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Batman: Knightfall, Part Two: Who Rules the Night | 
 enlarge | Authors: Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant
Publisher: DC Comics
Category: Book
List Price: $17.99
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Rating:  48 reviews
Sales Rank: 67082
Media: Paperback
Pages: 280
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 6.6 x 0.8
ISBN: 1563891484
Dewey Decimal Number: 741
EAN: 9781563891489
ASIN: 1563891484
Publication Date: September 3, 1993
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Amazon.com Review
Who Rules the Night is the second of two volumes collecting Knightfall, the Batman storyline in which Batman meets defeat. The aftermath of the devastating battle between Batman and Bane leaves Gotham City without a hero; that is until a new "Dark Knight" named Azrael appears. Azrael is a meaner, more violent version of Batman.
Product Description
This riveting book sets Batman on a path that will change his life forever. A mass escape from Arkham Asylum and the emergence of Batman's most threatening for, Bane, sends Gotham City spinning into chaos and takes Batman to the limits of human endurance. Graphic novel format.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 43 more reviews...
The Bat is Broken November 16, 2008
Abhijeet (Redmond, WA USA)
Knightfall is one of the most ambitious Batman stories ever attempted. This book collects the first and arguably the best part of this story - the breaking of the Batman by Bane (the symbolism of the name is pretty obvious). The story begins with Bane engineering the breakout of all the insane criminals that are housed in Arkham Asylum. All of Batman's nemeses - The Joker, Scarecrow, Killer Croc and others - are let loose on the streets of Gotham all at once. This is Bane's clever and twisted strategy to break the Batman.
The plot moves forward in somewhat predictable fashion as Batman takes down each of the escapees in turn. He is mentally disintegrating with each encounter and losing his will to fight. Bane and his henchmen are watching his relentlessly, waiting for the right moment to strike and take him down. The story culminates in a final encounter with between Batman and Bane with the Batman almost at breaking point mentally and physically. He does not offer much resistance and Bane literally and figuratively breaks him. The book ends with the final panel depicting Bane breaking the Batman's spine. The slow mental disintegration of Batman is the focal point of the storyline and keeps you riveted throughout. While the several sub-plots with the Arkham escapees are of uneven quality some of them are excellent. The one involving the Joker is, predictably, among the best of the lot.
This ranks as one of the best Batman stories ever written and anyone who is intrigued by the character of Batman must pick this one up.
 By Far the Best Part of the Series October 3, 2008
Phil Clark (Cape May, NJ/ Austin, TX)
Like most triologies, the biggest character twists and best action sequences occur in Part II of Knightsend. The transition of John Paul Valley into the mantle of the Bat goes through a logical and compelling progression. Batman #500, the final volume in this book, was on of the first Batman comics I read when I was a child. I still have it, and it is still one of the best single-issue "Batman" comics I've ever read.
As a bonus, if you don't hate Joel Shumacher's "Batman & Robin" enough already, when you see how much he perverted the character of Bane, one of the Bat's most formidible opponents, you'll you'll be foaming at the mouth.
 Not very Good! September 7, 2008
Parker (At Large)
I remember reading this story as it appeared monthly way back in 1993. For the two people who don't know the premise; new Bad guy in town, Bane, makes destroying Batman hislife's mission; he confronts Batman and breaks his Back after unleashing all the inmates from Arkham Asylum, thereby softening up our hero enough to take him down easily.
It was always understood DC had a trick up their sleeve to put Bruce Wayne back together, but the book could have been much more fun had it been handled with a little more care, consistancy and some with a little art direction. But this is a product of it's time, with overstretched storylines crossing into all the Batman related books just to boost sales, but not story or art.
The fist misstep which ruined this story for me was the lazy artwork. The idea behind this storyline was to shake up the Batman comics and do a bit of creative relaunching. The result of this effort was some really nice covers from Kelly Jones and pairing long time Batman artist Jim Aparo with a string of inkers to try to improve on his rudimentary pencil work, and little else.
The late Jim Aparo, who had drawn some classic batman stories in the 1970's, seemed like he wasn't trying any more. His art on Batman for the few years previous had grown static and dull, and by this time, many fans were waiting to see him try his hand elsewhere in the DC landscape of characters. The aforementioned inkers worked on varying levels, but the art still remained fairly weak and in retrospect it would have been wiser for one inker to finish the work (Dick Giordano stands out in my mind as the best inker of the lot, Joe Rubinstien the worst)
On the flip side, Graham Nolan sharply illustrates the alternating chapters of this crossover storyline and does a much better job, but his work on half the story cannot make up for the weakness of the other half.
