Arkham Asylum

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For the comic book, see Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. For the video game, see Batman: Arkham Asylum.
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Arkham Asylum

Arkham Asylum as it appeared on Batman: The Animated Series.
Publication information
Publisher DC Comics
First appearance Batman #258 (1974)
Created by Dennis O'Neil
In story information
Type Prison

The Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane is a fictional setting, a psychiatric hospital in the DC Comics Universe, usually in stories featuring Batman. Many psychopathic criminals, including a number of Batman's enemies, such as The Joker and Two-Face, have been imprisoned within the Asylum.

Contents

[edit] History

Arkham Asylum is located on the outskirts of Gotham City, and is where those of Batman's foes considered to be legally insane are incarcerated (other foes are incarcerated at Blackgate Penitentiary). Although it has had numerous administrators, its current head is Jeremiah Arkham. Inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft, the asylum was created by Dennis O'Neil and first appeared in Batman #258 (October 1974); much of its back-story was created by Len Wein during the 1980s. In the foreword to the book The Dark Ages: Grim, Great, and Gimmicky Post-Modern Comics, Jack C. Harris claims that it was he who conceptualized the idea of Arkham Asylum, and that any other such claims are false.

Arkham Asylum does not have a good record, at least with regard to the high profile cases; escapes are frequent (on at least one occasion, an obsessive-compulsive multiple murderer was signed out of Arkham into the care of an incontinent, alcoholic vagrant on the grounds that he "looked like a responsible citizen"), and those who are 'cured' and released tend to re-offend. Furthermore, several staff members, including at least one director, have ended up as residents, notably Dr. Harleen Quinzel, Lyle Bolton and, in some incarnations, Drs. Jonathan Crane and Hugo Strange.

In addition, prisoners with unusual medical conditions that prevent them from staying in a regular prison are housed there. For example, Mr. Freeze is not technically insane, but he requires a strongly refrigerated environment to stay alive; Arkham, with special conditions required for certain patients or inmates being a regularity rather than exception, is potentially seen by authorities to be an ideal location under such circumstances.

[edit] Origins

The one-shot graphic novel Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth establishes that the Asylum is named after Elizabeth Arkham, founder Amadeus Arkham's mother. The original name of the asylum is Arkham Hospital. Its dark history begins in the early 1900s when Arkham's mother, having suffered from mental illness most of her life, commits suicide. (It is later revealed that her son actually euthanizes her, and represses the memory.) Amadeus Arkham decides, then, as the sole heir to the Arkham estate, to remodel his family home (known as Mercey Mansion) in order to properly treat the mentally ill, so others might not suffer as his mother had. Prior to the period of the hospital's remodeling, Arkham treated patients at the State Psychiatric Hospital in Metropolis, where he and his wife, Constance, and daughter, Harriet, had been living for quite some time.

Upon telling his family of his plans, they moved back to his family home to oversee the remodeling. While there, Arkham receives a call from the police notifying him that Martin "Mad Dog" Hawkins — a serial killer referred to Arkham by Metropolis Penitentiary while at State Psychiatric Hospital — had escaped from prison, and seeks his considered opinion on the murderer's state of mind.

Shortly afterward, Arkham returns to his home to find his front door wide open. Inside, he discovers the raped and mutilated bodies of his wife and daughter in an upstairs room, Hawkins having carved his nickname on Harriet's body.

Despite this family tragedy, the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane officially opens that November. One of its first patients is Martin Hawkins, whom Arkham insists on personally treating. After treating Hawkins for six months, Arkham straps him to the electroshock couch and deliberately and purposefully electrocutes him. The death is treated as an accident but contributes to Arkham's gradual descent into madness, which he begins to believe is his birthright. Eventually, Arkham is institutionalized in his own hospital, where he dies.

[edit] Influences

Arkham Asylum was named in honor of the fictional city of Arkham, Massachusetts, one of the settings of H. P. Lovecraft's horror stories. In fact, when the asylum first appeared, it was actually in the city of Arkham; its Gotham location, and the subsequent alternative explanation of the name, were later retcons.

