Batman: Knightfall, Part One: Broken Bat by Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon

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Batman: Knightfall, Part One: Broken Bat
by Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/11749038

One of my favorite things to do on a Sunday morning (when I have one free) is to spend the morning in bed reading comics. I've been reading this one off and on for the last month or so, and just finished it this (Sunday) morning.

What a downer. Not in a bad way! I like my Batman dark, emotionally broken, and physically broken (confessions of a hurt/comfort junkie). And this one didn't disappoint in that respect. The book begins with an organized breakout of Arkam Asylum. The first time we see the Batman, he's on his way to responding to the disaster and he's already too ill to get out of bed but pushing himself to protect Gotham. So it only gets worse for him from there. Every baddie he's ever put away is now out and running amok in the city. Some seem to have a bigger agenda, possibly working for someone else (read: Bane), while others are just crazy and want to do what they do best (read: more crazy). Robin (Tim at this point in the timeline) and Batman are doing everything they can to stop and round up the villains, but there are so many of them all over the city and Batman's already exhausted. So the outcome is less than fantastic in some cases. Even Alfred gets hurt in this volume.

I really enjoyed seeing so many villains all at once, sometimes teaming up with some scheme, other times on their own. It was interesting to see the different styles the duo had for dealing with them (read: willing to do anything to stop each one of them). Though there isn't much duo action--there are so many out there that it makes sense for Batman and Robin to split up and cover more ground. But poor Batman is not doing well at all. He's dead on his feel and still determined to keep going. He gets burned and slashed and hit and drowned. He bleeds and sweats and cries and resists all attempts of help from his doctors, Alfred, and sometimes even Robin.

This is "part one" and 296 pages of action. I had intended to somehow track down part two somewhere to keep going on this story arc. But the ending was a bit too shocking for me and I'm terribly sad now. I like my Batman broken, but not this broken. I had no idea it would go this far. I'm sort of in shock still. Oh Bruce...