Dorkham Asylum (She-Hulk/Nosferata foes)

DORKHAM ASYLUM

Classification: Terrestrial health institution

Notable Residents: Big Al G'houl, Dogwoman, Professor Hugo Oddt, Slimeface, Three-Face, others

Foes: Nosferata, She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters)

First Appearance: Sensational She-Hulk I#19 (September, 1990)

Powers/Abilities/Functions: Initially a taxpayer-funded institution for mental health, it degenerated into a base for Jack Serious and those he had mutated with his Serious Gas.

History:

(Sensational She-Hulk I#19-20) - In 1969, psychologist Dr. John Cereus, in contrast to the mind expanding techniques that were popular at the time, sought to develop mind-contraction as a therapy. He felt that the decreased mind would not have room for suffering, and would allow humanity to re-conceptualize itself as disposable ingredients in the industrial process.

To this end, he developed his mind-contraction vapor, Serious Gas. In an attempt to gain recognition, he devised a therapeutic technique that looked fun and liberating, in keeping with the times. This technique was the Vat of Humanity, which was composed on one hundred naked people standing skin-to-skin in a tube meant to hold only ninety, wherein the subjects were bathed in his Serious Gas. Cereus, however, fell victim to a faulty welding and fell from the catwalk from which he was observing his experiment into the vat. He and the subjects were trapped in the vat and bathed with the gas until the gas cannisters ran dry: one full week.

Cereus had his skin and hair color altered by the experience, as well as had his already questionable sanity addled further, and he became the madman Jack Serious. Serious also became the chief of staff of the mental institution Dorkham Asylum, which was primarily composed of the subjects/victims of his Vat of Humanity experiment. He not-so-affectionately referred to his title as the Emperor of Wackyland.

Serious sought vengeance on humanity for failing to see the brilliance in his theories, and plotted to remove all laughter from Visigoth, Massachusetts, which was both his hometown and the location of Dorkham Asylum. Nosferata and the She-Hulk intercepted a tanker truck transporting his Serious Gas, preventing it from arriving at its intended site. Serious, in return, sent the inmate Three-Face to expose She-Hulk to a dose of Serious Gas and abduct her back to the Asylum for experimentation. Nosferata arrived in time to save She-Hulk, and the two confronted Serious, who fled. Serious fell victim to a second faulty welding and fell to the ground floor amongst the inmates of Dorkham Asylum. The inmates turned on him, beating him severely. The fates of the inmates are unknown.

Comments: Created by Steve Gerber (writer), Bryan Hitch (pencils) and Jim Sanders III (inks).

It's probably not necessary to mention that all of the above characters were Steve Gerber's parodies of Bat-villains. So I won't.

Profile by Snood. Updated by Grendel Prime.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Dorkham Asylum has no known connections to:

any other "Dorkham" characters/locations

Big Al G'houl

Big Al G'houl was a scimitar wielding middle-easterner obsessed with killing the writer Salmon Rushdie. He would attack others if he could be convinced they were Rushdie, which wasn't difficult.