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Arkham Asylum

Fictional psychiatric hospital in DC Comics From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arkham Asylum
This article is about the fictional psychiatric hospital/prison. For the video game, see Batman: Arkham Asylum. For the comic book, see Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. For other uses, see Arkham Asylum (disambiguation).

Arkham Asylum (/ˈɑːrkəm/) 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.

Quick Facts Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, First appearance ...
Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane
Batman location
Arkham Asylum in Batman (vol. 3) #9
(December 2016).
Art by Mikel Janín.
First appearanceBatman #258 (October 1974)
Created byDennis O'Neil (writer)
Irv Novick (artist)
GenreSuperhero
In-universe information
Other name(s)
  • Arkham Asylum
  • Arkham State Hospital
  • Arkham Home for the Emotionally Troubled
  • Arkham Manor
  • Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane[1]
TypeForensic psychiatric hospital
LocationsGotham City
Character(s)Most of Batman's adversaries
Hugo Strange
Jeremiah Arkham
Amadeus Arkham
Aaron Cash
PublisherDC Comics
Close

History

Located in Gotham City, Arkham Asylum is where Batman's foes who are considered to be 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 treated at Williams Medical Center before being deemed dangerous enough to be sent to Arkham Asylum.[4]

Origins

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Arkham Asylum in Detective Comics (vol. 2) #14 (January 2013). Art by Jason Fabok.

Arkham Asylum has a long and brutal history, beginning when its architect became mentally unwell, killed several workers with an axe, and was sentenced to life imprisonment in Arkham.[4] Arkham's founder, Amadeus Arkham, previously killed his mother due to her mental illness and suppressed the memory, believing her death to be a suicide. Later, serial killer Martin Hawkins, also known as Mad Dog, kills Amadeus' wife and daughter. Following this, Amadeus kills Hawkins during electroshock therapy and is committed to Arkham, where he eventually dies.[5][1]

Publication history

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Arkham Hospital in Batman #258 (October 1974). Art by Irv Novick.

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. Also in 1979, the move to have the asylum closer to Gotham had begun; that was completed in 1980, when Batman #326 by Len Wein described the asylum's location in the suburbs of Gotham City.

Arkham Asylum has been demolished or destroyed several times in its history, including Batman: The Last Arkham, Batman: Knightfall, and Batman Eternal.[6]

Staff

Wardens

Corrections Officers

  • Aaron Cash – A security guard who sports a hook hand after Killer Croc bit it off.[7] Unlike many of his colleagues, Cash is neither mentally unwell nor corrupt and is a trusted ally of Batman.
  • Frank Boles – A security guard who patrolled near the cell of Solomon Grundy. He was killed by Emerald Empress.[8]
  • Lyle Bolton – A ruthless security guard who later becomes the supervillain Lock-Up.[9]

Psychiatrists

  • Achilles Milo – A mad scientist and enemy of Batman who once became the administrator of Arkham Asylum.[10]
  • Alyce Sinner – A member of Intergang who works for Jeremiah Arkham.
  • Anne Carver – A psychiatrist who Jane Doe killed and impersonated.[11]
  • Ant Carley – A psychiatrist who was known for his dangerous testing with LSD and trying to get the patients to open their third eye. He was fired after a week due to his test being seen as unsafe.
  • Harleen Quinzel – A former psychiatric intern who was seduced by the Joker and became his sidekick, Harley Quinn.[12]
  • Joan Leland – Harleen's therapist and former colleague. She was created for Batman: The Animated Series.
  • Jonathan Crane – A former psychologist who performed fear-inducing experiments on his patients before becoming the supervillain Scarecrow.
  • Ruth Adams – She was taken hostage after the patients of the facility, led by the Joker, took over in an attempt to get Batman to come to the Asylum. She attempted to cure Two-Face of his inability to make choices on his own by introducing him to other objects such as a six-sided die, and a tarot deck.[1]

Patients

Summarize
Perspective

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.

Arkham Asylum is also featured in other DC Comics publications, apart from the Batman comic book titles. In Alan Moore's run in Swamp Thing the Floronic Man is detained there and in The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, Doctor Destiny escapes the asylum to wreak havoc on both the real and dream worlds. It has also been featured in varying capacities in a number of DC miniseries events, such as Crisis on Infinite Earths, Identity Crisis, Day of Vengeance and Countdown to Final Crisis, among others.

Many DC Comics characters who have been patients at Arkham Asylum are listed below.

Others

Graphic novels featuring Arkham Asylum

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Batman's rogues at Arkham Asylum. Cover art of Batman: Shadow of the Bat #81 (September 1998 DC Comics). Art by Glen Orbik.

Arkham Asylum is featured in the graphic novels Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, Batman: The Last Arkham, Arkham Asylum: Living Hell, Black Orchid, Arkham Reborn, and Batman: The Man Who Laughs. A Serious House on Serious Earth has been critically acclaimed, having been called "one of the finest superhero books to ever grace a bookshelf."[47] 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,[48] whilst Forbidden Planet named it number eight in their "50 Best of the Best Graphic Novels" list.[49]

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

Animation

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Arkham Asylum as it appeared on Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures.
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The alternate Arkham Asylum as it appeared in Justice League.

Films

Live-action

Animation

Video games

See also

Notes

  1. [N 1]
    Moench and Breyfogle were the writer and artist, respectively, of Batman #492, which started the Knightfall storyline; they can be seen on a list of escaped Arkham inmates on the Batcave computer.[33]

References

External links

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