History Comicbook / Knightfall

* HesBack: Bruce, after Shondra heals his back, his training to get back into shape with Shiva, and reclaiming the cape and cowl.

* SkewedPriorities: When Abattoir targets his second cousin Graham, Graham's incarcerated father Henry is less concerned with the fact that his son might fall victim to a sadistic SerialKiller than with the fact that Graham's murder will cause his trust fund to revert back to the state, while Henry will have a chance to reclaim it in the future if Graham stays alive. Henry's attorney lampshades how Henry has never been one for fatherly concern.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys:
** Mad Hatter's chimpanzee (eh, close enough) actually took down a trained and highly dangerous falcon.
** And a frightened monkey keeps Batman company as he rests following his capture of Firefly at the Gotham Zoo.

* BaldWoman: Shondra Kinsolving.

The story received a SpiritualSuccessor in Tom King's ''ComicBook/BatmanRebirth'' titled "I am Bane".

* GenericDoomsdayVillain: Bane started out as this, (though he did at least get an issue to explain his backstory beforehand), rolling into Gotham, easily breaking Franchise/{{Batman}}'s RoguesGallery out of Arkham, quickly deducing Batman's secret identity, before ultimately breaking his back and, having served his purpose, gets thrashed by Azrael in what almost seemed like a bit of an afterthought. Eventually the writers fleshed Bane out more, giving him an identity beyond being "the guy who broke Batman's back once".

* BackFromTheDead: Mr. Freeze was brought back to life during this arc, having been killed off beforehand in the ''[[ComicBook/RobinSeries Robin]] II: The Joker's Wild'' mini-series. His death was {{handwave}}d by explaining that there had been a failsafe feature in his suit when Joker "killed" him. This was because he had been recently revamped in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''.

* KarmicDeath: The Warden of Peña Duro gets one in the {{Novelization}}. When Bane was a small boy, the Warden dumped his mother's corpse into the ocean "to be eaten by sharks". Adult Bane tosses him out of a helicopter "to be eaten by sharks".

* BreakingSpeech: Zsasz gives this to Batman during their fight. Batman, already exhausted both physically and mentally, [[BerserkButton snaps]] when he suggests that they are NotSoDifferent, and almost beats the guy to death.

** Grant's version portrays Batman's defeating Mad Hatter, Killer Croc, Cornelius Stirk, Poison Ivy and all three of Bane's henchmen before his back-breaking battle with Bane himself, and Jean Paul Valley's defeat of Scarecrow and later Clayface III and Lady Clay, and includes Dick Grayson returning to Gotham as Nightwing to help out. These are barely (in the case of Croc and Ivy), or not at all (for the rest) mentioned in O'Neil's version. In the case of Grant's version, the omission of ''Alfred's Return'' can be excused even beyond being published before the one-shot in question as Alfred never quit in it.

** Grant's version portrays Batman's defeating Mad Hatter, Killer Croc, Cornelius Stirk, Poison Ivy and all three of Bane's henchmen before his back-breaking battle with Bane himself, and Jean Paul Valley's defeat of Scarecrow and later Clayface III and Lady Clay, and includes Dick Grayson returning to Gotham as Nightwing to help out. These are barely (in the case of Croc and Ivy), or not at all (for the rest) mentioned in O'Neil's version.

* TheLoinsSleepTonight: The novelization [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar subtly implies]] this is one of the side-effects of Venom addiction.

** Several years after the storyline, there was a ComicBook/WorldsFinest crossover during the second half of ''World's Finest (1999) #9'' in which Azrael-Bats teams up with the resurrected Superman to stop a vigilante CopycatKiller inspired by Jean-Paul[[note]]The first half involved Bruce teaming up with the Four Supermen to stop a break-in at S.T.A.R. Labs[[/note]]. The Man of Steel even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] all the two heroes have gone through in the past year:

* RuleOfSymbolism: How does Bruce deal with a fully armored, psychotic Jean-Paul Valley? He retreats into one of the narrowing caves, that forces Jean-Paul to remove the costume piece by piece til there's only the helmet left. Bruce then has the full force of sunlight shine into his face; since the helmet was adjusted for dark, it temporarily blinds Jean-Paul, and also removes the hypnotic state he had been. Bruce defeats Azbats by having him remove his costume and see the light with clear eyes.

* RuleOfSymbolism: How does Bruce deal with a fully armored, psychotic Jean-Paul Valley. He retreats into one of the narrowing caves, that forces Jean-Paul to remove the costume piece by piece til there's only the helmet left. Bruce then has the full force of sunlight shine into his face; since the helmet was adjusted for dark, it temporarily blinds Jean-Paul, and also removes the hypnotic state he had been. Bruce defeats Azbats by having him remove his costume and see the light with clear eyes.

** Another one, involving a lot of the issues already mentioned--''Detective Comics'' #662, ''Batman'' #496, ''Detective Comics'' #663, ''Batman'' #497, and ''Detective Comics'' #664 all take place in that order and most, if not all, of them are on the same freaking night to boot. Batman's clean-shaven in the former two and ''Batman'' #496 ends on a cliifhanger. ''Detective Comics'' #663 picks up where it left off, but suddenly, Bats has stubble. It would be DependingOnTheArtist if then-''Detective Comics'' artist, Graham Nolan, has done it alone. The problem is then-''Batman'' artist, Jim Aparo, partook in it, too.

* RetCanon: In ''Trioka'', Bruce's real return sees him don a costume based on the ones from the [[Film/Batman1989 Burton]] [[Film/BatmanReturns films]].

* IHaveManyNames: In regards to the Saga itself. Despite the use of "Knightfall" to talk about the whole saga, the title was only used to describe Bane's reign of terror, his attack on Bruce Wayne, and Jean-Paul Valley taking up the identity of Batman. Then you've got "Knightquest", which was was two story arcs under the same umbrella name. One was "The Crusade" which details Jean-Paul's tenure as Batman and descent into madness, though outside of these elements, most of the stories published were standalone stories. The other was "The Search" which follow Bruce Wayne's search for Jack Drake and Shondra Kinsolving and his recovery from his injuries. There's "[=KnightsEnd=]", where the first half deals with Bruce Wayne's retraining and getting back into shape, and the second half deals with Bruce redonning the Batsuit and--with Nightwing, Robin, and brefly, Catwoman--confronting Jean-Paul and taking back the identity. Following that is ''Prodial'', about Dick's tenure as Batman well Bruce finished resting up and reevaluating stuff. Lastly, there's ''Trioka'', where Bruce comes back as Batman permanently.

* IHaveManyNames: In regards to the Saga itself. Despite the use of "Knightfall" to talk about the whole saga, the title was only used to describe Bane's reign of terror, his attack on Bruce Wayne, and Jean-Paul Valley taking up the identity of Batman. Then you've got "Knightquest", which was was two story arcs under the same umbrella name. One was "The Crusade" which details Jean-Paul's tenure as Batman and descent into madness, though outside of these elements, most of the stories published were standalone stories. The other was "The Search" which follow Bruce Wayne's search for Jack Drake and Shondra Kinsolving and his recovery from his injuries. Lastly, there's "[=KnightsEnd=]", where the first half deals with Bruce Wayne's retraining and getting back into shape, and the second half deals with Bruce redonning the Batsuit and--with Nightwing, Robin, and brefly, Catwoman--confronting Jean-Paul and taking back the identity.