Arkham Asylum

Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane is a fictional mental hospital near Gotham City in the DC Universe, where many of Batman's foes (most famously the Joker) wind up after they are captured.

History

In the world of the Batman stories, the Asylum is named after Elizabeth Arkham, founder Amadeus Arkham's mother. Its dark history began when Arkham's wife and child were murdered by one of his patients. Arkham took revenge by electrocuting the killer during a shock therapy session, and was institutionalized in his own facility.

Related Topics:
Murder - Revenge - Electrocuting - Shock therapy

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In real life, it is named in honour of the fictional city of Arkham, Massachusetts, one of the settings of H. P. Lovecraft's horror stories.

Related Topics:
Arkham, Massachusetts - H. P. Lovecraft

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In fact, when the asylum first appeared, it was actually in the city of Arkham; its Gotham location, and the consequent alternative explanation of the name, were later retcons.

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This first appearance was in 1974, in Batman #258 by Dennis O'Neil. In this story, it was named as "Arkham Hospital" (although it was already clear what kind of hospital it was); "Arkham Asylum" first appeared in another O'Neil story the following year, but it was not until 1979 that "Arkham Asylum" completely replaced "Arkham Hospital" (and the occasional "Arkham Sanatorium") as the institution's name. By 1979, too, the move to have the asylum closer to Gotham had begun; that was completed in 1980, when Batman #326 by Len Wein described the Asylum's location "deep in the suburbs of Gotham City". (Perhaps for this reason Batman #326 is listed in some histories as the first appearance of Arkham Asylum.) It was also Wein who, in 1985's Who's Who #1, created the current back-story in which Arkham Asylum was founded in Gotham in the 1920s by Amadeus Arkham.

Related Topics:
1974 - Dennis O'Neil - 1979 - 1980 - Len Wein - Suburb - 1985 - Back-story - 1920s

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Arkham Asylum has been demolished or destroyed several times in its history, notably during the events of Batman: The Last Arkham (see below). It was also seriously damaged at the beginning of the Knightfall storyline, when Bane used stolen munitions to blow up the facility and release all the inmates. After these events, the asylum was relocated to a large mansion known as "mercy house", where it remains to this day. At the beginning of the No Man's Land storyline, the asylum was closed down and all its inmates set free. With the sole exception of the Riddler, the inmates elected to remain in the cut-off Gotham City.

Related Topics:
Knightfall - Bane - Riddler

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