I have a question about Gotham City

[Blaze]

Okay. Here's the new question. I imagine someone that's read the comics will have the answer because I remember reading about it as well as Barbara mentioning on the show. I just can't remember the details. I seem to remember the prisoners escaping Arkkam during this time.

I gathered from the 3d shots that Gotham city was basically a large island. Is that correct? Sorry it may sound stupid but I'm a bit rust on the details.

Also, from the episode I understand that New Gotham was built on Tutonic plates over Old Gotham, but what did they say happened? I think she mentioned earthquake, but was there more in the comics?

Thanks
Blaze

[jaguarin]

It is located on the outskirts of Gotham City, and is where those of Batman's foes considered to be legally insane are incarcerated (other foes are incarcerated at Blackgate Penitentiary). Although it has had numerous administrators, its current head is Jeremiah Arkham. Inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft, the asylum was created by Dennis O'Neil and first appeared in Batman #258 (October 1974); much of its back-story was created by Len Wein during the 1980s. In the foreword to the book The Dark Ages: Grim, Great, and Gimmicky Post-Modern Comics, Jack C. Harris claims that it was he who conceptualized the idea of Arkham Asylum, and that any other such claims are false.

Arkham Asylum does not have a good record, at least with regard to the high profile cases; escapes are frequent (on at least one occasion, an obsessive-compulsive multiple murderer was signed out of Arkham into the care of an incontinent, alcoholic vagrant, on the grounds that he "looked like a responsible citizen", and those who are 'cured' and released tend to re-offend. Furthermore, several staff members, including at least one director, have ended up as residents, notably Dr. Harleen Quinzel, Lyle Bolton and, in some incarnations, Drs. Jonathan Crane and Hugo Strange.

In addition, prisoners with unusual medical conditions that prevent them from staying in a regular prison are housed there. For example, Mr. Freeze is not technically insane, but he requires a strongly refrigerated environment to stay alive, which only Arkham can provide.


Origins
The one-shot graphic novel Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth establishes that the Asylum is named after Elizabeth Arkham, founder Amadeus Arkham's mother. The original name of the asylum is Arkham Hospital. Its dark history began in the early 1900s when Arkham's mother, having suffered from mental illness most of her life, committed suicide. (It is later revealed that she was actually euthanized by her son, which his mind repressed.) Amadeus Arkham decided, then, as the sole heir to the Arkham estate, to remodel his family home (known as Mercey Mansion) in order to properly treat the mentally ill, so others might not go untreated and suffer as his mother had. Prior to the period of the hospital's remodeling, Arkham treated patients at the State Psychiatric Hospital in Metropolis, where he and his wife, Constance, and daughter, Harriet, had been living for quite some time.

Upon telling his family of his plans, they moved back to his family home to oversee the remodeling. While there, Arkham received a call from the police notifying him Martin "Mad Dog" Hawkins — a serial killer referred to Arkham by Metropolis Penitentiary while at State Psychiatric Hospital — had escaped from prison, and sought his considered opinion on his state of mind.

On April 1, 1921, Arkham returned to his home to find his front door wide open. Inside, he discovered the raped and mutilated bodies of his wife and daughter in an upstairs room, Hawkins having carved his nickname on Harriet's body.

Despite this family tragedy, the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane officially opened that November. One of its first patients was Martin Hawkins, whom Arkham insisted on personally treating. On April 1, 1922, after treating Hawkins for six months, Arkham strapped him to the electroshock couch and purposely electrocuted him. The death was treated as an accident but contributed to Arkham's gradual descent into madness, which he began to believe was his birthright. Eventually, Arkham was institutionalized in his own hospital, where he died.

Arkham Asylum first appeared in 1974, in Batman #258 by Dennis O'Neil. In this story, it was named as "Arkham Hospital" (although it was already clear what kind of hospital it was); "Arkham Asylum" first appeared in another O'Neil story the following year, but it was not until 1979 that "Arkham Asylum" completely replaced "Arkham Hospital" (and the occasional "Arkham Sanatarium") as the institution's name. By 1979, too, the move to have the asylum closer to Gotham had begun; that was completed in 1980, when Batman #326 by Len Wein described the Asylum's location "deep in the suburbs of Gotham City". (Perhaps for this reason Batman #326 is listed in some histories as the first appearance of Arkham Asylum.) It was also Wein who, in 1985's Who's Who #1, created its current back-story.

Arkham Asylum has been demolished or destroyed several times in its history, notably during the events of Batman: The Last Arkham (see below). It was also seriously damaged at the beginning of the Knightfall storyline, when Bane used stolen munitions to blow up the facility and release all the inmates. After these events, the asylum was relocated to a large mansion known as "mercy house", where it remains to this day. At the beginning of the No Man's Land storyline, the asylum was closed down and all its inmates set free (a timer was used to open the doors two minutes before the city was sealed). This was orchestrated by the administrator himself, who had the choice of releasing the inmates or watching them all starve or kill each other. In the middle of the story, it is revealed that Batman has established a hidden base within the subbasement of the asylum during the Prodigal storyline known as "Northwest Batcave."

During the No Man's Land, Arkham was taken over by the Joker and Harley Quinn. With the sole exception of the Riddler, the inmates elected to remain in the cut-off Gotham City.


Inmates

Some of Arkham's inmates. Cover to Batman: Shadow of the Bat #82 (1999). Art by Glen Orbik.Originally, Arkham Asylum was used only to house genuinely insane characters - the Joker and Two-Face were inmates from its very first appearance - but over the course of the 1980s a trend was established of having the majority of Batman's supervillain opponents end up at Arkham, whether or not they were actually insane. This is likely due to some of the facility's high-tech features that make it more efficient to hold a villain such as Clayface there than in another prison. Nearly all of Batman's enemies have spent some time in Arkham.

Other DC Universe publications that feature Arkham Asylum and its inmates include Alan Moore's Swamp Thing (wherein Jason Woodrue -- The Floronic Man -- is detained) and The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, wherein John Dee (Doctor Destiny) escapes to wreak havoc on both the 'real' and 'dream' worlds.

Arkham has also been featured in varying capacities in a number of high profile DC miniseries events, such as Identity Crisis, Day of Vengeance, Countdown, and Crisis on Infinite Earths among others.


info from wiki...

[Blaze]

Hi,
Thanks. That helps too. I forgot the wiki and that helped to find what I wanted to know about Gotham city. Thanks.