by Grant Moorison, art by Dave McKean
To some readers, namely my 12-year-old students, this book is a total disappointment. It has the brand name Batman on the title. It IS a sort of origin story — of the Arkham Asylum which houses many infamous villains, including the Joker, of the franchise; and it does have segments with Batman in them. But, they feel somehow cheated because there is almost no treatment of the fight scenes during the Hide and Seek game on the Asylum Ground. A couple of pages, with McKean’s signature dream-like artwork hastily showing Batman dispensing of all the Asylum inmates, are all they got out of these fight scenes. And as super hero comics readers, they were not satisfied.
I felt differently. As a McKean art adorer, I enjoyed all the panels, both the really detailed close-ups and the dream-line distanced treatments. And I am totally ok with not “watching” longer sequences of the fights. I enjoyed the psychoanalytically inspired (albeit superficially so) back story of Doctor Arkham more than my students. However, I won’t say that this is one to highly recommend to either Graphic Novel enthusiasts or novices.
Fairrosa Cyber Library 