Batman: Knightquest: The Crusade Vol. 1

Batman: Knightfall #4

by Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant, Doug Moench

Bruce Wayne is out of commission, but Batman must continue!

 A new era begins as a new Batman arrives in Gotham City. Bruce Wayne, battle-broken and unavailable for field duty after an epic showdown with Bane, has appointed a new Dark Knight as his temporary surrogate. Jean-Paul Valley (a.k.a. Azrael) has assumed the role of the Caped Crusader, but without his mentor’s integrity and experience, he quickly spins out of control. His undisciplined behavior is especially worrisome to both Robin and Commissioner Gordon.

 The fourth installment of the Batman: Knightfall saga, Batman: Knightquest: The Crusade Vol. 1 collects Detective Comics #667-670, Robin #1-2, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #19-20, Batman #501-504 and Catwoman #6-7, plus bonus material!

Genres: Comics, Batman, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Fiction, Comic Book

352 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 2, 2018

About the author

Charles "Chuck" Dixon is an American comic book writer, perhaps best-known for long runs on Batman titles in the 1990s.

His earliest comics work was writing Evangeline first for Comico Comics in 1984 (then later for First Comics, who published the on-going series), on which he worked with his then-wife, the artist Judith Hunt. His big break came one year later, when editor Larry Hama hired him to write back-up stories for Marvel Comics' The Savage Sword of Conan.

In 1986, he began working for Eclipse Comics, writing Airboy with artist Tim Truman. Continuing to write for both Marvel and (mainly) Eclipse on these titles, as well as launching Strike! with artist Tom Lyle in August 1987 and Valkyrie with artist Paul Gulacy in October 1987, he began work on Carl Potts' Alien Legion series for Marvel's Epic Comics imprint, under editor Archie Goodwin. He also produced a three-issue adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit for Eclipse with artist David Wenzel between 1989 and 1990, and began writing Marc Spector: Moon Knight in June 1989.

His Punisher OGN Kingdom Gone (August, 1990) led to him working on the monthly The Punisher War Journal (and later, more monthly and occasional Punisher titles), and also brought him to the attention of DC Comics editor Denny O'Neil, who asked him to produce a Robin mini-series. The mini proved popular enough to spawn two sequels - The Joker's Wild (1991) and Cry of the Huntress (1992) - which led to both an ongoing monthly series (which Dixon wrote for 100 issues before leaving to work with CrossGen Comics), and to Dixon working on Detective Comics from #644-738 through the major Batman stories KnightFall & KnightsEnd (for which he helped create the key character of Bane), DC One Million , Contagion , Legacy , Cataclysm and No Man's Land . Much of his run was illustrated by Graham Nolan.

He was DC's most prolific Batman-writer in the mid-1990s (rivalled perhaps in history by Bill Finger and Dennis O'Neil) - in addition to writing Detective Comics he pioneered the individual series for Robin , Nightwing (which he wrote for 70 issues, and returned to briefly with 2005's #101) and Batgirl , as well as creating the team and book Birds of Prey .

While writing multiple Punisher and Batman comics (and October 1994's Punisher/Batman crossover), he also found time to launch Team 7 for Jim Lee's WildStorm/Image and Prophet for Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios. He also wrote many issues of Catwoman and Green Arrow , regularly having about seven titles out each and every month between the years 1993 and 1998.

In March, 2002, Dixon turned his attention to CrossGen's output, salthough he co-wrote with Scott Beatty the origin of Barbara Gordon's Batgirl in 2003's Batgirl: Year One. For CrossGen he took over some of the comics of the out-going Mark Waid, taking over Sigil from #21, and Crux with #13. He launched Way of the Rat in June 2002, Brath (March '03), The Silken Ghost (June '03) and the pirate comic El Cazador (Oct '03), as well as editing Robert Rodi's non-Sigilverse The Crossovers. He also wrote the Ruse spin-off Archard's Agents one-shots in January and November '03 and April '04, the last released shortly before CrossGen's complete collapse forced the cancellation of all of its comics, before which Dixon wrote a single issue of Sojourn (May '04). Dixon's Way of the Rat #24, Brath #14 and El Cazador #6 were among the last comics released from the then-bankrupt publisher.

On June 10, 2008, Dixon announced on his forum that he was no longer "employed by DC Comics in any capacity."

Reviews

[Subham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an okayish read and not better than the previous volumes before it.

