Arkham Asylum

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Arkham Asylum as it appeared on Batman: The Animated Series.
Arkham Asylum as it appeared on Batman: The Animated Series.

The Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane is a fictional psychiatric hospital that appears in the DC Universe. It is located near Gotham City, and is where those of Batman's foes considered to be legally insane are incarcerated (other foes are incarcerated at Blackgate Penitentiary). 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.

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, which only Arkham can provide.

Contents

[edit] Origins

In the world of the Batman stories, the Asylum is named after Elizabeth Arkham, founder Amadeus Arkham's mother. Its dark history began in the early 1900s when Arkham's mother, having suffered from mental illness most of her life, committed suicide. (It is later revealed that she was actually euthanized by her son, an act his mind repressed.) Amadeus Arkham decided, then, as the sole heir to the Arkham estate, to remodel his family home in order to properly treat the mentally ill, so others might not go untreated and 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 received a call from the police notifying him Martin "Mad Dog" Hawkins — a patient referred to Arkham by Metropolis Penitentiary while at State Psychiatric Hospital — had escaped from prison, and sought his considered opinion on his state of mind.

On April 1, 1921, Arkham returned to his home to find his front door wide open. Inside, he discovered 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 opened that November. One of its first patients was Martin Hawkins, whom Arkham insisted on personally treating. On April 1, 1922, after treating Hawkins for six months, Arkham strapped him to the electroshock couch and purposely electrocuted him. The death was treated as an accident but contributed to Arkham's gradual descent into madness, which he began to believe was his birthright. Eventually, Arkham was institutionalized in his own hospital, where he eventually died.

[edit] Influences

Arkham Asylum was named in honour 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 consequent 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.

Arkham is similar to several real life mental hospitals. Ward's Island in the East River was the home of the New York City Asylum for the Insane, opened around 1863, and the nearby Roosevelt Island once had several mental institutions and prisons including the New York City Lunatic Asylum.

[edit] Publication history

Arkham Asylum first appeared in 1974, in Batman #258 by Dennis O'Neil. In this story, it was named as "Arkham Hospital" (although it was already clear what kind of hospital it was); "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 back-story.

Arkham Asylum has been demolished or destroyed several times in its history, notably during the events of Batman: The Last Arkham (see below). It was also seriously damaged at the beginning of the Knightfall storyline, when Bane used stolen munitions to blow up the facility and release all the inmates. After these events, the asylum was relocated to a large mansion known as "mercy house", where it remains to this day. At the beginning of the No Man's Land storyline, the asylum was closed down and all its inmates set free (a timer was used to open the doors two minutes before the city was sealed). This was ochrestrated by the administrator himself, who had the choice of releasing the inmates or watching them all starve or kill each other. On 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, Arkham was taken over by the Joker and Harley Quinn. With the sole exception of the Riddler, the inmates elected 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.
Some of Arkham's inmates. Cover to Batman: Shadow of the Bat #82 (1999). Art by Glen Orbik.

Originally, Arkham Asylum was used only to house genuinely insane characters - the Joker and Two-Face were 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 were actually insane. This is likely due to some of the facility's high-tech features that make it more efficient to hold a villain such as Clayface there than in another prison. Nearly all of Batman's villains 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 John Dee (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, and Crisis On Infinite Earths.

[edit] List of notable inmates

[edit] Graphic novels featuring Arkham Asylum

[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.

How and if the book fits in to the main DC continuity or if it is meant as a standalone AU book is unclear. (Several characters seem to be killed in the book, but appear later in the main series. However, Batman: Shadow of the Bat makes references to the history of the asylum established in the novel.)

[edit] Arkham Asylum: Living Hell

Living Hell was written by Dan Slott, penciled by Ryan Sook, and inked by Sook, Wade Von Grawbadger, and Jim Royal. The covers were designed by Eric Powell.

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 (with particular focus on heretofore unknown residents "Jane Doe", "Junkyard Dog", "Doodlebug", "Lunkhead", "Death Rattle", and, perhaps most memorably, "Humpty Dumpty"). 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, decided to cheat the system by pleading insanity, not realizing the horrors of Arkham. The most familiar characters, such as the Joker, Commissioner Gordon, Batgirl, and Batman himself, appear for comparatively few pages in this work.

[edit] 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. These two have, in an uneasy partnership, captured Batman and are holding him prisoner in Arkham, attempting 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. This would seem to indicate that at least some of the events in the Arkham Asylum graphic novel did occur in the main continuity.

