If I could offer but one bit of advice to an oblivious soul who dared to wander into Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On Serious Earth, it would be simply to avoid combining the read with hits of acid, for this is one book that leaves the reader feeling...well, nasty.
It is a tale of madness and magic, of destiny and death. It explores the very real, mostly overlooked, vastly under appreciated lunacy which motivates our hero, Batman (more so, perhaps, than even the Joker, though he fights for his fair share of the spotlight in this particular dark, sprawling cloud of dementia, as well.) It is a tale of tragedies: Amadeus Arkham (the single most wicked name in all of fiction), Batman, Joker... More than anyone else, however, Arkham Asylum seems to belong to Two-Face. More importantly, in fact, it is Two-Face’s alter-ego, Harvey Dent, who is somehow suggested as the hero of this black tale, though he is most often a mere background entity in the few scenes in which he appears at all. It is a story, finally, of the random, the chaotic, the malleable and the playful aspects of our reality. Fittingly, then, April Fool’s Day is when it begins.
Commissioner Gordon has summoned Batman to inform him that the inmates have somehow taken over Arkham Asylum. The Joker has demanded that Batman join his fellow madmen, otherwise the hostages will be killed. At the same time, we are pulled into Arkham’s dark past, as the journal entries of young Amadeus Arkham tell us of his youth in the giant mansion, his mother’s suicide and his own eventual decision to convert the mansion into an asylum to help those who, like his mother, are (hopelessly?) insane.Batman agrees to the Joker’s demands and bursts into the asylum. The Clown Prince of Crime, at easily his most powerful and, more importantly, terrifying (indeed, he definitely oversteps even Tim Curry as Stephen King’s Pennywise the Dancing Clown from IT as the scariest damn clown I’ve ever seen), immediately plays on Batman’s possible sexual issues (and not for the last time) by grabbing his butt firmly and telling him to “loosen up, tight ass!” He then immediately mentions Robin, using the nickname “Boy Wonder” to further suggest Batman’s own potential criminal side.
The Joker invites Batman further into the asylum, and we are torn into one of the most ingenious, filthy and horrific two-page spreads ever written or designed (and while we are briefly on the subject of design, it should be noted that Dave McKean’s gorgeous layouts and illustrations for this wonderful book absolutely must have been an inspiration for David Mack when he began work on his Kabuki series, for the crazy patterns of illustrated symbols, overlapping photography and senseless scribbling are all here in this lovely book from ten years ago, and that can hardly be a coincidence): an orgy of lunatics writhing and crawling atop one another amidst a haunting swirl of symbols and clips of dialogue (“NO ROOM! NO ROOM!”, “Blood and-” “Father Dear Father I have to confess” and “DIRT EVERYWHERE! CHRIST LOOK AT IT DIRT DIRT!”, among others.)Meanwhile, Amadeus Arkham, after having spent a rough two hours with a patient of his by the name of Martin “Mad Dog” Hawkins (a soft-spoken young man who mutilates the sexual organs and faces of his victims), inquires of his journal, “How many men like him must there be? Men whose only real crime is mental illness, trapped in the penal system with no real hope of treatment.”
Batman is soon disturbed to see that innocents are shuffling about among the criminals. After reminding the Joker of the clown’s promise to set the hostages free upon his arrival, Batman is thrown into a confrontation with an Arkham psychotherapist by the name of Ruth Adams, who reveals that she and a number of other staff members insisted on staying to oversee their patients. Among them: Harvey “Two-Face” Dent. Ruth Adams claims that her staff has practically cured Two-Face of his schizophrenic issues by eliminating his two-headed coin and introducing him to a die, thereby creating three times as many options for any given action. From the die, she proudly explains, they had moved Dent on to a deck of Tarot cards, presenting him with nearly eighty choices, rather than the two, in the hopes of restoring his decision-making skills to a normal level. Batman dismisses the woman and her therapy, pointing out that Two-Face is crouched in a corner with cards spread all about his lap, his clothing soiled due to his inability to decide how to handle the need to relieve himself. Ignoring Batman’s criticism, Ruth Adams goes on to attempt to explain the Joker. My words would fail to do that passage justice, so just let it be known that Grant Morrison is a demented, psychotic, brilliant bastard, and his writing in this book is at once inspiring and chilling.If one had to determine the visual equivalent to Morrison’s prose, the search would stop at Dave McKean. In addition to the Kabuki-like feel of the overall design of the book, his Joker in particular is sickening and revolting, as opposed to the trim, posed and stylish Mr. J. we have come to expect of our Bat books. I have just got to sculpt the wicked little creep.
