Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition)

The only way I'm willing to pay this much for a graphic novel is to know that it is good and long and will take me a few weeks to go through it a few pages at a time.

Arkham Asylum is far too short with most of the novel being taken up by extra materials, sketches, essays, and other worthless crap. The story is also not all that interesting. Like many others I am sure I hold every batman story up against Frank Miller's work, and that isn't always a fair comparison. With this, however, I got a short graphic novel with a story that was ho-hum at best.

I do not recommend it.

I believe I would have enjoyed this graphic novel a whole lot more had I not read the masterpieces of Frank Miller prior. But maybe it is my own fault to expect the same depth of story telling & artwork of 'Year One' & 'The Dark Knight Returns' in every graphic novel I read.Maybe I belong in Arkham.
'Arkham Asylum', from the outset,promised to be gruesome & nightmarish. However, I believe Grant Morrison failed to capitalize on a excellent & little-known theme in the Batman universe.There were no twists & turns in the plot & the story line became extremely predictable as the book drew to a close.The only positive I can think of is that Morrison gives us the origin story of the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum & how the house itself works in the minds of those who are forced to dwell within its walls.
The artwork in itself was pretty decent &,as expected,dark & foreboding. McKean had successfully captured the theme of insanity in his brush strokes, however, at times he failed miserably,to communicate effectively, the story that was being told.
Arkham Asylum;Three Stars on a good day.

Somehow being a huge comic and graphic novel fan and even being a big Batman fan - for decades - I never got around to reading this. I finally did and was pretty disappointed. Dave McKean's fantastic art made it worth reading, but the writing was not something that would make this book anything close to a classic in the Batman canon. The intercutting tale of Arkham's namesake is interesting but not that rewarding. The other tale featuring Batman's criminally insane foes comes off as rather simplistic and watered down when compared to some of the Dark Knights better books.

Arkham Asylum suffers from very poor execution. The plot is well-conceived and pulled off well enough given the dialog, but the art style hampers everything down. It seems there are no light fixtures in Arkham Asylum, as every panel is about 90 percent shadow. There is a font used for everything that The Joker says that was a chore to try to read; I had to put the book up to my nose to figure out which letters were which.

If you're a huge Batman fan, you've probably already read this. If not, don't bother.

THIS IS PROBABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF ANY BATMAN COLLECTION, I MEAN ASIDE FROM THE ORIGINS AND WHAT NOT. THIS BOOK IS THE BEST DESCRIPTIVE RECORD OF THE HOLDING PLACE FOR BATMAN'S ROGUE GALLERY.

ANYTHING WITH GRANT MORRISON'S NAME ATTACHED TO IT IS ALMOST GOOD AS GOLD, AND DAVE MCKEON'S ART TAKES THE ENTIRE STORY TO ANOTHER MANIC LEVEL.

IF I COULD GIVE THIS TO EVERYONE LOOKING, LISTENING OR DREAMING ANYTHING BATZ, I WOULD... 15 MILLION THUMBS UP!!!! AND AN AMAZON DISCOUNT TO BOOT!