Located inGotham City, Arkham Asylum is where Batman's foes who are considered to be mentally ill are brought as patients (other foes are incarcerated atBlackgate Penitentiary). Although it has had numerous administrators, some comic books have featuredJeremiah Arkham. Inspired by the works ofH. P. Lovecraft, and in particular his fictional city ofArkham, Massachusetts,[2][3] the asylum was introduced byDennis O'Neil andIrv Novick and first appeared inBatman #258 (October 1974); much of its history was established byLen Wein during the 1980s.
Arkham Asylum has a poor security record and highrecidivism rate, at least with regard to the high-profile cases—patients, such as theJoker, are frequently shown escaping at will—and those who are considered to no longer be mentally unwell and discharged tend to re-offend. Several of its staff are corrupt or insane.
Gotham criminals deemed "criminally insane" or "mentally unfit" by the court of law generally are treated at Williams Medical Center before being deemed dangerous enough to be sent to Arkham Asylum.[4]
Arkham Asylum inDetective Comics (vol. 2) #14 (January 2013). Art by Jason Fabok.
Serving as aGotham City psychiatric hospital, Arkham Asylum has a long and brutal history, beginning when its own architect became mentally unwell and hacked his workers to death with an axe. He was convicted and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in the same asylum he had been building.[4] The one-shot graphic novelArkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth establishes that the asylum was named after Elizabeth Arkham, the mother of founderAmadeus Arkham. The original name of the asylum was "Arkham Hospital". Its dark history began in the early 1900s when Arkham's mother, having suffered from mental illness most of her life, committed suicide. However, it was later revealed that her son had actually euthanized her and repressed the memory. Amadeus then decided, as the sole heir to the Arkham estate, to remodel his family home to properly treat the mentally ill.
Prior to the period of the hospital's remodeling, Amadeus Arkham treated patients at the State Psychiatric Hospital inMetropolis, where he, his wife Constance, and his daughter Harriet had been living for quite some time. Upon his telling his family of his plans, they moved back to his family home to oversee the remodeling. While there, Amadeus Arkham received a call from the police notifying him thatMartin Hawkins, aserial killer nicknamed "Mad Dog", had escaped from prison and sought his considered opinion on the murderer's state of mind. Shortly afterward, Amadeus Arkham returned to his home to find that Hawkins had raped Constance and Harriet before killing them. Despite these events, the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane officially opened that November.
One of Arkham's first patients was Mad Dog, whom Amadeus Arkham insisted on treating personally. After treating Mad Dog for six months, Amadeus strapped him to anelectroshock couch, then electrocuted him to death. In 1929, Amadeus was taken into a patient in his own asylum after he tried to kill his stockbroker in 1929, where he died.[1]
InBatman #258, it is named as Arkham Hospital, although it is not clear what kind of hospital it is. Arkham Asylum first appeared in anotherDennis O'Neil story the following year, but it was not until 1979 that Arkham Asylum completely replaced Arkham Hospital, and the occasional Arkham Sanitarium, as the institution's name.
Arkham Asylum has been demolished or destroyed several times in its history, including theKnightfall storyline. In theArkham Reborn miniseries, Arkham Asylum was rebuilt and financed by Jeremiah Arkham.[5]
Dr. Amadeus Arkham – The founder of the asylum, Amadeus named the institution after his deceased mother Elizabeth.[1]
Dr. Jeremiah Arkham – The nephew ofAmadeus Arkham. Jeremiah was the head of the asylum until he became mentally unwell and assumed the mantle of Black Mask.
Quincy Sharp – Sharp is the warden of Arkham Asylum in theBatman: Arkham series. He possesses a murderous split personality and devoted himself to "curing"Gotham City.
Dr. Hugo Strange – A psychiatrist who later came to Gotham City after deducing the true identity of Batman. He later became chief psychiatrist of Arkham.
Aaron Cash – One of Arkham's most respected security guards. His hand was bitten off byKiller Croc[6] and he sports a prosthetic hook in its place. Unlike many of his colleagues, Cash is neither mentally unwell nor corrupt and is a trusted ally of Batman.
Lyle Bolton – A former decorated Arkham guard who was so ruthless in how he handled inmates that he was later fired and became Lock-Up to continue his agenda.[8]
Dr.Achilles Milo – He became the Administrator of Arkham Asylum for a time and tried to drive Batman mad after putting him into a straitjacket. He was later exposed to chemicals that drove him insane.[9]
Dr. Alyce Sinner – Chosen by Jeremiah Arkham as his second-in-command and briefly committed under Arkham's orders. Sinner became head of the asylum after Arkham was revealed as Black Mask. She is secretly a member ofIntergang's Church of Crime, working with Black Mask.
Dr. Anne Carver – She was a psychiatrist who was murdered at the hands ofJane Doe. She stole her identity and took her role and hoped to extortWarren White out of millions and steal his identity.[10]
Dr. Ant Carley – He was a psychiatrist who was known for his dangerous testing withLSD and trying to get the patients to open theirthird eye. Carley was fired after a week due to his test being seen as unsafe.
Harleen Quinzel – A former psychiatric intern who was seduced by the Joker and became his sidekick, Harley Quinn.[11]
Jonathan Crane – A former psychologist who performed fear-inducing experiments on his patients before becoming the supervillain Scarecrow.
Dr. Ruth Adams – She was taken hostage after the patients of the facility, led by theJoker, took over in an attempt to get Batman to come to the Asylum. She attempted to cure Two-Face of his inability to make choices on his own by introducing him to other objects such as a six-sided die, and a tarot deck.[1]
Originally, Arkham Asylum was used only to house genuinely mentally ill patients having no connection to Batman, but over the course of the 1980s, a trend was established in having the majority of Batman's adversaries end up at Arkham.
