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Arkham Asylum

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Arkham Asylum
Official Name: Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane

Created by:

Denny O'Neil
First Appearance: Batman #258

Galaxy:

Milky Way

Star System:

Sol

Planet:

Earth

Country:

United States

State:

New Jersey

Locale:

Gotham City


The Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane is a fictional setting, a psychiatric hospital in the DC Universe. Jeremiah Arkham is the head of the Asylum.

Contents

[edit] Fictional History

It is located on the outskirts of Gotham City, and is where those of Batman's foes considered to be legally insane are incarcerated (other foes are incarcerated at Blackgate Penitentiary). Although it has had numerous administrators, its current head is Jeremiah Arkham. Inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft, the asylum was created by Dennis O'Neil and first appeared in Batman #258 (October 1974); much of its back-story was created by Len Wein during the 1980s. In the foreword to the book The Dark Ages: Grim, Great, and Gimmicky Post-Modern Comics, Jack C. Harris claims that it was he who conceptualized the idea of Arkham Asylum, and that any other such claims are false.

Arkham Asylum does not have a good record, at least with regard to the high profile cases; escapes are frequent (on at least one occasion, an obsessive-compulsive multiple murderer was signed out of Arkham into the care of an incontinent, alcoholic vagrant, on the grounds that he "looked like a responsible citizen"), and those who are 'cured' and released tend to re-offend. Furthermore, several staff members, including at least one director, have ended up as residents, notably Dr. Harleen Quinzel, Lyle Bolton and, in some incarnations, Drs. Jonathan Crane and Hugo Strange.

In addition, prisoners with unusual medical conditions that prevent them from staying in a regular prison are housed there. For example, Mr. Freeze is not technically insane, but he requires a strongly refrigerated environment to stay alive, which only Arkham can provide.

[edit] Origins

The one-shot graphic novel Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth establishes that the Asylum is named after Elizabeth Arkham, founder Amadeus Arkham's mother. The original name of the asylum is 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. (It is later revealed that she was actually euthanized by her son, which his mind repressed.) Amadeus Arkham decided, then, as the sole heir to the Arkham estate, to remodel his family home (known as Mercey Mansion) in order to properly treat the mentally ill, so others might not go untreated and suffer as his mother had. Prior to the period of the hospital's remodeling, Arkham treated patients at the State Psychiatric Hospital in Metropolis, where he and his wife, Constance, and daughter, Harriet, had been living for quite some time.

Upon telling his family of his plans, they moved back to his family home to oversee the remodeling. While there, Arkham received a call from the police notifying him Martin "Mad Dog" Hawkins — a serial killer referred to Arkham by Metropolis Penitentiary while at State Psychiatric Hospital — had escaped from prison, and sought his considered opinion on his state of mind.

On April 1, 1921, Arkham returned to his home to find his front door wide open. Inside, he discovered the raped and mutilated bodies of his wife and daughter in an upstairs room, Hawkins having carved his nickname on Harriet's body.

Despite this family tragedy, the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane officially opened that November. One of its first patients was Martin Hawkins, whom Arkham insisted on personally treating. On April 1, 1922, after treating Hawkins for six months, Arkham strapped him to the electroshock couch and purposely electrocuted him. The death was treated as an accident but contributed to Arkham's gradual descent into madness, which he began to believe was his birthright. Eventually, Arkham was institutionalized in his own hospital, where he died.

[edit] Inmates

Originally, Arkham Asylum was used only to house genuinely insane characters - the Joker and Two-Face were patients from its very first appearance - but over the course of the 1980s a trend was established of having the majority of Batman's supervillain opponents end up at Arkham, whether or not they were actually insane. This is likely due to some of the facility's high-tech features that make it more efficient to hold a villain such as Clayface there than in a prison. Nearly all of Batman's enemies have spent some time in Arkham.

Other DC Universe publications that feature Arkham Asylum and its patients include Alan Moore's Swamp Thing (wherein Jason Woodrue -- The Floronic Man -- is detained) and The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, wherein John Dee (Doctor Destiny) escapes to wreak havoc on both the 'real' and 'dream' worlds.

Arkham has also been featured in varying capacities in a number of high profile DC miniseries events, such as Identity Crisis, Day of Vengeance, Countdown, and Crisis on Infinite Earths among others.

