Jeremiah Arkham

Jeremiah Arkham
Jeremiah Arkham Art by José Ladrönn
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1 (June 1992)
Created by	Alan Grant Norm Breyfogle
In-story information
Alter ego	Jeremiah Arkham
Team affiliations	Arkham Asylum
Notable aliases	Black Mask

Jeremiah Arkham is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character commonly appears in comic book titles associated with the superhero Batman. He is the director of Arkham Asylum, and he is the nephew of Amadeus Arkham, the Asylum's founder.

He debuted in 1992 in Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1 during the four-part story arc "Batman: The Last Arkham" that kicked off the new series where he was created by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle.

In Batman: The Last Arkham, Jeremiah is portrayed as the somewhat sadistic administrator of Arkham Asylum who has delusions that the criminals he houses could one day be housed in society. The Asylum had come into Jeremiah's possession after his uncle Amadeus Arkham died after going mad. Jeremiah proceeded to demolish the asylum before rebuilding it with state-of-the-art systems to keep Arkham's criminals, such as The Joker, The Scarecrow and Cornelius Stirk, contained.

Jeremiah's background was touched upon briefly. Although not much is known about his prior history, the issue states that when he was a teenager he walked into a corner store being held up at gun point by an escaped inmate of the nearby Arkham Asylum, which was coincidentally run by his uncle. The gunman had already killed the storeowners, but when he went to shoot him, Jeremiah seemed to know all about the gunman's past and talked the gunman out of shooting him. The gunman then proceeded to commit suicide and Jeremiah knew he would be destined to succeed his uncle as the head of Arkham Asylum.

Soon after the new Arkham is built, Batman stumbles across a series of murders resembling Zsasz's MO. Zsasz (who also debuted in Shadow of the Bat #1) had been an inmate at Arkham Asylum for a long period, but the similarity was too much to ignore, so Batman fakes insanity to get into the asylum to investigate. However, Jeremiah is unaware of this plot and takes Batman's insanity as genuine. Zsasz had actually been the murderer and had been getting out of Arkham by a series of underground tunnels put in place by the contractor on the asylum's revamp. Zsasz, upon hearing of Batman's arrival, predicts it's a set-up and begins to plant seeds of doubt and hatred towards Batman in Jeremiah Arkham's mind. In addition to this, Jeremiah blames Batman for stopping his inmate's rehabilitation. The situation erupts when Jeremiah locks Batman in a room and sets the inmates of Arkham on him, including Amygdala, The Riddler and others.