ECC Ediciones presents the first of two comprehensive Batman volumes chronicling the fall of the Dark Knight at the hands of Bane.
It wasn’t the darkest time in Bruce Wayne’s life, but his tenure as Gotham City’s protector was compromised by a back injury that left a normal man bedridden for life. Now we see the path to that chapter and its consequences, collected in two volumes published by ECC Ediciones under the title Batman: The Fall of the Dark Knight – The Complete Saga, and the first one is already here.
Heroes also fall
Back in the nineties, Batman, especially before he passed into the hands of Mr. Frank Miller a few years ago, was a simple man, unlike many DC comics characters. I have no special power. And maybe that’s what makes it so special…
He was the best detective in the world, five steps ahead of his opponents, his skills were simply unbeatable. Among his gallery of villains, many tried to kill him, but none succeeded. And that was part of the lie spread among comic book writers and readers, that it was important for superhero stories to continue to work year after year.
But in the year In 1992, something happened that turned the world of American comics upside down. Superman died on Doomsday (yes, totally dead, never came back or so they say) on Doomsday. If this could happen to him, everyone was at risk, right? Because of the success of that story, it didn’t take long for DC Comics leaders to realize that if they did the same thing with The Dark Knight, they too would be successful.
The man who broke the bat
The first thing to think about is who will be the villain to take down the Caped Crusader. The Joker was an obvious choice, or some famous villain like Two-Face or Ra’s Al Ghul could have done the job, but as happened with Iron Man, it was decided to create a new character to take all the credit here. Bane
Dennis O’Neill, Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench and Graham Nolan were responsible for giving birth to this muscle trolley. His birthplace, the island of Santa Prisca, his father, Edmond Dorrance (better known as the Snake King), and the drug that gives him his special abilities, Venom, were already familiar elements to DC Universe readers, which helped smooth things over. His creation.
As we open this volume, we find the origin story of this human disaster. Imprisoned from childhood by the sins of his father, raised in prison, far from being a human tragedy, he developed himself physically and mentally, as Robert De Niro did in that Martin Scorsese film, and because of his scientific experiments he became a great villain, successfully played only by Tom Hardy.
Bane is somewhat the dark opposite of Batman. Pushing his abilities to the limit (with the added help of Merzam), he is superhuman and his unbreakable will will be his quest to escape the prison he is imprisoned in and end it. The culmination of this process is the famous image of a WWE wrestler, to involve a large part of the usual villains in Gotham City’s master plan to destroy the enemy first mentally and then physically. , breaks the back of the dark knight.
Batman is dead, long live Batman!
In the case of Superman, after his death four characters immediately appear to race to inherit the title and become the new Man of Steel. Comics must continue to sell and the death of a main character cannot be allowed to stand in the way of that goal. And the same thing happened in this case after the incident that left Bruce Wayne bedridden in permanent care.
Who wears the coat and hat? Well, none other than Azrael, the quintessential nineties kid. A character born as a more powerful version of Batman with a strange religious background who abuses his teeth and wears a suit that could be a Transformers sex fantasy.
Young Jean-Paul Vallée, who called himself Azrael, did not have a very well-prepared bogey and followed the order of St. Dumas. In many ways, he becomes a better protector of Gotham City, or at least a more effective one than his predecessor, and earns the consternation of those closest to him and even his enemies. But Jean-Paul never convinces the reader, he knows that it is only a matter of time before all the pieces fall into place. We’ll have to wait for the second volume for that though…
A version that might break your back.
ECC Ediciones offers this volume in cardboard format. It has a recommended retail price of €70 and goes on sale in December 2023. Although the size is a little smaller than usual in this type of editions, the size is actually very manageable and easy to read. Read it long, and when you open it at 180º there is no risk of hearing the usual noises that are usually a sign of the loss of humor. They did not dare to put the whole saga in one volume, but perhaps this would not be sustainable.
The volume contains 800 full-color pages and includes the US edition of the regular Batman series issues #491 to #502, the regular Detective Comics series #659 to #669, issues #7 and #8 of the commentary 93. Issues #16 through #20 of the Shadow of the Bat and Revenge of Bane specials, as well as the introduction of Fran San Rafael.
The price of the audio is not bad at all, considering that it costs much less than it would cost to get all this material in any edition separately. For this reason, it is the most suitable edition for the reader who wants to have full access to this comprehensive level, and even more so, considering the coverage of all subjects in this case, unlike other volumes published in this same line of text. They are included in their proper place.
Batman: The Dark Knight Fall – The Complete Saga 1 of 2
Born in Santa Prisca, a boy who spends his life in prison is transformed by an experiment and goes to Gotham City with one goal in mind: to put the darkness on the ropes. Now Bane has freed all the inmates of Arkham Asylum. And with the streets besieged by the Joker, the Scarecrow and his usual foes, can Batman face his new adversary when the moment of truth comes?
Chuck Dixon, Graham Nolan, Jim Aparo, Doug Moench and other veteran writers of the Batman franchise bring us the first installment of one of the most important sagas in the character’s history, The Fall of the Dark Knight.
Authors: Dennis O’Neill, Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, Alan Grant, Graham Nolan, Klaus Jansen, Jim Aparo, Tom Greenberg, Norm Breyfogel, Mike Manley, Brett Blevins, Jim Balent, Joe Quesada and Michael Netzer.