Description

Batman – Arkham Asylum                                    Hardcover w/ Dust Jacket
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Dave McKean
Letterer: Gaspar Saladino
Editors: Karen Berger & Art Young
Cover by: Dave McKean

The inmates of Arkham Asylum have taken over Gotham’s detention center for the criminally insane on April Fool’s Day, demanding Batman in exchange for their hostages. Accepting their demented challenge, Batman is forced to endure the personal hells of the Joker, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Two-Face and many other sworn enemies in order to save the innocents and retake the prison. During his run through this absurd gauntlet, the Dark Knight must face down both his most dangerous foes and his inner demons. This is the critically acclaimed Batman story that helped launch the U.S. careers of Grant Morrison and Dave McKean. The classic confrontation between the Dark Knight and his arch nemeses, this story is well known for its psychological intensity and probing portraits of Batman and the Joker. Arkham Asylum includes groundbreaking art that influenced scores of artists by introducing a new school of storytelling and technique to comics.

Story/Spoilers
Back in the 1920s, Amadeus Arkham witnessed his mother’s descent into madness and as an adult, he became the architect and first administrator of Arkham Asylum, a mental institution dedicated to help the criminally insane and prevent them from being taken into the regular penal system. Arkham renovated the family manor into the asylum following his subsequent inheritance of the property after his mother committed suicide. In the present, on April 1, Commissioner Gordon informs Batman that the patients of Arkham Asylum have taken over the building and will murder the staff unless Batman agrees to meet with them. Among the hostages are a young woman named Pearl, who works in the kitchens; the current Administrator, Dr. Cavendish; and Dr. Ruth Adams, a therapist. The patients are led by Black Mask and Joker, who kills a guard to spur Batman to obey his wishes. Two-Face, meanwhile, has degenerated even further into madness as a result of Adams’ well-intentioned therapy; she replaced his trademark coin with a 6-sided die, and then with a tarot deck of cards rendering him incapable of making simple decisions such as going to the bathroom. Batman is forced into a game of hide and seek, and told he has one hour to make his way through the maze-like corridors and find a way out before his old foes are sent to find him. Batman fights his way through Arkham and his own subconscious, fighting some of his most dreaded enemies until he reaches a secret room high in the towers of the asylum – a room left unchanged from the days when the property served as Amadeus Arkham’s childhood home. Inside, Dr. Cavendish is dressed in a bridal gown and holding a straight razor to Dr. Adams’ throat. He is revealed to have been the one to orchestrate the riot. When questioned by Batman, he prompts him to read a passage marked out in Amadeus Arkham’s secret diary. The hidden room turns out to have been Elizabeth Arkham’s bedchamber. For many years she suffered delusions that she was being tormented by a supernatural creature and would call to her son to protect her. However, Amadeus had suppressed a memory when one day, he finally saw the monster that tormented her – a great bat, a spectre of death. Subconsciously, he had chosen to block the truth of the events, but in the dairy, it is clearly explained how he used a pearl-handled straight razor from his pocket to cut his mother’s throat and free her from her suffering. He then blocked out the memory and attributed her death to suicide. Years later, his wife and daughter were murdered by one of his former patients, a serial killer named Martin “Mad Dog” Hawkins. The tragedy brings back the memory of killing his mother and a traumatized Amadeus puts on his mother’s wedding dress and takes out the pearl-handled razor. Kneeling in the blood of his family he vows to bind the evil spirit of “The Bat”, which he believes inhabits the house, through ritual and sorcery. He continues his mission even after he is incarcerated in the Asylum himself; he scratches the words of the binding spell into the walls and floor of his cell with his fingernails until the day he dies. Discovering Amadeus Arkham’s journals, the razor and the dress, Cavendish begins to believe himself to be the one destined to continue Arkham’s work. On April 1, the date Arkham’s family was murdered, he lures Batman to the asylum. Believing Batman to be “The Bat” itself, Cavendish accuses him of feeding the evil of the house by bringing it more insane souls. Grappling with Batman, Cavendish drops the razor, and Adams picks it up. Reacting instinctively, she slashes it across Cavendish’s throat, killing him. Batman returns Two-Face’s coin back from Dr. Adams, stating that it should be up to Two-Face to decide his fate. Two-Face then declares that if the coin lands scratched side up, they kill Batman, otherwise they let him go. Two-Face flips the coin and declares Batman free. Batman leaves the Asylum, and the inmates peacefully return to their cells, except for Two-Face, who looks at the moon and it is revealed that the coin landed scratched side up.

Hardcover w/ Dust Jacket is bagged and will be carefully / securely packaged then shipped via USPS Priority Mail to ensure that it arrives to you perfectly and quickly.

First Printing
Publisher: DC Comics
Publication Date: 1989
Format: FC, 128 pages, HC, 10.5″ x 7″
ISBN-10: 093028948X
ISBN-13: 9780930289485

Collectible Entertainment note: Hardcover w/ Dust Jacket is in Fine + to Very Fine condition. (mild wear on hardcover & dust jacket)  Very Nice!  Please See Scans!  A must have for any serious Batman collector and/or enthusiast!  Recommended.

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