Every superhero has a rogues gallery of supervillains, and every superhero needs somewhere to put those bad guys when they’re caught. For Batman, that place is Arkham Asylum, the most famous psychiatric hospital in all of comics (though it often functions as a standard prison).
As a major fixture of Batman lore, Arkham is present in nearly every single iteration of the Batman mythos. Appearing in every medium, from the comic to animation, from live action to Gotham City itself.
Despite its prominence, Arkham is still a very mysterious place, and there’s a lot of elements that even long time fans might not be familiar with. Here are 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Arkham Asylum.
15. Arkham’s First appearance
Batman and the Joker might share over 75 years of history since their first appearance in DC Comics, but one of the most central elements to any Batman/Joker story -- Arkham -- wasn’t actually introduced until the Caped Crusader and the Clown Prince of Crime had been on comic book pages for over 35 years.
Arkham Asylum made its first appearance in October of 1974 in issue #258 of Batman, written by Dennis O’Neil, and drawn by Irv Novick. Originally just called “Arkham Hospital" and described as an asylum for the criminally insane, the first appearance would be rather telling, as the story was about Two-Face breaking out of Arkham and going on a crime spree. It was established pretty early on that just about anyone can escape from Arkham.
Much of the actual backstory for Arkham wouldn’t come around until the Len Wein’s Who’s Who in the DC Universe #1, and it was expanded on by Grant Morrison in Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth in 1989.
14. Lovecraftian inspirations
Much of the inspiration behind Arkham Asylum comes from Arkham, Massachussets, a fictional town that serves as a fixture in H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulu mythos. There’s even an “Arkham Sanitorium” featured in the short story The Thing on the Doorstep -- which was unfortunately one of Lovecrafts less well-received works.
Arkham’s inmates, and much of Batman’s lore, can actually be linked back to elements of the philosophy of Cthulu in Lovecraft’s work, where the existence of ancient and powerful evils are used to show the nearly arbitrary plight of mankind in light of these ancient deities. This is a concept very much paralleled by Batman’s eternal struggle against the force of evil in Gotham City, the evil he tries to lock away in Arkham Asylum.
A single quote from Lovecraft’s Call of the Cthulu could even be said to be the foundational philosophy behind Arham Asylum, and especially characters like the Joker: "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."
13. The Inmates Are Always Escaping (Especially Joker)
Unfortunately, the walls of Arkham aren’t very good at containing the criminals Batman puts there. The fact that Arkham’s very first appearance features Two-Face’s escape is quite prophetic to Arkham’s story in Batman continuity for years to come.
There doesn’t appear to be any single fatal flaw in the facility's security, either, as the inmates/patients seem to find a new way out every time. The worst offender -- the Joker -- may even have his own private entrance/exit, as he appears to come and go as he pleases, only staying in his cell if actually wants to be there.
With Arkham and Joker both making an appearance in Jared Leto’s Joker has a similar history with the institution. Since it’s unlikely he would ever be released for good behavior, odds are the new live-action Joker will prove to be just as much of an Arkham escape artist as his comic book counterpart.
12. Arkham’s Employee Screening Process is Ineffective
In addition to their inability to keep psychopathic criminals locked up, Arkham has a long history of terrible employee hirings, with multiple villains having spent time working on Arkham’s staff. From the groundskeeper turned serial killer named Spider all the way up to Director Alyce Sinner -- who killed her own family and has an obsession with the seven deadly sins -- Arkham’s employee directory is full of past, present, and future criminals.
The prevalence of Batman villains that were one time Arkham doctors goes as far as to indicate the asylum is working in reverse. Instead of the psychiatrists working to stabilize the inmates, the inmates are driving the staff over to their side of the sanity fence. Many noted former Arkham psychiatrists have become a part of Batman’s rogues gallery. The most obvious one is Harley Quinn, but Hugo Strange and Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow have also been placed on Arkham’s staff in various incarnations.
Even several lesser known characters have succumbed to this effect. Alex Montez was an Arkham Research Scientist before he becomes possessed by Eclipso, the former Angel of Vengence. Benjamin Stoner was Arkham’s Chief Medical Authority before getting possessed by Typhon, the Lord of Chaos, and many other guards and orderlies are manipulated by inmates, particularly the Joker, into assisting in some sort of scheme or escape plan.
And that doesn’t even cover the Arkham family themselves…
11. The Arkham Family Was Messed Up
If it sounds like the employees and inmates are crazy, the Arkham family gives them both a run for their money. Amadeus Arkham, the founder of the facility, killed his own mentally ill mother. He spent years repressing the memory, eventually convincing himself that she had actually committed suicide. As the only remaining heir of the Arkham family, Amadeus determined to transform Arkham manor into a mental hospital to treat others.
