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

Where do we stand after the previous chapter? Without too many spoilers for anyone just falling in, Not-Batman is chasing Bane around Gotham while Not-Sir Hemingford is running around England to find his kidnapped doctor. Only one chapter this week, a bit short by a page or two but I think it will progress the story enough and I’m short on time today.

I should note that Jean Paul is not winning due to his superiority. He’s winning because he had something Bruce didn’t. He knows Bane exists and has some idea of what he can do. You know that annoying nonsense about Bruce’s actual power (besides money) is “prep time”, that he could beat Galactus with prep time? At least in this case there’s something to be said for it. Plus Bane isn’t ready for someone just as violent as he is but more controlled and focused. Bane’s previous adversaries were people who talked a good game because he had the advantage, or someone completely unprepared for his tactics either because they dismissed him or didn’t know they existed until five minutes ago. Jean Paul isn’t impressed, is very much prepared, and now has Bane at a disadvantage. Let’s see what he does with it.

The first segment really should have been part of the previous chapter, as it’s the last few paragraphs of Not-Batman’s battle with Bane. Jean Paul continues to give Bane a thrashing until the train pulls into the station, where Gordon, Bullock, and the GCPD are waiting. Bane wants “Batman” to kill him because his big plan to control Gotham ended in failure, and Gordon tells him not to because he’s by the book. As the narration notes, where Azrael would have just punched Bane’s skull in with the gauntlet-covered hand Batman wouldn’t…but not for the same reason Jean Paul doesn’t. Both would agree that Bane is broken and Blackgate can “have the pieces” but for Bruce it’s because he still respects life and the law, not wanting to become judge, jury, and executioner. Batman is technically a vigilante but he won’t cross the line into what someone like the Punisher does, or the DC Universe’s Punisher-type antiheroes like Hitman and Wild Dog, later including Jason Todd’s Red Hood.

In Jean Paul’s case it more along the lines of letting him live means Bane can suffer more, or at least that what he tells himself. Gauntlet aside he’s still wearing a version of the traditional Batsuit, not the Azrael inspired version he will have later in this story arc. It may be for the wrong reasons it may be possible that the influence of the proper Batman is working on him at current. That’s kind of how the System works when it comes to Azrael and that costume; his mind takes on a certain role and mindset. In a way we’ve seen that in this novelization. Tim has to enter the Batcave in the Robin costume, and thus IS Robin. Bruce is different when he’s dressed as Batman. Clothes make the man, and it plays into how this story has been discussing identities, especially the secret kind. In Jean Paul’s case it’s not just a suit but a persona, an identity.

I can list a bunch of heroes where this is the case. Spider-Man and Miraculous Ladybug‘s Cat Noir both come to mind. Both Spidey and Cat Noir are more jokey and lively than Peter Parker and Adrian Agreste are, though for different reasons. Peter’s a bookworm science geek better suited to chemistry and engineering while Adrian has had a childhood under the thumb of his slowing maddening father, having trouble dealing with the loss of his wife. With their masks on they become almost new people. While Marinette simply becomes more confident as Ladybug, Adrian is almost a different person entirely, making jokes and taking risks. Peter is more willing to stand up to people and used quips as part of his arsenal, though bad writers tend to make that his default personality as Spider-Man to the annoyance of his teammates. It’s a similar case with Batman and which mask he wears, Bruce or Batman, with the real him somewhere in the middle. (Still not buying “Bruce is the mask, Batman is his true self”.) We’ll see this come into play more later on with Jean Paul’s descent into the type of Batman he’ll become.

For such a small part of the chapter I surprisingly had a lot to say, but let’s move on. The rest of the chapter however is all about Sir Hemingford (Bruce) and Charlie (Alfred). Apparently Hemingford didn’t mike the right spots because he’s not hearing anything of use. So he opts for spying outside the Hall, Alfred going off to get food for him. We get to see more of why Alfred needs to be in Bruce’s life, making sure he not only eats but gets a decent meal even on stakeout. However, upon entering the village he finds a bunch of dead people, all seemingly having just dropped dead on the spot. At the tavern the cook apparently died and fell face first into the griddle, poor lady. What happened?

Well, in-between the stakeout and Alfred walking into town we had more with Benedict Asp tormenting his sister, forcing Shondra to take part in the experiments or they’ll slowly break Jack’s limbs. Seriously, this man has suffered so much dying at the hands of Captain Boomerang is almost a blessing at this point, but that’s what the writers wanted to do to the poor man. She uses her healing power again but she feels her brother in her mind thanks to the machine they’re both hooked up to. She fails to heal the general’s wound again but this may end up being what killed the people in the village. After Alfred finds the bodies outside and inside the inn he sees a black car he recognized from the Hall earlier heading in that direction, and worrying that this could be trouble for Bruce’s stakeout if he’s caught, and he rushes back to his boss. Good, loyal Alfred. Never get killed for stupid reasons.

This is an interesting bit of mystery and despite not being tied to the whole Jean Paul/Bane stuff does factor into Bruce’s recovery mentally as well as physically. It also gives the real Batman something to do to remain in his story since he isn’t dead in this one. I still think the rest of the Batmanish/Bane stuff should have been in the last chapter. It’s one chapter; I don’t think we needed a reminder that all of that was going on. Just let this chapter be about the search for Shondra and Asp’s evil scheme. That’s what the next chapter will be as our story continues.