Lovecraft's Arkham Sanitarium may have been inspired by the Danvers State Insane Asylum (aka the Danvers State Hospital) in Danvers, Massachusetts. Danvers State Hospital was erected according to the Kirkbride Plan devised by Victorian-era mental health professional Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride. In the comics, Arkham Asylum is often drawn with Victorian elements, suggesting the Kirkbride model.

[edit] Publication history

Arkham Asylum first appeared in 1974, in Batman #258 by Dennis O'Neil. In this story, it is named as "Arkham Hospital" (although it is clear what kind of hospital it is); "Arkham Asylum" first appeared in another O'Neil story the following year, but it was not until 1979 that "Arkham Asylum" completely replaced "Arkham Hospital" (and the occasional "Arkham Sanatarium") as the institution's name. By 1979, too, the move to have the asylum closer to Gotham had begun; that was completed in 1980, when Batman #326 by Len Wein described the Asylum's location "deep in the suburbs of Gotham City". (Perhaps for this reason Batman #326 is listed in some histories as the first appearance of Arkham Asylum.) It was also Wein who, in 1985's Who's Who #1, created its current backstory.

Arkham Asylum has been demolished or destroyed several times in its history, notably during the events of Batman: The Last Arkham (see below). It is also seriously damaged at the beginning of the Knightfall storyline, when Bane uses stolen munitions to blow up the facility and release all the inmates. After these events, the asylum is relocated to a large mansion known as "Mercey Mansion". At the beginning of the No Man's Land storyline, the asylum is closed down and all its inmates set free (a timer is used to open the doors two minutes before the city is sealed). This is orchestrated by the administrator himself, who had the choice of releasing the inmates or watching them all starve or kill each other. In the middle of the story, it is revealed that Batman has established a hidden base within the subbasement of the asylum during the Prodigal storyline known as "Northwest Batcave." [1]

During the No Man's Land, the Joker and Harley Quinn take over Arkham. With the sole exception of the Riddler, the inmates elect to remain in the cut-off Gotham City.

[edit] Inmates

Some of Arkham's inmates. Cover to Batman: Shadow of the Bat #82 (1999). Art by Glen Orbik.

Originally, Arkham Asylum is used only to house genuinely insane characters - the Joker and Two-Face are inmates from its very first appearance - but over the course of the 1980s a trend was established of having the majority of Batman's supervillain opponents end up at Arkham, whether or not they are actually insane. Nearly all of Batman's enemies have spent some time in Arkham.

Other DC Universe publications that feature Arkham Asylum and its inmates include Alan Moore's Swamp Thing (wherein Jason Woodrue -- The Floronic Man -- is detained) and The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, wherein Doctor Destiny escapes to wreak havoc on both the 'real' and 'dream' worlds.

Arkham has also been featured in varying capacities in a number of high profile DC miniseries events, such as Identity Crisis, Day of Vengeance, Countdown, and Crisis on Infinite Earths among others.

