The ten-issue Batman: The Knight comes to a close today, and the final teacher in the series is Ra’s al Ghul! Bruce Wayne has befriended a boy of similar skill and determination in Anton (the future Ghost-Maker), but now they must fight to the death to determine who can receive al Ghul’s final lessons. I sure hope they survive the experience!
Batman: The Knight opens with Bruce and Anton fighting to the death. From Bruce’s position, there’s no way he can take Anton’s life, but Anton has shown more than once he’s willing to kill. That ups the stakes at the moment, but as we’ve seen over the last nine issues, Bruce has become the best at nearly every skill. He can’t be stopped.
That ends up being the point in this finale, as Bruce’s internal monologue points out he has perfected everything that makes Batman great. We also get some nice callbacks to skills used here that were learned from teachers in past issues. As far as finales go, it feels earned how we got here.
The issue opens with an incredible opening page recounting Bruce’s great loss in Crime Alley. Sure, we’ve seen this scene countless times across media, but the captions hammer home the great loss Bruce felt as a child and the regrets he holds close to this day. The things he didn’t say or do as his mother slowly died are genuinely heartbreaking. The fact that we’ve seen this scene play out often, yet it is as impactful, if not more so than ever, speaks volume to how good the writing and art is here.
An incredible opening page.
Credit: DC Comics
Given this is a prequel story, we all know how this story will play out as far as Ra’s al Ghul, reducing the impact of some of the twists and turns. It’s still fun to get the inside experience and see how Anton, aka Minhkhoa, as Bruce calls him, goes from aggressor to a kind of ally once again. As a prequel to Batman, one can see not putting Bruce in the suit in this series making sense since this is pre-Batman, but it is a slight disappointment it doesn’t close the loop.
However, we get an epic full-page splash of Bruce in the Batcave for the first time, rendered beautifully by Carmine Di Giandomenico. The book looks fabulous, from the teeth-gritting fight scene at the start to the al Ghul base aflame and the yellows and reds caking the background as our hero fights for his life. This book continues to expertly use motion blur to great effect giving it a cinematic feel as needed.
Colors by Ivan Plascencia should not go unnoticed, either. The moody lighting and use of shadow is impeccable from cover to cover. They always seem to lift Giandomenico’s lines in the best ways. From an expansive city overhead shot to the way the lights on a taxi have an eerie glow, the colors in this series alone should warrant an Eisner for Plascencia.
Batman: The Knight #10 ends in a way that feels earned with incredible captioning detailing Bruce’s final transformation into the perfectionist vigilante. It may play out in expected ways – this is a prequel, after all – but it’s still a satisfying conclusion to a series that has defied expectations and worked from beginning to end.
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