Arkham Asylum Addendum

[Abishai100]

Criminal insanity is a complicated and frustrating subject, and no one deals with it more 'colorfully' than the American comic book superhero Batman (DC Comics), a masked urban vigilante who is also a wealthy socialite and businessman named Bruce Wayne in a fictional place called Gotham City which is seething with all kinds of corruption.

Batman has many well-known enemies such as Poison Ivy (an eco-terrorist), Two-Face (a fanatical vigilante), and Bane (a chemically-pumped brute), and they've been portrayed in big-budget Hollywood (USA) films such as The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan - director).

Here's a Batman fan-fic about Arkham Asylum (Gotham City's center for the criminally insane) housing two new super-villains (original creations of mine).


====

Batman looked over the files of Green Imp and Yellowbeard, two new Gotham nemeses now being held in maximum security cells at Arkham Asylum (thanks to Batman). Green Imp used to be a 'normal' scientist until a terrible toxic waste accident mutated him and turned his skin green. Yellowbeard was an American baseball player whose career-ending injury drove him mad, compelling him to become a hellraiser; Yellowbeard carries a sonic turbulence device, which he uses to make people deaf while he robs banks.

Batman realized that Green Imp and Yellowbeard were motivated to become criminals because of their frustrating unfortunate life-circumstances. He wondered how to approach them and talk to them (so as to make them feel less paranoid about psychological bullying and usual 'police brutality/interference'). He resolved to prepare a list of questions and interrogate them one at-a-time and then turn over the interview transcript to police commissioner Jim Gordon who would then use the files to consult with the scientists at Arkham Asylum.

BATMAN: Do you delight in cruelty?
GREEN IMP: Sometimes human beings deserve punishments.
BATMAN: Are you in full control of the boundaries?
GREEN IMP: No, but nobody is.
BATMAN: If you're aware that no one is perfect, why be cruel?
GREEN IMP: I don't trust 'social contracts.'
BATMAN: Nobody does.
GREEN IMP: True, but can Arkham save my soul?
BATMAN: Only you can do that!
GREEN IMP: Maybe.

BATMAN: Did you love to play baseball?
YELLOWBEARD: It's the great American pastime.
BATMAN: Don't you feel terrorism dishonors baseball?
YELLOWBEARD: Show me an 'honest athlete.'
BATMAN: That's not your concern!
YELLOWBEARD: How reliable is Arkham?
BATMAN: The scientists at Arkham will rehabilitate your mind.
YELLOWBEARD: I just want to play baseball.
BATMAN: Maybe you can watch MLB games on TV in here.
YELLOWBEARD: Would you request that for me, Batman?

After the interview transcript was delivered to Jim Gordon, Batman returned to his cave where he recorded his own interpretation of these two new 'Gotham demons.'

"It is my conclusion that Green Imp and Yellowbeard are simply self-destructive. They have little trust of the government or the police. Perhaps Arkham can rehabilitate their sense of civic optimism, but until then, the best course of action is to keep them incarcerated and let the law create security-based 'zones of safety'."

====

 

[Abishai100]

Chapter 2: Jailbreak


====

Green Imp and Yellowbeard had broken out of Arkham thanks to the help of Poison Ivy who was trying to recruit them for an eco-terrorism plot devised by Ra's al Ghul. However, Green Imp and Yellowbeard promptly betrayed Poison Ivy when they broke free and decided to devise their own terrorism scheme. Green Imp and Yellowbeard resolved to forge a fiendish union and call themselves 'The Gotham Goliaths.' Their first deed was to kill Riddler (Edward Nygma) and Penguin (Oswald Cobblepot) and then reinvent the proverbial 'American Dream.'

Riddler and Penguin were ironically living together in a secret hideaway --- an abandoned Gotham warehouse. When Green Imp caught wind of the location from street-gossip, he and Yellowbeard rumbled into their warehouse, tranquilized their bodyguards and then knocked Riddler and Penguin unconscious. They then dumped their unconscious bodies into the Gotham River, tied to heavy rocks and chains so they were sure to drown. Green Imp and Yellowbeard then resolved to call themselves the 'new Riddler and Penguin,' a mutated alliance confirmed as the Gotham Goliaths.

Batman was reading the Gotham Gazette in his bat-cave, and he noticed the news story of Riddler and Penguin storming the Gotham Zoo with machine-guns and freeing all the animals from their cages and setting them loose upon the city. After rustling up most of the animals with nets fired from his bat-jet, Batman returned to his bat-cave and wondered why Riddler and Penguin were suddenly interested in pseudo-eco themed terrorism gestures. He knew they were too independent to work with Poison Ivy or Ra's al Ghul and concluded they were working with each other for their own vision of eco-terrorism.

