Arkham Manor #1

Issue Details

Synopsis

A HOME FOR THE CRIMINALLY INSANE CHAPTER 1 Arkham Asylum has been destroyed, and in the aftermath, Mayor Hady has received pushback at every angle in trying to find a home for the re-captured inmates. With few viable options remaining, Hady opts to use the power of eminent domain to force the inmates and patients into Wayne Manor.   Batman, meanwhile, is conflicted about it, knowing that finding a home for the Arkhamites was a necessity, but not wanting to mar his family's legacy. Still, he knows his attachment to the manor is a weakness, and accepts this as the best possible outcome from a list of only negative options. He had the choice between letting this change occur - or destroying his legacy, when the manor's rights were taken from him. He chose the more amenable option, closing off the entries to the Batcave with several feet of concrete. Bruce hopes that his father, at least, would understand and approve of his decision - even if Bruce himself doesn't like it.   Bruce has since moved into an apartment, where he is still annoyed by the occasional reporter hoping to get him to comment on his family home's transformation into a "loony bin". Alfred Pennyworth, meanwhile, is drowning his sorrows about the change in a twenty year old scotch, admitting to his ward that though he knows it was the right thing to do, he can barely stand to hear the phrase "Arkham Manor" uttered. It was more than that the house had been given over, though. Alfred admits he has heard news of a murder at the Manor.   Angry that his home has been tarnished by blood, Batman drives back to his family home with the rare opportunity to enter through the front door, where he is greeted by Harvey Bullock. He makes his way past the rooms of his house which now are home to the criminally insane, until he reaches the "cell" of the victim. He sees clearly that the man has been tortured by unknown means, with no sign of forced entry - perhaps a staff member had done it. Bullock explains that the surveillance video shows nothing, admitting that there was another murder there that Batman hadn't heard about. With that news, Batman rushes off, requiring Alfred to get his hands on a corpse.   With Alfred's help, Bruce has a deceased homeless veteran's identity erased so that he'll be buried in the potter's field that Batman had discovered some time previously. He then assumes the dead man's identity of Jack Shaw, and takes his place as an inmate at Arkham Manor.