History ComicBook / Knightfall

* ThatsWhatIWouldDo: The Batmobile is stolen. Batman gets it back, starts the car...and it explodes. Fortunately, he guesses this just in time to leap out of the car. Robin asks him how he guessed the villain had wired the car to blow. Batman's response: "Because that's what I'd do."

*** The Joker ''was'' eventually recaptured...in the Batman/Spider-Man crossover.

--->Endings to be useful must be inconclusive - Samuel R. Delany, ''The Einstein Intersection''

DC then introduced readers to Bane. Born and raised in a prison, the super-intelligent Bane underwent experiments to turn him a SuperSoldier -- and while they worked, they also made him dependent on the drug known as Venom to achieve his full physical potential. Once he escapes from his "home", he makes it his goal to rule Gotham City, but to achieve his goal, he must dethrone Gotham's "king": The Batman.

* DeathByIrony: Leopold, Catwoman's assistant, thinks that SmokingIsGlamorous and part of his charm. Catwoman told him he has no charm, and that some day smoking would kill him. Then she had an adventure in Santa Prisca, and Bane was already defeated and jailed when she returned. She sent Leopold to visit Bane and tell him some unpleasant things she discovered. While talking, Leopold took a cigarette and began to smoke... and Bane, who does not like the smoke, [[DisproportionateRetribution killed him]]. Leopold, Leopold... didn't Catwoman [[IWarnedYou told you]] that smoking would kill you?

Shortly after TheDeathOfSuperman, [[ItGotWorse Batman starts breaking down. He starts losing his edge when he becomes unable to meditate and unwilling to rest.]] Bane watches from a distance as Batman begins to undermine himself, then decides to up the ante by interfering a bit more directly (he sends both Killer Croc and a Venom-enhanced Riddler after the hero). His big move -- the moment the [[ExpoSpeakGag excrement impacts the rotating device]] -- comes when he busts open Arkham Asylum and gives the escaping inmates enough weapons and supplies to wreak havoc all over Gotham. Batman, suffering from both the flu and sleep deprivation, forces himself to find and take down almost every last escapee.

* HoistHeroOverHead: Bane does this a lot, but never more strikingly than in this storyline, when he hoists Batman over his head and slams him down on his knee, ''breaking Batman's back''.

* CareerKillers: Lady Shiva and Tally Man (the latter of whom was introduced during this arc).

* GoodAngelBadAngel: The spirits of Saint Dumas and the former Azrael are "nineties comic book" versions of this trope. Specially when Batman had to decide the fate of Abattoir (see "take the third option"). Not that Jean Paul Valley actually ''wants'' non-existent ghosts guiding, confusing, ordering and harassing him at every step, even in the middle of the JackBauerInterrogationTechnique

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Once the Joker surrenders to Azbats and goes on about next time he is interrupted by Azbats breaking his arm. Abattoir's death avoids this because his death made it so the police found his last torture victim be found too late.

* NietzscheWannabe: Mr. Zsasz

* DisproportionateRetribution: Look, no one's denying that Bane had a nightmarish childhood: growing up in prison, seeing his mother get raped (to death!), getting knocked into a coma for an entire month, doing solitary in a pit full of seawater and rats, being forced to fight other inmates night after night, and finally being unwillingly injected with "Venom" in an unbelievably cruel ForScience experiment that the doctors are almost certain will kill him. But are we to believe that he'd truly want to go to all the trouble of breaking out of prison, traveling to a foreign city he's barely even heard of, and concocting an elaborate scheme to physically and psychologically break down a man he's never met ''all because that man wears a costume that makes him look like a creature that terrified Bane in nightmares when he was a boy''?
** Bane's entire life has been shaped by this as well. His entire childhood was spent in prison because of a crime his father committed before Bane was even alive. To be fair, said crime was ''trying to overthrow the freaking state''.
** He didn't go after Batman because he resembled the creature. After learning about him, he decided to beat the biggest, baddest dude in Gotham, because he could never beat the bat in his dreams. He didn't really plan anything after breaking bats.

* OlderThanTheyThink: This is the first time Dick Grayson [[spoiler: takes up the mantle of Batman]] or rather during the Proginal storyline.

