“Sometimes…sometimes I think the asylum is a head. We’re inside a huge head that dreams us all into being. Perhaps it’s your head, Batman. Arkham is a looking glass, and we are you.”
With a name inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and a gloomy environment reminiscent of a Gothic horror film, the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane–more commonly known as Arkham Asylum–is one of the most iconic settings in the Batman Universe. The majority of the Rogues Gallery have called it home, and some have even been employed at the asylum prior to engaging in full-time villainy. 2009 saw a revival of the institution in the Arkham Asylum video game, where players could explore Arkham Island and discover its many secrets, and throughout the years Arkham and its inhabitants have been depicted in various forms of media: animated television shows and movies, live-action films like Batman Forever and Batman Begins, both graphic and printed novels, and numerous other adaptions.
This list pays homage to Arkham as it appears in seven different comics, all of which share one single defining trait: an eternal hope to provide those who walk through the asylum doors with the treatment, assistance, and resources they need to live free of Gotham’s endless cycle of crime.
ARKHAM ASYLUM: A SERIOUS HOUSE ON SERIOUS EARTH
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Dave McKean
Widely considered a classic among fans, Morrison’s writing and McKean’s art blend together to create a haunting story of tragedy, loss, and madness. A Serious House on Serious Earth opens with a young Amadeus Arkham standing at the foot of his dementia-suffering mother’s bed, watching as beetles spill from between her parted lips. This ghastly, bleak scene sets the stage for the many horrors that await both Batman and the reader as he enters the asylum to put an end to a Joker-led inmate revolt. Scattered throughout the graphic novel are a series of grim flashbacks that tell the story of Amadeus Arkham, who dedicates his life to psychiatry out of a desire to help those afflicted with severe mental illness only to suffer a violent family tragedy in one of the book’s most shocking, gruesome scenes; when he finally opens the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, sanity becomes too painful for Amadeus and he records his traumatized descent into hysteria within the pages of his journal. Batman is plagued by demons in the form of adversaries and torturous memories during his journey through the asylum, and by the end of A Serious House on Serious Earth he wonders if, like the tormented Amadeus, his own destiny lies within madness.
THE BATMAN OF ARKHAM
Writer: Alan Grant
Artist: Enrique Alcatena
This 1900s-era Elseworlds tale has a unique twist on the asylum’s lore: horrified by the deplorable and inhumane treatment inflicted onto patients, world-famous psychologist Dr. Bruce Wayne purchases Arkham Asylum and transforms the barbaric institute into a compassionate home for rehabilitation. The patients, no longer robbed of their dignity, flourish under his gentle guidance, but not everyone approves of his methods—namely the sadistic Professor Jonathan Crane, who views Arkham’s inhabitants as animals in need of being tamed. Batman of Arkham contains era-relevant depictions of Batman’s rogues; for example, Poison Ivy is a suffragette who defiantly strips herself of restrictive clothing until she is adorned in only garters and leaves before proclaiming her passion for women’s liberation, insisting to a scandalized Dr. Wayne that her only crime is being born female and that one day women like her will be free of societal oppression. One night while out patrolling the streets of Gotham, Batman encounters a mysterious man wearing a purple suit and a wide, leering grin, who gasses him with a compound that sends Batman into violent gales of unstoppable laughter. A babbling Wayne finds himself imprisoned in his own asylum, and he must fight his hysteria to rescue Arkham from Professor Crane’s cruel hold and Gotham from the white-gloved hands of a new threat.
ARKHAM ASYLUM: MADNESS
Writer: Sam Kieth
Artist: Sam Kieth
Sometimes beautiful and frequently bizarre, Madness follows a young nurse named Sabine as she struggles through a shift at Arkham and attempts to distract herself from the asylum’s horrors with thoughts of returning home to her beloved son. To the staff Arkham is a sprawling, living nightmare, where the only escape during work hours comes in the form of smoke breaks next to a spindly awning and rusted, blood-stained fish pond or secret liaisons in maintenance cupboards. When another nurse is fired and Sabine is forced to take her night shift or else lose her job as well, things go from miserable to unbearable—then comes the revelation that Joker has been enacting slow, hideous vengeance on the asylum staff, including feeding his unknowing doctor light bulb shards and turning dismembered body parts into gag novelties. Joker takes an interest in Sabine, and tension builds up before bursting into a swell of madness and panic that (literally) threatens to drown the asylum and everyone confined within its smothering walls.
