I decided the to review Batman: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth written by Grant Morrison with art by Grant McKean. Although I've been a fan of Batman since I was a wee little lad, this is the book that started my obsession for him.
This book is incredibly dark even for a late 80's Baman story. It starts with the inmates (led by Joker) of Arkham out of their cells holding staff members hostage. Joker offers to let staff go if Batman will surrender himself to the asylum. The book paralells Amadeus Arkham's descent to Batman's nightlong journey through the halls of the famed asylum to fight madness and the literal and figurative monsters within.
The book shed a completely new light on the Dark Knight for me. It turned the mostly normal man I thought I knew as Batman into the possibly unstable obsessed demon that most inmates of Arkham see. That said, for me, the biggest draw in this book is Two-Face. Before this book, Harvey Dent's transformation was pretty cut and dry for me. Acid to the face, goes crazy, leaves his wife, takes to crime. Arkham Asylum: ASHoSE is a helpless Harvey Dent that cannot even go to the bathroom without his trademark coin. The doctors of Arkham in an attempt to ween Dent off of the black and white nature of his coin, convince him to use a die for choice making. After he got the hang of having six choices, they again weened him onto a deck of cards. This imediatly becomes a problem for him, having to go through 52 different decisions takes to much time leading to the afore mentioned potty training problems. Several twists at the ending (one of which involving Two-Face AND Harvey Dent....) wrap this story up nicely. My only complaint, the story seems to leave some confusing blanks in the middle of Batman's journey. I would personally contribute this to Grant Morrison's bad habit of assuming readers will know what's going on in his head without putting in words, art, or inferring anything at all. All said and done, 9.5/10
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