Batman Arkham Asylum Pc Mod
Damiane Burgun
Arkham AsylumGeneral InformationOfficial name:The Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally InsaneCreated by:Denny O'Neil (writer)
Irv Novick (artist)First Appearance:Batman #258Locale:Gotham State areaThe Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, better known as Arkham Asylum, is a psychiatric hospital north of Gotham City. It has featured prominently in the various continuities of the DC Multiverse. Depicted as a remote, labyrinthine stone facility, Arkham has housed many of Batman's most notorious foes, including Joker, Riddler, Two-Face, and the Scarecrow. Jeremiah Arkham is the asylum's current director.
Within the Batman mythos, Arkham Asylum was named for the mother of Amadeus Arkham, a Gotham psychiatrist who founded the institution after his mother's mental illness led to her untimely death. In reality, Amadeus had euthanized her, although he repressed that memory. According to Batman Unauthorized: Vigilantes, Jokers, and Heroes in Gotham City, a compilation of contemporary analyses edited by Dennis O'Neil, the asylum was named for a somewhat similar facility known as "Arkham Sanitarium" mentioned in the horror fiction of Howard Phillips Lovecraft. As a result, DC's Arkham was supposed to mirror Lovecraft's dark and brooding literary characteristics while providing an essential intertextual supplement to the background atmosphere of equally dismal Gotham City.[1]
Arkham Asylum first appeared in October 1974 in Batman #258, written by Dennis O'Neil and pencilled by Irv Novick. At this point it was simply described as "Arkham Hospital" and implied to be somewhere upstate, in a rural setting. Nevertheless, in Batman #326 writer Len Wein described the asylum as being "deep in the suburbs of Gotham City". Arkham's fictional history was not established until 1985, during an issue of "Who's Who in the DC Universe", also penned by Wein. For several years thereafter it existed as little more than a storytelling device used by writers as a temporary confinement for Batman's deranged Rogues Gallery, making only brief cameo appearances when supervillains were incarcerated or re-incarcerated there. Occasional breakouts from Arkham were often referenced by supporting characters such as James Gordon, whose exasperation at the asylum's obvious security maw finally led him to criticize it as a "revolving door" for its denizens.[2]
Arkham's rather simplistic portrayal was first challenged by Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, in which Grant Morrison introduced the concept of using the Arkham setting to explore the psychology behind Batman and members of the Rogues Gallery. Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth has since been followed by a number of similar storylines which focused exclusively on the facility and its fictional dynamics, including Arkham Asylum: Living Hell and Arkham Asylum: Madness.
According to Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, the crumbling Victorian mansion at the heart of the original Arkham Asylum was a single-family home, occupied at the beginning of the twentieth century by the Arkham family. Arkham Asylum: Living Hell elaborates on this information, disclosing that the actual structure was built long before the early 1900s as the "Gotham House of Madness and Ill Humors". The grounds were owned by an occult expert named Jason Blood, who carried out exorcisms on the mentally ill. His patients hailed predominantly from Gotham's poor and superstitious townships, where psychiatric disorders were regarded as synonymous with demonic possession. Blood kept his charges starved and confined to suspended cages, even murdering some in an attempt to obliterate their evil spirits. Blood later sealed up the basement to keep the spirits imprisoned. The House of Madness and Ill Humors was closed down, and the land itself sold to the Arkhams.
After the death of Elizabeth Arkham's unnamed husband, she was cared for by their son, Amadeus. Elizabeth was plagued by dementia and perpetually bedridden; at some point Amadeus told others that Elizabeth had slashed her own throat, but in reality he'd done so when she became too much for him to handle on his own, then repressed memories of the murder. Following Elizabeth's apparent suicide in 1920, Amadeus, now an aspiring psychiatrist, inherited the house which he dedicated to accommodating those suffering from serious mental illnesses, as had Elizabeth. Of particular interest to Amadeus was his onetime patient Martin "Mad Dog" Hawkins, a serial killer who raped and sexually mutilated his victims. Arkham felt compassion for Hawkins, whom he perceived as being trapped in the penal system with no hope for proper psychiatric treatment. Construction on the new Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane began the following year with the stated goal of providing such an alternative for mentally ill offenders. As the necessary renovations to the Arkham home began in earnest, Amadeus moved his wife Constance and daughter Harriet to neighboring Metropolis, where he temporarily treated Hawkins and his other patients at the state psychiatric hospital. He returned to Gotham on multiple occasions to oversee work on the new asylum, though on one such occasion "Mad Dog" Hawkins escaped. Arkham was consulted during the manhunt by the Metropolis police and prison authorities, but the felon was not successfully recaptured.
