Batman: Arkham Knight Vol. 3: The Official Prequel to the Arkham Trilogy Finale

Batman: The Arkham Saga #4.3

by Peter J. Tomasi

The Joker is dead. Arkham City is no more. But as Batman has learned, evil is endless. And his new enemy, the mysterious, murderous Arkham Knight, is here to see the Dark Knight fall forever.
 
And he is not alone. The crazed criminal called the Calendar Man is out to make each day Batman’s last. The brutal killer known as Bane wants to prove himself a more powerful warrior than any Knight. And in the shadows lurks the Scarecrow, whose sinister plans for Gotham City and its guardians are the most frightening of all.
 
Defeating the Arkham Knight and his army will take every ounce of Batman’s skills and strength. Because under his rival’s helmet is a familiar face, one that should strike terror even into the heart of the Dark Knight himself…
 
Writers Peter J. Tomasi (BATMAN AND ROBIN) and Tim Seeley (GRAYSON) and an arsenal of top artists including Viktor Bogdanovic (REALITY CHECK), Ig Guara (BLUE BEETLE), Julio Ferreira (TEEN TITANS) and Richard Friend ( THE DARK KNIGHT) proudly present ARKHAM KNIGHT VOL. 3, the shocking finale of the official prequel to Rocksteady Studios’ smash-hit Arkham trilogy! Collects ARKHAM KNIGHT #10-12, ARKHAM KNIGHT ANNUAL #1, ARKHAM KNIGHT ROBIN #1 and ARKHAM BATGIRL & HARLEY QUINN #1.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Batman, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book, Video Games

176 pages, Hardcover

Published July 12, 2016

About the author

Peter J. Tomasi is an American comic book writer, best known for his work for DC Comics, such as Batman And Robin; Superman; Super Sons; Batman: Detective Comics; Green Lantern Corps; and Superman/Wonder Woman; as well as Batman: Arkham Knight; Brightest Day; Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors; Nightwing; Black Adam, and many more.

In the course of his staff career at DC Comics, Tomasi served as a group editor and ushered in new eras for Batman, Green Lantern, and the JSA, along with a host of special projects like Kingdom Come.

He is also the author of the creator-owned titles House Of Penance with artist Ian Bertram; Light Brigade with artist Peter Snejbjerg; The Mighty with Keith Champagne and Chris Samnee; and the critically acclaimed epic graphic novel The Bridge: How The Roeblings Connected Brooklyn To New York, illustrated by Sara DuVall and published by Abrams ComicArts.

In 2018 New York Times best-selling author Tomasi received the Inkpot Award for achievement in comics.

Reviews

[Richard Dominguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Back on the streets a mysterious enemy lurks in the shadows of Gotham, the Arkham Knight. Gathering super-villains like Harley Quinn, the Scarecrow, Bane and Two-Face, Batman must prevent a catastrophe and save Gotham."
This hardcover graphic novel includes 7 issues of Batman: Arkham Knight. The first 6 stories revolve around Arkham Knight and his efforts to bring together all of Batman's arch-villains in an attempt to bring down the Dark Knight. The final story is a recap of Harley Quinn's origin story.
The stories are well written (I thought) and the action is non-stop. Watching Calendar Man put the Batman through a horrendous week of fighting for his life, leaving him battered and exhausted. This is when the Arkham Knight puts his plan into effect taking advantage of Batman's exhaustion. This volume ends just before the final confrontation, but the reading was none the less exhilarating and engaging.
The villains are all true to character so their are no surprises there, but that gives the reader a sense of familiarity that makes the reading enjoyable.
I found it to be an excellent read with great illustrations and coloring that enhances the darkness and malevolence we come to expect from the villainy of Gotham City's criminal denizens.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started off strong with the Calendar Man actually posing a threat to Batman and putting him through his paces. From there though the story devolves into something of an incoherent mess. The art is really good when Viktor Bogdonovic provides the art and not go good when it switches to Ig Guara.

[Lashaan Balasingam · Rating 3 out of 5]

These collected editions seem messy, especially between volume 2 and 3. I'm just going to include issues #9-12, Annual #1, Robin Special #1 and Batgirl/Harley Quinn #1 in this. The first two-part story can basically be summed up as a successful attempt by Calendar Man to exhaust Batman's energy to the max, until he's stopped in the most unlikely fashion. The story then builds itself around the Arkham Knight and his plans, which will ultimately lead him to team up with a villain to bring the darkest days to Batman's front door. The final issue shows us where the hell Bane went since he was completely absent in the Arkham Knight game. Issue #12 also gathers up a pretty nifty gallery of villains to work together and take down Batman once and for all. Overall, this main story storyarc displays a relentless Arkham Knight who wants to make sure that every single detail on the list is checked so that Batman doesn't miraculously find a solution.

Annual #1 was a pretty nice psychedelic story focused on the Arkham Knight. I'm a 100% certain that it could've been better, but hey. It ain't like they're trying to make a classic story out of this prequel. This annual issue was still fun and managed to state quite clearly what the motivations are behind the Arkham Knight's mission.

