Bane, being of sound mind and body,
decides to unleash all of Arkham Asylum’s inmates on Gotham City. He does this
in order to weaken Batman. As for Batman, who’s not of sound mind or body at
the moment, doesn’t ask any other hero for help and decides to take on this
threat with himself, Robin, and that Jean-Paul Van Damme guy. Besides, he’s the
cotton-pickin’ Batman! He beat up a shark for goodness sake! He can win, right?
Well, it all doesn’t go well. Bane corners him at his lowest and breaks his
back.
Batman: Knightfall – Who Rules the
Night
Writers: Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon,
and Alan Grant
Pencils: Jim Aparo, Graham Nolan,
Bret Blevins, Klaus Janson, and Mike Manley
Inkers: Scott Hanna, Mike Manley,
Klaus Janson, Bret Blevins, Steve George, Terry Austin, Rick Bruchett, and Dick
Giordano
Colorists: Andrinne Roy and Klaus
Janson
SYNOPSIS
We start out with Bane triumphant.
He takes Batman’s broken body to the city and throws it off a building so that
people can see that Batman’s out. Somehow, this fall doesn’t kill Batman.
Alfred, Jean-Paul, and Robin commandeer an ambulance in order to get Batman
back to the Batcave. Alfred reveals to the others that Bruce may not regain the
use of his legs. Meanwhile, Bane takes over the city by taking out the gangs.
Also, other subplots from the previous volume come to an end. Scarecrow and
Joker break their alliance, and the Ventriloquist finds Scarface.
Ouch. I think we can safely say that Batman is related to the McLeods... of the Clan McLeod!
After a badly-drawn flashback
involving Two-Face (I’ll get to that below), Bruce awakens from his coma. Not
only is he beaten in body, he’s also beaten in mind and spirit. Bruce tells Tim
that Gotham still needs a Batman and that Batman will… not be Dick Grayson for
whatever reason. The job is given to Jean-Claude Valley, and that is the last
reference I’ll make to “The Muscles from Brussels.” People already start to
notice the differences in Batman, namely Commissioner Gordon. The first
challenge Jean-Paul has to face to the Scarecrow who’s using hypnotized college
students to screw up Gotham. He sort of gets assisted by Anarky, another
vigilante who kind of looks cool in my opinion. We also find out that Jean is a
bit more brutal than Bruce ever was.
Batman's being courteous? Clone!!!! Clone!!!!! He's been secretly invaded!!!
As Jean-Paul is getting used to the
role, Bruce needs a physician in order to get into some shape. He provides Dr.
Shondra Kilsolving (aka “Shondra Plot Device”) with the means to do that. He
also takes a liking to the woman. Unfortunately, things don’t work out as she
and Jack Drake get kidnapped at Jack’s home. Bruce does what he can to stop it
but he is unable to due to his wheelchair. That still doesn’t stop Bruce from
trying to figure out who the kidnappers are. Meanwhile, Catwoman ends up working
for Bane.
While Bruce is trying to find
“Tall, Dark, and Doctor-y,” Tim finds out how brutal Jean-Paul is. He tells him
to hold back on the criminals, but Jean-Paul ain’t having any of that. When
Bruce finds out where Shondra has been taken, he and Alfred prepare to go
overseas. Tim doesn’t get a chance to tell Bruce about Jean-Paul. Meanwhile,
Jean-Paul starts to crack a bit. Since he was a part of the Order of St. Dumas
(I could have fun with “Dumas”), his brain has been toyed with a bit. He falls
under something called “The System” and makes an upgrade to his suit: “The
Deadly Deathclaws of Death!!!!” After Bruce leaves, Tim finds out about his dad is
gone.
Those gloves... what if he needs to itch? Pick his nose? Shake a hand? Cuddle? I don't see those situations turning out well.
