1980, when Batman #326 by Len Wein described the asylum's location "deep in the suburbs of Gotham City". It is perhaps for this reason that 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 its current backstory.
Arkham Asylum has been demolished or destroyed several times in its history, notably during the events of Batman: The Last Arkham (see below). It is also seriously damaged at the beginning of the Knightfall storyline, when Bane
uses stolen munitions to blow up the facility and release all the
inmates. After these events, the asylum is relocated to a large mansion
known as "Mercey Mansion". It was also blown up by Black Mask during the Battle for the Cowl story arc.[5] At the beginning of the No Man's Land
storyline, the asylum is closed down and all its inmates set free. In
this instance, a timer was used to open the doors two minutes before the
city is sealed. This is orchestrated by the administrator himself, who
had the choice of releasing the inmates or watching them all starve or
kill each other. In the middle of the story, it is revealed that Batman
has established a hidden base within the sub-basement of the asylum
during the Prodigal storyline known as "Northwest Batcave." [6]
In the Battle for the Cowl one-shot, Dr. Arkham wanders among
the remains of the asylum as he muses on his life. He reveals that he
has discovered blueprints created by his ancestor, the first Dr. Arkham,
for a new Arkham Asylum. He also contemplates the fates of his own
nonviolent, "special" patients: an artist with almost no facial features
who must paint facial expressions onto his almost blank face to express
himself; a man obsessed with his own reflection in a series of mirrors
in his room; and a woman supposedly so ugly, one glance at her face
would drive anyone insane. Upon discovering his "special" patients
(unharmed from the destruction thanks to their secluded cells), Arkham
resolves to rebuild the facility according to his ancestor's vision, but
to serve as a literal asylum for mentally ill patients in order to
shelter them from the outside world. However, when told to be happy with
the new development, the artist secretly paints his face white with a
hideous grin, reminiscent of the Joker; it is implied that the "special" inmates, as well as Arkham himself, have given in to madness.
In the Arkham Reborn mini-series, Arkham Asylum is rebuilt and financed by Dr. Arkham.[7] But in Batman #697, Dr. Arkham is revealed to be the new Black Mask and is imprisoned in his own asylum. It was also revealed during Arkham Reborn, that as both Dr. Arkham and Black Mask, he had begun to manipulate patients, a plotline that culminated in Detective Comics
with Alyce Sinner becoming the new head of the facility, but secretly
working with Arkham/Black Mask. It was also revealed that the "special"
patients were figments of Arkham's imagination.


killing two of them. Before this he aids Joker by subduing Commissioner
James Gordon (by clubbing over the head) and kidnapping him to further
the Joker's plans. Sadly for him he drops his flask at the scene of
Gordon's abduction, and Batman uses the vapor trail to follow him,
forcing the Joker to have him killed as he had become a liability.
William North: A security guard at Arkham who survives
Officer Boles' and Harley Quinn's assault on the Intensive Treatment
Lobby and helps Batman after he clears the lobby of henchmen. He is
later capture and taking to Arkham Mansion where he is saved by Batman
from one of Joker's death traps. He and Araon Cash are among the few
members of Arkham's staff who manage to survive the events of Batman: Arkham Asylum, thanks in part to Batman.
[edit] Inmates


Some of Arkham's inmates. Cover to Batman: Shadow of the Bat #82 (1999). Art by Glen Orbik.
Originally, Arkham Asylum is used only to house genuinely insane
patients having no connection to Batman, but over the course of the
1980s a trend was established of having the majority of Batman's supervillain opponents end up at Arkham. Nearly all of Batman's enemies have spent some time in Arkham.
Arkham Asylum also features in other DC Universe publications. In Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, The Floronic Man is detained there, and in The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, Doctor Destiny
escapes the asylum to wreak havoc on both the real and dream worlds. It
has also been featured in varying capacities in a number of high
profile DC miniseries events, such as Identity Crisis, Day of Vengeance, Countdown, and Crisis on Infinite Earths among others.
[edit] List of notable inmates
Alberto Falcone[11]
Bane[10]
Black Mask
Blockbuster[12]
Calendar Man[10][11]
Clayface (Basil Karlo,[10] Matt Hagen, Preston Payne[1] & Sondra Fuller)
Crazy Quilt
Deadshot[13]
Doctor Phosphorus
The Great White Shark[9]
Harley Quinn[10]
Hugo Strange
Jeremiah Arkham
The Joker[1][10]
Killer Croc[1][10]
Killer Moth
Lock-Up
The Mad Hatter[1]
Magpie[9]
Maxie Zeus[1]
Mr. Freeze[10]
Music Meister
Mr. Zsasz[10]
Poison Ivy[10]
Professor Milo[1]
Professor Pyg (Lazlo Valentin)[14]
Prometheus
Ra's al Ghul (committed as "Terry Gene Kase")[15]
The Riddler
The Scarecrow[1][10]
Signalman[12]
Tally Man II[16]
Two-Face[1]
Vanity (Vera Klopis)[17]
The Ventriloquist
[edit] Others
Adam Strange (only in the DC: New Frontier version of Earth)[18]
Ambush Bug[19]
Amadeus Arkham[1]
Amygdala[20]
Batman[21][22]


