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A review by whackboy
Batman: Arkham Asylum - A Serious House on Serious Earth by Grant Morrison
3.0
i read this many many years ago. i am revisiting it thanks to a loaned copy from a good friend.
i am moved by grant morrison's ability to convey deeper complexity than one would off-the-cuff ascribe to comic book characters. the artwork by dave mckean is in a similar vein, pushing boundaries of the medium's form firmly into a palimpsestic art. many point to this work as a pivotal moment for comics and they may well be right. the choice to use such iconic and well-established characters as batman and the joker to illustrate the difficulties faced by a life of vigilantism and the nuanced decay that slowly usurps the psyche is a drastic departure from the "OOF!" "BIFF!" and "KAPOW!" title card panels we may have come to expect from a batman story. the form of conflict resolution displayed here is much less cut and dry, much more problematic, and dare i say: unresolved. there is vaguery of vaguery and a challenge present on just about every panel. i often found myself perplexed as to the thrust of story, the continuance of plot, and set adrift on the chaos. i am willing to take this trip. not all are. certainly there is great work here and it is highly conceptual. if you are looking for a dark, bleak, nearly impenetrable immersion in the madness of gotham's insane asylum you could do no better than this.
i am moved by grant morrison's ability to convey deeper complexity than one would off-the-cuff ascribe to comic book characters. the artwork by dave mckean is in a similar vein, pushing boundaries of the medium's form firmly into a palimpsestic art. many point to this work as a pivotal moment for comics and they may well be right. the choice to use such iconic and well-established characters as batman and the joker to illustrate the difficulties faced by a life of vigilantism and the nuanced decay that slowly usurps the psyche is a drastic departure from the "OOF!" "BIFF!" and "KAPOW!" title card panels we may have come to expect from a batman story. the form of conflict resolution displayed here is much less cut and dry, much more problematic, and dare i say: unresolved. there is vaguery of vaguery and a challenge present on just about every panel. i often found myself perplexed as to the thrust of story, the continuance of plot, and set adrift on the chaos. i am willing to take this trip. not all are. certainly there is great work here and it is highly conceptual. if you are looking for a dark, bleak, nearly impenetrable immersion in the madness of gotham's insane asylum you could do no better than this.