World Famous Comics: Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition)
By: Grant Morrison Publisher: DC Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: DC Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 216 Publication Date: November 01, 2005 Release Date: November 01, 2005
Product Description: In this groundbreaking, painted graphic novel, the inmates of Arkham Asylum have taken over Gothams detention center for the criminally insane on April Fools Day, demanding Batman in exchange for their hostages.Accepting their 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 and retake the prison.During his run through this absurd gauntlet, the Dark Knights own sanity is placed in jeopardy.This special anniversary edition trade paperback also reproduces the original script with annotations by Morrison and editor Karen Berger.
In the mouth of madness For any beginning comic reader, and even more so for anyone else, "Arkham Asylum" is essential. Claimed by DC to be the best-selling graphic novel of all time, "Arkham Asylum" is deep, psychological, terrifying, and as dark as any comic I've ever read. Grant Morrison writes with an explorative and bleak psychology reminescent of Alan Moore -- but Moore's own darkly contemplative and psychological Batman work, 1988's "Batman: The Killing Joke," was never this ghastly. Thanks to Dave McKean's beautiful and utterly horrific artwork, which is really the embodiment of the word "nightmarish," "Arkham Asylum" is like venturing into the depths of madness itself. The book personifies "Arkham Asylum," comparing it to a living creature. When Arkham is taken over by its inmates, Batman must enter the mouth of the beast. What are the chances it won't swallow him whole?
That's the central point of the comic: how is Batman any different from these freaks he's captured? Just as the Joker dresses himself up like a clown and terrorizes those he thinks should laugh a little more, Batman dresses up like a bat and terrorizes those he sees as evildoers. It seems like he should be locked up in Arkham too. Batman is forced to confront this fact as he crawls deeper and deeper into the black heart of the asylum, in the process revealing a vulnerable humanity that we don't often see in Batman comics.
It falls like we've seen little of this before -- and what little we have seen has never looked like this. McKean's artwork is just stupendous. It is absolutely the reason for the ghastliness of the book. With another artist, Morrison's script could have produced an excellent book that would probably wind up frightening, but McKean's art makes that excellent book truly horrifying. The sudden introduction of the Joker almost made me shout. This is not the wisecracking and sadistic clown of other comics. This man is a monster, a "special case" even by Arkham's standards, and he looks every bit as shocking and chilling as he should. As do the rest of the Rogues Gallery. They're all here, and they're all every bit as freaky as they were meant to be.
But if McKean's artwork steals the book, it's built upon Morrison's script -- a sturdy foundation indeed. Morrison's writing is laden with symbolism which is quite likely to slip past the reader on the first few reads. That makes "Arkham Asylum" one of the most interesting comics to re-visit, because one notices something new with each read. Additionally, Morrison's script poses a number of fascinating questions, chiefly about Batman himself. Does Batman truly save the world from these monsters, or has Bruce Wayne created the worst monster himself? Does Batman's existence create these freaks? They're fascinating questions, and as with most fascinating questions, the answers are not easy, may not even exist, and if one does happen across them, they will shock you to the core.
There's far more to "Arkham Asylum" than pure shock value, though. Ripe with symbolism, full of challenging and deep questions for which there may be no answers, expertly crafted, this is an essential comic for any reader new or old. Add in some of the finest artwork in the history of the medium and you have a masterwork, one that will chill you long after you've set it down and whipped out some of the old Golden Age comics in the vain hope that they'll rid you of the ghastly images in your head. They won't. There's no escaping the Asylum.
Too short, ho-hum story The only way I'm willing to pay this much for a graphic novel is to know that it is good and long and will take me a few weeks to go through it a few pages at a time.
Arkham Asylum is far too short with most of the novel being taken up by extra materials, sketches, essays, and other worthless crap. The story is also not all that interesting. Like many others I am sure I hold every batman story up against Frank Miller's work, and that isn't always a fair comparison. With this, however, I got a short graphic novel with a story that was ho-hum at best.
I do not recommend it.
Insanely Weak... I believe I would have enjoyed this graphic novel a whole lot more had I not read the masterpieces of Frank Miller prior. But maybe it is my own fault to expect the same depth of story telling & artwork of 'Year One' & 'The Dark Knight Returns' in every graphic novel I read.Maybe I belong in Arkham. 'Arkham Asylum', from the outset,promised to be gruesome & nightmarish. However, I believe Grant Morrison failed to capitalize on a excellent & little-known theme in the Batman universe.There were no twists & turns in the plot & the story line became extremely predictable as the book drew to a close.The only positive I can think of is that Morrison gives us the origin story of the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum & how the house itself works in the minds of those who are forced to dwell within its walls. The artwork in itself was pretty decent &,as expected,dark & foreboding. McKean had successfully captured the theme of insanity in his brush strokes, however, at times he failed miserably,to communicate effectively, the story that was being told. Arkham Asylum;Three Stars on a good day.
Maybe Not So Much a Classic Somehow being a huge comic and graphic novel fan and even being a big Batman fan - for decades - I never got around to reading this. I finally did and was pretty disappointed. Dave McKean's fantastic art made it worth reading, but the writing was not something that would make this book anything close to a classic in the Batman canon. The intercutting tale of Arkham's namesake is interesting but not that rewarding. The other tale featuring Batman's criminally insane foes comes off as rather simplistic and watered down when compared to some of the Dark Knights better books.
Poorly executed Arkham Asylum suffers from very poor execution. The plot is well-conceived and pulled off well enough given the dialog, but the art style hampers everything down. It seems there are no light fixtures in Arkham Asylum, as every panel is about 90 percent shadow. There is a font used for everything that The Joker says that was a chore to try to read; I had to put the book up to my nose to figure out which letters were which.
If you're a huge Batman fan, you've probably already read this. If not, don't bother.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tony's Online Tips
Trevor