meets The Mad Hatter, Poison Ivy,
Two-Face and the Joker. Arkham is viewed as a desperate place where
inmates dwell in madness and terror, much in the same fashion as in A Serious House on Serious Earth, which was also illustrated by McKean.
[edit] Arkham Reborn
Arkham Reborn is a three-part mini-series written by David
Hine and illustrated by Jeremy Haun. It tells the story of the
rebuilding of the Asylum after having been destroyed by Black Mask during the events of "Battle for the Cowl".
In Batman #697, it is revealed that Dr. Jeremiah Arkham is the new Black Mask. More is revealed about Dr. Jeremiah Arkham in Detective Comics #864 and #865.
[edit] Batman: The Man Who Laughs
Main article: Batman: The Man Who Laughs
The Man Who Laughs is a one-shot prestige format comic book written by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Doug Mahnke and Patrick Zircher,
released in February 2005. The comic reveals some of the asylum's dark
history. As a reporter reports on the asylum's renovation, the Joker
poisons her and the crew, stealing the news van to broadcast whenever he
wants. He later releases criminally insane patients at Williams Medical
Center, who, in a short number of weeks, would have been transferred to
Arkham Asylum. In the end, Joker is defeated and he himself locked
behind bars, in a straightjacket at Arkham.
The graphic novel was reprinted with Detective Comics #784-786–a storyline entitled "Made of Wood," also written by Brubaker with art by Zircher. In the storyline, Batman and Green Lantern
track the "Made of Wood" serial killer, whose killing spree was cut
short when he was sentenced to Arkham Asylum. Ex-Commissioner James Gordon
is also pursuing the killer, and he narrows the search down to the two
men committed to Arkham in December 1948, the only living one hardly
able to walk and ignorant of the killings. Gordon reaches the grandson
of the other, who has taken up the "Made of Wood" killer's mantle.
[edit] Other versions
In JLA: The Nail, the Joker- using Kryptonian gauntlets provided by a genetically augmented Jimmy Olsen-
breaks into the Asylum, erecting a forcefield around it that prevents
anyone but Batman, Batgirl and Robin from entering, while forcing the
rest of the inmates to fight each other for a chance to live as his
slave when only one is left standing. Catwoman wins the resulting
conflict shortly before Batman breaks into the asylum, but the Joker's
gauntlets allow him to capture Batman, forcing him to watch as the Joker
brutally tears Batgirl and Robin apart in front of him. Although
Catwoman manages to distract the Joker long enough for Batman to escape
and damage his gauntlets, the grief-maddened Batman subsequently beats
the Joker to death on the asylum roof before the entire building
collapses, apparently killing most of the current inmates (Although he
and Catwoman manage to escape).
In Batman: Crimson Mist- the third part of the trilogy that began with Batman & Dracula: Red Rain-, the now-vampiric Batman breaks into the asylum and murders all the homicidal inmates- including Amygdala, Victor Zsasz and the Mad Hatter-, drinking their blood and chopping off their heads to prevent them coming back as vampires.


[edit] In other media
As an integral part of the Batman franchise, Arkham Asylum has been
featured in other media besides the print comics, including the
following:
[edit] Television
Arkham Asylum is mentioned by Barry Allen, who is secretly The Flash, in an episode of The Flash television series.
In Batman: The Animated Series,
Arkham has appeared frequently in the series. It is depicted as
generally dark and gloomy, and the cells are similar to those in the
comics, being primarily closed via glass doors. Much of the rest of the
asylum resembles a prison more than a mental hospital, as the episode
"The Trial" explains that all insane criminals apprehended by the Batman
are sent to Arkham rather than jail, although it is shown that the Penguin and Catwoman get sentenced to Blackgate, a regular jail, determining that they are sane and accountable for their crimes.

The alternate Arkham Asylum as it appeared on the Justice League episode A Better World, Part 2.
The television show Justice League featured Arkham in a brief cameo during A Better World, Part 2 in an alternate dimension where a Fascist League has taken over the world and dispatches villains via execution or lobotomy. The asylum is run by a lobotomized version of the Joker, and staffed by other lobotomized Batman villains, including Two-Face as the caretaker and Poison Ivy as the gardener, and is protected by robotic copies of Superman.
The entire inmate population is lobotomized by the alternate Superman's
heat vision. The Joker, Two-Face and Poison Ivy are used in both Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League as the key inmates of the Asylum.


Arkham Asylum as it appeared on The Batman.
Arkham Asylum appears in The Batman.[45]
Like the original Arkham, several major villains end up in this
institution, such as the Joker, Harley Quinn, the Riddler, Mr. Freeze,
the Ventriloquist, Hugo Strange, Clayface and the Penguin. Firefly goes to a regular prison, until becoming Phosphorus, who requires special chemical care.
The staff is far more heavily armored than in its previous incarnation,
wearing heavy trenchcoats and gloves, though inmates continue to escape
easily. Much like in the Batman Forever tie-in game and Batman Begins,
it is presented as being inside Gotham, though here it is presented as
occupying a small island on a river, with a bridge connecting it to the
city.
Arkham Asylum is seen in Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Mayhem of the Music Meister". Music Meister visits the place, and forces the prisoners to sing. Calendar Man, the Joker, King Tut, Mr. Freeze, Psycho-Pirate, Doctor Polaris, the Scarecrow, Two-Face, the Mad Hatter, Top, Crazy Quilt, and Tweedledum and Tweedledee are shown as inmates of Arkham Asylum.