ARKHAM ASYLUM: TALES OF MADNESS
Writer: Alan Grant
Artist: Dave Taylor
An ambitious young man named Greg is only three days into his new job as a member of Arkham’s security team when a guard’s worst nightmare is brought to life: a malfunction occurs, trapping him and the other guards in a section of the asylum that houses the most dangerous inmates—many of whom have escaped from their cells. Joker, Killer Croc, Scarecrow, Riddler, and a few other villains (who have all somehow managed to procure their costumes) capture and kill every guard but Greg, allowing him to live under the condition that he listen to a story told by each inmate and then decide which tale was most frightening; the chosen winner will then be awarded the prize of killing Greg. The stories are brief, varying between only two to four pages in length, and cover an eclectic range of subjects: accused heretics burned at the stake in Salem, a family of agoraphobics eaten alive by impossibly-cute puppies Fifi and Fofo, a cautionary lesson on refraining from smack-talk during a round of gator wrestling, neglected children maiming one-another with liquor bottles, and Joker creating yet another corrosive liquid to pelt large crowds with.
None are particularly terror-inducing or even mildly scary; the comic’s ending, however, is surprisingly disturbing and unexpected.
THE ROAD TO ARKHAM
Writer: Alan Burnett
Artist: Carlos D’Anda
The Road to Arkham serves as a small precursor to the 2009 Arkham Asylum video game, which took partial inspiration from Morrison’s graphic novel mentioned previously in this list and went on to spawn three sequels with varying success. As Batman drives to Arkham with a handcuffed Joker in the passenger seat, enthusiastically chanting “are we there yet?” before being silenced with a well-placed punch to the face, he contemplates his apprehension of Zsasz, Scarecrow, and Joker—who had disappeared for two months before suddenly reemerging—within the span of one night after receiving anonymous tips on the whereabouts of all three. Meanwhile, Warden Quincy Sharp and Commissioner Gordon prepare for Joker’s arrival, as does Harley Quinn (albeit with opposite methods and intentions). The brief comic ends with Batman parking the Batmobile in front of Arkham Mansion, silently ruminating over a gut feeling that “the night is just beginning”.
ARKHAM ASYLUM: LIVING HELL
Writer: Dan Slott
Artist: Ryan Sook
White-collar criminal Warren White, infamously known as “The Great White Shark”, uses his misbegotten wealth to grease the hands of corrupt officials and have his tremendous fraud trial moved Gotham City. Thanks to his deep pockets, White is able to essentially purchase a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity despite not actually suffering from any form of mental illness. When White’s only defense for his crimes—dubbed as “the greatest act of stock fraud in American history”—is a flippant muttering of “my bad”, the unimpressed judge sentences him to an indefinite period of observation at Arkham Asylum. An arrogant White presumes his stay at Arkham will be short and even taunts the guards and other inmates, but after spending a sleepless night alongside his new serial killer cellmate and taking a terrifying shower with Joker (who humorously proclaims that White is the worst person he’s ever met) White soon realizes that he’s made a grave mistake and becomes desperate to leave the asylum. Living Hell follows White as he struggles to survive and comes to the horrifying realization that while he may be a deplorable thief and destroyer of lives, the rest of Arkham is far, far scarier than a man whose weapon of choice is financial ruin. The series also includes multiple background stories, like security guard Aaron Cash’s rivalry with Killer Croc and a supernatural plot featuring the demon Etrigan, as well as appearances by several familiar inmates.
ARKHAM MANOR
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Shawn Crystal
After Arkham Asylum is destroyed, Wayne Manor is converted into a new home for the criminally insane. When a murder occurs within the manor, Bruce Wayne assumes the identity of a deceased man named Jack Shaw and infiltrates his own home under the guise of being an inmate—a role that allows him to both proceed with his investigation and observe the asylum inhabitants at an unassuming, unique closeness he could not experience as Batman. While Arkham Manor may not technically take place in Arkham Asylum, it’s worth including in this list for its portrayal of horror and humor; in one scene Bruce discovers a horribly-mutilated but still-breathing villain sealed up within the manor walls, while other scenes depict Victor Fries enjoying ice cream and happily making snow angels in the manor’s front yard.
Gallery of Capes 