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A review by nina_chan01
Batman: Arkham Asylum - A Serious House on Serious Earth by Grant Morrison
4.0
I can see why this Batman story is so dividing.
The art is bat-$**+ crazy and the story rambles on like it’s being told by one of the inmates, you’re either going to love it on an artistic level or hate it for being too artistic. I fall squarely in the first group.
A striking combination of painting and photography take the reader straight into the dark and confusing mindset needed to explore Arkham Asylum and the life of its founder. Dave McKean creates a vivid world for Morrison’s Batman to live in, one that’s full of symbolism and surreal visions.
The story is full of twists and turns that seem to purposely try to make the reader get lost, but achieve a great cohesion with the art to really drive the story forward.
This Batman is full of terror and human frailty, it might not be everyone’s cake, but it’s one of the reasons he’s my favorite; beneath the cowl is a man who does what he does despite all that lies beneath.
What is definitely the best part of the story is the tale of the original founder of the asylum and his fall into madness. Worth the read just for that back story.
The one star that I deducted is for how hard it sometimes is to actually read it. The much praised lettering has a tendency to go so artistic as to be unreadable. The story and art are jarring enough without having to stop and analyze what a word is supposed to be. I’m a big proponent for comics taking experimental/artistic forays, but the whole point is lost if you can’t read them.
The art is bat-$**+ crazy and the story rambles on like it’s being told by one of the inmates, you’re either going to love it on an artistic level or hate it for being too artistic. I fall squarely in the first group.
A striking combination of painting and photography take the reader straight into the dark and confusing mindset needed to explore Arkham Asylum and the life of its founder. Dave McKean creates a vivid world for Morrison’s Batman to live in, one that’s full of symbolism and surreal visions.
The story is full of twists and turns that seem to purposely try to make the reader get lost, but achieve a great cohesion with the art to really drive the story forward.
This Batman is full of terror and human frailty, it might not be everyone’s cake, but it’s one of the reasons he’s my favorite; beneath the cowl is a man who does what he does despite all that lies beneath.
What is definitely the best part of the story is the tale of the original founder of the asylum and his fall into madness. Worth the read just for that back story.
The one star that I deducted is for how hard it sometimes is to actually read it. The much praised lettering has a tendency to go so artistic as to be unreadable. The story and art are jarring enough without having to stop and analyze what a word is supposed to be. I’m a big proponent for comics taking experimental/artistic forays, but the whole point is lost if you can’t read them.