[edit] List of notable inmates

[edit] Batman villains

[edit] Others

  • Adam Strange (in "New Frontier")
  • Ambush Bug (ACTION COMICS #560)
  • Amadeus Arkham
  • Batman (in Shadow of the Bat #1-4)
  • Bite[citation needed]
  • Bob Overdog (BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #38)
  • Bradbury (UNDERWORLD UNLEASHED: DEVIL’S ASYLUM)
  • Brainwave II (JSA SECRET FILES #2)
  • Cary Rinaldi (Batman: Journey into Knight #6)
  • Cheetah (Barbara Minerva) (WONDER WOMAN Vol. 2 #35)
  • Condiment King (BIRDS OF PREY #37)
  • The Crumbler (as per Green Lantern (vol. 2) #117)
  • Dancer (BRAVE & BOLD Vol. 1 #143)
  • Deadshot (SUICIDE SQUAD Vol. 1 #34)
  • Death Rattle (Erasmus Rayne, from Arkham Asylum: Living Hell)
  • The Defenestrator
  • Doc Willard (WORLD’S FINEST #254)
  • Dr. Destiny (JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #175)
  • Dr. Herbert Combs (SUPERMAN AND BATMAN VS. VAMPIRES AND WEREWOLVES #6)
  • Dr. J. Highwater (Animal Man #24)
  • Doodlebug (Daedalus Boch, from Arkham Asylum: Living Hell)
  • Doug Moench & Norm Breyfogle (writer and artist, respectively, of Batman 492, which started the Knightfall storyline; they can be seen on a list of escaped Arkham inmates on the Batcave computer)
  • Dragonfly (DETECTIVE COMICS #838)
  • Dream Girl
  • The Dummy (WORLD’S FINEST #247)
  • Everard Mallitt (from Shadow of the Bat #1-4)
  • Fidel Finnegan III (DETECTIVE COMICS #635)
  • Floronic Man (from Alan Moore's Swamp Thing stories; SWAMP THING Vol. 2 #52)
  • Humpty Dumpty
  • Illuminata (Name not revealed) (World's Finest Year 3)
  • Jane Doe (from Arkham Asylum: Living Hell)
  • Jean Loring (IDENTITY CRISIS #7)
  • The Key (JLA #120)
  • Kryppen the Poisoner (from Batman: Arkham Asylum - Underworld Unleashed)
  • Kobra (Suicide Squad #33)
  • Lunkhead (from Arkham Asylum: Living Hell)
  • Martin "Mad Dog" Hawkins
  • Melvin White
  • Mike Ramirez; Carl Vesuvia; Kenneth Ayers; Wallace Miller (Batman: Journey into Knight #11)
  • Mister Thornton (SUPERMAN FAMILY #197)
  • Nightwing (committed as "Pierrot Lunaire" in Batman 678)
  • Plastic Man (DK2 – THE DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN)
  • Professor Ivo (JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #218)
  • Professor Powder (DETECTIVE COMICS #635)
  • Psycho-Pirate (at the conclusion of Crisis on Infinite Earths)
  • Resnick[citation needed]
  • Riot Act (ROBIN #167)
  • Rob Frazier (BATMAN VILLAINS SECRET FILES & ORIGINS #1)
  • Robert Amherst (NSA agent committed as "D. Jones" in Batman #605)
  • Rudy Heinkel (BATMAN VILLAINS SECRET FILES & ORIGINS #1)
  • Solomon Grundy (from Batman: The Long Halloween)
  • Frank Sharp (Legends of the Dark Knight #171, November 2003)
  • Seamus Sullivan (DETECTIVE COMICS #786)
  • Sweeney (BATMAN VILLAINS SECRET FILES & ORIGINS #1)
  • Tenzin Wyatt (THE DEMON Vol. 3 # 9)
  • Thomas Schiff (He is mentioned in the movie The Dark Knight)
  • Tommy Carma (BATMAN #402)
  • Tony Finch (H-E-R-O #9)
  • Tony LePoni (BATMAN VILLAINS SECRET FILES & ORIGINS #1)
  • Tsui Walker (CHRONOS #11)
  • Tucker "Junkyard Dog" Long (from Arkham Asylum: Living Hell)
  • The Veil (ANIMAL MAN #7)
  • Vernon Jamson (BATMAN: SHADOW OF THE BAT #80)
  • Vox (BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM - TALES OF MADNESS)
  • Wax Man (BATMAN: SHADOW OF THE BAT #80)
  • Wild (BATMAN: SHADOW OF THE BAT #38 )
  • Witch (Samantha Voz) (BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM - TALES OF MADNESS #1, May 98)
  • Wyndham Vane (SHOWCASE ‘95 #11)
  • Zatanna (JLA: BLACK BAPTISM #2)

[edit] Graphic novels featuring Arkham Asylum

[edit] The Dark Knight Returns

Main article: The Dark Knight Returns

The Dark Knight Returns, written by Frank Miller, takes place about 10 years after Batman "retires". It depicts an "Arkham Home for the Emotionally Troubled", presumably a renaming of the asylum which occurs as a result of the extreme political correctness which had evolved in Miller's dystopian setting. The Joker is housed there, catatonic since Batman's disappearance, but awakens when the vigilante resumes action. Under the employ of the home is Bartholemew Wolper, a condescending psychologist who treats the Joker humanely, even going so far to arrange for him to appear on a late night talk show. In its sequel it is revealed that the patients took over and resorted to cannibalism.

[edit] Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth

Main article: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth

Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth is an original graphic novel written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Dave McKean. It was published by DC Comics in 1989. The book sold over 500,000 and was for many years DC's best-selling graphic novel.

