Comic Spotlight: Batman Arkham Asylum...

Barney Stinson

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Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. Felt that with the new Batman movie comming out right around the corner, what better than a story largely about Joker and Batmans psyche.



The story opens with a flashback sequence featuring Amadeus Arkham, the architect and first administrator of Arkham Asylum, detailing Arkham's renovation of the family manor into an asylum following the death of his mother Elizabeth and his subsequent inheritance of the property.

On April 1 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 are a young woman named Pearl, who works in the kitchens; the current Administrator, Dr. Cavendish; and Dr. Ruth Adams, a therapist. The patients are led by Black Mask and 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' well-intentioned therapy; she replaced his trademark coin with a six-sided die, and then with a tarot deck of cards, rendering him incapable of 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.

Note:
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; Clayface, who is rapidly wasting away from an unspecified disease; the Mad Hatter, whose obsession with Alice in Wonderland has pedophilic overtones; and Killer Croc, whose deformity resembles that of the Elephant Man.


Lets get this ball a rolling!
 

CelestialBadger

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I just read this a couple weeks ago. Dave McKean shines. Same guy I borrowed it from let me borrow Black Orchid with McKean and Gaiman writing. Also ****ing amazing.
 

Barney Stinson

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The art was top notch, as was the story. Only thing is it's (trade form) got some parts that are hard to read due to the size.

But overall it's one of my favorite bat stories. When yout hink abotu it, Bat's really is just as bad as the villians when it comes to sanity.
 

Renzokuken

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Thanks for the torrent, downloading now. Will give my thoughts tomorrow.

EDIT: Just finished reading it. It's pretty intense to say the least. The art is definitely different from what i normally read. Pretty messed up comic though, haha. Sometimes it was hard to define what was happening outside of all the mental mumbo-jumbo, but i assumed that wasn't really necessary to define since this comic is about madness.
 
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