Reviews

Batman: Knightfall, Vol. 2: Knightquest by Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, Alan Grant, Jo Duffy

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ferzemkhan's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Jean Paull Valley continues to be both Batman and the most annoying superhero you will ever read. Even the art is just always extra all the time and borderline ugly. Notable arcs are with Catwoman and with Joker, which are somewhat okay, but only because you actually focus on someone other than Jean Paul Valley. In fact, the only good parts about this run is when you see other characters - Catwoman, Joker, Renee Montoya, Clayface, because every panel Jean Paul Valley is in is a slog to go through

blackbird9805's review

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

library_jones's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

gothicteletubby's review

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3.75

Really well written, even though there were many different writers I was interested the whole time. The art was great too, very well colored throughout. You really get to see how vast the differences are between Jean Paul and Bruce, and how badly Jean Paul was brainwashed. I will say, I wish this collected what Bruce and Tim were doing that whole time rather than Jean Paul trying and failing again and again.

manuphoto's review

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adventurous dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

literarygoblin's review

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4.0

• the moody atmosphere is very strong
• following Jean-Paul's descent into a sort of madness is very engaging
• the return of Bruce and the ending felt too abrupt
• interesting use of both new and old villains
• some art styles were unpleasant for me personally
• really sets up the third installment of the series well, makes me excited to keep reading more

kaipitain's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Man this was strange.. the pace in the prelude was a bit slow and here it's just really odd.
I'd say it's paced somewhat slowly in terms of plot since nothing much happens except yapping about in Gotham. But in terms of character, the pacing is just WAY OFF THE LIMITS HERE.
I knew that Jean-Paul Valley would become Batman and drift off into being too violent and brutal, but it happened in like 5 minutes?!

He's just a student at the beginning of Sword of Azrael, becomes Azrael the Avenging Angel of Death, is taken under Batman's wing and trained not to kill as he did before, then Batman get's broken and Azrael has to take up the Mantal.
This is the perfect setup for depicting his character arc as a slow decent back into violence and a tragedy of him falling from grace. But instead he becomes a psychopath out of nowhere as soon as he picks up the mask. It's obvious from the first minute that this isn't going to work out and still everyone let's him do his thing as the new Batman? Why not start with him doing things by the book, making everyone trust this plan before slipping and going crazy.

Well anyway that pacing issue with the character arc of Jean-Paul Valley's Azrael/Batman aside, this was still brilliant. Much more tense and riviting than the prelude, but this other issue bumps it down from being as good as Knightfall Volume 1 was.