[edit] Notable Patients

[edit] Batman's enemies

[edit] Others

[edit] In other media

Arkham has appeared beyond the pages of the comics in numerous guises and designs. Its appearances include:

[edit] Live-action films

[edit] Batman Forever

Batman Forever: Arkham was seen at the end of the film, and designed as a tall, spiraling castle-like structure, with narrow hallways lined with brightly-lit glass bricks. The Riddler was incarcerated in a large padded cell. The psychologist seen was named Dr. Burton, a reference to Tim Burton, who directed 1989's Batman film and Batman Returns. There was a more in-depth sequence involving Two-Face escaping from Arkham at the beginning of the film, but it was cut. Batman Forever (SNES game): The video game adaptation of the film features Arkham as its first stage. While the film shows Arkham as being in a remote forested area, the backgrounds in the game seem to place it on the waterfront, directly across the bay from Gotham.

[edit] Batman & Robin

Batman & Robin: Arkham appeared a number of times in this film. It first appeared when Mr. Freeze was taken there midway through the film, and later at the end when both he and Poison Ivy were shown as cellmates.

[edit] Batman Begins

Batman Begins: Arkham played a much larger role than a simple jail in this film, with Jonathan Crane (also known as the Scarecrow) being either the administrator or at least a high ranking doctor at the Asylum, and using it to conduct cruel experiments with his fear gas, using his own patients as guinea pigs. He also used the pipes under the Asylum to empty his toxin into the Gotham water supply. One notable change in this version of Arkham from the comics was the location. While in the comics it is located at Mercey Island (which is at the east end of the Sprang River, which divides two of the three main islands that constitute the city), in Batman Begins, it is in the middle of Gotham City, located in the slum region known as the Narrows.

[edit] DC animated universe

[edit] Batman: The Animated Series

Batman: The Animated Series: Arkham has appeared frequently in the series. It is depicted as generally dark and gloomy, and the cells are similar to those in the comics, being primarily closed via glass doors. Much of the rest of the asylum resembles a prison more than a mental hospital, however; in one episode, it is explained that all criminals apprehended by the Batman are sent to Arkham rather than jail (although it is shown that the Penguin goes to Stonegate, a regular jail). In the series, neither Jeremiah or Amadeus Arkham are shown or mentioned, but the episode "Dreams in Darkness" features a character who is obviously modeled on Jeremiah, but toned down to a more compassionate persona.

[edit] Justice League

Justice League featured Arkham in a brief cameo during A Better World, Part 2 in an alternate dimension where a Fascist League has taken over the world and dispatches villains via execution or lobotomy. The asylum is run by a lobotomized version of the Joker and is protected by robotic copies of Superman. The entire patient population is lobotomized by the alternate Superman's heat vision. (If you watch closely, you can see that the Ventriloquist has not been lobotomized by Superman's heat vision, but his doll Scarface has.) It is noted that Joker, Two-Face and Poison Ivy are used in both Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League as the key patients of the Asylum.

[edit] Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker: This direct-to-video animated film had the final battle between the original Batman and The Joker taking place at an abandoned Arkham. It is also the same spot where Robin (as a brainwashed, junior version of The Joker) killed Joker. A deleted scene (featured on both versions of the DVD as a special feature) has Bruce Wayne touring the abandoned Arkham, where Terry McGinnis, Wayne's successor as Dark Knight, follows and sees Joker's corpse hanging (it was implied that the new Joker placed it up there fairly recently to intimidate Bruce Wayne, or anyone investigating it, since it was bound by ropes, which the Joker's recent corpse wasn't, and more importantly, his corpse now bears the words "I know" on it.).

[edit] The Batman

See: Arkham Asylum (The Batman)

The Batman: Like the original Arkham, several major villains end up in this institution, such as the Joker, the Penguin, Riddler, Mr. Freeze , Ventriloquist, Hugo Strange and Clayface. Firefly goes to a regular prison. The staff is far more heavily armored than in its previous incarnation, wearing heavy trenchcoats and gloves, which is, in spite of itself, no deterrent for the patients to easily escape. Much like in the Batman Forever tie-in game and Batman Begins, it's presented as being inside Gotham, though here it's presented as occupying a small island on a river, with a bridge connecting it to the city.

[edit] Batman: Gotham Knight

To be added

[edit] Video games

[edit] Batman Forever

Arkham Asylum appears as the first level in the game.

[edit] Lego Batman

There was an Arkham Asylum Lego set featuring Scarecrow, Nightwing, Poison Ivy, and the Riddler available at Toys "R" Us during late summer 2006.

The videogame features Arkham as the villains' hub. It includes an experiment room, and docking bay for vehicles owned by Joker, Penguin, and Two-Face.

[edit] Batman: Arkham Asylum


[edit] Notable Appearances

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