Batman is one of the great iconic superheroes of the modern age. I truly believe that. I mean he’s been around since the 30s and he’s still unrivalled in popularity by all but a few, and is distinctly more layered and complex than most if not all of his peers. Why is that? What gives the Dark Knight such staying power? It’s because throughout Batman’s many incarnations over the years, he has been so very versatile, adaptable; and because throughout it all he has managed to retain his core, the thematic intent that makes him so appealing. Batman walks the line between good and bad. That is his secret to success, he has no special powers, he doesn’t rely on gimmicks or tricks, he is just a man; and a troubled one at that.
Batman: Knightfall is a novelization of a series of 20 or so comic books published over 1993 and 1994, that form a single thematic story arc. Now novelizations are generally speaking very very bad. They are inherently flawed. Novels make out of movies tend to try extremely hard to capture the spirit of a film, but more often than not fail, because film is a medium of very carefully constructed visuals and sounds, books are not. Novelizations of television shows or video games are almost always worse than film. But this is the first novel I have ever read that was based on an actual comic book. In my mind I thought that perhaps this was a potential winner. Comics are a literary genre, especially when we’re talking about good quality comics, the dialogue can be very strong. Of course, well it should be, flashy artwork does not a good comic book make. But while I see the potential benefits of this kind of a strong framework to adapt from, there are problems both practical more intangible at work here.
Knightfall as I mentioned above explores the theme of Batmans darker side. It talks about the why’s and how’s of his existence; and confronts outright the tightrope Batman walks of never intentionally taking someone’s life. One of the problems that shows up pretty quickly in the book is that of an inconsistency in plot. Yes, I understand that the themes are continuing but for the most part the plotline is continually jumping around. This more likely than not has to do with the practical side of producing a comic book spanning 5 or so titles over the course of 2 years. If every single issue followed one storyline, people would get sick of it. But for a novel this is definitely not the case. The book is split into 3 distinct sections Knightfall, Knightquest, and Knightsend, and each one is perhaps understandably a story unto itself. Knightfall, which was my favourite section of the novel explores Batman’s almost manic drive to keep control of himself and his world. Batman is a perfectionist and a control freak. And the introduction of a new and dangerous villain, Bane, into the mix causes him a whole lot of aggravation. The origin story of Bane is very cool and he makes a great baddie. I’m honestly pretty upset now, knowing the character at how poorly he was used in that awful excuse for a Batman movie ”Batman and Robin”.
Knightfall aside, the rest of the novel sees Batman give up the cowl to recover from a devastating injury, trying to find himself , trying to find love, getting into some pretty interesting detective work, and rediscovering himself and his role as the Batman with the aid a few supporters. It’s interesting stuff for the most part; and some moments really shine as great storytelling. But on a whole the lack of cohesion in plot cannot be ignored. Why is a great character like bane introduced to us and then thrown away in favour of a two bit hood like Abattoir? Why isn’t Tim Drake, Robin’s character explored or even explained more than it is? And if we’ve got a great secondary like Jean Paul Valley, aka Azarel. Why not use him to his potential? If he’s going over the edge of a metaphorical precipice, send him headlong over it. Don’t chicken out, don’t back away from the natural flow of the story... But this is, no doubt, a problem with the translation from comic to novel. In the end it just doesn’t work as well as it could.
I don’t want to say I didn’t enjoy reading Batman: Knightfall, because it was pretty fun. But I’ve read a couple of other novels based on comic book characters, not specific comic stories, but their characters, and they work way better. Adaptations rarely give us insight into the story that could not have been gleaned before; and usually they end up deserving the characters, by weakly executing their imitation. I liked Knightfall, but I just can’t recommend it as a good read. Although I’d suspect that picking up some cheap back issue comic books of this story might prove very profitable reading.
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