It starts off with Tim on the outs with Paul and their fight and spinning into his own adventures as he fights Shotgun and then Speed Boyz, some weird gang and gets his own car meanwhile Cluemaster is on the loose. Also Azrael fights "The Tally man", the new villain and we see the villains origin meanwhile Paul has to reconcile with his identity and who he is. And then we have him go against this assassin Mekros and deal with another assassin out to kill Mekros and the confusion and the drama there and also deal with Trigger Twins which was an okay story and ends haphazardously. The big story is Selina vs him and how she wants to save the world by stealing some chemical which she think some terrorists might use to knock down some people and all the drama and tension and fighting there and the big env message so yeah!

It feels like a bit of weird volume and sure it feels like a filler until the eventual return of Bruce but I will admit there are stories here that feel fresh and fun like the Robin story and the fight with Tally man but the others just start and end fast and feel unsatisfied like we never got the resolution with what Mekros really is and his mental programming which you would think is a big plot with Paul. The Selina story felt stretched out and preachy by the end but good fight between the two. Overall an okay read and the art while weird is still okay in some areas but in others, really good. So continuing this saga anyways.

[Daria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everything that wasn't /about/ Jean-Paul in this was great! Lovely little Tim Drake arc, I love the fact that he gets a car then immediately gets pulled over (in a ditch), he's a bit of an asshole because he's a boy at 13 that got made fun of for not having a car (when he indeed did have a car), but we got over it and so did Ariana. I liked seeing him deal with school and being a solo Robin, and when Jean-Paul was going to kill him I thought I was going to go insane!!! Crazy!!! Bonkers!!!! Best scene of this entire volume by FAR and only moment I felt anything close to sympathy towards Jean-Paul. The twins were also very fun.
Catwoman was also there!!! Go girlqueen!! Save the planet, immediately realise that that is not Bruce, fool everyone, I've missed her so much, thank god she's back. Gordon is struggling so much and I feel so bad for him, however if Selina managed to figure out that that's not Bruce, surely he could do the same. I am so glad he roots for Selina though, like, can they all just team up and take down Jean-Paul? I am sick of him. The mayor is also going a bit mad.
The only good part of the solo Jean-Paul adventures was the Collector. Hello. He is great. And Jean-Paul almost killed him, so so much for that. We love a villain with morals.
Really, this could have been a 5/5 stars but Jean-Paul is so BORING and UPSETTING and also weirdly objectified Catwoman for some fucking reason so sadly it wasn't one. Please bring Bruce back. I beg. I cannot do this anymore. Jean-Paul is a bit much.

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

So for Christmas, I asked for a pile of the collected Knightfall books that came out a year or two ago. I've probably made better decisions, but this is also likely what I deserved. I've never read this whole series -- only the Bane stuff from the beginning, which everyone read at the time -- and yeah, the rest of this isn't, yknow, good. I think there are a few interesting elements of Jean-Paul Valley's psychological descent, in which he realizes he has no discernible identity and thus no real moral center. That stuff, when it came up, was often pretty well done.

But probably the best storyline from this part of the series is one that didn't get collected (how is this possible?!?! This series is NINE BOOKS LONG HOW DID THEY SKIP SOMETHING), in which Catwoman follows up on Bane after nu-Batman trounces him. We get a lot of Bane's backstory and, while the Catwoman title from the time period was mostly an exercise in watching Selina get in and out of the shower between fights (like wow), it was still better-paced than most of the other crap in here. Just a pity I had to look it up on the internet instead of reading it in the actual book.

This book also introduces the cowboy hitmen the Trigger Twins, who are genuinely kind of funny, but otherwise it's, yknow, dreck.

[Malum · Rating 2 out of 5]

Azrael vs mostly d-list villains while brooding harder than Bruce on his worst day. We also get a very forgettable Robin story and a pretty bad Cat woman story with some questionable art (and an incredibly lame scene where Batman literally shakes his fist at Catwoman and yells "Catwoman! We'll meet again!". It was so bad it was almost funny).

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this one took me a while to get through, I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve been busy or I wasn’t pulled to read through it though.

The actually stories in here are entertaining but you quickly realise that you miss Bruce being Batman. Some nice stories just a bit too much of the same for me.

Overall I’m enjoying reading Knightquest but am equally looking forward to finish it too and get back to some Bruce Wayne stories.

[Spencer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was kinda boring, I ended up skimming through a lot of it!

