eh. Batman ( )

I enjoyed this completion of the Knightfall trilogy, especially as I learned more about Nightwing, a character that I have been aware of, but haven't read much of his stuff. ( )

A good, if slightly overlong, conclusion to the Knightfall saga. There's a welcome return from Two face and Dick Grayson, as well as a more developed Robin than previous incumbents. There's some interesting villains, and some interesting crime writing as well. It's not really as noir as the long Halloween but bear in mind that this is now over twenty years old and before the remastering of Batman as the cinematic Dark Knight. Enjoyable, could do with better pacing and not as dated as you might expect. ( )

“You take them in... I take them down!”
- Azrael to Batman

Order of Saint Dumas was not my cup of tea. But Batman, Robin, Catwoman, and Nightwing are! Overall, a decent wrap up of the story arc. Though I was hoping to see Bane one more time...

It's interesting, Batman's code of not killing. He lectures Azrael about how terrible Az was for letting Abattoir die, and thereby also, as a result, having Graham Etchison die, an innocent. But then, isn't Batman just as guilty for NOT killing the bad guys? Every time any of them get back out after Batman "puts them away", don't they just start killing innocents again? Even in this collection, Killer Croc kills a man standing on the banks of Gotham River. So... isn't that man's death the Batman's fault, by his own reasoning and condemnation of Azrael? If he had taken the life of Croc in any of their previous meetings, that poor fellow would have lived! Just like all the people that die when the Joker gets back out! The code of not killing is commendable, but all of the deaths at the hands of all of the villains he lets live never seem to enter into his equation. I wonder why? ( )

There are a couple of different story lines in this gigantic tome of the Knightfall Saga. First we see Bruce trying to get back the edge that made him so great as Batman. With Lady Shiva as his teacher. Needless to say that has some great twists and turns because she kills and he doesn't.

Then there is the confrontation between Jean-Paul and Bruce for the mantle of the bat.

And finally there's the Prodigal story line where Dick is Batman and has to go up against Two Face as well as some other bad guys.

It was a lot to read all in one book, but, this as well as the No Man's Land Saga and Gotham Central are my favorite Batman stories. This saga is so well crafted and most of the art wasn't bad either. Although at the very end some of the Renee/Harvey art just seemed juvenile girl drew them. ( )