When one of his former patients, Martin "Mad Dog" Hawkins, breaks into his home to rape and murder his wife and daughter, Amadeus starts to embrace occult rituals and begins a slow descent into madness, ending with his own incarceration at his own asylum.
The madness apparently travels in the Arkham family bloodline, also affecting Amadeus’s heir, his nephew, Jeremiah Arkham. Jeremiah rebuilds Arkham Asylum from the ground up, retooling it to better house the likes of the kind of supercriminals that would eventually make his facility famous. Jeremiah would eventually go on to adopt the mantle of the new Black Mask, embodying the same kind of criminal his asylum is supposed to rehabilitate.
10. The Floor Plan Forms Occult Runes
Amadeus Arkham’s madness had him seeing visions of a giant bat, the same visions that drove his mother mad -- eventually causing him to kill her. He believes this bat haunts the Arkham estate, which is a driving force in him turning to the occult as he seeks the means to bind the specter of the bat.
The torment of this vision was so strong that he actually designed the floorplan of the asylum to take the shape of various runes in an attempt to keep the bat at bay. His tormenting visions never subsided, and eventually, once he’s locked away in his own cell, he begins scratching symbols into the very walls of the institute.
Ironically (or not), Amadeus’s tormented visions of a bat would eventually become a real life vision for many of the inmates of Arkham Asylum, tormented by the Batman that would repeatedly return them to Arkham’s confinement.
9. Batman had a secret batcave in Arkham
The Caped Crusader has always been known as a hero that plans ahead. Batman doesn’t go into any situation without a backup plan, and he never puts all his eggs in one basket. It’s the same case for the Batcave. While the Batcave is famous for being situated below the grounds of Wayne Manor, that’s only the main Batcave. Throughout the events of various Batman arcs, such as No Man’s Land, and Batman Inc., it is revealed that Batman has spare Batcaves all over the place, including one beneath Arkham Asylum.
Known as Northwest Batcave, this alternate secret hideout is built into the lower sub basements of the mental institution, and it's stocked with all the Bat-gadgets and other equipment Batman might need when he doesn’t have access to his primary hideout. This strategic location ensures that Batman will have access to anything he needs should there ever be a riot, a prison break, or if he himself gets locked up in Arkham -- all of which have been known to happen.
8. It’s Been Destroyed Multiple Times
Even though it’s a longstanding element of Batman lore, Arkham itself hasn’t necessarily been longstanding, as it's been demolished or severely damaged on multiple occasions. The first instance was by Jeremiah Arkham, when he tears down the Arkham family estate to make way for the new and improved Arkham Asylum. It’s been destroyed several times since then, but never with the intent of rebuilding or improving it in any way.
The most famous example of Arkham’s destruction comes during the events of Knightfall, when Bane blows up most of the facility in order to allow the inmates to all escape. It would be destroyed several more times, though. Once by Jermiah Arkham, as Black Mask, and again by the Spectre during the events of Batman Eternal.
At this point, Arkham Asylum is like a character unto itself, and like any comic book character (except Uncle Ben), expect it to be destroyed and remade on a regular basis.
7. Wayne Manor became Arkham Asylum
After a portal to hell is opened inside Arkham Asylum, the Bat family has its hands full with demons. Eventaully, the Spectre shows up to close the portal and stop the age of these creatures, but this act destroys all of Arkham Asylum, leaving the mental hospital in complete ruin.
At the same time, Hush has been detonating Batman’s weapons caches around Gotham, causing the police to draw a connection between Batman’s munitions and Wayne Enterprises. The government steps in to assume control of Wayne Enterprises, seizing Bruce’s company, and freezing all his assets.
Since Arkham Asylum is destroyed, and the government possesses Wayne Manor, the mansion is refitted to house all the former inmates, making it the new Arkham Asylum. Alfred initially makes plans to contest the ownership of the estate, but after Bruce infiltrates his old home to solve the case of a string of murdered inmates, he realizes that he may be better off just letting the asylum stay in Wayne Manor, since his intimate familiarity with the building (and proximity to the main Batcave) provide a real strategic advantage.
6. Inmates Have Taken Over on Several Occasions
It may already sound like a classic case of the inmates running the asylum, but that’s actually literally the case in several comic arcs. One of the most defining Arkham stories, Grant Morrison’s Arkham: A Serious House on Serious Earth, is about just that. Inspired mostly by Len Wein’s work in Who’s Who #1, Morrison’s work on Arkham Asylum is largely used as the definitive origin story of the facility. In the story, Batman is called in for assistance when the villains housed by Arkham begin to riot, only to find that Arkham has been overrun by the supervillains it houses.
During the events of Forever Evil, all of Gotham was actually taken over by Batman’s rogues. Naming himself mayor, Penguin divides Gotham up, asg different neighborhoods to former Arkham inmates. Looking to challenge him for the rule of the city, Scarecrow sets himself up at Arkham with some other rogues and a small army of man-bats.