[Andy Zell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was interested in reading this 90s story where Jean-Paul Valley (Azrael) takes over as Batman after Bane broke Bruce Wayne's back because I recently read the recent Detective Comics run that included Valley on the Bat-team. Honestly, the stories in this volume don't illuminate his character much at all, or any of the other characters either. They're serviceable stories, but nothing special. The art is mixed, and mostly bad, but I did like the way the villain Tally Man was drawn. The art on Catwoman was especially egregious. Basically, don't bother reading this unless you really want to visit this chapter in Bat-history.

[The Gandy Man · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review for all of The Crusade

I think JPV as Batman is interesting. A lot of this arc has a similar problem to Knightfall where it's not making any progress for most of it. Most of the various conflicts and villains just feel like distractions. The real story is what JPV is doing to the Batman legacy, his internal struggle, and Robin's struggle against it. At least that's what I'm interested in and want to see. But that doesn't really develop much until the end, although the end is good. Occasionally JPV will upgrade the suit or get a new weapon or see the ghost of his dad or the saint guy or whatever, but most of that stuff is just reminding us of where this character is at. Only a few times does it actually change. For the most part, it's just the classic collection of 1-3 issue mini-arcs, very few of which are actually interesting. It felt even more disjointed than usual due to a few plotlines that went nowhere and a few plotlines that jumped around a lot. Knightfall had numbers so you knew you were reading in the right order, but this arc frequently made me feel like I was reading the wrong comic, and then I'd cross-reference multiple reading orders to make sure. One issue was even labeled "The Search" rather than "The Crusade". I liked the Robin comics, but the story there was super disjointed, at least with the reading order I used. My order said to just read 1, 2, and 5, which I found awkward. I kinda wanted to read the ones in between too, but it seemed like they were irrelevant to the rest of the Crusade arc. Most other orders I could find just had 1 and 2. I would've liked an actual Robin mini-arc here that is solidly a part of and integral to The Crusade, as his perspective in this situation is really interesting.

I'm assuming "The Search" is going to be Bruce and Alfred looking for whoever went missing. It feels really awkward that they're just gone. Presumably all the trouble that's brewing with JPV in Gotham will come to a head when Bruce gets back, but who knows when that will be. Since we don't get to see how his search is going, it just feels like there's this inevitable confrontation that will happen whenever the writers want. I'm guessing once I read The Search I'll no longer have this problem, but that's the issue with structuring it this way.

[Juan Gallardo Ivanovic · Rating 3 out of 5]

La cruzada del nuevo Batman
Después de tomar el manto del murciélago, nuestro protagonista lucha por ser merecedor del título de Batman, mientras se enfrenta a diversos villanos y enmascarados. Pero los antiguos aliados del pasado Caballero de la Noche, o bien no se encuentran a gusto con el cambio, o por otro lado, están extrañados con la nueva apariencia y formas de combatir el crimen que usa Batman tras su encuentro con Bane.
JP Valley se vuelve un justiciero brutal, violento y que ya no necesita de su joven compañero. Es por eso que el Joven Maravilla de turno, Tim Drake, decide tomar su propio camino y tomar distancia de su otrora mentor.
Es así como JP deberá hacer frente a varios criminales en solitario y tratar de hallar al responsable que está moviendo los hilos. Su camino no será fácil pero apoyado con su convicción, su entrenamiento y sus ansias de justica, se convertirá en el implacable poder dominante de la noche de Gótica.

Esta lectura no estuvo tan buena como las anteriores, ya que mueve su foco a varios personajes secundarios, que si bien construyen una historia coherente y fácil de seguir, ésta es es algo plana y poco memorable. Tenemos a JP enfrentándose a varios villanos desechables mientras asume el papel de Batman. Por su parte, Robin recibe un sidequest, ya se se siente algo apartado de JP y empieza a actuar en solitario. Lo mismo pasa con Catwoman, que intersecta su historia a la de Batman sin mucho bombo, pero notando que quien tiene el manto no es el mismo Batman de siempre.
En lo visual, está bastante en línea con el anterior, pero me han gustado mucho los dibujos y colores en los números de Robin y Shadows of the Bat (la historia del señor Cobranza).
Este es un recopilatorio de Ovni Press de Knightfall que recoge Detective Comics #667-670, Robin #1-2, Shadow of the Bat #19-20, Batman #501-504 and Catwoman #6-7. En este recopilatorio este es el volumen 3 de 6.
En general, la justificación de estos números es consolidar la posición de JP Valley como el nuevo Batman, dar luz a sus métodos violentos con los criminales, los cuestionamientos de sus aliados y que alguien está cocinado algo tras la trama, lo que debería estallar en los siguientes volúmenes.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Following on from the Knightfall storyline, this book sees Jean Paul Valley continuing his quest to eradicate crime in Gotham City. As the new Batman struggles with his murderous programming, Robin, Commissioner Gordon and Catwoman all becomes concerned at the nature of the man beneath the cowl.

