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

Only seven pages this chapter but I only have so much time tonight to get this done. A quick skim tells me the whole chapter is just Bruce’s search for his doctor and his sidekick’s dad, but we aren’t ending it this chapter.

In the last chapter we saw the end results of Jean Paul Not-Batman’s fight with Bane before returning to Bruce (aka Sir Hemingford) and Alfred (Charlie) continuing the investigation, with Bruce on stakeout and Alfred racing to help the still injured Bruce in case he’s found out. It is good to see that Bruce is still of strong mind even if his body is weak. There was a show called Ironside as part of the 1970 TV cop craze, starring Raymond Burr as a former chief of detectives paralyzed by a sniper’s bullet. He got around in a wheelchair and served as a police consultant. I could imagine Bruce taking on a similar role not for the Gotham City police but the Bat-Family, kind of like Barbara did as Oracle or like Bruce himself did to Terry in Batman Beyond.

Then again, that wasn’t the story they wanted to tell and Warner Brothers was going to use the Bruce Wayne Batman regardless so even if Jean Paul wasn’t psycho he wouldn’t be Batman for long anyway. Still, you kind of wonder what would have happened. Maybe he and Barbara could be wheelchair buddies. BUDDIES, BRUCE TIMM! JUST BUDDIES! Then again, two wheelchair-bound members of the team might be a bit much, so let’s just see how Bruce gets out of this situation without his Bat-Gear.

We continue where we left off last time. Alfred is still finding a dead village while also trying to put out a fire. Bruce is watching the Hall and sees Asp and the Russian leave, then come back with a dead woman. We see that Bruce is not so foolish as to forget his body isn’t what it was. His mind is still as sharp as ever and he does find a way to drive the car to follow Asp when he brings Kinsolving and Drake with them to wherever they’re going next. With what evidence he has it looks like whatever she’s doing is part of Asp’s plan and that she’s in on it, not knowing that Drake is being used as leverage to force her to comply.

We get a good sense of how evil Benedict Asp is. Remember, both he and Shondra are using fake names and are actually siblings. He has no qualms about making his own sister do these things, which involves using her powers to “overheal” people, killing them anyway, but without marks. Clearly Asp is trying to turn her into an assassin whose weapon can’t be traced or even found. Using healing as a weapon? Maybe Wakanda has a point, though withholding a cancer cure in the Marvel universe, where a quarter of the heroes and villains got their powers from radiation, still seems kind of scummy. Back to the DC universe, though.

Sir Hemingford attempts to reach Shondra, using one of their conversations to out himself to her but not Asp, who has one of his goons attack the man. He already killed a whole village so I’m sure one cripple won’t matter to him. Hemingford does manage to get Drake out of his hands, proving he still has some fight in him, which he’ll need to reclaim his mantle later on in the story. Still Jack almost buys it until Alfred shows up after Bruce manages to get his respirator mask on Jack, then passes out under the strain as the chapter ends.

This is a pretty good chapter. We finally get an explanation of Shondra’s powers more or less and how Asp wants to use them. There’s surprisingly decent action and a serious threat that Bruce has to handle without the strength and gadgets of Batman. He clearly is in a more dangerous situation than planned. We’ll see how he works to get out of it next time.