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| Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition) | 
 enlarge | Author: Grant Morrison
Creator: Dave Mckean
Publisher: DC Comics
Category: Book
List Price: $17.99
Buy New: $9.35
You Save: $8.64 (48%)
New (44) Used (12) from $9.35
Avg. Customer Rating:  73 reviews
Sales Rank: 1057
Media: Paperback
Edition: 15
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 216
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 10.2 x 6.5 x 0.5
ISBN: 1401204252
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5973
EAN: 9781401204259
ASIN: 1401204252
Publication Date: November 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Weak story, awful art June 7, 2007
8 out of 17 found this review helpful
I'm apparently missing the boat here on this "classic" as I see a below average story coupled with awful artwork mixed in with some pretentious symbolism.
The art is going to be a matter of taste, it always is. However the art must lend itself to being able to show what is going on. In this stylized format McKean uses obviously meant to portray the insanity of Arkham and the characters I was left looking at the pages trying to wonder what was happening. Not to mention some of the lettering was well nigh unreadable. I think there could have been a better way to use the art to represent insanity and still use the art to tell the story effectively.
The story, well the story consists of an impotent Batman going to Arkham like a lamb to a slaughter and then wandering around it in a most purposeless fashion encountering fever-dream versions of his rogues gallery. The portrayals of the villains were so strange it makes me wonder if this all just happened in Bat's head. The Amadeus Arkham story was not too bad, the Batman story was awful. The one redeeming portion of the story is Batman's treatment of Two-Face, undoing the wrong-headed therapy.
As for extras, you get a semi-pretentious note from Morrison explaining the symbolism which makes the story more understandable, but a good story shouldn't need the symbolism explained, it should be apparent. You also get the original script which is no big deal.
On the whole a fairly inferior work and I don't understand the accolades. It is I am sad to say the worst Batman story I have encountered.
 Great artwork, no Batman though... August 29, 2006
5 out of 10 found this review helpful
The artwork is amazing, truly makes the Joker look like a real mad man who actually can scare you. However, outside of the art work, the story is shallow and boring, with hardly any Batman. Another problem is that the text is hard to read, especially for the Joker, it's so stylized that you'll be straining to read it.
 A once-in-a-lifetime stroke of genius December 22, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
If you don't like comic books or graphic novels, you have no idea how many good stories you're missing out on. Oftentimes it's the skills of an accomplished writer that elevates a trade paperback to timeless glory in the eyes of many comic geeks (in this case I highly recommend Watchmen by Alan Moore if you want to read a good yarn). Sometimes the artwork is so good you buy a book just to gawk at (look no further than any book with Alex Ross' name on it).
'Batman: Arkham Asylum' is one of the most creepy, beautiful and disorienting graphic novels I've ever read. Being fortunate enough to purchase a copy of the fifteenth anniversary edition, I read the whole thing in one sitting in broad daylight, and when I was finished I felt like I just came out of a nightmare, but a very insightful one. If you are familiar with the creative team behind this classic book, then you'll know what I'm talking about. Be warned that the following story will not appeal to people who think they know who Batman is based on what they've seen in the theaters or on the television screen, because this story does not even operate in Batman's world, let alone the confines of reality (I'm speaking figuratively of course). As far as I'm concerned it's not even a full-fledged Batman tale, even though a slew of well-known characters occupy its narrative.
Grant Morrison brought something unique and fresh to the table when he wrote this in 1989, and Dave McKean's artwork backs that up spectacularly. If it wasn't for McKean's presence in this book, the story wouldn't work at all. Speaking of the story, I'll throw you the specifics in case you have no idea what this book is about: all of Arkham Asylum's depraved inmates, including the notoriously psychotic Joker, take over the institution on April Fool's Day and demand that Batman enter its doors so he can face all of the filth he's put away over the years, or else they will systematically execute the unfortunate hostages they've taken inside. That's just the setup, of course. Batman is then confronted by The Joker and made to question his own sanity as things begin to unfold, however surreal, in the prison's walls. The more I read it the more I'm convinced the whole story is a nightmare in and of itself. The narrative flow is disjointed, the settings are vertigo-inducing, the villains are portrayed in extremely stylish ways (the most extreme example of this is Maxie Zeus), and Batman himself is nothing more than a silhouette floating through the proceedings. It's a very short story, but it presents a lot of interesting questions in terms of psychological, philosophical, and even mystical perceptions of sanity: the villains in the story, especially Two-Face, were being "effectively" treated before all hell broke loose, but the conclusion that Batman ultimately comes to when all is said and done is that some things never change, and sometimes you have to be insane to cope with a world as dark as Gotham City.
A graphic novel like this will be hard to swallow for Batman fans, but Batman fanatics such as myself go for material this brutal and left-field every chance we get (it's even darker than 'The Killing Joke'!). There are moments where I felt sick to my stomach merely by what the book was insinuating, such as a scene where The Mad Hatter admits his fondness for little girls, but it is the portrayal of The Joker as a demonic cross-dresser that might put off fans who are used to seeing the clown prince of crime in a certain light, preferably the animated one. Just throw prior knowledge to the wind and approach this with an open mind.
All-in-all, if you think you can stomach it and want to be literally sucked into a nightmare but walk away with something to think about, then 'Arkham Asylum' is just for you, complete with my seal of approval.
Masterful work with a book binding problem February 5, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I am not a big fan of superhero comic books, but I have read a handful of the genre's graphic novels, including Arkham Asylum.
Arkham Asylum blew me away. I feel like this medium is at its best when the graphical flavor is as adventurous as its textual and thematic flavor, and this book is a perfect example of my preference. Like Mignola's Hellboy, Arkham Asylum is just gorgeous from one cover to the next.
The only gripe I have is with the book binding. I had to almost break the book's spine in half in order to get a full view of some of the panels.
Instant Classic. November 14, 2005
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
First of all I'm a HUGE batman fan, and just recently purchased this anniversary edition. This batman book has the original arkham asylum story, the full script by Grant Morrison, an afterword, and layouts by Morrison. Sounds like alot, but in actual fact it's not really. The dissapoint with this anniversary edition is the extras, The script is bassicly the meat of this book, but I suppose they want to show us that graphic novel/comic scripts are like movie scripts, and require alot of effort. There really isn't much of the other extras I mentioned.
Overall this book is worth the purchase and deserves the acclaim that Morrison and Mckean recieved. The writing is really incredible, and the art work magnificent.
So I reccomend you read the original script first then the graphic novel. The original graphic novel I give 5 stars, but the extras, four stars. One of my favourite batman books. Enjoy.
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