The writing is also lop sided. Doug Moench's slower scripts (drawn by Aparo), try to delve into batman's state of mind during his long ordeal but sometimes border on characature and don't gel well with Chuck Dixon's action oriented chapters (drawn by Nolan).
Norm Breyfogle deftly illustrates the first three chapters of the story, while Klause Janson illustrates a two part Two-Face story adding to the hodge podge effect of the art work.
Had there been three or four artists of a consistant style, this crssover event would have worked a lot better artistically, but DC seems to favor a mishmash of styles on their Batman comics and often end up ruining some exiting premises.
If you just have to read this book, you may want to search for some of the prequel storylines which were never reprinted. Batman: Vengeance of Bane explains why Bane developes such an obsession with destroying Batman, while Batman: Sword of Azrael (which was collected in a trade) introduces Batman's repacement. There were also a few prequel issues of Detective Comics and Batman which hint that Batman is experiencing burnout; they are not very good, but completest may want to search them out.
I'd also point out that the similar 1989 storyline from Detective comics, Blind Justice, featured Bruce Wayne receiving severe spinal injuries, but the tale was told over three issues, with one writer and one artist, and can be considered a minor classic Batman story, read that instead!
It's pretty bad April 7, 2008
Z. Michaels (Orange County, CA)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
The writing is terrible and hokey. The art is generic. Not to be placed among the more literary Batman books such as Dark Knight Returns, Year One, Arkham Asylum, Long Halloween, etc. Good story, just done poorly.
Off to a good start March 28, 2008
Steven Scott (L.A., CA)
PART 1
I had heard mixed things about this trilogy. It's hard to ignore, because its one of Batman's most intense trials and it was also a pretty big stunt to undertake. However, you can't deny the importance of such a story and the impact that Bane had on the Bat mythology. Now it's hard to judge the story overall with just part 1 of 3, but I'll stick to the highlights.
Bane has a master plan and it involves pushing Batman to his ultimate limit. He starts by releasing all of the worst prisoners from Gotham and suppling them with weapons. From there its just a matter of Batman doing his best to save the city and fighting exhaustion with little to no sleep. He takes on the Hatter, Zsasz, Film Freak, Amygdala, Firefly, Poison Ivy, the Riddler and a few other minor characters in here and manages to put them away. Before he can catch his breath he has to face Bane in a showdown which leads us into part 2.
Doug Moench and Chuck Dixon are both excellent Bat writers and they do a good job keeping things moving along at a good pace. I recognized Jim Aparo and Norm Breyfogle's artwork, and the guest artists include Graham Nolan and Jim Balent, who are both adequate. The stand out moments in here are when the Ventriloquist and Scarface are reunited, when Joker gets beat down for 2 pages by Bats in retaliation for killing Jason, and of course the final confrontation between Batman and Bane.
Looking very forward to part 2 as I want to see what the other villains are up to as well as Nightwing and Catwoman who have yet to play a role but I know are a part of this. I'm excited to see what they have planned for Scarface since Alan Grant is being added for part 2 and he always writes the best Scarface stories. Other than that, this is only the beginning.
PART 2
Part 1 of Knightfall ended on an exciting cliffhanger that left the reader feeling anything could happen next. Bane broke the Batman, and things might never be the same again. So Part 2 picks up right where we left off, with Bane dropping Batman's shattered body from a building and declaring himself Gotham's new ruler.
So now Bruce needs to recover, but in the meantime Gotham still needs a Batman. Jean Paul Valley, or Azrael as you might know him, takes up the mantle of the Bat upon Bruce's request. Things are going pretty good until Jean Paul goes crazy with power, dishing out his own brand of brutal justice.
Scarecrow returns to wreak havoc on some university students (and we are given a brief back story of him for the dozenth time.) I was disappointed that Scarface and the Ventriloquist weren't as featured here, but that's just me. Bruce is confined to a wheelchair with Alfred at his side and tries to save his doctor and Tim Drake's father who have been abducted by Bane's men. Most of the action revolves around the new Batman and his decline into madness. Jean Paul is haunted by visions of St. Dumas and his failings as Azrael. He also makes Robin feel completely alienated by his wreak less behavior and complete lack of concern for human life.
This is definitely Act II. A necessary midway point to lead us into the final act, but I was pretty anxious to hurry up and get to Part 3. I also felt that Jean Paul took a turn for the worse a little too abruptly and it was hard to believe that Robin put up with it for so long without getting help sooner. My least favorite part, but if you're reading Knightfall, its necessary to get you from the beginning to the conclusion.
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