* DumbMuscle: Completely subverted; Bane is one of Batman's most intelligent foes.
** Played straight by Amygdala and Killer Croc, though.
*** Not so much with Croc. Yes, he's more animalistic than smart, but during his second fight against Bane, he broke his venom injection button to fight in equal grounds.

* GeniusBruiser: Bane.

** But Bruce Wayne didn't have a tortured childhood, so he can't possibly know. He had a single horrible night. Before that night, everything was wonderful in his life. After that night, he had Alfred and others there to support him and try to help him get over the loss. Bruce has no idea what it's like to be abused on a daily basis, for ''years'', nor the effect such a prolonged ordeal can have on a human being. Comparing what Bruce endured as a child to what Bane endured as a child is like comparing a skinned knee to third degree burns.

See also ''BatmanDoom'', a ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' GameMod loosely based on the Knightfall plot arc.

** Both Dick and Tim give this to Bruce when he uses a lethal move to defeat the last disciple in his training. It is later averted though, since he only pretended to kill him for Sheva to see, but actually measured his strength to merely knock him out.

-->--'''Some random crime boss''', ''Batman'' #510, summing up the climax of the arc.

Around the time of ''TheDeathOfSuperman'', DC started publishing '''''Knightfall''''', a BatFamilyCrossover featured in ''Detective Comics'', ''Batman'', and other related DC titles in the early [[TheNineties 1990s]]. DC wanted to replace the aging Bruce Wayne as Batman, so it drew up a storyline wherein Batman would face each of his major foes one last time before bowing out. The prelude to the storyline took place from September 1992 to February 1993 and focused on introducing several new players in Gotham City and showing the mental state of Bruce Wayne. The main storyline took place from April 1993 to August 1994, and follow-up storylines lasted from August 1994 to February 1995.

The storyline truly begins with the introduction of Jean-Paul Valley, a blond haired [[{{Ubermensch}} ubermensch]] (code-named {{Azrael}}) trained to serve as a killing machine by The Sacred Order of Saint Dumas. Batman and Robin tried, with some success, to undo the [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashing]] he suffered at the hands of the Order (called "The System"). Jean-Paul stayed on the sidelines during the prelude, but popped in now and again to remind readers he existed.

Shortly after {{the death of Superman}}, [[ItGotWorse Batman starts breaking down. He starts losing his edge when he becomes unable to meditate and unwilling to rest.]] Bane watches from a distance as Batman begins to undermine himself, then decides to up the ante by interfering a bit more directly (he sends both Killer Croc and a Venom-enhanced Riddler after the hero). His big move -- the moment the [[ExpoSpeakGag excrement impacts the rotating device]] -- comes when he busts open Arkham Asylum and gives the escaping inmates enough weapons and supplies to wreak havoc all over Gotham. Batman, suffering from both the flu and sleep deprivation, forces himself to find and take down almost every last escapee.

Batman manages to take down most of his major foes in quick order before they can cause too much damage (some of the more obscure ones don't get captured, and Two-Face doesn't even make an appearance in the first arc), but doing so takes its toll on the Caped Crusader. After TheJoker and Scarecrow push him to his limits, Batman returns home to ''finally'' rest his weary body. When he arrives home, however, he finds Alfred lying on the floor and Bane standing over him. Thanks to Batman's exhausted physical state, Bane wipes the floor with Bruce in a mostly one-sided fight -- which culminates in Bane lifting Batman above his head before bringing him down on his knee to ''break Batman's spine.''

These days, everybody involved says DC planned the whole thing from the start to stick it to readers clamouring for a DarkerAndEdgier Batman. True? Who knows?

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: A large portion of ''Detective Comics'' #660 takes place in one.

* AntiVillain: Clayface III and his wife, Lady Clay.

* AxCrazy: At least half the parties involved in the crossover. Joker, Az-Bats, etc. One story that takes place during this crossover is even titled " [[PunBasedTitle Murdering Maniaxe]]".

