Superhero Media: Batman - Knightfall

For the pedants among you, for this review, I read from the "Omnibus Edition" of Knightfall, which includes many of the side-stories and tangentially-related non-Batman comics; if you're planning on checking out Knightfall, I'd highly recommend going with the Omnibus, even though it's almost twice as much to read, because it fills out the narrative better and some of the best writing is in the side-stories. In the continuing "fanboy" discussion of what are the 'classic' Batman stories, there tends to be three names that constantly come up; The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One and The Killing Joke. After that, there's a few on the next tier down, like Batman RIP and Arkham Asylum, then those that are maligned despite having a major impact on the Batman mythos, as it sits, like No Man's Land and, finally, Knightfall. If you saw The Dark Knight Rises, you know some of the salient points of Knightfall, namely Bane breaking Batman's spine, but what never really gets to be translated properly is the significance of Bane and the overall themes of the story. 

Bane is actually one of my favorite Batman villains and is far more than the muscle-bound thug that he often gets reduced to, being the true opposite of Bruce Wayne in all of the ways the writers try to keep insisting that the Joker is. Bane was born in the worst prison on the planet, condemned for his father's sins, he worked his way up the hierarchy, training his body and mind until he took revenge on the warden and escaped. How can you not make a good film out of this guy? Bane hatches a brilliant plan, releasing all of the inmates of Arkham Asylum and letting Batman run himself ragged until Bane can "break" him and usurp his place at the pinnacle of Gotham City. In order to give himself time to recover, Bruce Wayne hands over the cowl to John Paul Valley, formerly the assassin, Azrael, who wants to forge his own identity with the help of the Batman Legacy. This new Batman for the 1990s is more brutal, less forgiving and slowly replaces his costume with blades and weapons. 

Most criticisms that I've seen of Knightfall harp on the "over-the-top" 1990s elements, which results in my asking the question; "you realise it's parody, right?". The literal text of the story is that violent, 90s, edgelord Batman is bad and only the classic, blue-and-grey, 60s Batman is the superior article. How do people not get that? Is the real reason the 'hardcore' Batman fanbase hates Knightfall that it gives Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson interesting character development? Once Bruce ousts Jean-Paul, he hands the cowl over to Dick so that he can spend time reflecting on his future as the Dark Knight. Although Dick doesn't want to be the inheritor of the cowl, he takes up the mantle as a challenge to himself to find an identity that isn't defined by others; not Batman's sidekick, the Titan's leader or Kory's boyfriend. At the end of the story, Dick is comfortable with who he is outside of the Batman/Robin/Nightwing dynamic and ready to move on with his life. Knightfall, despite flaws like poor '90s artwork and uninteresting villains, is one of the more engrossing Batman reads that never seems to get it's due. If you can find the full run, trades or omnibus, Knightfall is well worth your time to read.