So at my review of Batman: Knightfall, Part One: Broken Bat* I summarized the Broken Bat storyline, and in this one I’ll summarize the Who Rules the Night storyline.

So after Batman’s back is broken, he is rushed to the Batcave where Alfred takes care of him. For some reason then there’s a story that takes place three weeks earlier about Batman and Robin capturing Two-Face, but it’s not necessary. So Robin gives the cape and cowl to no one other than the religious sect assassin who was trained from birth to be an avenging angel, A.K.A Jean-Paul Valley. I will be calling him AzBats. So he goes out and fights some people, and then Scarecrow who wants to be a god or something. Scarecrow’s fear gas makes the subliminal messaging from the Order of St. Dumas (known as The System) to start to take hold. So he gets the brilliant idea to banish Robin forever and create CLAWS for himself. So he goes out, fights some more, people, and then attempts to take on Bane. He fails, so he immediately makes a super crazy mecha-batsuit. He fights Bane, succeeds and bam. It’s over.


Continue reading my Knightfall summaries at my review of Batman: Knightfall, Vol. 2: Knightquest.


*I own Knightfall Part One, and I checked out Knightfall Vols. 1-3 at the library. ( )

A very good story of Batman pushed to the end of his ropes, and beyond. I read several of these when they were printed first in the early 90's, and enjoyed them then. It is fun to read the whole series in one continuous line. ( )

I'll get a few negatives out of the way. The art style isn't nearly as impressive as Hush, Court of Owls or a few of the other Batman Graphic Novels I've been reading. The writing is pretty campy and classic, lots of stuff that would fit right in with the campy 1960s Batman, so if you're not down wit that, I don't blame you.

With that said, this was really compelling. The tension keeps going, and Batman's inner monologue makes you want him to go take a 3 month nap and immediate medical attention. Bane's plan really wears Batman down, and you along with him. The end 20 pages are just incredible, iconic and classic for a reason. I would say the overall structure is really strong and easy to follow. There's a reason they adapted this for Dark Knight Rises, Bane is a fun, intimidating villain. ( )

I read this because the new Batman movie is coming soon (Dark Knight Rises) and I'm excited about it. Also, being new to comics, I didn't know anything about the character, Bane, featured in the new movie so I thought I'd read through his story arc to see which moral grey areas Christopher Nolan intends to straighten out in his latest. At first, Bane's story was full of interesting philosophical potential but this potential was quickly undermined by the exaggerated dramas and manufactured perils of comic book story time, complete with goofy side characters and cheesy dialogue. I will probably still read volumes 2 and 3 because I'm crazy weird about thoroughness but understand that I'm embarrassed about it and that where before I was hoping these could be slotted into my quirky-but-vastly-intelligent-reads category I see now they are only guilty pleasures. ( )

The first story, "Vengeance of Bane" is excellent! Great writing and strong origin story of the big, bad man himself! The rest of the compilation is not quite up to the high standards that it sets. It's a big story with almost all of Batman's adversaries in it, as Arkham has once again been breached. But the actual Bane vs. Batman scenes are all too brief. And Robin sure whines a whole lot! Gee whiz Boy Wonder, clamp your beak and do something! Still, the visual of Batman broken over Bane's knee is a classic, and I'm glad I read it. ( )