Thread by @NerdGerhl

We made it, babies: Knightsend, the absolutely whacked out conclusion to this entire affair.

Also what the heck is up with Jean-Paul’s butt here

What is he, an empowered female character?

Previous thread here:

https://twitter.com/nerdgerhl/status/1078361402815983617

Me: FUCK YES NINJAS. Let’s GO
Me: I sure hope this isn’t more creaking with overused orientalist stereotype than I remember it being
Knightsend: ...
Me, like a prayer: it’s ok to have nostalgic feelings for problematic works as long as you interrogate their flaws, it’s ok to have

OK, I’m stopping after the first scene in here because I should really have gone to bed instead of started a Batman thread BUT. This scene.

When I was a kid getting into Batman comics, Knightquest was not in print collection, only Knightfall and Knightsend. Most of the Knightquest stuff in these threads I’ve been reading for the first time.

But now I know that even if you were reading Knightsend, all these stories about Jean Paul sliding in to madness and Bruce hunting Shondra Kinsolving and all that — This volume opens with Lady Shiva walking into the dojo of the Sensei and straight murdering him like he’s nothing.

But even if you don’t know about the early-90s DC Comics mysterious martial arts master “Sensei” (among other things, he trained Catwoman in one of her post-Miller-Year-One retcon origin stories), this scene is still comprehensibly bonkers in the language of kung-fu-movies.

Shiva walks into the dojo, tells him to call his attendant here to watch as she kills him. He warns her that if there’s a witness, his seven pupils, all masters now, will come to exact revenge.

She says “cool.” She WANTS THAT.

He calls his attendant. Shit’s about to go DOWN.

And then the comic reveals the first absolute twist for an unfamiliar reader, with a fucking PUN:

The Sensei is an ninja master — and he’s armless.

“Bear witness to our unarmed combat” are you fucking kidding me

Seven panels after this, Shiva catches one of his kicks. Let me repeat myself.

She catches the kick of an armless ninja master.

Then she breaks his ankle.

Comics in general have a real PROBLEM with virtually every Asian character in them being a martial artist, and Shiva is a pitch perfect dragon lady stereotype.

But female characters in Batman were thin on the ground when I was 12 and damn if I was not instantly in love.

And the idea that of all the people in the world, when Batman needed someone to teach him how to be Batman again, he would go to a woman? A woman who was indisputably the greatest fighter in the world?

That alone purchased so much of my loyalty for Batman comics.

Anyway, this is all building up to how Shiva ends the fight, which has been seared into my brain, encrusted in stereotype as it is, as one of the most stupid and perfect moments in comic history.

She winds up, snarling at Sensei “You require a lesson — one final lesson. THIS...”

...IS HOW ONE KICKS”

COMICS ARE STUPID. COMICS ARE GREAT. GOODNIGHT FOR NOW.

So Bruce asks Lady Shiva to dom— I mean, train, him back to peak form.

“And I punched Lady Shiva in the boob.”

And here we have the true bulk of Knightsend. A story that started with Bane, continued with Azreal’s fall to madness and Bruce’s search for Shondra Kinsolving, now it all wraps up with...

LADY SHIVA FRAMING BRUCE FOR THE MURDER OF AN ARMLESS NINJA MASTER, CAUSING HIS SEVEN NINJA MASTER PUPILS TO SEEK REVENGE ON HIM

WHICH IS HER VERSION OF A CRASH COURSE IN BATMAN STUDIES

I just I love this stupid book so much

Ninja #1: Chain guy

Jean Paul: Literally hallucinating
Tim: Is this 💁🏻‍♂️🦋 training?

Ninja #2: I don’t even know what these are called, frankly.

But these kung fu one-liners, man 💋👌🏼

One of the patterns in this arc is Bruce returning to Wayne Tower and ALMOST leaping off but deciding he’s not ready yet. It’s Good Ass Writing to see Batman return to the Key Origin Story Moment he coined (although thanks to Spider-Verse maybe we trope-name this “Leap of Faith”)

This is all just in the first (40 page, granted) issue, folks!!!

*muffled sound of The Liberty Bell March playing in another room*

I do not like the hairy square Batman of Bret Blevins

FINALLY my sonsband is here, pretending to make a joke about something he’s 100% fucking upset over.

