What the Crap is Wrong With Arkham

[Jester]

(I believe this belongs here)

Someone want to explain why the hell these people keep breaking out of Arkham? High security prison should not be that easy!

 

[da3dl3us]

(I believe this belongs here)

Someone want to explain why the hell these people keep breaking out of Arkham? High security prison should not be that easy!

Perhaps a comment, albeit more exaggerated, on the system in reality?

But in actuality, would make it a bit difficult on the writers to come up with new villains every week if they all get life sentences.

 

[Bathead]

That's all it is, a plot device.

 

[Jester]

It truely shows how freakin' messed up it is. I mean if you tried half the stunts youd get shot in the head.
although flying a rocket Christmas tree out of jail would be a hilarious news report

 

[ScarecrowMan666]

First of all...Arkham is an Asylum, not a prison. It does have guards and such, but not people well suited enough to keep psychopaths like Joker, Scarecrow, and Two Face at bay. I mean, really all they have is time to think of ways to get out.

 

[Jodo]

What I don't get about is....The real life psychopaths get to go to jail for 10 years and get out for good behavior, serving half their time,etc. In the comics, the psychopaths go to Arkham Asylum, and break out. So at least the comic characters are being treated properly for their crazy...Or they go to an appropriate place anyway, LOL.

 

[jscottmarine]

Maybe they're winning appeals like at Guantonamo Bay. t:

 

[Bathead]

I remember, back in the 60's, even before there was a Arkham, people were saying the same thing about Gotham prison.

 

[ScarecrowMan666]

Hey Bathead, when exactly was Arkham first introduced?

 

[UA-Archangel]

Hey Bathead, when exactly was Arkham first introduced?

According to Wiki, Batman #258 in 1974

 

[Jester]

Now a days the psychos go to a 23/1
in your cell for 23 hours and out for 1

 

[Jodo]

Now a days the psychos go to a 23/1
in your cell for 23 hours and out for 1

Just long enough to kill a gaurd, and whatch Prison Break.

 

[Jester]

I think I'd go crazier...minus sleeping for 7-10 hours you still have 13-16 hours sitting in your cell

 

[Punchinello]

Hey Bathead, when exactly was Arkham first introduced?

Yeah, Arkham was first introduced in in Batman #278 'The Joker's Five-Way Revenge', but only described as 'Gotham State Hospital for the Criminally Insane'.
Two or four issues later, it was given it's official name; which of course is Arkham Asylum.

 

[union_jak]

The full name is the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum For The Criminally Insane.

They retroactively made it so Harley Quinn was responsible for a lot of the Joker's early escapes. She kept letting him out before being caught and deemed insane herself.

The Riddler has somehow managed to convince people he's sane or more than one occasion, and so has Arnold Wesker and Harley.

Bane, of course, was to blame for the Knightfall breakout, and we also can't forget how crooked Gotham is; some of the orderlies and doctors might be on the payroll of the insane, or just simply blackmailed into it.

 

[C. W. Saturn]

It's SERIAL FICTION!

 

[IBRAH08]

Union is right much of what goes on in Gotham relies on the cities corruptness and wouldn't necessarily work any where else.

 

[IBRAH08]

city's that is....

 

[Matt.S99]

Its a comic book, obviously they cant have new villains all the time, its not supposed ot be super realistic, its a comic...

 

[MaskedManJRK]

I could say that it's a sign of Gotham City's inherient corruption, the villain's vast intelligence/insanity that allows them to escape, showing that only Batman can combat them, or a albiet hyperbolic take on the current system of incarceration in the US.

But it was probably just a plot device.

 

[C. W. Saturn]

I could say that it's a sign of Gotham City's inherient corruption, the villain's vast intelligence/insanity that allows them to escape, showing that only Batman can combat them, or a albiet hyperbolic take on the current system of incarceration in the US.

But it was probably just a plot device.

eh c'mon. All this in-continuity explanation.

batboy99 is right.

 

[agentzelda]

It's a plot device.

If Batman never caught any of these villains, his abilities would be really open to question. But then in order for the series to exist beyond a few years, either you'd have way too many new villains, or it would get watered down to cop show status, which would beg the question of why not just leave this work to the cops. And certain of the villains are so intriguing readers want to see Batman pitted against them again. So they have to escape, and it's more plausible that they might escape a psychiatric facility than a maximum security prison.

Besides, making them "insane" a) adds to their super-villain status, and b) gives writers a little more flexibility in treating them: their motives have more scope, and arguably it's a little easier to "love to hate" them if you can keep telling yourself they're not wholly responsible for their nefarious deeds.

But yeah, before Arkham, they were forever breaking out of prison. My brother used to call it the revolving-door jail.