An episode of Batman: The Animated Series titled "Dreams of Darkness", also about Batman in Arkham, seems 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 clueless and naive 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] Arkham in other media

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

  • Batman Forever: Arkham was seen at the end of the film, and designed as a tall, spiraling castle-like structure, with narrow hallways lined with brightly-lit glass bricks. The Riddler was incarcerated in a large padded cell. The psychologist seen was named Dr. Burton, a reference to Tim Burton. There was a more in-depth sequence involving Two-Face escaping from Arkham at the beginning of the film, but it was cut for time reasons.
  • Batman and Robin: Arkham appeared a number of times in this film. It first appeared when Mr. Freeze was taken there midway through the film, and later at the end when both he and Poison Ivy were shown as cellmates.
  • Batman Begins: Arkham played 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 cruel experiments with his fear gas, using his own patients as guinea pigs. He also used the pipes under the Asylum to empty his toxin into the Gotham water supply. One notable change in this version of Arkham from the comics was the location. While the location has varied in the comics, it is generally located some distance outside of Gotham City, often in a rural or forested location. However, Batman Begins has it in the middle of Gotham City, located in the slum region known as the Narrows.
  • 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 one episode, 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). In the series, neither Jeremiah or Amadeus Arkham are shown or mentioned, but the episode "Dreams in Darkness" features a character who is obviously modeled on Jeremiah, but toned down to a more compassionate persona.
The alternate Arkham Asylum as it appeared on the Justice League episode A Better World, Part 2.
The alternate Arkham Asylum as it appeared on the Justice League episode A Better World, Part 2.
  • 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. (If you watch closely, you can see that the Ventriloquist has not been lobotomized by Superman's heat vision, but his doll Scarface has.)
  • Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker: This direct-to-video animated film had the final battle between the original Batman and The Joker taking place at an abandoned Arkham. It is also the same spot where Robin (as a brainwashed, junior version of The Joker) killed 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.
  • Batman Forever (SNES game): The video game adaptation of the film features Arkham as its 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.
Arkham Asylum as it appeared on The Batman
Arkham Asylum as it appeared on The Batman
  • The Batman: Only occasionally shown in the series, Arkham is reminiscent of a jail, but with padded cells. Like the original Arkham, only the truly insane end up here (Joker, Riddler, Mr. Freeze , Ventriloquist, Hugo Strange and Clayface). Penguin frequently goes to Arkham in the series, as it is mentioned most times, while in some cases he goes to normal Jail. Firefly goes to a regular prison. However, in The Batman vs. Dracula, the inmates who would normally go to jail are in Arkham; they are sent there after pretending to be insane because they wanted a lesser charge for their crimes.
  • There is an Arkham Asylum Lego set featuring Scarecrow, Nightwing, Poison Ivy, and the Riddler available at Toys "R" Us during late summer 2006.
  • In the first volume of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series Arkham Asylum is featured as Dr. Destiny escapes, holds a conversation with Prof. Crane and is returned to its safe-keeping by Morpheus. Prof. Crane makes two some what contrary remarks about the character of Arkham: that while its inmates escape from time to time, they all return as the world outside is truly frightening and also that it is a horrible place filled with darkness and the screams of the mad.

[edit] References to Arkham Asylum

  • Shadow Hearts: From the New World: Unrelated to the DC Universe, a place called Arkham University is a destination for the heroes in this video game; however, this is more likely a reference to H.P. Lovecraft's Arkham, Massachusetts and Miskatonic University. Nods to the Batman comic books include a shady researcher named Gilbert who resembles The Penguin, and the "Arkham Underground" underneath the Singapore Management University.
  • Army of Darkness: the first issue of the Army of Darkness series finds Ash committed to Arkham Asylum. It's here that he runs afoul of a rather ghoulish and creepy Herbert West. This story is detailed in the story arc "Army of Darkness vs. Re-Animator."
  • There is also a small, lesser known reference to Arkham in The Rage: Carrie 2, the movie sequel to Carrie. In it, the school guidance councillor (Carrie's friend from the first movie) makes reference to having spent time at "Arkham as a patient" shortly after Carrie's death. Whether this is a reference to the Arkham of Batman, or simply Arkham, MA, is unclear, but is probably both as it gives a nod to both the infamous asylum, as well as the New England area, where many of Stephen King's novels are set. This could also nod to the fact that Arkham Asylum, in the DC comic world, co-exists with the horror/slasher icon world.
  • During his 2006 tour of the UK and Europe, Ryan Adams played a song (as yet unreleased) called Arkham Asylum. Its lyrics include references to bats, The Joker and Bruce Wayne. At the end of the song, Adams and his band, The Cardinals, played a few bars of the Batman theme. [1]
  • Heavy Metal band from Los Angeles, Obscene Carnage recorded and plays a song called Arkham Asylum. Its lyrics include references to the inmates of Arkham, The Dark Knight and home of the criminally insane. The song is available to listen to on their Myspace page: www.myspace.com/obscenecarnage.
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Creators: Bob Kane • Bill Finger • Other writers and artists
Supporting Characters: Robin (Tim Drake) • Nightwing (Dick Grayson) • Batgirl • Batwoman • Alfred Pennyworth • Lucius Fox • Barbara Gordon • Commissioner Gordon • Harvey Bullock
Villains: Bane • Catwoman • Clayface • Harley Quinn • Joker • Killer Croc • Mr. Freeze • Penguin • Poison Ivy • Ra's al Ghul • Red Hood (Jason Todd) • Riddler • Scarecrow • Two-Face • Other villains
Locations: Arkham Asylum • Batcave • Gotham City • Wayne Enterprises • Wayne Manor
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[edit] External links and references

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