A friend of mine had a copy of it, and to be honest, it's something I always wanted to read since I heard about what the video game was based off of. I actually never played the game, but I liked the style of it from what I saw in the commercials.
Anyhow, it's about the asylum itself, if you can imagine, and its origins. Batman is summoned there by the commissioner when the inmates have gone out of control and have taken the personnel as hostages. The Joker has a little talk with him--with some mad, intelligent dialogue. Two-Face has been upgraded from his coin to dice and tarot cards, but they're just as problematic. The other inmates, old foes of Batman, are waiting in the Asylum. Joker demands that Batman ought to escape before he sends them after him, but he ends up sending them earlier then he said he would. From then forth, he has some battles with them, picking them all off one by one. Meanwhile, entwined with the story, is the history of the asylum's founder Amadeus Arkham. His mother was a patient there, when it was once a hospital. She was mentally ill, going deeper and deeper into madness. Amadeus begins to remember the circumstances of her passing. He killed her while they both cowered from hallucinations of bats. He went insane, or rather started to from the moment he had to try and treat Mad Dog, and he ends up dying as he tries to scratch incantations on the floor to keep the bat away. Dr. Charles Cavendish, supposedly a hostage before, believed that he had to continue the pursuit of Amadeus's work in trapping the bat, rather...Batman. So after Batman kicks many asses, he's there and he's ranting and raving all about it. Then he gets served by Dr. Ruth Adams, who was one of the hostages, by having his throat slashed. Batman then proceeds to hack at the asylum doors with an axe, then telling all the inmates that they could go free. The Joker thinks it might be better if Batman just died, so Batman gives Two-Face his coin back so fate can decide that for him. After he flips the coin, Two-Face declares that Batman is free to go. We find out soon after that it actually landed with the scratched side up, suggesting that Two-Face made that decision himself. He then pretty much tells the tarot cards off with a single line ending the book with style.
First and foremost I must admit, the art style is AMAZING. Any one of these panels can be a full, canvas-to-the-wall painting. Even the text was chosen with great care and consideration. Hell, after the main story, they have a few pages with JUST the text on them, and you can tell who's talking without having to see who it is or read what they're saying. This was a beautiful book. I'd have to admit, the plot was just a little convoluted. I still don't understand why Charles decided to pursue Amadeus's special brand of madness, but I'm sure it's supposed to be a nod to how diseased and cursed this asylum is made out to be. This place is like a haunted house. It's like Amnityville Horror. The structure itself is lined with madness, even though according to how it's been treated over the years in the comics, it's been destroyed and rebuilt numerous times. But still, it would have been nice if the whole 'cursed walls' thing was exploited just a little more. Other than that, this story is incredible. The way it's arranged is incredible--intertwining the past and the present like movies attempt to do with music. The part where Batman was fighting the Killer Croc was a stellar example of such. The art, as I've said before, is beautiful. The characters are pretty damn good too. That pedophile Mad Hatter dude actually gave me chills, and that's just from me reading some well rendered text from a very vivid and wonderfully painted page. The Joker made a smirk a few times, though I found his way of speaking to Batman most amusing at all. It's almost as if he's got a little man crush on him.
But Two-Face really took it this time, and that's saying something. I didn't used to care much for Two-Face as a character--he always seemed to be so very black and white which I suppose is the point. But here he has depth. From the very beginning where he can't even take a dump without consulting the cards as part of his treatment to the very end when he chooses to let Batman go and blows the tarot cards off completely.
It was a great story, and it didn't disappoint me in the slightest. I'm even glad that Batman wasn't the biggest part of it. It wasn't really about his past, which seems like the theme behind every comic or movie they make of him. It's more about his condition, versus the condition of the men he has put away. He's every bit as crazy as the inmates, according to the Joker, but unlike them he has dedicated his madness to saving the innocent rather than harming them. But it's as if the artist/writer already knows we know this. It's pretty damn awesome. I'm buying this book as soon as I can scrounge up the cash.
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