** This was because he had been recently revamped in ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''.

* BaldOfEvil: Zombie, arguably the creepiest of Bane's QuirkyMinibossSquad.
* BananaRepublic: Santa Prisca, Bane's homeland.
* BatFamilyCrossover

* BerserkButton: Batman's, as mentioned below, is reliving the death of Jason Todd. Az-Bats is also pretty pissed off when Nightwing yells that he'll always be inferior to Bruce as Batman.
* BodyHorror: Clayface III's condition, which forces him to stay inside a containment suit at all times. Also, Deke Mitchell AKA The Corrosive Man, whose skin literally exudes powerful acid. Which he ''can feel every second''.

** Mad Hatter and Poison Ivy also both utilize these as henchmen at points in the arc.

* BusFullOfInnocents: Az-Bats' first encounter with Abattoir involves a literal school bus of innocent children.
* CallingTheOldManOut: Nightwing to Batman after he reclaims the cowl, for not calling for (Nightwing's) help, for letting a non-Batfamily member be Batman, and for leaving Tim Drake (Robin) with a complete headcase who might have killed him.

* CoversAlwaysLie: A bit of a variation here, but the "next issue" tag at the end of ''Batman'' #491 bills Scarecrow in ''Batman'' #492, the first "official" part of Knightfall. Scarecrow doesn't appear anywhere in said comic except on the Batcomputer's list of escapees, and the villain that Batman faces in it is, in fact, Mad Hatter.

** Bane's entire life has been shaped by this as well. His entire childhood was spent in prison because of a crime his father committed before Bane was even alive. To be fair, said crime was ''trying to overthrow the freaking state''.

* EinsteinHair: The Mad Hatter - which is fitting, considering that he's [[CaptainObvious mad]] and is a master of electronic mind-manipulation.

** And a frightened monkey keeps Batman company as he rests following his capture of Firefly at the Gotham Zoo.

* FlashBack: Classic-Bats' entire fight with Two-Face is told this way, as the writers apparently forgot (or didn't have the room) to show Two-Face in "present time" before they had Batman face Bane.

* GirlOfTheWeek: Shondra Kinsolving, perhaps Bruce's ''only'' serious love interest that's black. Her... reasons for dropping out of the running stir up more than a few UnfortunateImplications.
* GoAmongMadPeople: The DeathTrap that Joker puts Dr. Arkham at Arkham Asylum (where else?) is hinted to have driven the good doctor mad by the time Batman rescues him.

* GunPorn: The "final" story that takes place during Knightquest, featuring Gunhawk, features an ungodly amount of this. Fitting, considering that its writer, Chuck Dixon, is a self-proclaimed gun enthusiast.

* HarmlessVillain: While the Riddler may have been helped by Venom beforehand, he's considered so inconsequential compared to the other Arkham escapees that Robin takes him out by himself. Heck, ''Mad Hatter'' was given more priority than he was!

* HoistHeroOverHead: Bane does this a lot, but never more strikingly than in this storyline, when he hoists Batman over his head and slams him down on his knee, ''breaking Batman's back''.

* HulkSpeak: Amygdala.

* IAmAHumanitarian: Cornelius Stirk and Abattoir.

* IKnowKarate: Scarecrow. No, really.

* LaughingMad: Joker, Joker, Joker.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Seriously, this arc reaches into the deepest depths of CListFodder, fishing out guys like Abattoir, The Cavalier, and The Ratcatcher when they've run out of big-name villains.
* MasterOfDisguise: While Az-Bats protects Gotham, Bruce ''really'' gets to show off his disguise skills during his globe-hopping trip in search of Shondra Kinsolving and Jack Drake.
* TheMerch: The few figures in the Hasbro's ''Legends of Batman'' toyline that didn't correspond to the {{Elseworlds}} theme of most of the figures could be called ''Knightfall: the Toyline'', as they were based on the characters in the comics at the time and the events were mentioned in a few of the figures bios. Included were Crusader Batman (a normal Bruce Wayne Batman figure), Nightwing, Catwoman, the Joker, the Riddler (Bane injecting him with Venom was mentioned in his bio), and a few figures of Azrael as Batman. Despite this, Bane never got a figure, but the Bane figure from the ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' toyline [[ShowAccuracyToyAccuracy was based the comics version of the character rather than the movie one]], so that figure should fit in quite nicely. DC Direct later did a toyline based on the story featuring Bruce in the Tengu outfit, Nightwing, Catwoman, Bane, and Azrael Batman.

