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A review by caitcoy
Batman: Knightfall, Vol. 2: Knightquest by Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant
2.0
I haven’t been this disappointed in a Batman story since [b:Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again|52367|Batman The Dark Knight Strikes Again|Frank Miller|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386749125s/52367.jpg|1385264]. When you have a sequel to an amazing story, you want that story to continue and to be everything its predecessor was (and hopefully more). Unfortunately, the second volume of Knightfall definitely falls in the “extremely disappointing sequel” category. Admittedly, it’s really part of the same story, but definitely the same feelings here.
Volume One gives you all the excitement and drama of Bane’s appearance, his masterminding a gauntlet of horrors for Batman and ultimately his bloody defeat of Batman. With his back broken, Bruce Wayne must give himself time to heal and because Gotham cannot wait for a protector, he asks Jean Paul Valley aka Azrael to step in for him and assume the mantle of the Bat. I’m really not sure he could have made a worse choice. There’s definitely an argument to be made here that Dick Grayson should have been the one to ask. I get that Dick has his own territory to watch over now but still…you’re really gonna choose a guy you don’t know all that well to take over the crusade you’ve dedicated your life to? Even if it’s just temporary? But apparently this doesn’t occur to Bruce so he takes off to convalesce and track down some missing friends while leaving Robin (Tim Drake) behind to act as Valley’s conscience.
To everyone’s surprise, Valley doesn’t handle things well. He has been brainwashed by his own father into THE SYSTEM of a crazy quasi-Templar cult called the Order of St. Dumas. Sarcasm doesn’t translate well in print but I got really fucking tired of The System by the end of this volume. It'll just randomly help Valley out anytime he's in trouble. About to get his ass kicked? System kicks in! Rescues a lady who only speaks Spanish? System kicks in and now he speaks and understands Spanish perfectly! It gets old really REALLY fast. So this System essentially made Valley into a badass, ruthless assassin. Valley had previously rejected this training but shockingly, when he takes on the dark protector identity of Batman, his old training resurfaces and Azrael-Batman is more violent, more ruthless and less concerned with unintended consequences than Bruce Wayne’s Batman. He also wants no partners so he walls off all the entrances to the Batcave and essentially tells Robin to fuck off. Valley is all the violent parts of Batman on steroids with none of the things that make Batman awesome:
Batman’s intelligence and planning are the main reason I’ve always loved him. But Valley hates detective work. He’s filling in for the World’s Greatest Detective and he’d rather just beat the shit out of someone than do anything involving his brain.
Consequently he does absolutely zero research on Batman’s enemies so he has no idea who Freeze is and decides that Joker isn’t a real threat. That’s right. He’d rather chase down muggers and common criminals than the guy who has probably murdered more people in Gotham than anyone. His reasoning? Joker is just a crazy dude that Bruce Wayne has a fixation on and is no more dangerous than any other criminal. I’m not gonna argue that Bruce and Joker don’t have a strange relationship but I’m pretty sure I would make bringing in a homicidal maniac my first order of business as Batman.
And as a last complaint….those bad guys were awful. First you get two identical twin cowboys/gunslingers who have never met each before but happen to find each other in Gotham and proceed to wreak all kinds of havoc. Old West style gunslinger twins. Seriously. And then we get the Maniaxe who are arguably the most irritating. If I was thinking up Batman villains, I’m pretty sure that “former-post-grunge-punk-band-turned-band-of-criminals modeled after The Three Stooges” wouldn’t be on the short list, the long list or any other kind of fucking list.
So…Volume Two gives us bad writing, incredibly irritating characters and a new violent Batman who doesn’t care that he’s breaking every one of Batman’s cardinal rules. The only parts of this I enjoyed were Tim Drake (who was actually pretty interesting as a kid trying to balance being Robin, trying to rein in a complete psycho and being a normal teenager) and the confrontation between Bruce and Valley when Bruce finally returns and finds out how badly Valley has tarnished Batman’s name. Now I just want to see Bruce kick the shit out of Valley and reclaim his place as the true Batman. If that was the goal of this volume, then…mission accomplished.
Volume One gives you all the excitement and drama of Bane’s appearance, his masterminding a gauntlet of horrors for Batman and ultimately his bloody defeat of Batman. With his back broken, Bruce Wayne must give himself time to heal and because Gotham cannot wait for a protector, he asks Jean Paul Valley aka Azrael to step in for him and assume the mantle of the Bat. I’m really not sure he could have made a worse choice. There’s definitely an argument to be made here that Dick Grayson should have been the one to ask. I get that Dick has his own territory to watch over now but still…you’re really gonna choose a guy you don’t know all that well to take over the crusade you’ve dedicated your life to? Even if it’s just temporary? But apparently this doesn’t occur to Bruce so he takes off to convalesce and track down some missing friends while leaving Robin (Tim Drake) behind to act as Valley’s conscience.
To everyone’s surprise, Valley doesn’t handle things well. He has been brainwashed by his own father into THE SYSTEM of a crazy quasi-Templar cult called the Order of St. Dumas. Sarcasm doesn’t translate well in print but I got really fucking tired of The System by the end of this volume. It'll just randomly help Valley out anytime he's in trouble. About to get his ass kicked? System kicks in! Rescues a lady who only speaks Spanish? System kicks in and now he speaks and understands Spanish perfectly! It gets old really REALLY fast. So this System essentially made Valley into a badass, ruthless assassin. Valley had previously rejected this training but shockingly, when he takes on the dark protector identity of Batman, his old training resurfaces and Azrael-Batman is more violent, more ruthless and less concerned with unintended consequences than Bruce Wayne’s Batman. He also wants no partners so he walls off all the entrances to the Batcave and essentially tells Robin to fuck off. Valley is all the violent parts of Batman on steroids with none of the things that make Batman awesome:
Batman’s intelligence and planning are the main reason I’ve always loved him. But Valley hates detective work. He’s filling in for the World’s Greatest Detective and he’d rather just beat the shit out of someone than do anything involving his brain.
Consequently he does absolutely zero research on Batman’s enemies so he has no idea who Freeze is and decides that Joker isn’t a real threat. That’s right. He’d rather chase down muggers and common criminals than the guy who has probably murdered more people in Gotham than anyone. His reasoning? Joker is just a crazy dude that Bruce Wayne has a fixation on and is no more dangerous than any other criminal. I’m not gonna argue that Bruce and Joker don’t have a strange relationship but I’m pretty sure I would make bringing in a homicidal maniac my first order of business as Batman.
And as a last complaint….those bad guys were awful. First you get two identical twin cowboys/gunslingers who have never met each before but happen to find each other in Gotham and proceed to wreak all kinds of havoc. Old West style gunslinger twins. Seriously. And then we get the Maniaxe who are arguably the most irritating. If I was thinking up Batman villains, I’m pretty sure that “former-post-grunge-punk-band-turned-band-of-criminals modeled after The Three Stooges” wouldn’t be on the short list, the long list or any other kind of fucking list.
So…Volume Two gives us bad writing, incredibly irritating characters and a new violent Batman who doesn’t care that he’s breaking every one of Batman’s cardinal rules