DC Comics Review: Arkham Reborn #1

Rating: ***

A few months ago during the Battle for the Cowl series, DC Comics released accompanying one-shots that expanded on the state of Gotham City and its inhabitants during the initial disappearance of Batman. Some were good and some were bad, but one stood out as great. Batman Battle for the Cowl: Arkham was the story of Jeremiah Arkham and his attempts at recovery after the destruction of Arkham Asylum. The story was similar to the mini-series Arkham Asylum: Living Hell in that it focused more on the inmates of Arkham and not Batman. This Battle for the Cowl issue introduced us to several unseen inmates who were special to Jeremiah: No Face, The Hamburger Lady, and the Mirror Man. This is the first issue of a three part mini-series that continues the story of Jeremiah and the inmates from that issue.

The first issue of Arkham Reborn begins with the reopening of Arkham Asylum. Now I didn’t catch this until after I read the issue, but in the opening scene Jeremiah Arkham is showing off the new asylum to a group of Gothamites. Some of these characters include Commissioner Gordon, new Gotham D.A. Kate Spencer aka the super-hero Manhunter, Aaron Cash head of Arkham security, Jeremiah’s new assistant Alyce Sinner, and ....Bruce Wayne?! I had to do a Wikipedia search to discover that Thomas Elliot, who surgically altered his face to look like Bruce Wayne, escaped from his cell and is now out and about as Bruce Wayne. I think the editors should have mentioned this, as I believe this all happened in the Streets of Gotham title and I don’t read that book.

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DC Comics Review: Battle for the Cowl: Arkham Asylum

Rating: ***1/2*

I’ve been picking up the “Battle for the Cowl” (BFTC) one-shots and mini-series that have been coming out. Normally I don’t pick up all of the spin-offs of event books, but because it’s Batman, I’ve been getting them. Some of it’s been good and some of it’s been bad. I wasn’t expecting much from the Arkham Asylum one shot so I was happy to have really enjoyed this story after I read it. I enjoyed it so much I decided to write about it.

This issue reminds me a lot of one of favorite comic stories, “Arkham Asylum: Living Hell” by Dan Slott. In this story, Slott introduces a slew of unknown residents of Arkam Asylum including Humpty Dumpty and Jane Doe. The writer of this issue of this BFTC one-shot David Hine sort of picks up where Slott left off and introduces a few characters of his own.

In the story, Arkham Asylum has been destroyed. It was destroyed and most of the inmates are now on the loose thanks to the Black Mask (see the BFTC mini-series). The director of Arkham Asylum, Dr. Jeremiah Arkham has returned to the ruined asylum to try and find some of the inmates who were not in the general inmate population. These inmates include: No Face, Mirror Man, and the Hamburger Lady. What’s interesting about these new characters are as of right now, they don’t seem to be threats to anyone. They just seem to be mentally ill people. Now that may change - especially from what we see in the ending of this story. Maybe these characters were introduced as new villains for the new Batman and Robin debuting next month. I don’t know.

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