As work on the asylum neared completion, Arkham moved his family back to Gotham, unaware that he was being stalked by Hawkins. He arrived home in April 1921 to discover Hawkins had raped and murdered both Constance and Harriet, even leaving his nickname carved on Harriet's fresh corpse. Although seemingly detached from their deaths Amadeus was in fact permanently unhinged by the incident, which further ushered his descent into madness. Hawkins was tracked down by the Gotham City Police Department (GCPD), and when Arkham Asylum opened its doors in November 1921 he was committed as its first inmate. Arkham personally treated "Mad Dog" for several months without incident, but on the anniversary of his family's murder he suffered a psychotic break and executed Hawkins during a faux electroshock therapy session. The GCPD ruled it an accident. Arkham's mental state continued to deteriorate until 1929, when he attempted to kill his stockbroker, and became a ward of his own hospital.
Since the 1920s, Arkham Asylum has been destroyed, usually violently, on multiple occasions and rebuilt or expanded; for those patients with unique security or health considerations, customized facilities have been installed at considerable expense, such as a refrigerated cell for Mr. Freeze. The asylum has continued to grow larger and more modern in appearance, although as the lion's share of the budget is devoted to security treatment options have inevitably suffered. Despite the installation of advanced technological security measures in the era of metahuman criminals, the inmates have still been able to escape or take control of the facilities from time to time.
The first named director of Arkham Asylum was Achilles Milo, who successfully applied for the position after driving his predecessor insane with a narcotic that induced psychotic episodes. Milo then struck a deal with two patients, "Madman" Markham and "Kid Gloves" McConnell: he would secretly release them to commit robberies, then provide them with an alibi in exchange for half their loot. Milo suffered the fate of the previous director when he was driven insane by his own drugs and committed to the asylum. (Batman #326, August 1980)
Director Robert Huntoon was the last known administrative head prior to Jeremiah Arkham; during his tenure Arkham was rocked by ruinous scandals, including one daring escape by the Joker during the events of Batman: The Killing Joke that involved his replacement with a body double, and another in which Abattoir infiltrated a cleaning company Huntoon had contracted to launder the linens. Huntoon made a number of changes to his security policies, including the installation of an anti-riot system that flooded the cell block corridors with gas in the event of a mass disturbance, and permitting guards to carry handguns, to little avail. Despite these shortcomings, his regime developed an excellent working relationship with Batman; on several occasions the Dark Knight contacted Huntoon directly to arrange interviews with various patients. (Detective Comics #628, April 1991)
Shortly before the aforementioned affair with Abattoir came to light, Roger Huntoon confirmed his retirement and named a member of the Arkham family as his likely successor. This proved to be Jeremiah, nephew of Amadeus Arkham and a psychiatrist of some questionable scruples himself. Jeremiah's first act as new director was ordering the entire facility demolished and completely rebuilt. During the demolition process, he had the old files, including his uncle's diary, disposed of in a symbolic bonfire. The new Arkham Asylum adopted a similar facade to the former Arkham ancestral home, but there the resemblance ended: the inmates were now held in a sprawling, circular, complex which imitated a classical labyrinth. Jeremiah also introduced a new fixture in the form of glass observation walls for the cells, which robbed the patients of some former privacy but allowed convenient round the clock observation. For his own safety and the safety of the staff, interviews were no longer conducted in the same room with violent inmates, except through the glass barriers or in rooms fitted with specialized isolation boxes. (Batman: Shadow of the Bat #3, August 1992) Batman was forced to infiltrate the new institution as an inmate to learn how another prisoner, Victor Zsasz, was escaping his cell by night and committing crimes in Gotham. Jeremiah would later pit the other inmates against Batman as part of an intense psychiatric study. Mere months later, this incarnation of Arkham Asylum was destroyed by Bane, who unleashed the inmates to weaken Batman. Recapturing the escapees took Batman weeks and left him physically and psychologically drained. Municipal authorities were forced to house former Arkham patients at Blackgate Penitentiary until the damage from Bane's attack could be repaired.
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