false 22374 1401204252 9781401204259 1546 141 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255668500m/22374.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22374.Batman_Arkham_Asylum 12732 Grant Morrison 22774 1371 1 1 false Sun May 31 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 31 12:48:12 -0700 2009 Sun May 31 13:12:12 -0700 2009 1
Half of the time I couldn't even tell who the villains were supposed to be. Scarecrow had something I would consider less than a cameo. He just...walked by. I didn't even get his purpose in that single page he was in until I looked in the back of the book where Morrison was kind enough to provide the SCRIPT. I get that he wanted to show how Arkham was making all the inmates WORSE than they were before, but this was taken to an extremity I was not expecting.

The main thing that clinched my dislike of this book was when a crazed doctor gets his throat cut, Batman retorts with something along the lines of "He got what he deserved." What!? That contradicts Batman's entire moral code! If that random guy deserves to have his throat cut, what the hell is Joker doing breathing? Oh, what, it only counts if Batman doesn't kill? That's the only way he could justify that line. However, I guess that's not the case, since Morrison also had Batman SHOOT DARKSIED WITH A GUN when he wrote Final Crisis. Batman has only ever used a gun& killed when his comic book was first starting out and he hadn't yet become a solid fully-developed character. Nowadays, his stance on killing is completely black & white! Killing = bad. NO exceptions! From what I've seen, if there is one character Grant Morrison just doesn't seem to get, it's Batman. Here's what the man himself said about this book:

"I wanted to approach Batman from the point of view of the dreamlike, emotional and irrational hemisphere, as a response to the very literal, 'realistic', 'left brain' treatment of superheroes which was in vogue at the time, in the wake of The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, and others."

Vogue at the time?...At the TIME? Dude, go to a comic shop today. Watchmen and TDKR are still some of the most popular graphic novels around. You're talking like they were just some passing fad, man.

The art was interesting to say the least. I did like that. Really detailed & out-there. Kudos to Dave McKean. However, the Joker's dialogue, while cool, was almost impossible to read at times. They didn't give him bubbles around his speech, and the font was barely legible. It was supposed to be, I get that. Stylistically, it's awesome. Practically, it's lacking.

And that's my take on what some consider to be one of the greatest Batman graphic-novels ever. It's definitely original, and the art is fantastic...I just don't see what makes it so amazing & great. It's definitely different...but personally, that was TOO different for my liking.]]>