Knightfall

Knightfall

Batman #491-497 + Detective Comics #659-663

Originally released in 1993

Written by Doug Moench (Batman) and Chuck Dixon (Detective Comics)

Art by Jim Aparo (Batman #491, 494-7), Norm Breyfogle (Batman #492-3, Detective Comics #659), Jim Balent (Detective Comics #660), and Graham Nolan (Detective Comics #661-3)

I was familiar with Knightfall through the basic premise, and the infamous panel from the story's climax, but that was all.  Reading through it, it does a good job at building the sense of overwhelming odds and threats from every direction that Batman has to deal with in the story itself.

Going by the DC Universe Infinite app, the story starts with Bane organizing a mass break-out of Arkham, though the seeds were planted before this point - Robin makes mention of Bane meeting Batman and Robin before, when Bane broke Killer Croc's arm (seemingly following prison rules - find the toughest guy and beat him up so everyone knows you mean business).  As well, Jean-Paul Valley, also known as Azrael, is working with Batman and Robin, though Robin needs to be with him at all times when he's out on patrol.

Batman's already suffering from a cold or some other kind of illness, and it doesn't help that Bane picked his targeted area to cause the most chaos that he could.  At least a dozen supervillains are let loose on the city, from lesser-known maniacs like Amygdala (a massive, gullible, and well-meaning but violent man), Film Freak (who's obsessed with movies), and Cornelius Stirk (who uses hallucinations to imitate people and prey on fears) to major threats like the Joker, the Riddler, and Scarecrow.

Rounding out the list of escapees are Poison Ivy, the Mad Hatter, Firefly, the Ventriloquist (who is busy looking for his dummy/boss, Scarface), Victor Zsasz, Killer Croc, and Two-Face, who is mentioned but hasn't made a major appearance.  Others likely broke free as well, and with all of these supervillains roaming Gotham and causing chaos (Ivy wants to kill socialites, Firefly is burning down places that are tied to his childhood, the Joker and Scarecrow team up to kidnap the mayor and cause chaos, the Riddler wants attention...), Batman is run ragged trying to stop them.

The whole thing reminded me of the recent Batman games by Rocksteady and Warner Bros. Games Montreal (the series that started with Batman: Arkham Asylum), where Batman is forced to run the gauntlet of both his famous and his lesser-known foes, though this takes place over several days (less than a week) rather than one night, and Batman's exhaustion is far more evident.

Batman's flaws are highlighted in this story - he feels the need to shoulder all of Gotham's burden by himself, turning down help from the police and from Robin.  He's clearly haunted by the death of Jason Todd, and it seems like he doesn't want Tim to suffer the same fate.

Unfortunately for the villains, the Scarecrow douses Batman with fear gas, causing him to hallucinate Jason Todd dying at the hands of the Joker.  As this already happened, Batman snaps, losing basically all restraint as he nearly beats the Joker to death, screaming Jason's name in what must have been a confusing moment for the Clown Prince of Crime. (though given the nature of Jason's death, he might have already known the boy's name, even if he seems unlikely to care)

Robin defeats some villains on his own, but Batman's determination to save Gotham on his own bites him.  By the time that he beats Bane's trio of henchman, he's barely standing; by the time that he has to fight Bane, he can barely fight back regardless of whether Bane is using Venom or not.

Bane is analytical, serious, and determined, to the point where he figures out that Batman is Bruce Wayne based on observing the two in action - all of these traits are ones that he shares with Batman, though unlike Batman, he uses them to cause chaos in Gotham so that he can defeat Batman and rule over it like a king.  There are times where the issues act as though Bane is a bigger threat than any villain that came before him, though it doesn't go over-the-top with it.

I can't imagine how shocking it must have been to read the climax of the story as it was coming out.  After defeating at least a dozen significant Arkham escapees, Bruce returns home, painstakingly climbing the stairs while barely being able to stand, only to be met by Alfred's unconscious body and Bane standing in Wayne Manor, prepared to fight.  Batman can only batter at Bane ineffectually as Bane throws him around Wayne Manor and through the Batcave, beating the tar out of him.

Not many villains knew Batman's secret identity at this point (I think it was just Hugo Strange and Ra's al Ghul), and I'm not even sure if those two were believed to be alive at this point in time. (Strange has a tendency of faking his death, while Ra's is revived by the Lazarus Pits)  Even then, Ra's has a code of honour, and presumably wouldn't attack Batman in his own home.  Bane, on the other hand, has no such code, leading to the panel that everyone knows Knightfall for:

The issue ends with Bane standing over Batman's broken body - the story continues beyond this point, but after twelve issues spread across two series, that seemed like as good of a place to stop as any.

This storyline does a good job at showing Bruce pushed to his limits, and then pushed beyond them, and then pushed a little more just for good measure.  Bruce's flaws broke him long before Bane did - he could have trusted other vigilantes in Gotham to handle part of the situation (aside from Robin and Azrael, Huntress also makes a brief cameo; I'm not sure if there are others, or what Catwoman's standing with the Bat-Family (or Nightwing's standing with Bruce) is like at this time), or had the police take on low-level inmates like Victor Zsasz or Firefly, but he chose to handle nearly everything himself, leading to his fall.  I liked it more than The Death Of Superman (a similar story that came out around the same time) because it was as much of a character study as it was a slugfest, and Bane was more of a developed character than Doomsday could ever hope to be.