Batman: The Last Arkham - Character Introductions

Character Introductions

"The Last Arkham" launched three new characters into the Batman universe; Zsasz, Jeremiah Arkham, and Amygdala, who were reunited in a story arc during the "Knightfall" crossover.

Zsasz was originally created by Alan Grant and was named after psychiatrist Thomas Szasz when Grant saw the name while visiting his girlfriend in her university library. Despite getting complaints that the character was similar to Hannibal Lecter, Grant thought that Zsasz and Arkham Asylum would be able to start off a successful comic book series.

Alan Grant drew Jeremiah Arkham's personality from another book he at his girlfriend's library; the biology book Superstition in the Common Pigeon by B. F. Skinner. Throughout the comic book, Jeremiah Arkham states that if you "Change the behavior, the mind will follow". This line was drawn from that book and gives light to Jeremiah's sadistic methods of dealing with inmates. In the Last Arkham, Jeremiah's background is touched upon during a flashback and explains that his understanding of the human mind comes from one instance when he was 16 and a store was being held up by a maniac from Arkham Asylum. Jeremiah coolly calms the gunman when he goes to shoot him, and watches him commit suicide.