Chapter By Chapter (usually) features me reading one chapter of the selected book at a time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.

Part 2: Knightquest

Yep, two chapters this time. At least early in this part of the book there’s going to be a few short chapters so we’ll play it by ear. Chapter two is only two or three pages so I’m going to add that to chapter three.

Last time we finally got to learn what Jean Paul Valley’s connection to Batman is, as well as some concerns about his choosing. We can blame this one on Alfred as he pushed for Valley as back-up Batman (bat-up? nah) and while Bruce definitely needs a back-up Jean Paul will prove to be the wrong choice. That’s what makes him the true villain of the story, as we’ll see later and was already discussed in Owen Likes Comics’ video on the storyline. Spoilers there of course. No further spoilers here except for what we’ve already read up to. So let’s read the next two chapters.

Chapter two has two scenes in it. Two-Face would be pleased. 🙂 The first is simply Alfred and Tim working on the cover story of Bruce smashing his car, one they’ve apparently done before to cover certain injuries. Tim notes that this gives the impression Bruce is a bad driver and wonders if he’s embarrassed at looking like such a chump but Alfred says that he believes Bruce kind of likes it. Makes you wonder about those other famous car crashes. Not that Justin Bieber is secretly a crimefighter (as far as I know and I didn’t realize that happened so close to this article’s writing unless this isn’t the first time) but if celebs secretly don’t mind being shown as less that human. Some celebs anyway.

The other scene in this chapter is Jean Paul choosing a Batman outfit. The choice he makes reflects his time as Azrael as some instincts are apparently still with him. This includes telling Robin off when he jokes about Backupman’s (yeah, that doesn’t work either) driving, apparently tapping into his St. Dumas training, and then driving better. This is concerning as well as hopeful. Being early on in the choice it’s nice to see the early clues while still believing this is just Jean Paul trying to get into the identity as Batman.

Chapter three has three scenes, for Three-Face. Okay, I’ll stop now. Out of curiosity I skimmed chapter four and it was four segment. Going to be fun if this continues when we hit the tens. It could be a coincidence as I don’t know a lot about O’Neil’s prose style. I mostly know him from the comics. We start with Bane planning his next move, which it turns out is harder than he was expecting after breaking the Bat. He finally chooses a target, a mob group which I assume he’s going to take over. Not much here except to remind us Bane is here and still doing stuff.

The second scene has Bruce being told by Dr. Kinsolving that he can go home and she’s not buying his backstory. This may be one of the reasons Bruce doesn’t want to go to a hospital as she can see all of the various injury markers he’s taken on as Batman. Kinsolving was shown as some kind of miracle worker in part one as she healed Tim’s father (if you listened to the recent Saturday Night Showcase Legends Of Robin you know where he got the back injuries from and the horrible way Tim’s mother died) so it may also be the case with Bruce. The question is whether or not she’ll be brought into the Bat-Circle. That would make two doctors to do so along with Leslie Thompkins and given his life he may need it.

The final scene has Alfred learning about Jean Paul’s first night as Batman, or as I’ll refer to him to limit confusion Batman2. I don’t know if the original comic also used a flashback of Tim telling Alfred what happened or simply showing us what happened but the framing device works for the prose novelization. Apparently Jean Paul was a lot more vicious that Bruce is as Batman. We see Batman2 nearly kill guys more than once, and Tim notes that Jean Paul kind of scared him. He also notes this is how Bruce wants the criminals to see Batman without actually being that, another example of using fear as a weapon to the point he doesn’t have to be this vicious to protect himself. We’ll see how this comes into play. Is Jean Paul acting like Bruce, how he thinks Bruce acts as Batman, or is it just a leftover of the programming by the Order and their “system”? Perhaps a combination of the two? Time will tell.

This was a good pair of chapters as we continue setting up the dynamic for this phase of the storyline. A quick skim tells me next time we’ll only do one chapter so we’ll see how that goes.