of unfolding symbol and metaphor. We were also referencing sacred geometry, and the plan of the Arkham House was based on the Glastonbury Abbey and Chartres Cathedral. The journey through the book is like moving through the floors of the house itself. The house and the head are one."

Story

Commissioner Gordon informs Batman that the patients of Arkham Asylum have taken over the building, and will murder the staff unless Batman agrees to meet with them. Among the hostages is a young woman named Pearl (who works in the kitchens), Dr. Charles Cavendish (the current Administrator), and Dr. Ruth Adams (a therapist). The patients are led by The Joker, who kills a guard to spur Batman to obey his wishes. Two-Face, meanwhile, has degenerated even further into madness as a result of Adams' therapy; she replaced Two-Face's trademark coin with a six-sided die, and then with a tarot deck of cards, in the hope that he would begin to realize he doesn't need any of them. It instead renders him incapable of even making simple decisions such as going to the bathroom.

Batman is forced into a game of hide and seek, and told he has one hour to make his way through the maze-like corridors and find a way out before his old foes are sent to find him.

The story is interspersed with flashbacks to Arkham founder Amadeus Arkham's life and childhood. These flashbacks reveal that he was inspired to become a psychiatrist because of his mother's mental illness.

On his journey through Arkham, Batman encounters Clayface III, who is wasting away from an unspecified disease (which Morrison states elsewhere is meant to represent AIDS^{[citation needed]}) and who tries to infect Batman by touching him. Batman tears past, breaking Clayface's leg in the process, and flees, encountering a wheelchair-bound Doctor Destiny. Batman incapacitates Destiny by pushing him down a flight of stairs. As he continues to venture through Arkham, he flees from the Scarecrow, the Mad Hatter and Maxie Zeus. Finally Batman comes face to face with Killer Croc, who grapples with the Dark Knight before throwing him out of a window. Batman lands on a roof, where he grabs onto the statue of an angel clasping a bronze spear, which he tears loose. Clutching the spear, Batman climbs back through the window and impales Croc before casting him out of the window.

Subsequently he reaches a secret room high in the towers of the asylum - a room left unchanged from the days when the property served as Amadeus Arkham's childhood home.

Inside, Dr. Cavendish is dressed in a bridal gown and holding a straight razor to Dr. Adams' throat. He is revealed to have been the one to orchestrate the riots. When questioned by Batman, he prompts him to read a passage marked out in Amadeus Arkham's secret diary.

The hidden room turns out to have been Elizabeth Arkham's bedchamber. For many years she suffered delusions that she was being tormented by a supernatural creature, and would call to her son to protect her. One day, however, he finally sees what his mother saw - a great bat, a spectre of death. Taking a pearl-handled straight razor from his pocket, he cuts his mother's throat to end her suffering. He then blocks out the memory, and attributes her death to suicide. Years later, his wife and daughter are murdered by one of his former patients, a serial killer named Martin "Mad Dog" Hawkins. The tragedy brings back the memory of killing his mother.

Traumatized, Amadeus puts on his mother's wedding dress and takes out the pearl-handled razor. Kneeling in the blood of his family, he vows to bind the evil spirit of "The Bat", which he believes inhabits the house, through ritual and sorcery. He treats Hawkins for months until finally electrocuting him in a shock therapy session. He continues his mission even after he is incarcerated in the Asylum himself; he scratches the words of the binding spell into the walls and floor of his cell with his fingernails until the day he dies.

Discovering Amadeus Arkham's journals, the razor and the dress, Cavendish begins to believe himself to be destined to continue Arkham's work. On April 1, the date Arkham's family was murdered, he lures Batman to the asylum. Believing Batman to be "The Bat" itself, Cavendish accuses him of feeding the evil of the house by bringing it more insane souls. Grappling with Batman, Cavendish drops the razor, and Adams picks it up. As Batman is being strangled by Cavendish he begs her to "Do something!", and she slashes the razor across Cavendish's throat, killing him.

Seizing an axe, Batman runs to the foyer, where the inmates are congregated, and hacks down the front door. He then returns Two-Face's coin back from Dr. Adams, stating that it should be up to Two-Face to decide Batman's fate. Two-Face then declares that they will kill Batman if the coin lands scratched side up, but let him go if the unscarred side appears. Two-Face flips the coin and declares Batman free. The Joker bids Batman good-bye, taunting him by saying that should life ever become too much for him in "the asylum" (the outside world) then he always has a place in Arkham. As Batman disappears into the night, Two-Face stands looking at the coin and it is revealed that it landed scratched side up – he chose to let Batman go. He then turns to the stack of tarot cards and recites a passage from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: "Who cares for you? You're nothing but a pack of cards."

Characterizations

The graphic novel presents very different versions of several characters in the Batman universe. Examples include: Maxie Zeus, an electrified, emaciated figure with messianic delusions obsessed with electric shocks; Clayface (presumably Preston Payne), who is rapidly wasting away from lack of 'feeding'; the Mad Hatter, whose obsession with Alice in Wonderland has pedophilic overtones; and Batman himself, who is driven close to the breaking point by the Asylum itself. Killer Croc was originally drawn as suffering deformities similar to those of Joseph Merrick, the "Elephant Man", although his final incarnation is that of a humanoid crocodile.

Critical reaction and legacy

Hilary Goldstein of IGN Comics said that "Arkham Asylum is unlike any other Batman book you've ever read [and] one of the finest superhero books to ever grace a bookshelf."^[1] Goldstein ranked Arkham Asylum #4 on a list of the 25 greatest Batman graphic novels, behind The Killing Joke, The Dark Knight Returns, and Year One.^[2]

Media Adaptions

Film

• Arkham Asylum was referenced in production of The Dark Knight, although Heath Ledger used Batman: The Killing Joke as a primary reference for his portrayal of the Joker.^[3]

Video Games

• In the game Batman: Arkham Asylum, the new warden of Arkham, Quincy Sharp, believes himself to be the reincarnation of Amadeus Arkham.

References

• Callahan, Timothy (2007) Grant Morrison: The Early Years. Masters of the Medium. Sequart.com Books. ISBN 0615140874

External links

• Grant Morrison homepage
• 15th Anniversary edition review at Comics Bulletin
• Khouri, Andy. Grant Morrison: The Early Years - Part II: "Arkham Asylum", Comic Book Resources, July 6, 2007