* MoreDakka: Tally Man fires ''way'' more shots than needed to kill his targets.

* NiceHat: Mad Hatter's all-important top hat, which serves as both a two-way radio and the central controller for his mind-controlling hats. And his exploding bowler hats.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Thanks to Anarky's meddling, Scarecrow almost manages to escape from his confrontation with Az-Bats.

* NinetiesAntiHero

** The novel even {{lampshades}} this with its opening quote:

** There's also a bit of UncannyValley in this scene, as the Joker's men are all dressed in drab grey clothing, have completely bleached-out skin, and are moving in a comically "jerky" manner (apparently in an attempt to look like actual silent-movie characters). As is true of most things with the Joker, this twists the humor into a NightmareFuel dimension: you can't tell whether these thugs are human beings, incredibly lifelike robots, or some unspeakable combination of the two.
* PoliceAreUseless: Explicitly mentioned by Alfred in the arc's novelization. The one real "victory" for the police, Maxie Zeus, captured himself by running into a tree without even freeing himself of his straitjacket.

* PyroManiac: Firefly.
* QuintessentialBritishGentleman: Bruce's disguise as Sir Hemingford Grey during his stay in England is that of an extremely rude, crass UpperClassTwit.

* RunTheGauntlet: Dear lord, this gauntlet puts the ones that Jeph Loeb came up with to shame!
* SaveTheVillain: Many examples from both Batmen, but the one that immediately comes to this troper's mind is the conclusion of the fight with [[spoiler:Two-Face]].

* SeparatedAtBirth: One of the Trigger Twins suggests this origin to his brother. It's never confirmed.

* SeriesContinuityError: In ''Batman'' #496, Scarecrow openly grumbles that his fear gas won't work on Joker. He apparently forgets this little fact a mere three issues later, in ''Detective Comics'' #664, where he sprays Joker with his fear gas. Surprise, surprise - Joker reacts by asking him if he has different flavors, and beats the crap out of Scarecrow with a chair. (And mind you, both these issues were part of the same story, so not even the taken-for-granted loose continuity of different comic book story arcs can justify this).
** ''Detective Comics'' #661: Riddler is seen in his suit-and-bowler hat outfit, in his hideout, and planning a caper. ''Detective Comics'' #662: He's shown in his jumpsuit, and it's a given that it's supposed to be the same scene. Considering that Riddler's arm was in a cast during his scene, there's very little reason for him to suddenly change outfits.

** The arc pitting Az-Bats against Joker is chock-full of references to classic cinema, from ''{{Casablanca}}'' to ''{{Robocop}}'' to the silent slapsticks of the 1920s.

* SlasherSmile: Not only The Joker, but Tally Man as well.
* StuffBlowingUp: It's a nineties comic. What did you expect? Joker's ice cream cone of explodey death stands out pretty well.
* SuperheroParadox: Anarky comes to this conclusion and thus reasons that Batman, however noble his intentions may be, is a bad thing for Gotham in the long run. This leads to Anarky attempting to kill him, resulting in the NiceJobBreakingItHero above.

* ThouShaltNotKill

* TookALevelInBadass: Once doused with Venom, Riddler can go toe-to-toe with Batman, and would've beaten him had Bane's henchmen not shot him (long story).

* TrainJob: The Trigger Twins, a pair of Western Outlaw-themed gunmen, plan to pull one off on a modern-day bullet train.
** TraintopBattle: What inevitably ensues when Az-Bats catches up with the two.

* WeakButSkilled[=/=]UnskilledButStrong: How Batman and Jean Paul fight in the finale. Batman is in peak condition but it's his skills that make him dangerous. Jean is no slouch either but he relied more and more on armor upgrades until he was pretty much wearing a smaller Hulk-Buster costume.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Both Batmen do a good job of rounding up the Arkham escapees, but three (Killer Croc, Ventriloquist, and Joker) are still at large by the time the story ends properly, with no resolution to their status.

* WouldHitAGirl: Batman hurls a Batarang at Poison Ivy's head while battling her and her brainwashed slaves, breaking the skin of her lower lip and making her bleed. Then, just before handcuffing her, he [[MoralDissonance kicks her in the face, purely out of spite]].