Contains spoilers For Batman/Spawn #1!Batman has been fighting Gotham's worst villains for years and locking them up in Arkham Asylum, but only recently have readers gotten the answer to how Arkham Asylum can even hold these super-powered individuals.

Readers learn the secret reason that Arkham Asylum has been able to hold super-powered villains for all these years in Todd McFarlane and Greg Capullo's Batman/Spawn #1. The issue introduces the concept of "dead zones," areas that dampen supernatural abilities. The comic later reveals that Arkham Asylum was intentionally built on top of one of these dead zones, which explains why, despite Arkham Asylum being a terrible place to fix mental health, it can also hold people with inhuman abilities.

Arkham Asylum Literally Drains Villains of Their Powers

As dangerous and as strong as some of Batman's villains like Joker, Riddler and Bane are, at the end of the day they are just normal men. But not all of Batman's enemies are just regular people, as he has often fought against enemies with supernatural or inhuman abilities. Examples include the likes of the New 52 version of Mr. Freeze, who had the ability to expel frozen energy from his arms, or other villains such as Clayface and Mr. Bloom who also possess inhuman abilities. Up until now, this has begged the question: after Batman defeats a villain and returns them to Arkham Asylum, how is that facility able to hold super-powered villains? The asylum being built on a site that literally dampens superhuman powers is a logical explanation.

Arkham Asylum is a perpetually run-down facility, looking more like a haunted house than an actual asylum that could help people get better. This is why the idea that Batman is able to just stuff super-powered criminals like Mr. Freeze, Clayface, or Mr. Bloom into Arkham Asylum has never really made much sense. The asylum oftentimes struggled to hold Joker or Riddler, two entirely human individuals, yet the facility is usually able to store a shape-shifter like Clayface. The fact that the asylum sits in a dead zone completely solves all of these problems. Even more fascinating is that Batman is completely unaware of this. Batman's most recent crossover with Spawn is the only reason the Dark Knight learns about the dead zones in the first place. With this new knowledge, Batman could possibly even look into opening more asylums or places to hold villains on top of other dead zones.

While Batman and Spawn's relationship seems to be just barely that of allies, Batman still manages to learn something extremely important about Arkham Asylum, and he only managed to learn this because of Spawn.

Batman/Spawn #1 is on sale now from DC Comics!