Robin Special #1 was focused on Tim Drake and gave a little side-story to put the kid on the front stage. He displayed quite a Spider-Man'esque personality throughout the issue, but the story itself isn't anything huge.

Harley Quinn/Batgirl #1 is a two-part issue that basically gives us a little retelling of their origin story. The major problem I had with this story is how insignificant it made the characters. The "I want to help too" of Batgirl wasn't convincing at all. The "mad love" of Harley Quinn also failed to capture the intensity. There was no way they were going to succeed the origin story in such little time. I guess we can just consider these little stories as teasers for the actual gameplay DLC's that they planned on launching for these characters.

The artwork is quite variant from issue to issue, and even within issues (multiple artists on the same issue). More often than not, it was quite descent. The final issue (#12) was the one with the most vibrant and energetic artwork.

In the end, the Arkham Knight series is a pre-quel to the final Batman Arkham game. Fans of the game don't HAVE to check this out, since there isn't any MAJOR events (besides finding out the identity of the Arkham Knight, finding out how the Arkham Knight created his master plan and finding out where Bane has gone off to).

P.S. Full(er?) review to come

Yours truly,

Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog: http://bookidote.wordpress.com

[David Dalton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt this was one of the better Arkham Knight Volumes. Listed as the last one (3 of 3). I would not mind more in this Arkham unifverse. A real dark and gritty Batman. I might need to glance thru one more time now that this series is wrapped up. I guess the final story comes out in the game? Since I do not play the games, I might need to read the novelization: .

[Taddow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am glad that the finale to this prequel series dedicated to setting up Arkham Knight was enjoyable. While still not as good as Arkham Knight: Genesis, the story had decent continuity, the Batman villains that were highlighted (for the most part) didn’t disappoint and I liked the interaction between Scarecrow and Arkham Knight. There were still several parts that just seemed to be filler, as they made no sense, but it’s a prequel to a video game so I’m sure the ultimate intent was to explain the inclusion or exclusion of various villains in the game. I’m still confused about the part involving Bane, but I know why he wasn’t in the game. The artwork was the highlight of this book.

[Paige Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Calander Man. Joker “dead” last issue. Feels more like short stories that link than a volume. Art style changes practically every pg. Cute babies. Nice dusky purply red colors. Too fast a pace almost. There’s like every villain you can think of joining up. Writing still cheesy but not quite as bad. So many obvious conclusions though.

[Greg (adds 2 TBR list daily) Hersom · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the artwork, but not sure if it's more due to me not playing the game, or that I've read a lifetime of Batman comics, but it was more or less "meh".
The artwork is awesome, but I'm kinda tired of the all the Batman enemies teaming up to take out Batman again, that ends-up being Batman villains vs. Batman Family turf war. It can't say I didn't like it, but I didn't not like it either, I just stopped at some point, and took me weeks to go back and finish, cause I really didn't care.

[Chris Richards · Rating 4 out of 5]

I should start by saying Arkham Knight is my least favourite Arkham game. I enjoy a lot of the gameplay but the car annoys me and narratively I was disappointed. John Noble’s Scarecrow was fantastic but the Arkham Knight himself and his constant whining I really wasn’t keen on. Other narrative decisions such as the constant kidnapped allies and general treatment of female characters frustrated me. The Tim Drake-Barbara Gordon relationship needs to burn in hell. There’s a lot to like (the Joker stuff) but a lot to dislike too. This is the prequel to that game so my thoughts on Arkham Knight may be relevant as we go on.

Volume 3 is the final volume of Tomasi’s Arkham Knight prequel series and contains 5 stories.

The first story is a Robin focus called The Apprentice. It attempts to give Arkhamverse Tim Drake some backstory and personality which the games certainly managed to do. Apparently Tim is a teacher in this continuity. What is true to the games is that Bruce clearly doesn’t rate Tim very highly and would like him to stay in the cave training. Tim ends by coming to the bizarre conclusion that “I’m not Batman. And that means I’m doing something right.” I have no idea what he means by this. Arkhamverse Tim Drake reallt is an appalling character.

Burning The Days is then the two part Calendar Man epic that the last volume teased. Calendar Man is celebrating his birthday by killing Batman. His plan is to exhaust Batman with endless battles so he can be killed (Bane’s plan in Knightfall) and he accomplishes this by forcing him to fight an army of Solomon Grundys then race around the city saving the people Calendar Man has poisoned. If any of Batman’s allies intervene then a baby dies. It’s actually a good plan and basically succeeds. Batman only lives because Scarecrow pops up and tells Calendar Man to cut it out because he has his own vague plans to kill Batman. Calendar Man doesn’t appear in Arkham Knight so the promising story’s ending is a massive anti-climax

Arkham Knight: Fear City just openly reveals Arkham Knight’s identity so spoilers if you haven’t played the game. It’s obviously Jason Todd and here he takes a dose of Scarecrow’s fear toxin to face himself (and fear-visions of Joker and Tim Drake). It’s a good issue let down by the game it precedes handling Jason so badly.

