Batman: KnightFall Volume 1

When I was a child, we used to go up north to the family cabin every summer. While we did so many things there -fishing, swimming, boating, bonfires- what sticks out the most, was that the cabin had a huge box of comic books my cousins had collected from my Uncle’s convenience store. We would get to the cabin each year, and after we had explored the woods for a while and played ourselves out, I would crawl under the bunk bed to slide out the old dusty box of comics. Inside, there was an assorted collection, including Nightwatch, Conan, and Batman. I was never interested in the old black and white Conan books, but now I wish I had grabbed them up to read now (the box is sadly long gone). I loved the issue of Nightwatch, the character being someone new I’d never heard of before, and his black costume looking very impressive to my child-self. However, the real winners in the box were the Batman books. They were assorted stories, and most of them came from the KnightsEnd era. I read and re-read those books countless times, marvelling at Azrael’s suit and the violence of this new Batman. Since that time, I have always wanted to read the full KnightFall saga, and with the new reprints that DC is putting out to cash in the film, (what with Bane featured as a key part of both), I finally get my chance.

This is the second time that DC has reprinted the KnightFall story line, but this time it appears they are doing a much better job, finally reprinting the majority of the middle segment of stories (entitled KnightQuest), and have added Bane’s origin issue into the collection. We will have to wait and see once they have published all of the volumes whether we have gotten the full story this time or if this is yet another half-hearted effort on DC’s part. Currently, it’s looking optimistic, but is still sounds like some key portions of KnightQuest will be missing. That being said, the first volume did not really lack anything at all, and I was quite happy with it. Coming in at just over 650 pages, this is a massive book, and with a cover price of only $34 you get a lot of bang for your buck.

However, it’s the content that actually matters, yah? I’m happy to say that this collection met my childhood memory fairly well. The art is a bit poorer than I expected, and the writing isn’t always perfect, but the book filled my desire of reading about Bane’s battle with Batman. The book opens with an acceptable origin story for Bane, and while its schlock, it’s fun 90’s schlock. Bane is imprisoned at birth for the crimes of his father in the made-up Latin American country of Santa Prisca, and as he grows up he learns to control the system, and becomes a brilliant and violent man. Oh, and then he becomes part of a military experiment and is injected with “Venom”, giving him super strength whenever the chemical is pumped into his system. And then he decides he hates Batman, who he hears about, and decides he wants to defeat him and take over Gotham City. So, you know, that sets everything up.

From there, we witness Bane liberate all of Arkham Asylum’s inmates, and watch as Batman runs himself ragged defeating these foes, while Bane waits until Batman has been physically and mentally worn down before confronting him. Once they meet, Bane destroys Batman, breaking Batman’s back. The backbreaking is the big thing about KnightFall, everyone who reads Batman knows this has happened, and it has moved beyond spoiler territory, as DC has used this image on the cover of both sets of reprints since then. Nowadays, it’s no big deal, as we know eventually Bruce Wayne will get better and become the Batman again. However, at the time, DC pitched this story as the last story of Bruce Wayne. If I had read this story with that knowledge, I feel I would have been let down, as Batman rounds up very few ‘big’ villains before confronting Bane, and the final fight between Bane and Batman was not overly wowing. It is a poor swan song for Bruce Wayne, and one that actually reads better when you know there are no lasting ramifications.

The idea of a villain defeating Batman this way is good, and all of the ideas presented in the book are great, it is the execution that fails to impress. Each individual issue is a bit dry when you compare to it the idea of the arc the two main writers were creating. Batman being defeated because of his inability to allow himself time to rest is a great idea, since it is in Bruce Wayne’s character to sacrifice and give until he is unable to give anymore. Also, the idea that anyone without the severe moral fibre of Bruce Wayne would eventually stoop to the level of those they oppose is also great, (as the book begins to show with Jean Paul Valley, who Wayne gives the mantle of the Bat to after he is injured). Both of those ideas should be worth the price of admission for Batman fans.

The majority of the writing in this volume was done by Doug Moench and Chuck Dixon, and while I adore Moench’s writing on Moon Knight and his Elseworld’s Batman: Vampire trilogy, it was Dixon’s writing that I began to warm up to more as the volume progressed. Dixon’s writing was straightforward, and didn’t rely on oddly phrased prose to make things ‘punchy’. Sadly, Moench’s writing read a bit too much like a 90’s comic book, whereas Dixon’s felt like it could almost be contemporary.

Art wise, the book is all over the place. None of it stands out as amazing, except for Kelly Jones and Bill Sienkiewicz’s covers (I am a huge fan of how Kelly Jones draws Batman, almost like some gothic horror of horns and rippling fabric). The interior art, while none of it so bad as to be offensive, was surprisingly poor considering Batman is one of DC’s flagship books. The only art that really stood out was Brett Belvins’ in the three issues of Shadow of the Bat that this volume contains. And even then, I really only liked the way he drew Scarecrow (albeit, it is my favourite Scarecrow ever).

Overall, this volume first volume of KnightFall was enjoyable, with a fun little jaunt down memory lane, watching Batman protect Gotham, be defeated, and then watch as the new Batman slowly falls into a dark place, setting up for KnightQuest and eventually, Bruce Wayne’s return in KnightsEnd.