Police commissioner Jim Gordon called Batman and told him that the nearly-dead bodies of Riddler (Edward Nygma) and Penguin (Oswald Cobblepot) were raised out of the Gotham River having been almost drowned. A fisherman had sighted signs of their sunken bodies soon after they were sunk by Green Imp and Yellowbeard. Batman told Gordon that this was all the work of Green Imp and Yellowbeard who wanted Gothamites to think they were Riddler and Penguin for some reason, and so he told Gordon not to disclose the fact that the real Riddler and Gotham were in the custody of the GCPD.

'Riddler' (Green Imp) and 'Penguin' (Yellowbeard) had left a sign at the Gotham Zoo (during their 'animal-liberation' stunt) which indicated the work was done by the 'Gotham Goliaths.' Batman wondered why Green Imp and Yellowbeard would want Gothamites to think they were Riddler and Penguin calling themselves the 'Gotham Goliaths.' Batman concluded that Green Imp and Yellowbeard wanted to deliver home the message that spiritual deformity was somehow related to criminal insanity and that Arkham Asylum did not have the necessary resources to treat their illness. Batman decided to sent a public notice to the Gotham Gazette (after telling Gordon) so 'Riddler' (Green Imp) and 'Penguin' (Yellowbeard) would read it.

"Riddler and Penguin, I know it's actually you, Green Imp and Yellowbeard. I recognize (as Batman) that you're calling yourselves the 'Gotham Goliaths,' since you're frustrated with the solutions to criminal insanity offered by Arkham Asylum. The real Riddler (Edward Nygma) and Penguin (Oswald Cobblepot) are in the custody of the GCPD and are ready to be transported to Arkham where I suspect they would be inspired if you two surrendered and added to Arkham's community criminal insanity rehabilitation program. I challenge you to defy the social stereotypes and show me (and Gotham) that criminally insane terrorists have something 'American' to prove...to themselves!"

====

 

[Abishai100]

Hatter Express

I like the 'feel' of this Arkham experiment I've cooked up so I'm adding one more section, but this one is original and unrelated to the first two posts on this thread and involves the well-known eerie Bat-nemesis Mad Hatter (Jervis Tetch).



====

Jervis (Mad Hatter) looked at the news in the Gotham Gazette while sitting in his Arkham cell. In about 30 minutes, Bruce Wayne would arrive with an entourage of reporters and scientists to interview the madman of Gotham for Wayne's new criminal insanity research grant for Wayne Enterprises. Jervis felt somewhat irked and psychologically insulted, since he thought his 'personality' was worthy of creative praise (since he modeled himself after the Lewis Carroll logic-trickster character) and not scientific dissection.

WAYNE: Do you think you belong in Arkham?
HATTER: Batman called me a gambler, so I held Gordon's daughter for ransom!
WAYNE: Is the Mad Hatter a 'repo-man'?
HATTER: I'm an avenger with flair; nothing more.
WAYNE: You remind me of the NBA star Reggie Miller (unusual and relentless).
HATTER: We'll see if Arkham can 'cure' me.
WAYNE: Would you be offended if someone 'copied' you?
HATTER: Impossible! I'm a true original.
WAYNE: Batman thinks you're his 'ward' of sorts.

After the interview, Jervis took a nap during which he dreamed he escaped from Arkham and re-donned his authority as the Hatter. When he awoke, he wondered if Bruce Wayne was right about him being 'overly-sensitive' about his originality and if he was 'paranoid' that someone on the outside might 'copycat' his criminal fingerprints. "Is the Mad Hatter obsessed with self-image?" Jervis asked himself, though he felt comforted by the idea that he was not as 'insane' as his Arkham 'in-mate' the Riddler (Edward Nygma), a disgruntled 'mad scientist' who seemed to simply relish in the idea of people around him feeling confused.

Jervis began a series of drawings of fantastic hats, which he resolved to send to the Gotham Gazette. He told himself, "We'll see if Gotham's foolish morbid curiosity about the 'rationale' of my criminal insanity leads people to overly-analyze why I call myself Hatter!" Jervis's terrible plan was to assess if Gothamites would see his elaborate hat-drawings and try to copy his style or even deify it in the name of fashion, a natural instinct which would draw out a 'copycat psychopath.' Jervis would then send a letter to Batman suggesting, "A Gotham criminal has copied my 'style,' since the city is obsessed with 'flair'!" Batman would come to regret Wayne Enterprises' investment in the new criminal insanity research initiative at Arkham.

====


Mad Hatter (Batman Wiki)