Arkham Asylum: Sickest Comic I've Ever Read

This one covers every aspect of the word "Sick" known to man... Or me, at least. Sick could mean cute little puppies jumping around in a flower bed in some language for all I know.

So! Arkham Asylum = Sick. Sick as in disgusting with regards to some elements of the story, such as the murders of Arkham's wife and daughter. His daughter's head was in her own doll house! That's pretty sick isn't it? It is also sick as in cool, or "wicked" as those crazy kids say these days. Dave McKean is responsible for this artful masterpiece. His use of mixed medias such as photographic manipulation, paintings and drawings suit Arkham Asylum right down to its foundations.

I grew up with the Batman cartoon of the 90's and whenever I think of Arkham I get this image and sense of a gothic, archaic building which began as a hope for the mentally ill, but became infected and warped by the minds of the criminals it held until it became no more than an extension of those minds, corrupting the soul of the building. As you can tell I was a fairly strange kid :P But McKean's art work represents this perfectly! The switching between medias accents the story of an insane aslyum taken over by the inmates perfectly. With so many warped minds roaming free through the corridors of Arkham, so many altered views of reality in one building, sticking to the regular style of comic book art just wouldn't have done the story any justice.

And it is one hell of a story! The lunatics have taken over the asylum, with the Joker as their leader. The best panel of the joker has to be when he grabs Batman's ass. It's hilarious!

I don't want to give away too much of the story, so I'll try not to. This story is all about Batman's fears of his possible insanity. Should he belong in Arkham? He knows that dressing up like a bat and beating up robbers isn't exactly a normal life, and this shows him at his most vulnerable. I never heard of this Destiny guy before reading Arkham Asylum, but here's when Batman possibly kills him:

This guy kinda scared me anyway so I'm glad he's possibly, maybe, dead.. Or is he? People have a habit of cheating death in the comic book world, so I won't hold my breath. I better finish this up now, and I thought I'd finish with a witty comment or socially relevant point, so here it is... Michael Jackson is still dead! Maybe it's not a publicity stunt after all...