Batman: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, by Grant Morrison, Dave McKean, and Gaspar Saladino

Batman:  Arkham Asylum:  A Serious House on Serious Earth - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✩

 

It's April Fools Day, and the inmates at Arkham Asylum have taken over, demanding Batman in exchange for their hostages.  Batman goes in to stop the madness, only to enter a nightmare.  Past mingles with present as the story of Amadeus Arkham, the founder of Arkham Asylum, is told alongside Batman's journey through the asylum.

This was a difficult book to rate.  The story is confusing, and the lettering is tiny and hard-to-read.  However, the artwork is appropriately creepy and looks entirely different from any other comic or graphic novel I have ever seen.  The Amadeus Arkham story was fascinating, especially because so much of it ended up in the video game Batman:  Arkham Asylum.  Although Batman himself doesn't really do very much throughout the book, he does come off as more human than he sometimes does.  He's scared, just like most people probably would be if they were trapped in an asylum with the entire Rogue's Gallery.  

The strange artwork and confusing story make reading the book an uncomfortable, disorienting experience, but it feels appropriate given the setting, and it almost makes you question your own sanity.  The lettering, though, is borderline-illegible at times, especially the Joker's dialogue; although this was clearly done for artistic effect, it only makes reading the dialogue a chore.  The lettering is the main reason why I rated this book four stars instead of five; although I didn't really enjoy the book per se, it is still an interesting read, if only for the artwork and the Arkham backstory.