Now that Bruce has left, Jean Paul
decides to take on Bane and his henchmen. Robin tells Jean-Paul not to since
Bruce forbade them from facing him. Still, Jean Paul goes through with it. Jean-Paul uses some trickery to get Bane’s henchmen out of jail. They lead him to
Bane who’s oblivious about the breakout. Batman busts in and knocks out the
henchmen. He then takes on Bane. The fight gets pretty brutal with Bane
knocking out Batman and escaping. Because of this defeat, Jean Paul makes more “upgrades”
to his suit. Elsewhere, Tim talks about his doubts about Jean-Paul to
Nightwing.
Oh man, it's Dick and his mullet. If you think Superman had a mullet, you'd be wrong by taking a look at this thing. No wonder Batman didn't ask Dick!
Now that Bane is at his end, he
wants to throw down with Batman for one last time. Even the police hold back
for this and Tim suits up as well. Batman comes out with his new suit and
gadgets. He fights with Bane and it is pretty brutal as before. It only needed
some Han Zimmer music. Their fight moves the subway which leaves Robin to save
the passengers. The fight ends with a crash as Batman is triumphant and Bane is
down for the count. Bane tells Batman to kill him, but Batman knows he’s broken
him enough. The book ends with Batman heading into the night and with Robin
thinking Jean-Paul might do alright.
While that suit is a bit ridiculous, that's still a cool pose and layout.
OPINION
This was a nice conclusion to the “Knightfall”
part of the Knight Trilogy. Is it perfect? Of course not, but it is something
that’s nice to read. I will say that the story is pretty good for the most
part. We see a beaten Bruce Wayne and how it affects the rest of the Bat-team.
We also see how it affects Gotham now that Bruce is out of commission. This
leads Jean-Paul Valley into taking the cowl and he is already off to a weird
start. Unfortunately, Jean-Paul is a character I really can’t get behind. There’s
just not a lot to him that I like. Still, his “upgrades” have made for some funny
material. Maybe his character gets more... character later.
The villains were fun as usual even
though we didn’t get many. While the artwork to the Two-Face two-parter was
bad, the story wasn’t that bad. I just didn’t like that it was a flashback that
didn’t add much to the overall story. The Scarecrow three-parter was a little
better. While the artwork was weird, it did fit with the
fear-inducing villain. It also introduced me to Anarky who I might read
more about. Bane was still Bane. Unfortunately, he was really only here to get his
keister kicked by Jean-Paul Valley.
The artwork varies here. Some of it
is good and some of it isn’t. The art from Aparo and Nolan was good. It had its
wonky places, but I liked it. The art from Mike Manley was also quite good. He
drew the final Batman/Bane showdown and he ruled with that fight. The artwork from the Scarecrow three-parter wasn’t to my liking.
Still, it does fit the villain and the tone the writer was setting. On the other
hand, the artwork from Klaus Jansen was not that good. That artwork really wasn’t
to my liking and it sucks because the story wasn’t a bad one.
Meh... at least the story was decent!
There’s also one thing I wonder
about: why wasn’t Nightwing asked to fill the spot? He does appear in the trade
once and we get a weak-hearted excuse. To me, he’s probably the best person to
fill Batman’s shoes because he was his partner for the longest. I heard
somewhere that the writers basically wanted to put some who’s more like the
Punisher in the costume to show how wrong “A darker Batman” would be. I say they
accomplished that mission. I also thought the placement of the Scarecrow storyline in the trade was off. The last issue before it and the issue after it flowed together well. Throwing that storyline between there messed that flow up.
Overall, I like this trade and will
read the rest of the Knight Trilogy. I probably won’t cover it here though. I
know of a podcast that actually went through all of the Knight trilogy and
other major storylines from that era. It’s called “Hey Kids, Comics!” and they
are on the Two True Freaks podcast network. They’re a British father/son team
and they’re quite funny and insightful. Check it out if you’re looking for any
podcasts to listen to. Well, I’m done with 90’s. I think I need to go back to a
time where gangsters were Batman’s main threat. Peace and God Bless.
NEXT TIME: BATMAN FACES THE NOTORIOUS GANGSTER KNOWN AS BLACKIE!! DON’T WORRY, POLITICALLY CORRECT ACTIVISTS! THE
GANGSTER’S NOT ACTUALLY BLACK!
No comments:
Post a Comment