One of the most mythical locations of the Batman comics in DC Comics is undoubtedly the Arkham Asylum, but what is its origin?
The Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, called Arkham Asylum, also known as Arkham Asylum, is a psychiatric hospital-prison in Gotham City.
Arkham is the insane asylum where most of Batman’s mentally disturbed enemies are held (Joker, Harley Quinn, Two-Face, The Riddler, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, Killer Croc, The Mad Hatter, The Ventriloquist, and a… long etc).
The institution is located on the outskirts of Gotham City and in Victorian times was the home of its creator, Amadeus Arkham, who ironically became just another inmate.
What’s more, Batman: Arkham Asylum is an acclaimed video game created in 2009, followed by Batman: Arkham City (2011) like the prequel called Batman: Arkham Origins (2013) and the most recent installment Batman: Arkham Knight (2015), which are set in the Batman universe, specifically in this place. But, where did the idea of the mythical mental institution, protagonist of many of the stories of the caped crusader, come from?
However, the origins of the asylum attributed to the mythical Denny O’Neil in DC Comics for being the first to introduce the asylum in the Batman comics in the 70s was not his idea. The origin of the name comes in honor of the town of Arkham, a town that is recurrent in the works of the writer H. P. Lovecraft of which the legendary screenwriter Jack C. Harris, also a DC screenwriter, was a fan, specifically the idea comes from The Thing on the Doorstop 1937, story published in the pulp magazine, Weird Tales specifically set in a sanitarium in Arkham City. This is how Harris explained in an interview with wtv zone, as he gave O’Neil the idea to lock up the Batman villains in this asylum.
“I also have to make this statement. I’ve filed this claim before and people say it’s a claim, but I can prove it. I created Arkham Asylum. The story goes like this: Of course, Arkham Asylum wasn’t created by anyone at DC, it was created by HP Lovecraft. Arkham Asylum is where all the madmen who were driven insane by Lovecraft’s elder gods go.
They were committed to Arkham Asylum, which is in Massachusetts in Lovecraft’s stories. It’s nothing that anyone in DC has thought of. But during one of those times that Denny O’Neil came to visit and speak to my college course, I remember we were having dinner. We always took our guests to dinner. So I was talking to Denny and I said, “Denny, you know that criminals like Two-Face and the Joker shouldn’t just be jailed. They are crazy. They should be in a madhouse. And what better than Arkham Asylum from the Lovecraft stories?” He thought that was a great idea. So he used it. And if you notice, it was in Batman #258 in September 1974. That’s the first mention of Arkham Asylum in DC comics history. It has been reported elsewhere, but that is incorrect. If you check it, this is the first time it is mentioned in this story. If you watch it, if you read it, the story involves Two-Face being broken out of Arkham Asylum. The guy who pulls it out is a military man named John Harris. And that’s the tip of Denny O’Neil’s hat for me for the idea of Arkham. Now I think it was Len Wein who picked up on that idea and then expanded on the whole Arkham story. But Denny did it first in that issue of Batman and I was the one who gave him the idea. Every time I see Arkham Asylum I go crazy.
You can see the page where the nod to Harris appears below
What do you think of the origin story of Arkham in DC comics?