“One of man’s major mistakes – keeping the past alive long after its expiration date.” –Jeremiah Arkham

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1

A first issue is usually a risky proposition for everyone involved, but when it’s an established character like Batman there’s a lot less to worry about, no one’s going to look at a new Batman series and think to themselves, “Well I wonder what this is all about?” Batman’s well-known and popular enough that almost anything you stick him in will have some measure of success. I don’t have the exact figures, but I think it’s safe to say that this issue sold well enough, since the Shadow of the Bat series went on for another 95 issues, as well as five annuals.

The cover fits very well with the overall plot of the issue, showing Batman being swarmed by mental patients, which serves to both give the reader a general idea of the setting of the issue, Arkham Asylum (if the title of the story arc weren’t telling enough for you), and to give the sense that Batman is being restrained in some fashion. What I do like about this cover is that it’s very atypical of the period in which it was published – I don’t see one belt in an unusual position, and there isn’t even a hint of foil.

In any case, the comic proper begins, appropriately enough, at Arkham Asylum; where we see the patients, including several of Batman’s foes, being escorted our of the facility so that construction can begin on a new Arkham facility, a facility without the dark past of the old one. The mastermind behind this project – and nephew of the founder of the old Asylum – Jeremiah Arkham, seems to be quite disgusted with the place as it was and is unwilling to even sell any of the antiques within the facility, preferring to burn it all and be done with it, which is quite understandable, considering the place’s reputation.

After Jeremiah goes on to make the contractor horribly uncomfortable for a few panels we get a glimpse of his past that explains how he came to follow in the footsteps of his uncle, Amadeus Arkham. When he was 16, Jeremiah encountered an escaped mental patient and was somehow able to coerce the man, almost without thinking, to kill himself rather than Jeremiah himself with a single phrase, “You don’t need to kill me, you’re father is already dead.” This incredibly chilling moment is the point where he decides on the path his life will take, leading him to the events of this story.

In the present we see one of the contractor’s bring Jeremiah sever personal effects found in the old Asylum, including several from his long-dead uncle, who had descended into madness. It is here where he reveals that he sees the mind as something worthless, that all that matters in life is a person’s actions, and then he of course proceeds to burn the items, because he can fathom no way in which they would be useful – because a journal detailing a man’s descent into madness in an asylum he founded would not help in the slightest with treating madness, not a bit.

The story then jumps ahead to the now-completed New Arkham facility, a building based off of the classical labyrinth – y’know, to help people become sane. We then proceed to see Jeremiah interacting with several of Arkham’s patients, the first of which is Cornelius Stirk, basically a poor man’s Scarecrow. Stirk is unwilling to use the medication Jeremiah prescribes him, calling drugs “unnatural and an abomination”. Of course Jeremiah, being the cold-hearted jerk that he is, has a couple of orderlies beat him a little bit before forcing the pills down his throat. We next see the good doctor visiting Everard Mallitt (first appearing in this issue), a violent schizophrenic with very disturbing nightmares, to which our buddy Jeremiah has the best possible treatment.

The next patient the doctor treats is the Scarecrow, a rich man’s Cornelius Stirk, who Jeremiah is keeping in a glass cage to prevent him from getting up to his old tricks. Scarecrow tries to claim that it’s not his fault that he does the things he does, but that his mind deludes him into doing him. Jeremiah responds with the asinine idea that since the mind has no physical presence it can’t be held accountable for anything, and then proceeds to turn on the holographic projector he’s set up in the cage to scare the man into sanity with holographic birds.* No, I am not making this up.

After a long day of inducing pants-crappingly terrifying “treatments” to the patients of Arkham, Jeremiah returns home, content in the belief that he’s keeping the patients safe. In his own words: “It’s only out in the wilderness – the real world – that the nightmares happen – Gotham City.” Yeah, sure, Jeremiah.

The action cuts away from Arkham for a few pages to show Robin – at this time, Tim Drake – rescuing an informant from some gang members or street toughs or whatever and kicking their asses handily. Tim meets up with Nightwing – Dick Grayson – and the two begin having a conversation… at which point we return to the horror show that is Arkham Asylum.

At Arkham we meet another character introduced by this story arc, Mr. Zsasz, a scary bastard whom we’ll learn more about later in the story arc. At this point all of Zsasz’s features are hidden from us, as he’s locked up in what can be best described as a containment canister. Zsasz and Jeremiah converse for a short time, during which we learn that even Jeremiah is unsettled by the man, who seems to show no remorse at his many murders. Before he leaves him, Jeremiah learns that Zsasz knows of the connection between Jeremiah and Amadeus Arkham, shocking the man even further.

The good doctor then leads us to the final patient we’ll be meeting with this issue, a patient most of you are familiar with, who he deems dangerous enough to lock up in maximum security – Batman himself, whom Jeremiah believes responsible for a murder. Batman rants at Jeremiah, before being quieted when Jeremiah says, “Or have you forgotten…? The case of the berserk vigilante – the rage, however justified, that ended with a dead man.” To this Batman can only plead that there’s been some mistake, but Jeremiah is having none of that and announces that his treatment will begin with treatment, to which Batman rebels against the approaching orderlies.

Batman attempts to fight, but he is eventually subdued by the orderlies’ use of a powerful hose. Jeremiah doesn’t allow the orderlies to reveal his identity, however, claiming that Batman himself will reveal it on the day he is cured, stating, “And when he hands me that cowl – there will be no more batman… not ever.” And leaves Batman on the floor of his cell, beaten.

In conclusion, this issue doesn’t pull any punches, from the very beginning Jeremiah Arkham is presented as a cold and somewhat monstrous character, characteristics that fully assert himself when we see him at work in the halls of New Arkham – treating mental illnesses the same way he treated the illnesses of the old Arkham, with merciless destruction. The fact that even this beastly character can feel fear in the presence of Zsasz foreshadows his role in future issues, and in the Batman universe as a whole. The one thing, other than the scattered cases of 90s artwork, that I would change about this comic would be to show us a little more of what was going on outside of Arkham at the time. We get just over three pages away from Jeremiah Arkham in the story, and two of those are a two-page spread of Robin kicking the asses of random mooks. Otherwise the issue is one of the stronger first issues that I’ve read, it presents a clear antagonist (possibly even two), and provides a challenge for the protagonist without spending much time mired in exposition or flashbacks.

* Note: I’m absolutely terrified of birds, so this is the worst punishment ever – screw you, Jeremiah Arkham.