Although I do continue to enjoy Valley's stint as Batman, with him both being a perfectly-trained warrior and simultaneously a complete rookie, it has to be said that there is something reassuring in knowing that it's only a temporary thing.
With 90s comics being what they were, there was a potential danger that this much edgier, spikes-covered version of Batman could've been the new norm going forward, which ultimately would be pretty depressing. But knowing it's temporary allows you to enjoy it for what's here and, honestly, the costume is growing on me.

The big problem with this book, however, is that the writers (or possibly the DC editors of the time) seem reluctant to let the new Batman face any of old Batman's rogues gallery. This means that instead we see Spiky Batman take on a pair of long-lost twin brothers who dress as Wild West cowboys, a mercenary in a mech-suit called Mekros and a weird new villain called Tally Man.
Now, some of these may well be part of Batman history or maybe went on to be significant villains, but I've read a lot of Batman comics and I've never heard of them before or since.
So, 'New flavour Batman takes down anonymous disposable villain' is what makes up the majority of this book.
It is balanced slightly by the genuinely great interactions between him and Catwoman towards the end of the book however. The 'horny incel versus femme fatale who absolutely sees right through his BS' vibe worked pretty well.

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was mostly fine, with great moments and some pretty awful moments. As with all my other reviews for the Knightfall arc, I really do not care for the writing of Doug Moench, but your mileage may vary. The story of Knightquest is the story of Jean-Paul Valley (Azrael) as Batman. While a more brutal, more morally strict Batman is an interesting concept, I really found the actual writing failed to deliver on the concept frequently, and, as a result, there are many pages you can skip over, unless you want to read comic book violence for the sake of comic book violence.

The more interesting writing comes from Jean-Paul Valley struggling to overcome The System implanted in him, while also relying on The System. I also really enjoyed the writing of those close to Bruce - Gordon, Montoya, and Catwoman, among others - slowly beginning to realize that there was something very different about Batman, and this might not be the Batman they know. The inclusion of issues of Robin were well written and a nice diversion, and the inclusion issues of Catwoman brought another nice diversion and the excellent art of Jim Balent.

[Fez Vaccaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

These stories are fine, there's just nothing noteworthy happening here.

We know the Jean-Paul Valley Batman doesn't like detective work, so it would have been nice to see stories where he is forced to engage that part of being Batman, which goes against his nature. We do get parts of him trying to fight against his murderous tendencies, due to his programming and training from the Order of St. Dumas. We also do a get a lack of interesting villains here, Mr. Freeze is the only name villain and they're not particularly exciting issues either.

We do start to get non-Batman title crossovers - there is the launch of a Robin monthly title here, as well as some early Catwoman issues. While presented for completeness, there are parts of those stories which are obviously not Knightfall Batman related, so there isn't much appeal on my end. The JPV and Selina interactions are fun at least, more so than the story itself.

Also important to note is that because it's the 90s and everyone needs a codename, we get a police sheriff who calls himself "Shotgun".

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

The "new" Batman, Jean-Paul Valley, starts his own adventures, and it's generally a mixed bag. There's a decent subplot where two long-lost twins enter Gotham's crime scene as a pair of "Old West" stick-up men. There's also some decent character work with Tim Drake's Robin, who is forced away--often violently--by the new Batman.

But there's also a lot of generic "tons of guns" shoot-em-up villains, characters like the Tally Man and Mekros (I had to look that one up) that don't offer much interest in the plotting or story resolution. There's also a subplot with Catwoman and a misunderstanding around a toxic nerve agent that sees Jean-Paul seemingly get horny for the first time, which is about as awkward as you'd expect.

The work collected here isn't bad, but be prepared to do some skipping and skimming.

[Justin Partridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah. These are a whole lot weirder than I remembered.

Like the whole idea around Jean-Paul is great. And he has such a great gimmick that you could play up as he continues as “the Batman”. How the struggle of his actions in-costume clash directly with The System and how he has to try and find some balance between being genuinely threatening or just another murderer.

