Friday, July 6, 2012

Batman: Arkham Asylum/Grant Morrison and Dave McKean

Batman:  Arkham Asylum by Grant Morrison (story) and Dave McKean (art); graphic novel, horror; 216 pages (15th Anniversary Edition)

I reread this last night as a quick Batman fix while I wait for this summer's comics to come in.  To be honest, I had forgotten that Morrison was the writer on this arc--mostly because it doesn't have the same quantity of crazy as most of Morrison's other Batman stories.  That's a good thing, because paired with McKean's art, this story is more than creepy enough.

The basic plot is this:  the inmates of Arkham have taken over the Asylum, and are holding the staff hostage to get their demands.  Their first demand?  They want Batman inside with them, for a nightmarish hunt through the rotting halls of one of the scariest locations in the DC Universe.  The modern-day story is interleaved with journal entries from the founder of the Asylum, detailing his own slow decent into madness.  It's a riveting horror story, and perfectly offset by McKean's creepy mixed media art.  This edition includes the entire script for the book, complete with annotations from the writers.  Good stuff, and perfect for bringing a breath of Halloween into a summer that's gotten out of hand. 


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