This review confuses me. What exactly am I supposed to be reading?
you walk, i'll run, i'll follow right behind you.
But Bats is unnerved when he enters Arkham because he KNOWS that he belongs in there. It's an examination of sanity. None of these people, save the few token psychiatrists, are sane.
Breaking it down: Batman is a grown man who dresses up like a bat to avenge the death of his family. Even with his super intellect, he would know that he is batshit crazy.
Alhough this is one of my favorite graphic novels, I agree with the points you raise. Except one.
"Two-Face’s evaluation sheet seems to be a Take That against American soldiers and seems to generalize them as being a bunch of rapists."
I..I didn't see that at all. Isn't Two-Face's evaluation supposed to show his disillusionment with the seedier underside of the world? As in, fitting in with the "two-faced" theme? I'm not sure what that has to do with soldiers or rape.
I disagree that Batman had no reason to lose it early on. The man is a control freak but all control freakery is about a desperate obsession To Keep Some Things Away. I think it is entirely credible that being reminded how thin his margin of dealing with life is in this way could be very damaging. Especially in combination with the plausible retcon that Bruce saw Bambi and couldn't handle Bambi's mom getting shot. You might think just stepping into the Asylum would not uncover such a painful, fundamental memory ...but if you have never had a facile lie necessary for sanity randomly demolished by a flashback in RL let's just say the experience Batman has isn't so far from how stuff unfolds in the brains of severely damaged people.
As to the lack of integration of symbolism and story you need more extensive examples. The stabbing his hand scene is plausible from a storytelling perspective given the emotions involved. And the point is less Batman as Jesus as Batman Tortured By Fate. The whole novel is wrestling with where do you find freewill, what is that undefinable spark that makes one person experience horror and be determined to seek the light and another to want to destroy the light. He is having his nose rubbed in the fact that his extreme lifestyle is just a coping mechanism. Things will always be fundamentally broken in Batman. He cannot really answer why he is the saviour of theinnocents and not their assailant. But he does what is in his nature, being true to the path he accepted by wagering his life for the sake of innocents.
To me this is the "Dark Batman" exploration of sanity and agency that is explored "on the Good Batman side" in K Illing Joke.
As to Two Face's ending bit you're missing the point focusing on soldiers as the tools of brutality rather than his caustic point every bright promise in America has always had a dark contradiction lurking pressed up against it.
I like what you said about Bats slowly gettin more unnerves as he walks through Arkham, because it may reflect sanity, or should I say insanity, even more. Batman would start out as the normal sane man, trying to be cool and controlled at the world around them. However, some people slowly fall deeper and deeper into the madness of the world around them, and slowly their sanity degrades until they simply snap.
For example, Batman pierces his hand with a piece of glass. I immediately understood the Biblical symbolism and a look at Morrison’s script proved me right. However, there is no in-story reason for Batman to have done this. It feels like Morrison was too lazy to think up a reason, but put it there anyway.
From the script found in the 15th Anniversary Edition re-release of the story.
This simple scene was intended to show Batman pricking his palm with glass to shock himself out of Joker-induced trauma.
So story-wise. It does make sense. Batman's mind is still reeling in shock, he's being forced to re-live his parents death in the one place he simply does not want to be, and in order to jolt himself back into reality, he stabs himself in the hand to get an adrenaline rush. Not dissimilar to how Roy Batty runs a nail through his hand near the end of Blade Runner to give himself a jolt of energy.
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Grant Morrison's Metaphysical Epic or Grant Morrison's Epic Misstep?
The Good:
McKean: Most of the artwork, in particular the Clayface and Killer Croc scenes.
Morrison: The Amadeus Arkham side story. The visual composition/layout of the Clayface and Killer Croc bits. McKean may have given us the finished versions, but Morrison was the one who did the layout and script in the first place.
The Bad:
McKean: Joker. He just…looks ridiculous. I think it would have been better to give him an Uncanny Valley approach.
Morrison: Let's just say that this is the part where I might anger a lot of fans.
1. Questionable Reinterpretation of Certain Characters:
Although I loved the Clayface bit from a visual storytelling aspect, I thought it was just…misguided to have him represent the concept of AIDS.
Maxi Zeus? No comment.
2. Pacing Problems:
Batman is our POV character here. The problem is that he immediately freaks out upon setting foot inside the asylum. In other words, from very early on, the horror is turned Up To Eleven. By the time the comic is over, the horror is no longer effective. There was no rising tension. No real It Got Worse.
A better idea would have been to have Batman be unnerved, but still somewhat cool. Initially, he does well in his first few fights/encounters with the inmates and we’re given a false sense of security. Then, something goes wrong in his next encounter. From that point, he becomes more and more unhinged to the point of freaking out. This would have made the comic scarier.
3. Symbolism at the expense of the story:
I have no problem with symbolism, but it feels like Morrison made just a half-hearted (at best) attempt to integrate it into the story (or rather integrate the story into it). For example, Batman pierces his hand with a piece of glass. I immediately understood the Biblical symbolism and a look at Morrison’s script proved me right. However, there is no in-story reason for Batman to have done this. It feels like Morrison was too lazy to think up a reason, but put it there anyway.
4. Values Dissonance
Two-Face’s evaluation sheet seems to be a Take That against American soldiers and seems to generalize them as being a bunch of rapists. I wonder if James Cameron read this book while working on Avatar.
All in all, a good example of High Octane Nightmare Fuel, but far from the high art that people make it out to be.