Scare Tactics is the end of Tomasi’s series and leads directly into the game. It sees Scarecrow assembling all the villains from the game to join his evil alliance that we’re told about but never actually see in the game. Arkham Knight proves himself to them all by fighting and killing Bane which I found genuinely surprising and entertaining. Tomasi clearly received an email as he was finishing off saying by the way Hush, Manbat, Blackfire, Deathstroke and Professor Pyg are also in the game. It’s a good enjoyable story but it doesn’t feel like by the end this series has actually built up to the game we actually ended up getting.

The book then ends with Caged Animals by Tim Seeley, an origin for Arkham Harley facing her off against Batgirl. I found the idea of Joker seducing Harley so she could commit crimes for him while he was incarcerated an interesting take and its true to the Arkhamverse relationship between the two. Batgirl and Harley both have good early costume designs.

The third volume is better than the second volume but struggles to stand on its own or feel satisfyingly connected to the game. If you’ve got this far then you should read the final volume but overall the Arkham Knight prequel series is a disappointment.

[47Time · Rating 2 out of 5]

The volume has several fun one-shots. They're not bad, but are mostly unrelated. Their only commonality is they happen in Gotham, so they're pretty generic. We finally find out who the mysterious armored figured is. It's a loo-loo! And it's coming none too soon. Sure, I can praise the story for not being rushed, but it's too easy to put down. My reading challenge is going to hell in a hand basket...

Batman faces Calendar Man and his minions. After kicking him around, a list of 365 names is made public - they have all been poisoned. Gordon's GCPD saves them. Unlike Calendar Man, Scarecrow doesn't want Batman killed. He wants to feed Batman the fear serum.

The mysterious new knight in Gotham joins Scarecrow's plan. He is Jason Todd, a former Robin. Scarecrow's serum forces him to face his inner demons and insecurities. He arises victorious and reveals his plan to take down Batman. He forces Batman's greatest villains to join forces with him, if only to distract him while Jason delivers the killing blow.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

It felt like an anticlimactic ending (for the third volume of a three book series) but then I'm not familiar with the video game and so far I haven't read any of the other 'Arkham' books. However, I was pleasantly surprised - since my comics / graphic novel consumption is sporadic - by the reveal of AK's identity.

[newyorksense · Rating 5 out of 5]

YAAASSSSSSS ARKHAM KNIGHT JASON BEST JASON. i thought this was a very good psychological reading of both jason and bruce. had a cool rogue’s gallery. arkham knight’s costume design is sooo good and the art does him so much justice here. i have to imagine the arkham knight identity reveal went crazyyyy if you didn’t know (but i think everybody knew😭)

[Sylvester · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pretty underwhelming entry. The one shots and annuals were pretty dull, no wonder this was the last collected volume.

[nidah05 (SleepDreamWrite) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good volume.

[Blanca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ya estoy preparadita para jugar al videojuego.

[Eli Seibert · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Focused more on the Arkham Knight than Batman. A good set-up for the start of the game. Definitely my favorite of the 3 volumes.

[Henry Blackwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful. But the game was fairly awful too - especially story wise so I shouldn’t of expected so much.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

This volume brings us up to date to the game,

The storyline is forgettable, something to do with Bane. An ok read.

[JestersRaven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely the best of the Trilogy

[Sam Nicholson · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10

[Kole · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[J.B. Mathias · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good stories, some unneeded ones, some good art some bad art, middle of the road but enjoyable overall.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Batman has so much plot armour. Good action. A neverending crusade. A villain with insider information is much more capable.

[Adrian Santiago · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aquí ya no hay mucho contenido, y menos una historia taaan propia.

Si a caso, se revela quién es el caballero de Arkham y cómo fue la reunión de Scarecrow con los demás.
Plus cómo muere cierto villano que no aparece en el último juego.

Lo que me gustó fue la parte del hombre calendario, sin duda era una muy buena trama. Pero solo fue bosquejo, además de que las historias spin off solo son Batgirl (no sé por qué puede caminar) y Harley. Meh.

_____
releìda, me gustò màs.

El problema serìa por què murieron king shark y boomerang y en el siguiente juego de suicide squad estàn vivos. Ademàs, por ejemplo Ivy ya està liberada y por lo tanto el còmic va despuès del dlc de Harley. Y que Scarecrown igual no tiene tanta fuerza como la tiene al inicio del juego. Pero me gustò el preludio.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway.
I passed this book along to a young teenager in the family. His comment: "Awesome!".
Beautifully illustrated, well paced and nicely plotted.

[Agnol · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read, but not one I’d call a “must read” for Arkham fans. The story attempts to set up the game, but it’s setting up a plot point the game itself abandons pretty quickly. The best parts were the annual and Batgirl and Harley. The rest was pretty solidly “meh.”

[Jessy Goat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 60

[Matthew Marsili · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️ basically the same reasons as all the other ones

[Thomas Marsili · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mediocre

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly better than Vol 2, but not as strong as Volume 1.

[raphaela]

All the build up!

As a posed to it’s predecessor ‘Arkham unhinged’ these comics show not just Arkham city’s aftermath but what lead to the events of the game, we even see Harley’s debut here