Arkham Asylum
Apr. 22nd, 2008 05:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shankieWith the longish title Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth this book is not to be confused with Living Hell or The Last Arkham. This was one of the first Bat-books I read, and some of the ideas really stuck.
The Joker's super-sanity. The Joker having a 'thing' for Batman in twenty flavours of wring. The walls of Arkham itself being madness-inducing. Batman being an unstable denial-fest. Grant Morrison being an awesome writer. The artist, Dave McKean, directed MirrorMask and a lot of that is pretty obvious in the trippy style of the book.
Joker leads a takeover of Arkham Asylum and calls Batman inside to free hostages; except the doctors have stayed of their own free will and the inmates aren't the scariest thing in there. Except the Joker is really, really scary-looking in this book.
Reading this and The Dark Knight Returns back-to-back certainly cemented certain ideas about the Joker, I'll just say that.
This is the first psychiatrist Batman talks to in there; the one he talks to the most. The one who explains that the doctors refused to leave Arkham to the patients. She has some interesting ideas... this one about Harvey seems like a good one, if only it had a chance of working.
Tarot-card imagery from one of my favourite decks, Crowley's Thoth Tarot, along with a stray Joker card, really make the other-worldly feel work.
I've talked about this before. All right there, a viable theory of Joker's condition. It explains a lot; the Joker is crazy because he knows everything but can't keep it straight.
Taken to an extension the fictional doctor can't, Joker knows he isn't real, that he serves the whims of authors and artists and their audiences. His real audience. The Joker knows you're watching him. Heh. It's fun to think about, anyway.
He sees a bat and then denies it, surprise surprise.
Then Joker goads him into some word-association.
It starts him spiraling into a mental breakdown.
Later, another look at Harvey that I just love, so much.
They're crazy... but in a way that makes crazy-sense. XD
Anyway, I love the art like woah. Batman is never shown clearly, more like a wraith... with snapshots of clarity when he has his most human moments. The effect is neat.
It's not canon, and a lot of the inmates are definitely different than canon. For this, it works. It's the sort of book that has you wonder just how much of it is all in Bruce's head.
Batman goes in crazy and comes out a little better than before. My nerd friends always insisted this book was a bridge between Dark Knight Returns-style nutty Bruce (that does stuff like throw a tantrum over losing his toy train) and a saner, nicer Bruce.
The Joker's super-sanity. The Joker having a 'thing' for Batman in twenty flavours of wring. The walls of Arkham itself being madness-inducing. Batman being an unstable denial-fest. Grant Morrison being an awesome writer. The artist, Dave McKean, directed MirrorMask and a lot of that is pretty obvious in the trippy style of the book.
Joker leads a takeover of Arkham Asylum and calls Batman inside to free hostages; except the doctors have stayed of their own free will and the inmates aren't the scariest thing in there. Except the Joker is really, really scary-looking in this book.
Reading this and The Dark Knight Returns back-to-back certainly cemented certain ideas about the Joker, I'll just say that.
This is the first psychiatrist Batman talks to in there; the one he talks to the most. The one who explains that the doctors refused to leave Arkham to the patients. She has some interesting ideas... this one about Harvey seems like a good one, if only it had a chance of working.
Tarot-card imagery from one of my favourite decks, Crowley's Thoth Tarot, along with a stray Joker card, really make the other-worldly feel work.
I've talked about this before. All right there, a viable theory of Joker's condition. It explains a lot; the Joker is crazy because he knows everything but can't keep it straight.
Taken to an extension the fictional doctor can't, Joker knows he isn't real, that he serves the whims of authors and artists and their audiences. His real audience. The Joker knows you're watching him. Heh. It's fun to think about, anyway.
He sees a bat and then denies it, surprise surprise.
Then Joker goads him into some word-association.
It starts him spiraling into a mental breakdown.
Later, another look at Harvey that I just love, so much.
They're crazy... but in a way that makes crazy-sense. XD
Anyway, I love the art like woah. Batman is never shown clearly, more like a wraith... with snapshots of clarity when he has his most human moments. The effect is neat.
It's not canon, and a lot of the inmates are definitely different than canon. For this, it works. It's the sort of book that has you wonder just how much of it is all in Bruce's head.
Batman goes in crazy and comes out a little better than before. My nerd friends always insisted this book was a bridge between Dark Knight Returns-style nutty Bruce (that does stuff like throw a tantrum over losing his toy train) and a saner, nicer Bruce.
no subject
on 2008-04-23 12:01 am (UTC)Awesome post. :)
no subject
on 2008-04-23 02:49 am (UTC)Always a little bit of a demented drag queen, though... just a smidge.
no subject
on 2008-04-23 04:26 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-04-23 12:23 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-04-27 03:48 am (UTC)