Part III, which details Bruce Wayne's comeback and his efforts to take the mantle of Batman back from a renegade John Paul Valley. Unfortunately, Part III picks up at issue Batman #506, which creates a sizable hole between parts II and III, especially since in the interim J.V.P. lets two men die, driving Bruce, Time, and Dick (Batman, Robin, and Nightwing) to wage their quest against him. The story does a great job of creating a distinction between Valley's armor and weapons and Wayne's belief in Ninjisu, Gymnastics, and Martial Arts. For a comic fan, the progess of Bruce back to top form is truly enjoyable in the vein of Batman Begins. With an exceptional final battle between Bruce and J.P.V., this is a good conclusion to the story Knightsend; the only drawback is the frustration over the missing parts of the story.
October 03, 2008

The Comic book equivelent of a Summer Blockbuster!

At the end of the two volume Knightfall story, Batman is left in a wheel chair and Jean Paul Valley is left in the role of Batman. At the beginning of Knightsend, the final chapter of this long saga, Bruce Wayne is fully recovered from his severe spinal injuries and now has to re-train himself to reclaim the mantle of Batman from the now mentally unhinged Jean Paul. If you are confused, that's because DC never bothered to reprint the second story arc, Knightsquest, which put Bruce Wayne on the road to recovery (in a very convaluted and unconvincing way) and sent Jean paul Valley into a mental breakdown.
This book reprints the 10 part storyline which ran in the monthly Batman, Detective Comics, Shadow of the Bat, Legends of the Dark knight and Catwoman comics. The writing on this one is fairly consistant and simple; Batman runs a gaunlet set up by Lady Shiva to ensure his retraining is complete so he can tackle his imposter, and after proving his abilities, Batman, along with Nightwing, Robin and Catwoman face down the rampaging faux Batman all over Gotham City. Not very profound, but this is the comic book equivelent of a summer action movie.
The art is where the book may be where readers will feel let down. Although Graham Nolan and Barry Kitson do their usual great job, Ron Wagner and Brett Blevins are irritatingly bad. Mike Manley's work is competent, but that's it. Overall, there are more well drawn chapters than badly drawin ones, but the book still suffers from "Crossover Syndrome", where each chapter doesn't quite fit with the one before due to the severe change in style between artists.
The climax, or anticlimax, is outstanding. Dennis O'Neil proves he is one of the best Batman writers in the character's history with Batman using his brains rather than fist to defeat his far stronger foe, but as then Group Editor of the Batman books at DC Comics, he really should have paid more attention to the artwork.
September 07, 2008

Great Story!

This is one of my favourite Batman G/N

The Batman has returned. Stronger then ever!

A must!
May 11, 2007

Maybe I missed something..

Firstly, I should say that the Knightfall collections are great. Watching Bane wear down Bruce Wayne systematically in the first volume or seeing Bruce Wayne's slow return to recovery in the second were well done. Then we come to volume 3. My biggest gripe with the third volume is how disjointed it is from the second. Plot lines started in the second volume are never picked up again. The transition from the first volume to the second is very clean. It's almost as though you're turning a page. The end of the second volume sees Bruce Wayne in South America attempting to rescue two people close to him who have been kidnapped. Jean Paul Valley is spiraling out of control but volume 2 still ends on a high note wherein he refuses to kill Bane. One opens volume 3 to discover that Bruce is walking again, training with lady Shiva, and Jean Paul Valley has gone completely insane and has, at some point, become murderous. It seems like the series would have been better served by having a volume 2.5.
Now, none of this is to say that this volume is a poor book. As it is, it satisfyingly completes the storyline as Bruce attempts to reclaim the mantle of the bat.
January 01, 2007

Excellent Story

Other reviewers are correct: you do need to purchase some of the original comics of Knightquest to find out what happens in between the end of Knightfall and this story. Alternatively, there are novelizations by Dennis O'Neill and Alan Grant you could read. In short, Bruce's back heals and intends to retire to his civilian life, but Robin informs him of Azrael's violence as Batman. Bruce then vows to reclaim the mantle of the Bat, apparently scaring Alfred (his longtime butler) away because he fears Bruce will be seriously injured again. In our real-time, Alfred doesn't return for over a year. Azrael 'shoves' Bruce away when he returns to the Batcave, and Bruce realizes that he must go into training if he is to have any chance of defeating Azrael.

The story itself picks up at the beginning of Bruce's training to restore his physical strength and instincts. The writing is psychologically intense, and the fight scenes are mostly fun entertainment that would not be out of place on the 1960s TV series.

In the end, we see all that makes the Batman great and everlasting. A fitting close to arguably the biggest Bat-story ever done to that point.
June 29, 2006

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Batman: Knightfall, Part One: Broken Bat
by Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon

Batman: A Death in the Family
by Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo, Mike DeCarlo

Batman: Dark Victory
by Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale

Batman: The Killing Joke
by Alan Moore, Brian Bolland

Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition)
by Grant Morrison
by Dave McKean