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 3: KnightsEnd

Our previous chapter was a bit short. So all we got to see was Jean Paul Notbatman get talked about when Bruce got home. I spent more time talking about a later comic than I did the chapter as a result.

As noted in previous parts, the only major failing of this book, if indeed the idea is to show that a more violent Batman is a bad thing (something that apparently is being ignored in current Batman titles from what I hear) we haven’t seen it on display in this novelization, and this is written by the editor who came up with it…after being forced to because Superman’s death was such a moneymaker for DC that someone said “okay, what can you do to make Batman suffer?” and O’Neil and the Bat-Writers had to come up with a theme, must as Death & Return Of Superman focused on what Superman meant to Metropolis and the world.

However, the theme of Batman goes hardcore hasn’t really been present thus far outside of the Bane battle, mentioned but not really shown. The closest we’ve come is seeing that there is an internal struggle between honoring the Bat symbol and the remaining programming of The System put on Jean Paul by the Order Of St. Dumas. It’s been the only weakness in the novel thus far. Let’s see if the next chapter does a bit better on that front.

We do start out by seeing more of Jean Paul’s divided “loyalties” between Bat and Dumas. Unable to figure out what to do next, Jean Paul “prays” to St. Dumas, who tells him to do what Wayne would do and find Abattoir with detective work, but that when he does find him to do what St. Dumas would have him do. The mental programming that psychologically is St. Dumas is trying to keep him acting like Azrael, the Order’s psychotic revenger. If this was a living person I’d say that St. Dumas is trying to manipulate Jean Paul back into being Azrael instead of Batman, since he’s shown anger to Jean Paul being Batman. Granted we don’t know what the programming of The System does so silly as it sounds it’s not the silliest idea I’ve seen in the DC Universe.

Bruce finally confronts Jean Paul, who insists he’s Batman now and Bruce isn’t welcome in the cave. That’s ignoring the fact that the Batcave is on Bruce’s property, Not-Batman is still using Batman’s vehicles if not at least some of his gadgets, so even if he thinks he owns the identity now, Bruce should be charging rent. Bruce attempts to have a peaceful conversation but when he tries to look at the monitor…which you’d think the best way to know what Wayne would do is ask the man himself…Jean Paul easily takes out his rusty predecessor, which just makes Bruce look weaker in Jean Paul’s eyes. If Bruce had managed to at least hold his own, maybe there’s be a way to block mental Dumas’ insistence that he kill, but instead that last block may have been broken.

So Batfake takes the Batmobile, the same one damaged on the mountain, and goes after Abattoir, using info he even got from Waynetech’s database and not Batman’s. Robin gives chase in his car and is there when Jean Paul (even Tim can’t see him as Batman) confronts Abattoir. During their chase Abattoir ends up dangling from a catwalk at a nearby factory. Serious points for how the chase plays out in the novel. We see it all from Jean Paul’s perspective as Abattoir makes it inside the factory, the workers’ reactions, and finally cornering the villain on the catwalk. Abattoir slips and is hanging onto a ladder, but when Robin tries to save him, because that’s what superHEROES do, NotBatman attacks Robin and Abattoir falls into the mist, the usual “get out of the mortuary free” card in case some later writer wants to use him again. At least in this chapter we don’t see a body. So in a way, NotBatman just killed Abattoir by not saving him. Sound familiar, Christopher Nolan?

This storyline took place over a year, in eight titles. (Nine if you count Showcase ’93 and Showcase ’94 as two separate titles. Not all of them were focused on this storyline, including the Showcase titles and Justice League Task Force I’d wager. I had to look that up on the DC fandom wiki as I myself have only been able to read a handful of comics from the event. For those of you who read the comic, was this really the first time Jean Paul was involved in killing a villain? As far as the novel goes we’ve seen the division as Jean Paul let too much of “Azrael” take over too much of “Batman” as he fought the System and the System appears to be winning, but this is the first actual death. We only have Robin and Gordon’s word that Batzreal was more violent with Harvey cheering it on, at least as far as the novelization goes.

We also see that Bruce is not ready to confront Jean Paul. Not only is Not-Batman refusing to listen to him but Bruce is not in shape to be Batman again just because he’s back on his feet. Obviously we know he’ll be Batman again, and next time I’m guessing we see him on the road to reclaiming the mantle that’s rightfully his. Join in next time and find out.