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A review by mjthomas43
Batman: Arkham Asylum - A Serious House on Serious Earth by Grant Morrison
4.0
March 14, 2012: A little too 'crazy' for me. Too hard to follow. Did not read the draft.
March 31, 2015: Actually read the full script this time and the entire story made much more sense. In fact, it made me a little disappointed with the illustrator, Dave McKean, in that key parts of the story as written by Grant Morrison are either not included or represented in a way that is unclear. Don't get me wrong, visually, the work is fascinating but the story just doesn't come through for me without reading the author's descriptions.
In this story, Batman enters Arkham Asylum to rescue some hostages after it's been taken over by some of the inmates. We learn about the history of the Asylum and of Arkham's family and madness and death and see Batman's rebirth through experiencing the madness that seems to be almost physically present in the place itself. We see interesting interpretations of the Joker, Mad Hatter, Killer Croc, Two Face, and Maxie Zeus, as well as a much more human and broken Batman (until the end).
The first half of this work is the graphic novel as released in 1989, while the second half is the final draft by Morrison, along with more recent annotations. There's also a basic original plot synopsis and character list, storyboards, and several related images.
This is certainly not for kids. I would say that you should probably be a pretty diehard fan of Batman to enjoy this work. But anyone interested in representations of madness might get a kick out of it too.
March 31, 2015: Actually read the full script this time and the entire story made much more sense. In fact, it made me a little disappointed with the illustrator, Dave McKean, in that key parts of the story as written by Grant Morrison are either not included or represented in a way that is unclear. Don't get me wrong, visually, the work is fascinating but the story just doesn't come through for me without reading the author's descriptions.
In this story, Batman enters Arkham Asylum to rescue some hostages after it's been taken over by some of the inmates. We learn about the history of the Asylum and of Arkham's family and madness and death and see Batman's rebirth through experiencing the madness that seems to be almost physically present in the place itself. We see interesting interpretations of the Joker, Mad Hatter, Killer Croc, Two Face, and Maxie Zeus, as well as a much more human and broken Batman (until the end).
The first half of this work is the graphic novel as released in 1989, while the second half is the final draft by Morrison, along with more recent annotations. There's also a basic original plot synopsis and character list, storyboards, and several related images.
This is certainly not for kids. I would say that you should probably be a pretty diehard fan of Batman to enjoy this work. But anyone interested in representations of madness might get a kick out of it too.