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

I had thought the previous chapter would be the final fight between Bruce and Jean Paul, with this chapter being the wrap-up. Instead we’re about to read the final chapter and a short epilogue. I’ll know how I feel about that when I read the chapter.

I’ll do a full book report this weekend on The Clutter Reports but overall this novelization was okay once you realize it’s not going for the same theme as the storyline, if indeed the idea was to reject the 90s grimdark kill-happy superhero some readers wanted Batman to become, the infamous debate of why Batman doesn’t just kill the Joker. (Notice nobody asks why the government hasn’t done the job or a group of civilians get together. No, no, Batman needs to break his moral code so they don’t have to.) Instead this novel focuses on Bruce’s fall and rebuilding, Jean Paul Valley reduced to nothing more than an excuse for him to return without really giving Valley much to do and not being very good at it. On that level the book has worked thus fine.

We should be up to the part of the book I’ve been waiting for, as it’s one of the few issues I have and the finale of the arc. I used it in a Friday Night Fight so I’m curious how the presentation here works out. Now that the homepage is properly padded, let’s find out.

Note the symbolism of Jean Paul cutting the Bat Symbol. No joke, that’s my critical perspective coming in.

This is close to when the chapter starts, but the way the narration is written in the novel it feels like Bruce is wearing his typical Bruce Wayne outfit, talking about an overcoat rather than his cape. There is symbolism in that Jean Paul attacks the yellow oval, the symbol of the “old” Batman. He should be upset that Bruce is wearing his outfit, the old Batman, the TRUE Batman guise. One thing the novel does keep is the idea that Jean Paul is too mentally linked to the outfit, that he feels he’s nothing without it, which he ends up admitting to Bruce during the fight. All his life he was trained to become Azrael, but pushed back against some of the darker aspects of what that means. Being his version of Batman, one that still carried aspects of the “System” training while he’s trying to be someone else, has become his identity. Even the narrator refers to him as Batman and Bruce as Bruce until Jean Paul finally removes the mask, noting Jean Paul’s mindset.

Also interesting is that when Bruce is trying to convince him from the shadows to remove the armored batsuit that Jean Paul himself notes that the voice sounds more authoritative than the St. Dumas in his head before realizing who it is, Bruce the “deceiver”. Jean Paul attacks Bruce Bruce doesn’t fight Jean Paul physically. In the comic he blocks some of Jean Paul’s attacks, but he doesn’t fight back.

This is important as well. Bruce’s fight with Jean Paul isn’t a physical one, it’s a mental one. It’s a fight for the mind, the identity, the soul of Batman. Bruce as Batman gives the illusion of being more deadly than he is, something he once brought up with Superman.

This is another reason for me to reject the “Bruce Wayne is the mask” theory that has taken hold. This is why he’s Batman. He’s still human under there, still has a moral code. Being ruthless is a perception, not his actual identity. It’s not how Batman operates. If your enemy is too afraid to shoot you or at least shoot straight, the advantage is yours. Batman makes the fight into something he can win, with intimidation, martial arts, and stealth tactics. It’s an act, the reason he can easily reject the Yellow Ring of fear used by the Sinestro Corp. He reveals the criminal element for what they really are, cowards. He takes their power and shows the citizens that the bad guys that infest Gotham aren’t unbeatable. That’s why he’s a symbol of hope, why seeing the Bat Signal puts people at ease and the criminals on their toes. For Jean Paul, the mask has become his identity but for Bruce it’s just another weapon, like his batarang.

This is why the best tactic, intended or not, is to force Jean Paul to follow him through a small tunnel, too small for the bulkier armor Jean Paul used, a portion of the Azrael identity he brought into his take on Batman because it gave him that comfort, a sensation he’s used to versus Bruce’s kevlar costume. The intent might have been to take away some of Jean Paul’s advantage and get him out of the armor but if his goal is to disconnect him from his Batman psychologically, this move and using the sunlight to force Jean Paul to remove his mask, force him to be Jean Paul Valley again, is a better victory than knocking him out.

Remember how Bruce uses identities throughout the novelization. Put on the mask, you are that person. Put on the Batman cowl, you’re Batman. Put on the face of Sir Hemingford Gray, and you’re Sir Hemingford Gray. This even extends to Tim in this story. Put on the costume and mask and he’s Robin. There are “Tim” jobs and “Robin” jobs. Much as for me “ShadowWing Tronix” is the  story reviewer and “Troy A” is the storyteller it’s all a matter of putting yourself in the right mental state. Of course it’s all still me, I don’t take on a totally new persona, and nobody is shooting at me unless they hate my review or story that much. Also technically Troy A mindset created the ShadowWing Tronix mindset by creating the character for the failed sprite comic, even if the credit at the time went to ShadowWing and Tronix was just the character’s alter ego…

Right, sorry. Moving on.

My point is you put on the mask and take on the identity. Peter Parker does the same with Spider-Man, as does Adrian Agreste when he becomes Cat Noir on Miraculous. (I really like the current season. They’re fixing more of the show’s flaws in previous seasons and embracing a continuing narrative while still letting each episode be its own story. It’s still not perfect but it’s the show I though it had potential to be. It’s still a show for teen girls, but why would that stop me?) The difference is that the real Bruce is half of his public personas while Jean Paul had tied himself to his Batman. So when he’s forced to remove the mask to save his eyes (night vision and bright sunlight do NOT mix), literally being drawn into the light, he’s forced to be Jean Paul Valley again, forced to confront his true self. While the novel doesn’t have the same theme, possibly due to not having the space to go through all of Jean Paul’s tales as Batman, the theme here was the nature of masks in the Batman’s world, if not superheroes in general.

The epilogue, of course, wraps up the events of the previous two parts. Bane is not expected to recover because the Venom did too much damage. I wonder if he was ever intended to become a recurring villain, but this is not his last appearance in this phase of the DC universe. Alfred is still gone, but we already know how he returns. Bruce and Tim check in on Sandra, no longer Shondra Kinsolving and with a child’s mind. It’s her second chance of sorts. She isn’t the woman we knew and the state of her powers are in question, but she’s finally at peace, a sort of second chance to find herself shed of the burdens of the past. It’s not a win but…it’s something. As far as Batman’s future? Bruce doesn’t know and that bothers me. I think in the comics Dick takes over for awhile while Bruce completes his recovery but I don’t know a lot of the post-Knightfall events in Batman’s life. Most of 90s Batman wasn’t my style. Actually, most of the 90s wasn’t my style, but that’s a whole other conversation.

I’ll give my full report in this week’s Clutter Report posting, once I’ve had more time to digest everything, but here’s the immediate thought. I do really like this novelization. It may go for a different theme than the arc and that admittedly threw me a bit for this re-read, but that’s on me. When I originally read the novel I didn’t even catch the theme of masks and didn’t know the arc’s theme in the comics was about rejecting a violent Batman. I saw it as just Bruce’s recovery. Since starting this site and really pushing into wanting to become a storyteller I have a new appreciation of this book and what it’s going for. That keeps a book re-readable, finding new perspectives each time. Once I finally picked up on the masks theme I really got into this novel and I wonder what another reading in the future will have pop out for me.

So this book is over, which means another book is on the horizon to read through a chapter at a time. I think I’ll grab something a bit shorter though. What’s up next? Turn in next week, same ShadowWing time, same ShadowWing channel.

(That joke is going to fail if I ever change my screenname. And it’s already shaky.)