Amadeus Arkham

Gallery

Real Name

Amadeus Arkham

Current Alias

Amadeus Arkham

Relatives

Jeremiah Arkham (descendant), Constance Arkham (daughter, deceased), Harriet Arkham (wife, deceased), Elizabeth Arkham (mother, deceased)

Base Of Operations

Arkham Asylum, Gotham City

Status

Alignment

Good

Identity

Public Identity

Citizenship

American

Marital Status

Widowed

Occupation

Psychiatrist

Characteristics

Gender

Male

Origin

Universe

New Earth

Created by

Grant Morrison, Dave McKean

First appearance

[[Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth]]

HistoryEdit

Dr. Amadeus Arkham is the only son of mentally-ill Elizabeth Arkham, Amadeus watched his mother struggle with her illness for years, which drove him to become a psychiatrist. Years later, having earned a residency at the Metropolis State Psychiatric Hospital, he returned home, and having found his mother to be growing worse, aided her in committing suicide. After her death, he became the sole owner of her home, the Mercey Mansion, which he decided to turn into a facility for the mentally ill. He gave up his practice at MSPH and moved his wife, Harriet Arkham, and daughter, Constance, into the mansion.

During the remodeling process, one of Arkham's former patients, Martin "Mad Dog" Hawkins, escaped from Metropolis Penitentiary and broke into the Arkham family living quarters. Amadeus returned home that night and discovered both his wife and daughter had been raped and murdered, with Hawkins' nickname carved into Harriet's chest. When the Asylum opened that November, Hawkins was captured and became one of its first inmates. Amadeus insisted on treating him personally. After six months of treatment, Amadeus could see no improvement in Hawkins and killed him with a lethal dosage of electroshock therapy. The incident was ruled accidental but was only the beginning of Amadeus' slide into insanity, and eventually, he ended up dying as an inmate in his own asylum.

DCnU

The DC Universe heavily changed its continuity into the DCnU following the events of Flashpoint in 2011. This was part of an effort to make storylines more accessible to newer readers, beginning with the New 52. This new timeline combines elements from the DCU, Vertigo Universe and Wildstorm Universe while drastically changing the origins and histories of characters.

Following a change to the Timestream as a result of the events of Flashpoint, history was changed. During the 1880s, Amadeus Arkham was recruited by Detective Lofton of the Gotham City Police Department to help solve the case of the Gotham Butcher. Police Chief John Cromwell didn't take kindly to Arkham's theories, nor to the eventual recruitment of bounty hunter Jonah Hex.
Even so, recognizing Hex's street smarts, Arkham suggested that the two of them join forces in performing a separate investigation into the case. Together, they uncovered Gotham City's sect of the Religion of Crime, and its relation to the Butcher case.

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

Abilities

• Investigation: Doctor Arkham has spent many years working alongside the Gotham City Police Department as their liaison into the darker side of the criminal world.
• Medicine: Doctor Arkham was formally trained as a pharmaceutical doctor prior to creating Arkham Asylum.
• Psychiatry: Doctor Arkham has been training in the field of psychiatry for years prior to it becoming an actual science, he later studied and was given degrees for his work.
• Science

• Medical Science: Doctor Arkham was a pill doctor specializing in the medication of his patients.
• Psychology: His foremost of abilities is his deep pathological need to study the inner workings of the human mind in all aspects, he finds his mentally ill patients the most interesting.

Weaknesses

• Mental Illness: Doctor Arkham has slowly degraded over time, losing his grip with sanity and eventually dying as an inmate in his own asylum.

Related

• 24 Appearances of Amadeus Arkham (New Earth)
• 6 Images featuring Amadeus Arkham (New Earth)
• 6 Quotations by or about Amadeus Arkham (New Earth)
• Character Gallery: Amadeus Arkham (New Earth)

LinksEdit

• Arkham Asylum

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Footnotes