Batman Knightfall: Part 1 Knightfall
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| Knightfall Blu-Ray |
WARNING: This article assumes you already know the sequence of this story arc. If you are not familiar with Knightfall then there will be spoilers!
Batman: Knightfall (Knightquest & Knightsend) was one of the largest, most extensive crossover story arcs in Batman history, spanning nearly 2 years from 1993-1994. Knightfall follows Bane's wearing down of Batman and Azrael's takeover of the mantle. Knightquest follows Azrael's crusade against crime as the new Batman as well as Bruce Wayne's road to recovery. Knightsend closes things off with Azrael becoming controlled and warped by the System and Bruce Wayne retakes the mantle.
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| Batman #497 |
The animated movie(s) compiles the highlights of all of these issues along with tidbits of the prologues from Batman: Vengeance of Bane and Batman: Sword of Azrael. The first part covers mostly the prologues + Knightfall comics with some changes that accelerate the storyline for a movie format.
Visuals
I've been disappointed with many of the DC animated movies. While there is great work coming out of Warner Bros Japan, many new animated movies are a step down from the original Batman: The Animated Series (BTAS), which put the US on the map with Japanese Anime. In Batman: Knightfall, you can tell they put every effort to make it look good and they delivered. The environment and backgrounds are in the BTAS style. The character/figure style is an anime base, but they made it a point to combine traits from the various artists that create the comics. Kelly Jones' elongated, vampiric Batman is the most apparent. You can also find elements of Jim Aparo and Joe Quesda (Azrael). It's amazing to watch all of this come to life in animation. The action is smooth and realistic. From the start it is clearly rated, even more violent than the original comics, but evoking the correct emotions.
Azrael's various costumes were some of the most detailed back in the 90's. I've always joked that they can't make his batsuit the permanent one because it's a chore for artists to keep drawing it on every panel! In Part 1, we she a little bit of Jean Paul's father's costume, the main Azrael costume and the temporary ninja suit. The Knightquest suit can be seen in a recent trailer for Part 2. They nailed all of the details and he looks great in animation.
Those who remember the comic book artwork will notice many animation sequences start with the same cropping and poses as the original panels.
Story
The original story spanned several titles and there were dozens of events and subplots. So this was very difficulty to trim down into a 2-hour movie, but I think they did a good job of cutting things up and reordering to setup a trilogy. They did include all of the scuffles with the rogues gallery members and the more memorable conversations within the Bat Family. Sword of Azrael was accelerated to the moving opening up with an encounter between Batman and Azrael rather than Jean Paul's father passing the costume to him and then going into the Demon Biis quest. Those who remember the comic book artwork will notice many animation sequences start with the same cropping and poses as the comic book panels.
Cliffhanger
One of the main differences with the animated film and comics is the timing of the events and the wait. The movie ends with a disturbing feeling that is going to reverberate until Part 2 gets releases later in 2026 or even 2027. This is the kind of effect you can give an audience when you have a trilogy. It's similar to Luke getting defeated and losing his hand in Empire Strikes Back or the death of Boromir and breaking of the Fellowship in Lord of the Rings. Knightfall, the movie cuts off with Batman being broken and we have to wait months for the bounce back. In the comics, there was only a few weeks gap between the breaking and Azrael getting revenge.
DC Universe Online
In DCUO, Bane is present and the events of Knightfall are acknowledged via briefings, but Azrael and Shondra Kinsolving are oddly not in the game. We do have enough components to make the Azrael suit though.
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| Knightquest Batman, Azrael & Batman |
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