The book was praised for its exploration of ideas and storytelling and also proved financially and artistically lucrative for Morrison.

[edit] Arkham Asylum: Living Hell

Living Hell was written by Dan Slott, penciled by Ryan Sook with inks by Sook, Wade Von Grawbadger and Jim Royal. The series was edited by Valerie D'Orazio. Eric Powell created the painted cover art which appeared on both the original series and graphic novel compilation.

This six-issue miniseries and the subsequent trade paperback provided an intricate and multi-layered look at Arkham Asylum from several points of view: the director (Dr. Jeremiah Arkham), a psychiatrist (Dr. Anne Carver), the guards (particularly one Aaron Cash), and the inmates. There is a particular focus on previously-unknown residents) Jane Doe (a cypher who assumes the identities of those she kills), Junkyard Dog (a man obsessed with trash), Doodlebug (an artist who uses blood in his paintings), Lunkhead (a hulking bruiser), Death Rattle (a cult leader who speaks to the dead), and Humpty Dumpty (an obese serial killer who cuts his victims into pieces.) The driving force is the recent incarceration of a ruthless investor, Warren "The Great White Shark" White, as well as the demonic element suggested by the title. White, facing charges of massive fraud, pleads insanity and has himself committed to Arkham. He soon realizes the horrors of the place and tries to survive. Ultimately, he is locked in a freezer and suffers facial wounds. He now resembles his nickame. The demonic threat is nullified after the sacrifice of several patients.

The most familiar characters, such as the Joker, Commissioner Gordon, Batgirl, and Batman himself, appear for a few pages apiece.

[edit] Batman: The Last Arkham

Main article: Batman: The Last Arkham

Written by Alan Grant; pencils by Norm Breyfogle.

Originally a four-issue storyline that kicked off the Shadow of the Bat series. In it, the old Arkham Asylum is destroyed, to be replaced by a new and more modern facility. The story introduces Jeremiah Arkham, the asylum's director, and nephew of Amadeus Arkham; and serial killer Victor Zsasz. In an attempt to discover how criminals, specifically Zsasz, keep escaping, Batman has himself committed to the asylum. Jerimiah uses various methods, such as unleashing many inmates on Batman at once, in an attempt to see what makes him tick.

This story makes a few passing references to the flashback events of Arkham Asylum, such as Amadeus Arkham taping over the mirror, and his journal is shown early in the story. Jeremiah also mentions his relative's descent into madness.

An episode of Batman: The Animated Series titled "Dreams of Darkness", also about Batman in Arkham, seems[original research?] to have been a very loose adaptation of this storyline, replacing Zsasz with the Scarecrow, and replacing Jeremiah Arkham with a more nondescript administrator, who is portrayed as naïve rather than sinister.

[edit] Black Orchid

Black Orchid, written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean, also featured Arkham Asylum. The award-winning graphic novel introduced the crimefighter Black Orchid, who dies, is reborn and starts a quest to find her identity. During this she encounters Batman, who directs her to Arkham Asylum, where she meets The Mad Hatter, Poison Ivy, Two-Face and the Joker. Arkham is viewed as a desperate place where inmates dwell in madness and terror, much in the same fashion as in A Serious House on Serious Earth (also illustrated by McKean).

[edit] Other media

Arkham has appeared beyond the pages of the comics in numerous guises and designs. Its appearances include:

