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

With I think around four Bat-related titles a month you have to figure out what to do with all your characters, even when all you have are Batman, Robin, and Nightwing. Barbara was still paralysed though active as Oracle. Nightwing’s not really been part of the story much and I’m not sure if at this point he was in Bludhaven starting his solo operation. So as we saw last time we have two stories going on. While Jean Paul is trying to force his way into permanent Batman position and Robin (Tim Drake) is wondering just how crazy he is, Bruce and Alfred are trying to find out who kidnapped Tim’s dad and their shared doctor.

I’m still holdin on to my theory (as the intro says, please do not spoil further ahead) that it isn’t Jack Drake they’re after but Shondra Kilsolving. She’s been touted as the only doctor who can help Jack and Bruce with their respective back injuries while having some potentially strange ability. Since magic, metahumans, and all sorts of cosmic events give people superpowers in this universe that’s not too unlikely. How much will we find out this time? Let’s dive in to chapter 7 and find out.

In this chapter people take on roles and O’Neil let’s the roles choose the names: Batman or “Paul” (Tim’s nickname for him out of costume), Bruce versus Sir Hemingford Grey, Alfred or Charles, the roles they’re taking on is the name O’Neil chooses to call them by. It does match up with how they’re thinking of themselves at the moment, and that should be rather normal given this is not only how Bruce was earlier shown to approach Batman and Robin the same way. When Tim puts on the costume he comes into the Batcave as Robin, not Tim. It’s a method of acting we see further evidence of as we see Bruce mentally become Sir Hemingford and it actually pushes my current idea that Batman isn’t the “real face” but another role like Bruce’s public persona, despite O’Neil himself stating otherwise in the book. That’s the popular interpretation but it’s not one I share anymore. I just don’t see Bruce as being crazy, whatever influence his parents’ murder had on him.

Really, that’s the most we get out of Bruce/Hemingford’s part of the story. He and Alfred/Charles arrive in England and begin looking for Shondra and Jack, the investigation leading to a man named Bennington Asp. I kind of wonder with that last name if it will turn out to be itself a fake name for Sir Edmund Dorrance, aka King Snake, from that time Tim worked with Lady Shiva and the detective, as we saw in the Legends Of Robin audio drama. We do know he shows up again in the comics.

Meanwhile, not-Batman and Robin confront Bane’s goons at the exchange drop. We get to see even more proof that Jean Paul is most definitely not Bruce. Despite his comments those kids were totally in danger because Jean-Paul lacks Bruce’s patience. Instead of just following Bird and the boys back to Bane he attacks after the kids run back to their father and demands to know where Bane is. Neither they nor the police later are able to get a location out of them this chapter. Also telling is that Jean Paul treats the arrival of the police as Robin called them to help mop up as “something we don’t do”. That’s not quite Bruce’s way either. Bruce would totally have the police on hand because Batman is not judge, jury, and executioner. He is not above the law, his vigilante campaigns being more to the side of the law. Later, Robin finds Jean Paul both in and out of his System headspace working on further adaptations to the costume, moving closer to the armored suit we know Jean Paul Valley’s Batman guise to resemble, a tie to Azrael. I’m kind of surprised this was Alfred’s choice to take over given how messed up our boy is.

Another really good chapter, pushing both plots forward and giving us more insight into the characters than even the comics are able to give us. Let’s see if this continues next time.