Speaking of Harley Quinn’s main squeeze, his next course of action (after a flashback to the days of the conversion of the Arkham home into Arkham Asylum in the early 1900’s, in which we learn that Amadeus Arkham had once inexplicably found a single Joker from a deck of playing cards laying on the stairs) is to get Batman and Ruth Adams involved in a word-association game with one another. This scene is one of the most heartbreaking of many such emotionally overwhelming moments in Arkham Asylum, for we see that, for all his strength, fury and determination, our heroic Bruce Wayne is a depressed, dangerous, broken man.Our tragic hero is granted an hour to hide before Joker and his pals come seeking him out, while Arkham himself vaguely describes finding the mutilated bodies of his beloved wife and daughter, apparent victims of the then-recently escaped Mad Dog (“Almost idly,” Arkham says of his young child, “I wonder where her head is.”) The scenes continue to top one another in both brilliance and horror, Arkham’s discovery and Batman’s initial flight being two of the most shocking and sorrowful of the bunch. These scenes serve to show us that Batman is indeed as lost as those he has stalked for so long. The photos of blood-soaked lace superimposed over various illustrations, the ranting of the cuckoo clock, Batman’s self-mutilation...it is all nearly indescribably beautiful and true.
Ten minutes after their prey flees, the inmates grow bored and give chase. Batman first runs into Clayface, who is quickly crippled and left to suffer. The Dark Knight moves on, seeming to narrowly avoid a confrontation with Scarecrow. He then stumbles upon the Mad Hatter, who elaborates on his fondness and fascination for children to a disturbing degree of detail and introspection (“...Little girls, especially. Little blond girls...”).Arkham’s journal then reveals that upon the official opening of the asylum, his first patient was Mad Dog. Arkham spent a dark six months interviewing the man, listening to intricate details of the mutilation and murder of Arkham’s own family. Amadeus then strolls through the halls at night, hearing laughter from empty cells (further evidence that the Joker was always meant to be a resident of the asylum?), and later, having eaten of a mushroom, Arkham imagines (?) that a dragon awaits him deep in the bowels of the asylum. This scene overlaps Batman’s own struggle against a giant reptile, as he and Killer Croc viciously rip at one another. Arkham’s tormented journal entries serve as an appalling narrative: “Doors open and close, applauding my flight. Keyholes bleed. A choir of sexually maimed children sings my name over and over again. ‘Arkham.’ ‘Arkham.’ ‘Arkham’.”
Bruised and bloodied, Batman finally overcomes Croc. He then finds Dr. Cavendish, another of the staff members who had insisted on staying in the asylum when the other hostages were freed. The doctor has Ruth Adams in a choke hold, a razor at her face. Batman realizes that Cavendish was responsible for the release of the inmates. The doctor insists that he had good reason. He points to a nearby table, upon which Amadeus Arkham’s journal rests. A place has been marked for Batman to read.Binding spells, madness and sadness, fate and victimization, responsibility, death... these things and others show us that perhaps the Joker is not the lone figure who has long been sought out by the asylum itself. Batman, too, is a part of it, and it a part of him. It has been his destiny since long before he was born...
Cavendish, having read the journal and concluded that it is now up to him to destroy Batman, attempts to do just that. The razor is soon knocked from his grasp, and Ruth Adams slits his throat with it, saving Batman, who dismisses her horror and shock at her own actions with an abrupt, unfeeling, “He got what he deserved.”With a large axe, Batman then tears through an asylum wall, explaining to the inmates that they are free. Joker, claiming that they have always been free, asks what should be done with Batman, who returns Harvey Dent’s confiscated coin and insists that the decision be his. Joker agrees, praising Batman’s suggestion with a giddy, “Brilliant!”
A reluctant Two-Face proposes that the clean side will set Batman free, the scratched will mean his death.The coin is flipped, and our hero is released. Joker walks him out like a caring host, wishing him luck “out there -in the asylum.”
Again, the rarely-seen Two-Face is the unsung hero of this, the darkest and most ingenious and honest of all the Batman books. Harvey Dent’s final struggle is truly inspiring, but I’ll not write of it here. Rather, I will suggest that those who have yet to experience it for themselves do so as soon as possible. And those who have already had the pleasure? I invite you to wander into Arkham Asylum at least once more. Trust me, the second time is even nastier...Overall Rating: 10 Out Of 10 (Flawless--unless one finds flaw in the revolting and the profane; as long as it is inspired, I personally enjoy it immensely. The heart and skill of this overlooked piece of magnificent horror easily surpasses that of even the most celebrated and beloved books on the Batman character.) Advisory: Put the children to bed. This is some sick crap. R.I.Y.L. Kabuki, Batman: The Killing Joke and the more relentless episodes of Batman the Animated Series. Pop Culture Parallel: There is nothing that can stand alone and compare, though a sadistic blend of images and phrases from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Psycho, the Faces of Death films and the darker side of Marilyn Manson’s edgier videos, with Black Sabbath’s “Megalomania” playing softly in the background, might do the trick.
(Unable to choose from the seemingly endless supply of powerful quotes, I simply chose the first.) “Afraid? Batman’s not afraid of anything. It’s ME. I’M afraid. I’m afraid that the Joker may be right about me. Sometimes I...question the rationality of my actions. And I’m afraid that when I walk through those asylum gates...when I walk into Arkham and the doors close behind me...it’ll be just like coming home.”
