Review: Batman - Knightfall Volume 2, Knightquest

With Bane finally off the streets, Jean-Paul Valley turns his attention to the seedy underbelly of Gotham City. As the new Batman, he hopes to cleanse the city of its criminal elements in a way Bruce Wayne never dared. He must face off against the Joker, Catwoman and two Clayfaces, but his real challenge may very well be apprehending the unhinged serial killer known as Abattoir.

Batman: Knightfall Volume 2 – Knightquest collects Detective Comics #667-675, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #19-20, 24-28, Batman #501-508, Catwoman #6-7 and Robin #7. It features writing by Chuck Dixon, Jo Duffy, Alan Grant and Doug Moench.

Knightquest was the banner used for the series of stories that occurred immediately after the critically-acclaimed Knightfall crossover. It was split up into two parts – the first, dubbed “The Crusade,” followed Jean-Paul Valley’s nightly quest to rid Gotham City of criminals and the second, called “The Search,” detailed Bruce Wayne’s attempt to rescue Jack Drake and Shondra Kinsolving. This trade paperback only collects the issues under the banner of “The Crusade.” The decision to focus on this particular set of stories is odd and makes it difficult for the reader to fully engage in the material. Jean-Paul Valley is wholly unlikeable and there are so few interesting villains here that it makes it difficult to engage in the narrative. For example, much of “The Crusade” focuses on the new Batman’s search for the serial killer Abattoir. It’s an interesting concept, but is continually interrupted by a series of Z-list villains who show up and require Batman’s attention. The exclusion of “The Search” is puzzling, especially since Bruce Wayne is absent for nearly this entire trade and then re-appears towards the end with passing references to what happened while he was away. At nearly 700 pages, this hefty trade really could have stood to have included those arguably very crucial issues.

For the most part, Knightquest is a forgettable mess of stories that lack excitement and that fail to re-capture the tension that pervaded Knightfall. The point of this particular storyline seems to be the descent of Jean-Paul Valley into moral corruption. The goal is to get him to that point where he’s willing to kill and does so without remorse. Unfortunately, we have to suffer through issue upon issue of stories with varying qualities of enjoyment and the character he eventually kills is one that no one will particularly miss. That said, there was an interesting internal conflict that permeated throughout this collection. Jean-Paul has visions of his father and Saint-Dumas duking it out for control over his thoughts, acting essentially as the figurative devil and angel on his shoulder.

While the majority of the stories within Knightquest are nothing to write home about, there is a four issue arc that crosses over with Catwoman that is stands above everything else as being entertaining and engaging. In it, Catwoman must prevent a group of terrorists from getting their hands on a dangerous chemical that kills and destroys everything in its path instantaneously. In an interesting turn of events, Batman suspects her of foul play and believes that she’ll fence the chemical to terrorists (despite the insistence of the GCPD that it’s entirely against her MO). Batman nearly ruins Catwoman’s entire plan, but she manages to persuade him to team up with her to stop the terrorists. The reason this storyline works so well is that the writers give readers someone to contrast Jean-Paul’s Batman against and someone to root for. In Catwoman we see how an anti-hero should be written. She operates outside the law and does many things that are illegal, but there are certain things she will not tolerate (terrorism being one of them). Where Jean-Paul’s Batman is grim and monotone, Catwoman is vibrant and charismatic. She cracks jokes and has witty repartee with just about every character that crosses her path. These issues are also packed with fantastic action sequences. Notably, we see the new Batman chase Catwoman from the docks to a warehouse where we see Catwoman rather epically knock a humongous gargoyle over in an attempt to squash her opponent. Of course, these issues entirely point towards the reason why Catwoman was such a fixture in the early-‘90s and why it was one of the best books DC Comics had been publishing. She’s literally one of the only enjoyable aspects of Knightquest.

Overall, Knightquest is a disappointing collection of stories. Jean-Paul Valley makes for a rather uninteresting protagonist and the writers do very little to make readers relate to him. His adventures as Batman are severely lacking in conflicts against notable villains and the exclusion of “The Search” issues really hinders the overall reading experience presented here. While the four-part crossover with Catwoman is a major standout and a Renee Montoya-focused Mr. Freeze one-off is brilliant, the rest of the stories here are mediocre at best. Of course, I’m not entirely convinced that the writers were fully committed to Jean-Paul as Batman and the point of “The Crusade” may very well have been to prove why Bruce Wayne is and probably always should be Batman.

RATING: C+