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.

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