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 a read-along book club.

PART 3: KnightsEnd

In our last chapter we saw Bruce get the ability to beat people up again. Good timing because we are near the end of the book.

You know, for a story that is supposed to contrast Bruce with the 90s-style “antihero” there hasn’t been a lot of that. By focusing all our attention on Bruce and only occasionally seeing Jean Paul in action (even then half of it was Tim telling us Jean Paul was losing it and JP having visions of a dead guy whose group he supposedly left), meaning the supposed theme of this storyline isn’t coming out as easily in this novelization as Superman’s did in The Death And Life Of Superman. It’s been a good story and all but if Owen Likes Comics is right and this is about condemning the kill-happy Batman then it’s failing in its goal. Perhaps the comics did it better but here it just seems to be missing the mark.

It’s not exploring WHY Bruce has a “no-kill” rule or why it’s wrong for a Batman to kill. Compare it to the novelization of Superman’s death and resurrection and all the stuff in between, where we explore what the world is like without a Superman, what made Superman so beloved, and gave us +3 heroes when it was all over rather than one less. Azrael would get his own series so I guess that’s a +1 but he was the antihero type and is so unnecessary now with Jason “Red Hood” Todd that I’m not even sure he’s still in continuity post-Flashpoint. Actually, can we get a head count? What happened to Anarchy for example?

Ah, never mind. Let’s get back into the story.

The first segment brings us Jean Paul Not-Batman’s fight with the gunrunners, where he finds one of the crooks dropped a St. Dumas medal that he’s sure belonged to the “rogue” member who had his father killed…except Azrael already killed him. It belonged to one guy named Patrick, who ran the operation and Valley is now sure was his father’s executioner. A voice tells him to kill Patrick and he’s okay with that. This would be the second killing Not-Batman has made this far into the novelization. It feels like it should have been sooner given what the theme was supposed to be. Did the comics not follow the theme as well as “Death & Return Of Superman” or is the problem with the novelization? Again, I only read a few issues from this period. 1990s Batman was not my jam.

The rest of the chapter spends time with Bruce, who has been checking what Jean Paul’s been using the Batcomputer for. He puts on HIS Batman costume but he doesn’t feel the slip into the Batman persona. It’s like I said, Batman is a product of the mask, he’s not actually the mask. The real Bruce Wayne is somewhere between his public persona and the Batman persona. Right now he may be able to fight again, he may have regained his capacity for violence, but he’s still missing something that makes him Batman. Given how few chapters he has left he better get a move on that. He’s still following Jean Paul into the bad guy’s place, because after days he’s finally back home, and Jean Paul still wants to kill him.

You know, when I first heard of this story I thought it was mostly about Bruce’s fall and return and just that. It was Owen’s video that put into my head the idea that it was a rejection of the 90s killing heroes and some fans wanting to see Batman become a killer. This novelization on the other hand is more like what I thought. It’s showing Jean Paul to be a bad Batman, but more because of his issues than his killing. Meanwhile the whole focus of the novelization has been Bruce’s recovery and I know O’Neil skipped some of Jean Paul’s more violent adventures because I read one of those, when he tried to take over Huntress’ case. It’s a flaw worth bringing up as, if Owen is right, the novel is not following the theme of the arc. That seems odd since that theme in the comic arc was his idea.

There’s three chapters and an epilogue left to go. Let’s see how Bruce regains his Batman-ness.