I’m pretty sure I’ve tweeted these exact panels before but AHHHH I just love them so much

Any Bat-family member: I was trained by the best
Me:👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀good shit go౦ԁ sHit👌thats✔some good👌👌shit right👌👌there👌👌👌right✔there✔✔if i do ƽaү so my self💯i say so💯thats what im talking about right there right there (chorus: ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ) mMMMMᎷМ💯👌

Ninja #3: the animal one, I guess? Honestly he’s kind of a let down comparatively

With the title of this next issue we have reached a dangerous level of self awareness.

*drafts and redrafts a tweet about how to acknowledge the sublime perfection of Chuck Dixon writing the Robins without dismissing Chuck Dixon’s... whole everything else* 😞

Someone 👏🏼hug👏🏼 this👏🏼 boy

Ninja #4: Gimmick: more ninjas

Ninja #5: Don’t bring a chain weapon to a highway

Batman says this is #6 but I checked and I think this collection skips a ninja??????

show yourself

On the other hand it would be the most perfect troll/ninja joke if there was a single ninja who was completely unseen in the narrative.

MmmMMM yeah gimme that good Mignola shit

(Also, can I just say that I love the slowly shattering and reforming bat emblems used for these arcs? Perfect.)

Final ninja: Gimmick: BIG BOY

For some reason “Not a hand. A knife.” seared itself into my 12 year old brain when I read this and I’ve never been able to forget this panel. (In the next panel he jabs the guy in the eyes.)

So with the final ninja, Bruce realizes that Lady Shiva is never gonna stop sending ninjas after him until she gets what she wants: To force him to kill to win, so he decided to fake murder this last ninja.

And so of course the very next thing that happens is...

...a Shakespearean-ass misunderstanding when the Robins see him do it too and FLIP OUT and Bruce can’t tell them the truth because it’d ruin the illusion. It’s COMPLETELY unnecessary and everything is resolved in literally the next issue but who cares it’s SO MANY ROBIN EMOTIONS.

Hey wait a second THAT story isn’t for like another decade

I have to stop here because I don’t have time right now to scream about this many Robin feelings; tune in next time.

OKAY SO HERE’S THE THING. Dick and Tim both believe in Batman. But Dick believes in Batman the way a child believes in a parent. Fallibility doesn’t enter into the equation.

Dick became Robin when he was young, alone, and grieving. Batman was the faith that let him find himself. When he doesn’t know who Batman is, he doesn’t know who HE is. He lashes out.

One of my favorite things about Tim is that he came to Batman as a fan — but as a HEALTHY fan. The very first thing that he discovers about Batman is his secret identity. He knows that Batman is just (never just) a person.

His origin story is literally “I can see that Batman needs help. I’m going to get him help.” His origin story is literally “Batman told me I shouldn’t do this, but he’s wrong, and I’m gonna.”

He can separate the ideals from the person. So he’s not angry. He’s just very sad.

Dixon puts it directly in their dialogue here. Dick: Listen to YOU, how could YOU, YOU stood for something, it makes YOU worse.

Tim: Then IT was all a lie.

My favorite Dick/Tim moment ever is very similar to this, when Tim says “there’s really a LOT ofevidence that Bruce murdered his ex. We owe it to his teachings to take it seriously”

And Dick’s response, perfectly, is: I don’t know how you can wear that costume and even say that.

So I take back when I said earlier that Knightfall/Quest/End can be read as the first time that Tim realized Bruce is a problematic fave. Tim’s always known.

And that’s why he’ll always be the best fucking Robin ✋🏼🎤

These last three panels are consecutive and I can say the one perk of having a late-stage queer realization is rereading childhood favorites and being dragged by them.

Shiva: Congratulations, you solved my murder puzzle. You are now worthy of even having my eyes rest briefly upon your mortal form.
Bruce: Uh... (ง'̀-'́)ง ??
Shiva: Oh, you literal infant, no.

Alright I think nine tweets for the first five pages of a comic are enough.

*Literally a panel after Tim crying*
Dick: Oh hey this ninja is still breathing
Bruce: Thank god Shiva already left help me get him to a hospital
Bruce: boys
Bruce: I’m so tired of ninjas

Tim Drake: Fan
Dick Grayson: Stan

RICHard

Just wait a decade, Dick, and Jack Drake will get murdered by *doesn’t even have check her notes* Captain Fucking Boomerang

Whatta fantastic rule-of-cool moment

Daaaamn Jean-Paul who does your tips and how much do they charge

Aww yeeeeeee

Batman to Azreal: You’re the biggest mistake of my life!
Me: what about that time you thought a kid could handle being a vigilante and he couldn’t and he died

Sick burn

Timothy Jackson Drake, just along for the ride.