But this is also an era weirdly fixated on “street-level” crime and also trying to establish Jean-Paul’s specific rogues gallery. So I hope you like a lot of panels devoted to the Trigger Twins. And prepared to face a lot of narration from Jean-Paul about how he wishes so badly he could fight Catwoman without being SO HORNY for her you guys! It’s a real problem, I swear!

Definitely not the “classic” people seem to think it is but def too weird and singular to write off completely.

[a ☕︎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

yay, my wish was granted! the team finally fractures in the wake of bruce’s departure, so we get three different storylines: one w tim taking his emigré girlf ariana to a school ball where he has to fight some baddies, one w selina swapping disguises btwn frumpy environmentalist and ‘mysterious, graceful’ catwoman to save some execs, and one w jean-paul fighting various z-class rogues while alsooo being haunted by the spectre of the angel azrael. btw, love love loved vincent giarrano’s art in the tallyman storyline, his linework was very swirly and felt art-nouveau-action-man to me

[Jake Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as Knightfall Vol 2 but still enjoyable enough to keep reading.

We got a great Robin story where he confronts Azrael (Batman) and Azrael almost kills Tim. The Twins were surprisingly very enjoyable. I laughed a couple times at them. Got a cool storyline with Catwoman. I liked Gordon in this one.

I guess my main criticism is Jean Paul (Azrael/Batman) which is a problem when he’s the main character. At times I felt bad for him but a lot of the time annoyed by his constant flip flopping on whether to be Dark or Light.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Batman: Knightquest: The Crusade Vol. 1

Jean Paul Valley has given up the Azrael identity and fully assumed the role of Batman. The new Dark Knight is cruel, vicious and is unafraid to put civilians at risk when confronting the vast array of villains.

The art and storyline here is fantastic, but a note of warning: The text from this volume is also found in 'Batman: Knightfall Vol. 2: Knightquest'.

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now that Bane is gone, and John Paul Valley has taken on the mantle of Batman, the story has just kinda lost its flair.

I’m still liking what Dixon/Moensch/Grant are able to do with this gigantic crossover event, but after finishing the first part of Knightquest, I don’t feel myself as hooked as before.

[Abhijeet · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very well curated collection of issues that cover the journey of Azrael as Batman after the events of Knightfall. The fundamental problem is that Azrael is not a very interesting character, inadvertently highlighted by the Catwoman arc in the book. The Catwoman arc is the best thing about the book too.

[Cazadora De Mundos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pase por mil emociones, Jean-Paul me entristece y me enfurece, vemos su intento de entenderse a sí mismo y al sistema, Robin es tratado horrible por décimo octava vez, Catwoman se ve fenomenal, el batitren me parece una mala decisión y en general tiene cosas buenas pero cosas que no me convencen.
Leí la edición de ovnipress pero este tomo tiene los mismos números.

[Abhinav Vuppalapati · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art was cool, but this was super boring, it was just very out of place, this was everywhere, and the stories weren’t that strong, I felt like there was zero plot. I will give credit to the artist, the art of the suit is amazing!

[Szymon Kulec · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 out of 5, I liked it.

The Crusade goes on, both in the head of Jean-Paul and on the streets of Gotham. Some chapters bring not that much value to the story (just another villain defeated), but overall there's something in the new look of the bat.

[zackxdig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gonna finish the story out but I don’t love Jean-Paul as Batman or a new iteration of Batman. Just doesn’t click with me. Robin story was fine but just not in love with the new person donning the mantel. This comic gave if super 90s vibes from the art.

[Wendopolis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Totally skimmed. This new Batman is a real jack and I don’t care about him.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The tallyman is kinda intriguing as a villain. The art for his chapters is also done really well. Azrael as the batman is also kinda interesting and I want to see where it goes in the next volume.

[Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Damn. Very boring. I just finished the book and I don't even remember what happened. I sometimes wish I weren't such a completionist.

[ISMOTU · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jean Paul Valley develops into a Darker Knight for a new more extreme decade. His harsher tactics estrange him from Bruce Wayne's closest allies. Big 90's comics.

[Ming · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trudging my way through all the Knightfall books. Rather dull, with many story arcs taking forever to wrap up.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10 there’s some cool stuff here but there’s also some doodoo. Not bad but not all that great either.

Am I the only one who thinks the Azbat suit looks sick?

[Amna · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I tell you I'm tired of Azbat...

Highlights for me were a little Robin side-story and getting to see a bit more Renee Montoya. Also liked how Catwoman clocked Azbat right away.