[edit] Television

  • In Batman: The Animated Series, Arkham has appeared frequently in the series. It is depicted as generally dark and gloomy, and the cells are similar to those in the comics, being primarily closed via glass doors. Much of the rest of the asylum resembles a prison more than a mental hospital, however; in the episode "The Trial"[citation needed], it is explained that all criminals apprehended by the Batman are sent to Arkham rather than jail (although it is shown that the Penguin goes to Stonegate, a regular jail).
The alternate Arkham Asylum as it appeared on the Justice League episode A Better World, Part 2.
  • The TV show Justice League featured Arkham in a brief cameo during A Better World, Part 2 in an alternate dimension where a Fascist League has taken over the world and dispatches villains via execution or lobotomy. The asylum is run by a lobotomized version of the Joker and is protected by robotic copies of Superman. The entire inmate population is lobotomized by the alternate Superman's heat vision. (It can be seen that that the Ventriloquist has not been lobotomized by Superman's heat vision, but his doll Scarface has.) It is noted that Joker, Two-Face and Poison Ivy are used in both Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League as the key inmates of the Asylum.
Arkham Asylum as it appeared on The Batman.
  • Arkham Asylum appears in The Batman. Like the original Arkham, several major villains end up in this institution, such as the Joker, the Penguin, Riddler, Mr. Freeze , Ventriloquist, Hugo Strange and Clayface. Firefly goes to a regular prison, until becoming Doctor Phosphorus, who requires special chemical care.
    The staff is far more heavily armored than in its previous incarnation, wearing heavy trenchcoats and gloves, which is, in spite of itself, no deterrent for the inmates to easily escape. Much like in the Batman Forever tie-in game and Batman Begins, it's presented as being inside Gotham, though here it's presented as occupying a small island on a river, with a bridge connecting it to the city.

[edit] Films

  • Arkham Asylum was seen at the end of the film Batman Forever. It is designed as a tall, spiraling castle-like structure, with narrow hallways lined with brightly-lit glass bricks. The Riddler is incarcerated in a large padded cell. The chief psychiatrist is named Dr. Burton, a reference to Tim Burton, who directed 1989's Batman and Batman Returns. There was originally a more in-depth sequence involving Two-Face escaping from Arkham at the beginning of the film, but it was cut.
  • In Batman & Robin[2], Arkham appeared a number of times in this film. It first appears when Mr. Freeze is taken there midway through the film, and later at the end when he and Poison Ivy are shown as cellmates.
  • In Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, the final battle between the original Batman and The Joker taking place at an abandoned Arkham. It is also the same spot where Robin (brainwashed and disfigured into a younger version of The Joker) kills Joker. A deleted scene (featured on both versions of the DVD as a special feature) has Bruce Wayne touring the abandoned Arkham, where Terry McGinnis (Wayne's successor as Dark Knight) follows and sees Joker's corpse hanging. Both the film and the Batman Beyond episode "Splicer" suggesting that the facility has moved to a different location.
  • In Batman Begins, Arkham plays a much larger role than a simple jail in this film, with Jonathan Crane (also known as the Scarecrow) being either the administrator or at least a high ranking doctor at the Asylum, and using it to conduct sadistic experiments with his fear gas, using his own patients as guinea pigs. He also uses the pipes under the Asylum to empty his toxin into the Gotham water supply. While in the comics it is located at Mercey Island (which is at the east end of the Sprang River, which divides two of the three main islands that constitute the city), in Batman Begins, it is in the middle of Gotham City, located in the slum region known as the Narrows.
  • Arkham makes an appearance In the animated direct-to-DVD anthology film Batman: Gotham Knight (set in-between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight) within the segment "Crossfire." Expanding what Lt. James Gordon's line that "the Narrows is lost" at the end of Batman Begins, the film shows that the entire island has become Arkham Asylum's ground, with Narrows residents evacuated from the island after the inmates escaped from the facility. After the riot at the end of Batman Begins, the city apparently turned the entire island into high-tech facility prison/hospital in a few months after the incident, enclosed by guard towers, high fences, and the island's natural barrier to keep the inmates from escape. The Gotham City Police Department also sends officers to its drawbridges to make sure no one would cross - in or out - without permission.
  • Arkham is mentioned briefly by Harvey Dent, Batman, and Alfred in The Dark Knight but is never seen or explored in the story.

[edit] Video Games

  • In Batman Forever (SNES game), Arkham Asylum is the first stage. While the film shows Arkham as being in a remote forested area, the backgrounds in the game seem to place it on the waterfront, directly across the bay from Gotham.

[edit] Other

[edit] Lego Batman

Main article: Lego Batman

There was an Arkham Asylum Lego set featuring Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, and the Riddler available at Toys "R" Us during late summer 2006. It also included Nightwing with his motorcycle and two escrima sticks, and Batman in the BatGlider.

[edit] Song: Ryan Adams

Ryan Adams has written a song named Arkham Asylum though it has not been released on any of his studio albums.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Batman: No Man's Land Secret Files #1
  2. ^ DVD Active.com: Review of Batman & Robin

[edit] External links

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