Rating: 
Summary: Pretty...
Review: ...but then so are butterflies, and I wouldn't pay ten bucks for one of those. Not while African children's legs are rotting off.
Rating: 
Summary: If you like to break tradition....
Review: ...traditional comic readers either love or hate "Arkham Asylum." While the book uses Batman and his traditional Rogues Gallery, the portrayal of the characters is uniquely dark, Freudian, and twisted. This time the battleground of Batman and his villains is the mind.Grant Morrison's moody script is deceptively complex, and heavily laden with references to psychology, myth, religion, and "Alice in Wonderland." Set almost entirely within Arkham Asylum, the prison for the criminally insane in the Batman universe, the story is of Batman's self-questioning and doubt: is he no better, no more sane, than the asylum inhabitants? A secondary story chronicles the founding of Arkham, and the descent into madness of the brilliant man who created the asylum. Dave McKean's artwork at the time was unique in comics, consisting of a combination of painting, construction, and photography that made every page feel like a 2-D representation of a 3-D work. With one or two exceptions, little is made of the background scenery, because the real setting of this story is the mind. The characters are portrayed as extreme, iconic versions of their normal selves. Background imagery is used to enhance the metaphors drawn in the story. One double-page spread shows a room filled with the mad; the left side of the page is a more-or-less literal representation of the room, while the right side of the painting dissolves into tarot imagery. Very few writers and artists have attempted to realistically portray the insanity of a man who would put on a cape and cowl and fight criminals to avenge parents long dead. Even fewer have attempted to tie the Batman tales into long traditions of myth and storytelling. McKean and Morrison did both within a single, thin graphic novel. Literate readers and those who appreciate dark, beautiful artwork will love this book.
Rating:
Summary: A good batman story with some of the best art ever produced.
Review: a story about the villians batman faces everyday and how he deals with them. this book all so has some of the great,detailed,and instresting art ever made in the world. You won't want to put this book down
Rating:
Summary: Through the looking glass
Review: Arkham Asylum shows Batman's ultimate fight agains his greatest foe: himself. Using the dense atmosphere of Arkham, The Joker drives Batman in the ways of insanity, very familiar to someone that wears a bat-suit to fight crime because of a traumatic murdering. Who is really insane? And what are the limits of sanity? Black and white melt in a terrible mix of despair in a dark version of Lewis Carrol's Alice stories. All of this from the minds of Grant Morrison (best comic book writer now, according to Wizard) and Dave McKean. A must have not only for Batman or comic book fans, but for everyone that want a good reading and wonderful painted art.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Read
Review: Arkham Asylum tells the story of how the Asylum came to be, through the journals of it's founder, Amadeus Arkham. This element is weaved with Batman to create the whole book. The story goes that the inmates of Arkham have taken the staff hostage, and they are making crazy demands. Their last demand is for Batman to come. When he does, he's faced with a challenge: He has one hour in the building, to run. After an hour, Joker sets everyone free to look for him. A perverse game of hide-and-seek, if you will.
For me, the best part of the book was Amadeus Arkham's transformation. I felt the Batman story was average, at best, but the progression of how one man goes insane was wonderful. I just wish the Batman story was just as good. It is suggested for mature readers, with good reason. Lots of graphic details. I thought the art was perfect, however. The eccentric style fit the theme of the book nicely.
Rating:
Summary: "We're all mad here!" Said the cat!
Review: Batman enters the hell that is Arkam Asylum after it is taken over by the imates. He enters with The Joker, whose become the one "sane" person in all this! He, compared to others at Arkam, is at least able to speak in coherent sentences. Harvey/Two Face has been warped by the doctors in a way that you will have to read! Batman is then sent through the asylum encountering everyone from Killer Croc, who stabs him and throws him out the window; and Ivy. There is also some disturbing information about the founding of Arkham from the journals of Jerimiah Arkam himself! My favorite part of this "graphic" novel is the Pysch elvaluations filled out by the inmates themselves, Harvey/Two Face is my favorite of those. Disturbing art by Dave McKean, who illustrated covers for The Sandman series, illustrates the madness perfectly. Grant Morrisons words, echo them. Brilliant work, just don't stay around that place for too long!
Rating:
Summary: "We're all mad here!" Said the cat!
