Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth: Difference between revisions

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[[File:arkham_asylum_1.jpg|frame|[[Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here|The most serious house on the most serious street in America, where nothing remotely silly will ever happen.]]]]

 

{{quote|''Sometimes... sometimes I think the Asylum is a head. We're inside a huge head that dreams us all into being. Perhaps it's '''your''' head, Batman. Arkham is a looking glass... and '''we''' are '''you'''.''|'''The Mad Hatter'''}}

 

The title is taken from [[Philip Larkin]]'s poem "Church Going".

* [[Abusive Parents]]: It is hinted that Amadeus Arkham's parents sexually abused him, specifically in the "Tunnel of Love" imagery from his childhood dreams, and the way his face is situated in said image.

** Not only Amadeus's parents, it's implied Amadeus Arkham and his wife sexually abused their daughter, Harriet. This is backed up by the drawing she did of her parents, which if you look closely also appears to be external female genitalia.

* [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice]]: {{spoiler|Killer Croc}}.

* [[Insult Backfire]]:

'''Joker''': Flattery will get you nowhere. }}

* [[It Got Worse]]: For Two-Face, in-story. The doctors took away his coin and replaced it first with a die and later with a deck of tarot cards with the intention of giving him the ability to move beyond absolute choices, but instead it left him unable to make the most basic of decisions... [[Potty Failure|like realizing that he needs to use the bathroom]].

* [[Mind Screw]]

* [[Only Sane Man]]: Professor Milo, literally. Prior to the story, he'd been incarcerated in Arkham after accidentally being exposed to his insanity gas, but by the time of the novel it's worn off. This is generally played for [[Gallows Humor|(grim)]] laughs.

* [[Painting the Medium]]: Every character gets a different style of speech bubble. For example, Batman's is black with white lettering; Maxie gets blue ... Joker's lines didn't ''have'' speech bubbles containing them (but did have a deranged red color) and Clayface's were ... just plain weird.

*** While probably unintentional, Maxie Zeus talking about how he's a god in blue speech bubbles brought [[Watchmen (comics)|someone else]] to mind.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Better Than It Sounds/Comic Books]]

[[Category:The Eighties]]

[[Category:DC Comics Series]]

[[Category:Batman]]