Rating:  -
great story. SICK and awsome drawings. nice and voilent...... just like i like it
Rating:  -
The thing with Arkham Asylum is that back in 1989, author Grant Morrison and artist Dave McKean got together and turned the world of Batman upside down and inside out. My first glimpse of Arkham Asylum all those years ago was shocking. This was Batman? No way! The Joker isn't that kind of pychotic! Is he? Yeah, he is. The darknes that is Arkham Asylum takes the whole Bathman mythos to a new arena of madness and debauchery. A little hard to follow in places because McKean's style is so flamboyant and disturbing, Arkham weaves two storylines together. The First and foremost is that all the criminals inside the Arkham Asylum have escaped and are holding hostages until Batman is made available to them. Chief lunatic in charge: The Joker. The second storyline follows long back in the 1920s when Amadeus Arkham opens his ancestral home to the luntatics of the world for treatment. This stuff is very, very, very dark. If you have a preconceived notion as to where this will lead, you're probably wrong. The kewel thing is this, however, in the 15th Anniersary edition they put the entire screenplay after the comic and that helps out alot. When you get a little confused, you can check the notes for reference. This is 1989's addition to the growing darkness that would infiltrate the comic world for years to come. After this, the 90s would reveal The Sandman with Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean and the darkness would remain. Good stuff.
Dig it!!!
Rating: -
I've read varying opinions on this book, and I chalk it up to being a love it or hate it story in the Batman mythos. Obviously, I am one who loved it ;) It's to taste, I suppose, so be warned of that.
The art was strikingly different from any graphic novel I have read thus far, and it took me a moment to adjust to the style; in the end, especially after reading it, it had really grown on me. The surreal, dreamy-nightmarish depictions fit the dark chaos of the plot perfectly. Joker has never looked more chilling. I have heard complaint it is hard to follow, but I had no problem following the art along with the plot at all. The symbolic touches added to the chaos and surrealism, a perfect touch. Beautifully done.
The plot, I thought, was a delicious tale of madness, and the relevancy of madness to the sane world; it so finely draws the line between the sane and insane, underscored by the relationship between Joker and Batman, that it sometimes becomes the same bulging, hectic mass of confusion, captured by the art. Yes, some of the villains were drastically changed, but I took as being for the sake of drama, and nothing really offended me; it was an abstract view of Arkham, in a way, and the people within its walls. I didn't find Batman overly weak or anything. I thought it made sense he would question his sanity. Doesn't everyone? And, with his costume and vigilante vengeance quest, wouldn't he have to see the similarities between him and the maniacs of the night? I thought it was great that he went in with doubts and, in the end, firmly drew the line between him and the others, conquered his own doubts.
So, I would recommend this book, probably mostly to those that like Batman at his most human, fans of the madness in the series, and probably even fans of horror lol A lot of this book reminded me of the videogame series "Silent Hill" (not the movie), as it has a psychological view of abstract, symbolic terror. The backstory of the Asylum and its creator also makes the book worth it for history's sake, and is an amazing story in its own right. All in all, great book, very different, and excellently done in its poetically grotesque way.
Rating:  -
One huge problem with this story is that, as Batman's personality was recreated in this story, virtually no time was spent making it believable to the reader. Basically, there is something going on in Arkham, and Bats is called in. When it becomes clear that he has to go in, he says something to the effect of: "I'm not scared of what I'll find in there, I'm afraid of what I'll find out about myself." Something stupid like that. So right off the bat (no pun intended) we find Batman to be some kind of mentally insecure whiner. This would be fine if he were still batman, but really, batman is supposed to be strong. This batman is ridiculously weak. He doesn't even match the joker's intensity and fortitude, something which every batman has been able to do until now.
Other than that the story is ridiculously underdeveloped, and relies on the twisted art style to carry it through. This is the worst critically-acclaimed batman story I have ever read. Steer clear.
Rating: -
Next to the theme of vengeance, there is one theme that is has been shown throughout the many years of Batman: madness. Madness is what drives most of Batman's enemies to destroy his precious city. But, in dealing with these mad men, has Batman too gone "batty"? Beautifully drawn and brilliantly written, this is the one of the essential books for any Batman fan.
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