Review: Batman enters the hell that is Arkam Asylum after it is taken over by the imates. He enters with The Joker, whose become the one "sane" person in all this! He, compared to others at Arkam, is at least able to speak in coherent sentences. Harvey/Two Face has been warped by the doctors in a way that you will have to read! Batman is then sent through the asylum encountering everyone from Killer Croc, who stabs him and throws him out the window; and Ivy. There is also some disturbing information about the founding of Arkham from the journals of Jerimiah Arkam himself! My favorite part of this "graphic" novel is the Pysch elvaluations filled out by the inmates themselves, Harvey/Two Face is my favorite of those. Disturbing art by Dave McKean, who illustrated covers for The Sandman series, illustrates the madness perfectly. Grant Morrisons words, echo them. Brilliant work, just don't stay around that place for too long!
Rating:
Summary: Man, Myth, and Magic
Review: Certainly more than a comic book, Dave McKean paints (literally) a story frought wth frighteningly delusional sybolism born of Crowley himself, while Morrison spins a yarn which knits together a horrificly
accurate psychological profile of not so much the Batman himself, but rather how he is worn by his classic, historicly psychotic foes in the bowels of the Arkham Asylum where they dwell. Grant Morrison's
intellect explodes in an array of jaw dropping scenarios
than force you to wonder if he himself hasn't had experience on one side of the Psychotherapists couch, or the other..
Rating:
Summary: Don't knock the art
Review: First let me say that the art is fantastic, don't listen to the huddling masses saying it's slop, Picasso had to deal with the same thing.
The story is phenomenally good, while on the whole quite disturbing, it does not use gore simply for it's own sake, as every character in the comic is amazingly disturbed. All the inhabitants of the asylum are incredibly dangerous, and if left to their own devices, would quite happily torture and maim all of us. Bad things happen to good people, which is what some people seem to have such a problem with, but a recurring theme of the book is how we deal with the bad things that happen.
Batman himself is rather insane when looked at straight on. Dressing as a bat to fight crime at night, schizophrenic tendencies regarding the "Batman" persona, etc. He says at the beginning that he doesn't want to go into the asylum because it might feel like "coming home."
It is very much for mature readers, but not just for the violence, it will twist your head and take you to uncomfortable places, so be ready. Even if you don't like Batman, try it out, it isn't really a superhero story.
So go get it. Get it now. Now!
Rating:
Summary: Insanity breeds Genius. Graphic art breeds monsters.
Review: First off, I must say that ARKHAM ASYLUM sticks to it's guns and tells the story of ARKHAM ASYLUM. That being said, it is interesting to have the Batman and all of his foes cast into this unlikely place (in comic, graphic book terms). They have to work with being in a very modern look at OUR world through the eyes of an asylum staff, who are inexperienced, or overzealous people. The asylum is failing at it's job. The original creator of the asylum, Amadeus Arkham, is shown to be quite insane... But what is going on here? Is it the pat phrase: "the inmates are running the asylum" and that's that? Or is it saying something very primordial about insanity itself? Insanity is contagious...? Possibly. But I do know that of all the subjects I have seen or read or discussed, insanity is the most fascinating and elusive of topics. Why? Because of it's inherent nature. To be insane, is not to think CLEARLY, or (duh) sanely. You would constantly differ from any and all opinions thrown at you.
Which brings me to discuss the art that gets such black marks from many people. The art is shown as it is to keep you disoriented. What happens to Killer Croc? What is the Mad Hatter talking about? Why does the Joker and his words look like a salvador Dali painting?
Let me put it this way. If there was a story about superman's fortress of solitude, would you want the storytellers to stage many epic superman battles there while you read about it? NO. (at least I say no...) You would want the story of the Fortress itself. When was it built? Why was it built? Why ice? Why not under a volcano? Or under the ocean itself? Or on the moon? But anyway, I digress... The story would be about the fortress, and superman would be a supporting character in it. In that story, superman would be directly involved in the creation of the building, firmly entrenching it as a superman tale.
In Batman's story, he was not responsible for the Asylum's creation, it is his job to fill it (unfortunately). The story behind the asylum's creation gets center stage in this novel, and if you like the films ASYLUM, SHOCK CORRIDOR, MARAT/SADE, and UN CHIEN ANDALOU (the andalusian dog), or the art of Goya, Bacon, and Dali, then you will LOVE Arkham Asylum. If not, then you are probably not still reading this review. Enjoy!
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