Batman: The Dark Knight Rises - KnightQuest: The Crusade - Batman: Shadow of the Bat

DECIPHERING DC

This week we continue our look at the entire Knightfall saga and today we take a look at the issues of Batman: Shadow of the Bat featuring KnightQuest: The Crusade. This review covers issues #19, 20, 24-28 of Batman: Shadow of the Bat. Issues 21-23 will be covered in KnightQuest: The Search, next week. All stories are by Alan Grant, while art is by Vince Giarrano on the earlier three issues and Bret Blevins on the later four issues. All covers are by Batman: Shadow of the Bat regular cover artist Brian Stelfreeze.

While tangling with some local hoodlums, Jean Paul Valley sees an advertisement for an isolation tank and thinks it just might be what he needs to get into touch with his inner self. Meanwhile, a contract killer calling himself The Tally Man has Batman on his list, for a double cross involving Joey Buto, that, apparently was something Bruce Wayne had to do with. Gangsters chasing the Tally Man converge in the warehouse Jean Paul is using the isolation tank in, and he finds himself facing the Tally Man when he comes out.

The Tally Man is shown to be a kid from a poor family (right to the end, we never learn who he is), who has been pushed too hard and is driven to murder at a very young age. After subduing him, Jean Paul Valley decides that he isn’t a killer, and stops himself from killing the Tally Man. However, at the last moment, the System kicks in and he does….something to the Tally Man. The cops see it, and while we don’t know what exactly it was, it was still terrible.

Rosemary is looking for her baby in Gotham city. Her tale of woe starts in Brazil, where her husband Raoul was put behind bars. To buy his freedom, she was forced to sell her baby, only to discover that Raoul had been killed in prison, and her baby had been sold to a child trafficking gang in Gotham, Initially, Jean Paul Valley refuses to have anything to do with her, but when she taunts him about his mother, Jean Paul intervenes, cracks the ring and brings back her child to her.

Joe Public, another of the ‘New Bloods’ meets Jean Paul Valley as Batman for the first time when they face off against Deke Mitchell, the Corrosive man (too similar to Clayface Three as well as Doctor Phosphorus). Joe Public has the power to absorb other people’s life energy.

The next issue opens with Commissioner Gordon and Leslie counseling the children who were in the bus when Abattoir attacked Graham Etchison (over in Batman). Abattoir aka Arnold Etchison is a maniac who believes that murdering his kin gives him power, and Graham Etchison is one of his surviving blood relatives. 

Meanwhile, Clayface-IV (a.k.a Lady Clay) attacks the Batman and serves to capture him, while Clayface-III (a.k.a Preston Payne) kidnaps Graham Etchison because Abbatoir is holding the Clayfaces’ son, Cassius Clay captive and won’t let him go until they bring him Graham Etchison. Abattoir finally has Graham Etchison and serves to treat him to an antagonizingly slow death.

After recent events, Commissioner Gordon decides that he can’t trust the new Batman any more and decides to confront him. The conversation does not go well, with Gordon losing his temper and Jean Paul almost losing his tenuous grip on reality.

Good writing and art throughout. I’d say these issues are of the same caliber as that of Detective Comics. The last three issues are best read criss cross with Batman. If not, at least the final issue should be read after finishing the last issue of Batman. For convenience, I present the best reading order for these issues:

Batman #505

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #26, 27                                                                                                          

Batman #506-508

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #28

The meat of the story lies in Batman! That’s where we’ll be going next week!

And of course, don't forget the previous editions of this mammoth saga we've already covered if you're just jumping on:
Prelude to Knightfall
Knightfall Vol 1: The Broken Bat
Knightfall Vol 2: Who Rules the Night!
KnightQuest: The Crusade - Detective Comics and Robin

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Aalok Joshi is a total fanboy and claims to read everything in the comics genre but American comics and Syndicated strips totally win him over. He has been reading comics since he was 5 and started off with Indrajal Comics. After his relatives started pestering him about changing his reading habits, he switched over to novels after junking his erstwhile collection. Gotham Comics, the Indian Authorized publisher of DC/Marvel brought him back in 2002 and he has stayed here ever since. 
Now concentrating largely on DC and slightly on Marvel and few selected independents, he is interested and taking steps towards writing for the genre. He also dabbles in illustration and his dream is one newspaper style cartoon per day.