Many characters who have been patients at Arkham Asylum are listed below.
Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth is agraphic novel written byGrant Morrison and painted byDave McKean. It was published byDC in 1989. It made reference to the treatment of several of the patients, such as the attempt to wean Two-Face away from dependence on his coin for decision making, first with a die and then a deck of cards. It once again portrays the asylum as having been taken over by its patients.
A Serious House on Serious Earth has been critically acclaimed, having been called "one of the finest superhero books to ever grace a bookshelf."[46] IGN ranked it as number four in a list of the 25 greatest Batman graphic novels, behindThe Killing Joke,The Dark Knight Returns, andYear One,[47] whilst Forbidden Planet named it number eight in their "50 Best of the Best Graphic Novels" list.[48]
Batman's rogues at Arkham Asylum. Cover art ofBatman: Shadow of the Bat #81 (September 1998 DC Comics). Art by Glen Orbik.
Batman: The Last Arkham was written byAlan Grant; pencils byNorm Breyfogle, originally a four-issue storyline that kicked off theBatman: 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. In an attempt to discover how criminals, specifically Zsasz, keep escaping, Batman has himself committed to the asylum. Jeremiah uses various methods, such as unleashing many patients on Batman at once, in an attempt to gain psychological insight on the vigilante.
This story makes a few passing references to the events ofA Serious House on Serious Earth, 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 mental illness.
Arkham Asylum: Living Hell was written byDan Slott, penciled byRyan Sook with inks by Sook,Wade Von Grawbadger and Jim Royal. The series was edited byValerie D'Orazio.Eric Powell created the painted cover art which appeared on both the original series and graphic novel compilation.
This six-issueminiseries and the subsequent trade paperback provided an intricate and multi-layered look at Arkham Asylum from several points of view: directorJeremiah Arkham; psychiatrist Dr. Anne Carver; the guards, chiefly Aaron Cash; and the patients. There is a particular focus on previously unknown residents: Jane Doe, acypher who assumes the identities of those she kills; Junkyard Dog, a man obsessed with trash; Doodlebug, an artist who uses blood in his paintings; the hulking bruiser Lunkhead; Death Rattle, acult leader who speaks to the dead; andHumpty Dumpty, a savant obsessed with taking apart and repairing various objects. The driving force is the recent admission of a ruthless investor,Warren White, as well as the demonic element suggested by the title. White, facing charges of massive fraud, pleads insanity to avoid being sent to prison, knowing he can bribe a Gotham jury. The judge sees through White's attempt to avoid prison and has White admitted to Arkham, which White himself had never even heard of up until that point. He soon realizes the horrors of the place and tries to survive. Ultimately, White is locked in Mr. Freeze's cell and loses his nose and his lips to frostbite. The demonic threat is nullified after the sacrifice of several patients, thanks to the joint effort ofEtrigan the Demon and White tricking the demons into sending themselves back to the Underworld.
Black Orchid, written byNeil Gaiman and illustrated byDave McKean, also featured Arkham Asylum. The award-winning graphic novel introduced an updated version of the crimefighterBlack 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 theMad Hatter,Poison Ivy, Two-Face and the Joker. Arkham is viewed as a desperate place where patients dwell in terror, much in the same fashion as inA Serious House on Serious Earth, which was also illustrated by McKean.
Arkham Reborn is a three-part miniseries written byDavid Hine and illustrated by Jeremy Haun. It tells the story of the rebuilding of the Asylum after having been destroyed byBlack Mask during the events of "Battle for the Cowl".
InBatman #697, it is revealed that Dr. Jeremiah Arkham is the new Black Mask. More is revealed about Dr. Jeremiah Arkham inDetective Comics #864 and #865.
The Man Who Laughs is aone-shotprestige formatcomic book written byEd Brubaker and illustrated byDoug Mahnke andPatrick Zircher, released in February 2005. The comic reveals some of the asylum's dark history. As a reporter reports on the asylum's renovation, the Joker poisons her and the crew, stealing the news van to broadcast whenever he wants. He later releases criminally insane patients at Williams Medical Center, who, in a short number of weeks, would have been transferred to Arkham Asylum. In the end, Joker is defeated and he himself is locked behind bars, in astraitjacket at Arkham.
The graphic novel was reprinted withDetective Comics #784-786–a storyline entitled "Made of Wood," also written by Brubaker with art by Zircher. In the storyline,Batman andGreen Lantern track the "Made of Wood" serial killer, whose killing spree was cut short when he was admitted to Arkham Asylum. Ex-CommissionerJames Gordon is also pursuing the killer and he narrows the search down to the two men admitted to Arkham in December 1948, the only living one hardly able to walk and ignorant of the killings. Gordon reaches the grandson of the other, who has taken up the "Made of Wood" killer's mantle.
Arkham Asylum appears in theBatman: Arkham series. This version is an island-based prison akin to Alcatraz. After Arkham is badly damaged during the events of thefirst game, its prisoners are moved to the mainland and placed in Arkham City, a massive prison-city.
Arkham Asylum appears as a stage in theInjustice series.
Arkham Asylum appears inGotham Knights. This version is a mansion that was later converted into a hospital. Years prior to the game's events, Arkham was condemned due to structural integrity flaws and its inmates were transferred toBlackgate Penitentiary.
Blackgate Penitentiary – a correctional facility located nearBlackgate Prison in Gotham City, used to retain custody of non-metahuman supervillains such as crime lords and mob bosses.
Ravencroft – a similar institute for the mentally insane used to house various supervillains in theMarvel Universe, typically appearing in stories associated with the characterSpider-Man.
^Moench and Breyfogle were the writer and artist, respectively, ofBatman #492, which started theKnightfall storyline; they can be seen on a list of escaped Arkham inmates on theBatcave computer.[32]
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