Batman: The Origin of Arkham Asylum

One writer that keeps fascinating me with his mindboggling ideas is Grant Morrison whose main work can be found in the comic world. He has written stories for the X-men, the Justice League and more recently Batman though some of his best work can be found in titles that are not precisely considered "mainstream". I have read several of his works and the one that keeps coming to my mind is a Batman graphic novel that was illustrated by groundbreaking artist, Dave Mc Kean, (that itself guarantees that reading this novel is a visual experience). The story is not only about Batman, but the past of the house that came to be Arkham Asylum  and its original inhabitant and founder of the asylum, Dr. Arkham. Morrison tells the story in two different times, past and present, with events that are closely connected. In the past story, Dr. Arkham is a benevolent and devoted psychiatrist who goes insane after one of his patients brutally (emphasis in brutally) rapes and murders the doctor's wife and little daughter; and in the present, the immates of the asylum have been released by a mysterious figure with ties to Dr. Arkham. Of course, Batman arrives to put things in order.  

One of Batman's enemies, Two Face, has been under treatment to erase his compulsion to use his coin  in order to make decisions. As part of the treatment one of the doctors of the asylum has managed to convince Two Face to use a deck of cards, but this in turn has made Two Face's problem more complex since even the making of a simple decision such as going to the restroom is near impossible: the pack represents too many possilities for Two Face. Surrounded by his enemies Batman has no way out and the Joker feeling victorious proposes to grant him a last wish. Batman asks for Two Face to decide. Two Face is no longer the imposing enemy he was in the past and says "no" first afraid of the many dpossibilities that his deck of cards impose him, but then Batman throws him back his scarred coin. Two Face takes the coin and then confidently flips it. Next Two Face announces the Batman can go free and surprisingly the villains keeps their word. With our priviledged perspective us, readers, can see what really happened. Everybody has left and Two Face is still inside looking at the sum of his twisted personality back in his hand: it is the scarred side that fell up, Two Face lied!

If only for that moment I'd say this work is extraordinary, and believe me, I have read lots of comic books and graphic novels. However the merit is in Morrison offering us a new untold story of the legend of Batman, that about the origin of the most sinister place in all of Gotham city. Arkham asylum is now a place that seems to a sentient being, one that feeds on the tragedies of its own inhabitants as though it was an unnamed dark soul that hungry awaits to be fed by his unsuspected keeper, ironically a champion of justice, the Batman himself.