Arkham Asylum is a fictional psychiatric hospital appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in stories featuring Batman. It first appeared in Batman #258 (October 1974), written by Dennis O'Neil with art by Irv Novick. Located in Gotham City, the asylum houses patients who are criminally insane, as well as select prisoners with unusual medical requirements that are beyond a conventional prison's ability to accommodate. Its high-profile patients are often members of Batman's rogues gallery.
History
Located in Gotham City, Arkham Asylum is where Batman's foes who are considered mentally ill are brought as patients (other foes are incarcerated at Blackgate Penitentiary). Although it has had numerous administrators, some comic books have featured Jeremiah Arkham. Inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft, and in particular his fictional city of Arkham, Massachusetts,[2][3] the asylum was introduced by Dennis O'Neil and Irv Novick and first appeared in Batman #258 (October 1974); much of its history was established by Len Wein during the 1980s.
Arkham Asylum has a poor security record and high recidivism rate, at least with regard to the high-profile cases—patients, such as the Joker, 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 are sometimes treated at Williams Medical Center before being deemed dangerous enough to be sent to Arkham Asylum.[4]
Origins
Serving as a Gotham 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 novel Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth establishes that the asylum was named after Elizabeth Arkham, the mother of founder Amadeus 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 in Metropolis, 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 that Martin Hawkins, a serial 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.
Publication history
In Batman #258, it is named as Arkham Hospital, although it is not clear what kind of hospital it is. Arkham Asylum first appeared in another Dennis 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 the Knightfall storyline. In the Arkham Reborn miniseries, Arkham Asylum was rebuilt and financed by Jeremiah Arkham.[5]
Staff
Wardens
- Dr. Amadeus Arkham – The founder of the asylum, Amadeus named the institution after his deceased mother Elizabeth.[1]
- Dr. Jeremiah Arkham – The nephew of Amadeus 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 the Batman: 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.
Corrections Officers
- Aaron Cash – One of Arkham's most respected security guards. His hand was bitten off by
Patients
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. • Alberto Falcone[12]
• Amadeus Arkham[1]
• Amygdala[13]
• Baby-Doll[14]
• Black Mask
• Blockbuster[15]
Graphic novels featuring Arkham Asylum
Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth
Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth is a graphic novel written by Grant Morrison and painted by Dave McKean. It was published by DC 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, behind The Killing Joke, The Dark Knight Returns, and Year One,[47]
Other versions
- An alternate future version of Arkham Asylum appears in The Dark Knight Returns.
- Arkham Asylum appears in JLA: The Nail, where it is destroyed during a battle between Batman and the Joker.
- Arkham Asylum appears in Batman: Crimson Mist, where a vampiric Batman kills most of its inmates.
In other media
Television
Live-action
- Arkham Asylum appears in Birds of Prey.
- Arkham Asylum appears in Gotham.[49]
- Arkham Asylum appears in television series set in the Arrowverse.
- Arkham Asylum appears in Titans.
- Arkham Asylum appears in The Sandman. This version is located in Buffalo, New York.
- Arkham Asylum appears in The Penguin.
Animation
See also
- Blackgate Penitentiary – a correctional facility located near Blackgate Prison in Gotham City, used to retain custody of non-metahuman supervillains such as crime lords and mob bosses.
- Iron Heights Penitentiary – a maximum-security prison in the DC Universe in a vein similar to Arkham, used to house deranged criminals operating in Keystone City and Central City.
- Stryker's Island – another penitentiary in the DC Universe similar to Arkham located in Metropolis
- Ravencroft – a similar institute for the mentally insane used to house various supervillains in the Marvel Universe, typically appearing in stories associated with the character Spider-Man.
External links
- Arkham Care
- Batman-On-Film.com BOF's review of Arkham Asylum, A Serious House on a Serious Earth
- Official Videogame Website
References
- Grant Morrison. Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth DC Comics, October 1989^
- Dennis O'Neil. Batman Unauthorized: Vigilantes, Jokers, and Heroes in Gotham City BenBella Books, 2008^
- Mark Voger, Kathy Voglesong. The Dark Age: Grim, Great & Gimmicky Post-Modern Comics TwoMorrows Publishing, 2006^