Batman Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On Serious Earth

This was my week!

Batman has got to be my all time favorite comic book character ever since my love began after seeing the first Tim Burton film when I was a toddler, my mom made me a costume and I would proclaim "I'm Ba-man." After growing up seeing all the other movies and watching the animated series while simultaneously becoming more interested in art, I eventually realized that the two intersected in the comics and I knew that's what I wanted to do. As I eventually got more into traditional drawing and painting I sort of lost interest in the overly clean and shiny digital art of much of mainstream comics. Once I discovered comics like Arkham Asylum could be works of art, I once again realized my two worlds could come together.

I don't think these types of art-focused comics should replace the need for words altogether but I do think they are valuable to have. I don't think the art detracts from this story or even that it is making up for a lacking story but is in fact very appropriate for this story. From What I've seen Grant Morrison is really good at giving some of the reigns to the artists he works with. I think the choice to give McKean a lot of control was appropriate for this comic since it gives the reader a different kind of psychological experience not having text to rely on for information in some portions but rather being more dependent on the surreal visuals with a few bits of dialogue which I feel puts the reader in sort of lost and confused state appropriate for a story about madness and insanity.

I also think this story shows very interesting takes on some of the characters like Batman, Joker, and Two Face. Joker tells Batman that he just as crazy as the rest of them, he is really depicted as being vulnerable and still tortured about the loss of his parents. Joker is described as not being insane but rather "super sane" reinventing his personality everyday. Two Face is shown as being completely lost and incapable of making simple decisions like going to the bathroom without his coin.