[edit] Films
Arkham Asylum was seen at the end of the film Batman Forever.[46]
It is designed as a tall, spiraling castle-like structure, with narrow
hallways lined with brightly-lit glass bricks. The Riddler is
incarcerated in a large padded cell. The chief psychiatrist is named
Doctor Burton, a reference to Tim Burton, who directed 1989's Batman and 1992's Batman Returns.
There was originally a more in-depth sequence involving Two-Face
escaping from Arkham at the beginning of the film, but it was cut.
In Batman & Robin,[47]
Arkham Asylum is shown a number of times. It first appears when Mr.
Freeze is taken there midway through the film, and later at the end when
he and Poison Ivy are shown as cell-mates. This version is several
dozen stories tall on an island several hundred feet above water, into
which the villains jump to escape. Lightning also emits a bright green
flash through the structure's windows. In addition, The Riddler and
Two-Face's costumes from Batman Forever can be seen in an evidence room before Bane breaks out to collect Mr. Freeze's armor.
In Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker,
the final battle between the original Batman and the Joker taking place
at an abandoned Arkham. It is also the same spot where Robin, brainwashed
and disfigured into a younger version of the Joker, kills the real
Joker. A deleted scene, featured on both versions of the DVD as a
special feature, has Bruce Wayne touring the abandoned Arkham, where
Bruce Wayne's successor as Batman, Terry McGinnis, follows and sees the Joker's corpse hanging. Both the film and the Batman Beyond episode "Splicer" suggest that the facility has moved to a different location.
In Batman Begins,[48] Arkham plays a much larger role than the previous films, with Jonathan Crane (also known as the Scarecrow) being either the administrator or a high ranking doctor at the Asylum, and using it to conduct sadistic experiments with his fear gas, with his own patients as guinea pigs.
He also uses the pipes under the asylum to empty his toxin into the
Gotham water supply. Though still on an island separate from Gotham
City's mainland, it is surrounded by a slum
region known as the Narrows, instead of the dense forestry of the
comics. By the end of the film, it is implied that the Narrows has been
rendered uninhabitable. Notably, Zsasz is shown as a high-profile criminal being held in the asylum.
Arkham makes an appearance in the animated direct-to-DVD anthology film Batman: Gotham Knight, set between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, within the segment "Crossfire". Expanding on Lt. James Gordon's line that "the Narrows is lost" at the end of Batman Begins,
the film shows that the entire island has become Arkham Asylum's
ground, with Narrows residents evacuated from the island after the
inmates escaped from the facility. After the riot at the end of Batman Begins,
the city apparently turned the entire island into high-tech prison


facility in a few months after the incident, enclosed by guard towers,
high fences, and the island's natural barrier to keep the inmates from
escaping. The Gotham City Police Department also sends officers to its drawbridges to make sure no one would cross, in or out, without permission.
Arkham is mentioned briefly by Harvey Dent, Batman, and Alfred in The Dark Knight when they reference Arkham patient Thomas Schiff, but beyond this instance the asylum is never seen or explored in the story.
[edit] Video games
In Batman Forever (SNES game), Arkham Asylum is the first stage.
A crucial showdown takes place in Arkham in Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu.
Arkham is featured prominently in Batman: Dark Tomorrow. Three quarters of the way through the game, Batman must infiltrate Arkham Asylum through a secret sewer entrance.
Arkham Asylum is one of the levels of the video game counterpart to Batman Begins.
Arkham Asylum works as the main hub for the villains in Lego Batman: The Videogame, whereas the Batcave works as the main hub for the heroes of the game.
Batman: Arkham Asylum is a video game for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows. It was developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Eidos Interactive in conjunction with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Comics. The game takes place entirely on Arkham Island. The game's version of Arkham is similar to its description in Gotham Knight,
consisting of individual large buildings in a spacious open air island,
rather than a single compound. Its locations include Arkham East,
Arkham West, Arkham North, Arkham Mansion, the Botanical Gardens,
Intensive Treatment, Medical Facility, and Penitentiary. The island also
features a network of subterranean catacombs, caverns, sewers, and a
satellite Batcave which Batman had outfitted over the years in preparation for emergencies like the one he faces in the game.
In the sequel Batman: Arkham City,
Arkham has been relocated to the Gotham mainland as part of Quincy
Sharpe's Arkham City project with neither Blackgate prison or Arkham
Asylum in any condition to hold inmates.
[edit] Toys
The Lego Batman series includes an Arkham Asylum Lego set featuring Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, and The Riddler (there are also cells labeled, "The Joker", "Two-Face", and "The Penguin"). It was available at Toys "R" Us during the summer of 2006. It also included Nightwing with his motorcycle and two eskrima sticks, and Batman in the Bat-glider.