Gosh, what could this cliffhanger ending be used for? Is it that Batman is really dead?

Or is it for the Robins to THINK he’s dead for half an issue so we can watch them have emotions about it?

Spoiler: It’s the latter, JUST like earlier when they thought he’d killed someone

And god bless it’s drawn by Graham Nolan

Pictured: Dick Grayson’s secret identity and daddy issues colliding in a five car pileup of Remembering Not to Say His Dead Surrogate Dad’s Real Name While Screaming In Rage

My friends all make fun of me for writing very dark fanfics while I protest “It’s not dark it turns out OK in the end!!!” and I think I’m figuring out where I got that from.

Add another item of entry to the Tim Drake: Fan, Dick Grayson: Stan dossier.

He’s hitting him so hard he’s tearing the knuckles off his suit my sweet boy 😭

You may have noticed that Azrael’s costume has undergone a SEVERE color change mid-issue. It’s maybe implied that a top layer of paint was burnt off.

But my guess is after two issues of fight they realized it’d be better if he wasn’t all the same colors as Batman and Nightwing.

Regardless, he is now the same colors as the original Azrael suit, which is a good metaphor.

Ron Howard voice: Nightwing wouldn’t know when to break it off.

Batman’s alive because he leapt away at the last second apparently, in a way that no one saw, and then he just... hid for like a whole minute as Knightwing and Azrael fell off the bridge like two screaming cats and Tim rescued several people from nearby cars??

Batman.

“I’m going to peel that tinsuit off you and AIR YOU OUT” is a good line

Nightwing and Azrael fell off the bridge and swam to a party boat because why not and I love it when you can pretty much tell that these suspiciously detailed one-panel extras are drawn after the creative team.

This lady is the only true Gothamite.

*extremely spongebob meme voice* “NiGhTwInG wIlL kNoW wHeN tO bReAk It OfF.”

“Sounds like he’s apologizing.”

“Never ... only one ... only ONE Batman ...”

Bury me at fucking sea folks

These panels are not consecutive, but I wish they were.

Jean-Paul: YOU ARE NOT BATMAN. I AM BATMAN. GET OUT. WARBLEGARBLE
Batman: ... but... I live .... here

Jean-Paul has boobytrapped the cave’s entrances and exits so Bruce gets to him by CRAWLING DOWN THE TUNNEL HE FELL INTO AS A CHILD, MIRRORING HIS FIRST VISIT TO THE BATCAVE it’s a good metaphor brent

Careful, Bruce, you just might have learned something about yourself.

Oh look at this, it’s exactly how Bruce felt after Bane broke his spine, hmmmm HMMMMM

Bruce is a good boy

I remembered the way this comic ended, but I’d forgotten that it’s explicitly a resolution where Batman SAVES his foe instead of conquering them.

I’m so tired of “Batman doesn’t attack the causes of his villains” takes.

So Bruce lures Az-Bats down the tunnel he fell into as a kid, which is barely big enough for an adult to crawl through, forcing Jean-Paul to take off all of his bulky ‘90s-ass armor in order to get to him.

But he keeps his mask on, with its darkvision lenses, of course — and it’s important to note that putting on the Azrael mask was the trigger to Jean-Paul’s subliminal training, masks are Not Mentally Safe for him.

And when the moment is right, after they’ve taken a Metaphorical Journey of Reversing Batman’s Origin, Bruce rips open the tunnel entrance into the light of a full sunrise, forcing Jean-Paul to take the mask off himself.

There’s nothing subtle about this but there’s also nothing bad about it! Considering the dominant narrative themes of ‘90s comics, a story This Big that ends with the hero realizing he’s fighting a wound and not a person is pretty remarkable.

Look at this! Comforting male touch!

And it’s not ALL obvious metaphors about light and caves and tunnels, as in this bit where Bruce tells Jean-Paul the key thing HE learned when his back was broken: There is still a HIM for him to be when he isn’t Batman.

Batman, dir. Tom King (2016)

Speaking of which hey it’s after dawn HAS ANYBODY CHECKED IN ON NIGHTWING AFTER YOU SAW HIM FALL OFF A BRIDGE? NO? COOL. COOL COOL COOL COOL COOL.

Ha ha did you think this was over there are like 70 more pages in this volume

Tom Grummet’s ‘90s Robin art 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Of course that healing ending is kind of under cut by how Jean-Paul winds up... wandering around homeless and mentally wrecked?

Bruce couldn’t have sliced the interest off a savings account to get him an apartment, health insurance and a compsci job at Wayne Enterprises?