Books : Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition)

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Rating:

- Just not Batman
Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum: A serious house on serious earth is an un-nearving gothic tale of insanity and more specificly, what drives someone to become insane. It's well written, specificly the Joker's dialogue, and the narration is obviously filled with Morrison's usual psycho-analysis and heavy handed symbolism. It's also virtually entirely painted by Dave McKean, which must of taken an enormous amount of time, although the art is usally so dark it's difficult to actually see what's going on. But for all that it is, it's just not Batman.

For a start, the Batman in this story is a clueless idiot. He wanders directly into what can only be described as the Joker's most obvious trap ever and then procededs to compete in a game of hide and seek, a game in which the Batman makes absolutly no attempt to hide and the villains are never shown trying to chase him down (in fact Scarecrow and Black Mask do absolute zip all except for walking around aimlessly in one or two panels). Instead the rogues wait in various rooms, acting as bizarrly as they're drawn.

For instance the now paedophilic Mad Hatter calls underage girls "[...]" while smoking a hokkah, and Maxie Zeus hooks himself up to some sort of electrical device and shocks himself while collecting sparks in a mettalic bin. These characters are apparently drawn like this to spotlight the various aspects of Batman's damaged psyche. Uh-huh. Remind me again what exactly Maxie Zeus electrocuting himself has to do with anything let alone Batman? It should also be noted that in Morrison's depection of Batman's enemies, Clayface is drawn as the most embarassingly obvious metaphor for AIDs, simply for the fact of talking about AIDs in a comic book because that's 'different' and 'confronting to a comic book audience'.

Yes the more you actually read Arkham Asylum the more it becomes obvious Morrison doesn't want to tell a Batman story, but just write a reasonably interesting tale and fill it with as much confronting violent content he can get away with. In truth this doesn't need to be a Batman story at all. Hell, Batman's hardly in it anyway! The few panels he appears in having him usally overhearing the Joker explaining what he's planning to do with Batman's mental state, or getting surprised and screaming "jesus!". Really, there is no reason Morrison couldn't have written this same story with a new invented cast (he re-writes the characters almost all compleatly anyway) except adding the Batman title to it increases sales considerably. Considering the amount of copies this book has shifted, this shallow tactic seems to have worked.

I could go on, about how the plot won't make sense the first few read-throughs or how the art barely is able to vaguely represent whats meant to be happening, but how long can a review be? The simple truth is this:

Never read Batman and will never have an interest in him, but enjoy extreamly dark stories with paedophilia, decapatation of children, murder, vague suspence and almost visible art?
-Then you'll love Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth!

Actually like Batman?
-Avoid

Rating:

- friggen awsome
the story could have been longer to set things up a little better but over all this was one of the best batman storys ive ever read

Rating:

- Decent, But Not Quite What I Expected!
What can I say about Arkham Asylum? It is a decent Batman graphic novel and it is a must read for die hard fans, but it is not on the same level as so many other classic Bat Novels. This story seems fitful in its starts and stops and really is quite simple on its most basic level. Batman goes into Arkham Asylum because the lunatics have taken over and he, along with most of the inmates, questions whether or not he really belongs there. The story is peppered throughout with references to Arkham's history and does have some interesting reimaginings of Clayface and others, but I was expecting a lot more after I read the reviews and heard some hype from friends. This is a decent stand alone novel but if you like stories that stick to canon, and if you are easily disappointed when hype doesn't live up, Arkham Asyluum might not be for you!

Rating:

- I bought this for my husband
I bought this for my husband. I wanted it for the art but i didnt like them, i thought they were gonna be more like the front cover however my husband did like them and he said the book itself really twisted and dark a lot different from alot of the other ones. Deffinatly not for kids.

Rating:

- The best illustrated graphic novel ever!
The art in this book is incredible! Each panel is a painting in itself. Very expressive and atmospheric. The story is a bit pretentious but still engaging, and a lot more grown up and interesting than the usual Batman cliches.

It's just wonderful to see a graphic novel where the art is so lavish and sophisticated unlike the usual cheap, simplistic stuff you sometimes get.

Dave Mckean is some kind of genius.

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