Bruce Wayne is broken, Bane owns Gotham, and somebody has to put on the cape and cowl. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Batman’s replacement has a very different idea of what the job requires.
The trailer for Batman: Knightfall Part 2: Knightquest has arrived, offering our first real look at Jean-Paul Valley’s transformation into Azrael’s brutal version of Batman. For fans of the classic DC Comics storyline, this is where things get especially wild.
Knightfall was one of the defining comic events of the early 1990s, arriving during the same era as The Death of Superman. Both stories temporarily removed DC’s biggest heroes and replaced them with characters who fit the more extreme comic-book sensibilities of the period. Superman’s absence brought characters such as Superboy Kon-El into the spotlight, while Batman’s fall opened the door for Jean-Paul Valley and his increasingly dangerous take on the Dark Knight.
It also gave us Bane, a villain specifically designed to challenge Batman physically and intellectually. He wasn’t simply a powerhouse juiced up on Venom. He was a calculating tactician who figured out exactly how to destroy Bruce Wayne.
That plan came to fruition in Batman: Knightfall Part 1. Bane released the inmates of Arkham Asylum, forcing Batman through an exhausting gauntlet before confronting him at his weakest. Bruce was ultimately defeated and left broken atop his own Bat-signal.
Knightquest picks things up in the aftermath, with Bruce unable to continue as Batman and the question of who should replace him hanging over Gotham. Enter Jean-Paul Valley.
The new trailer shows Azrael taking up the mantle and quickly demonstrating why putting this particular guy inside a Batsuit might not have been the greatest personnel decision Bruce ever made. Jean-Paul isn’t exactly in a healthy place, and his interpretation of Batman pushes far beyond the limits Bruce imposed on himself.
The footage also features Two-Face causing trouble, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum discovering that matching outfits won’t save them from Batman, and, most importantly, our first look at Az-Bats in action.
Jean-Paul’s armored Batman costume became one of the most memorable designs to come out of the ’90s, complete with armor, claws, weapons, and enough sharp edges to make Bruce Wayne’s traditional suit look friendly.
The animated trilogy also gets to explore material that previous adaptations could only borrow from. Christopher Nolan incorporated pieces of Knightfall into The Dark Knight Rises, particularly Bane breaking Batman and Bruce’s long road back. The movie also pulled from other Batman stories, including No Man’s Land, so there simply wasn’t room for Jean-Paul Valley and the strange, violent Az-Bats chapter of the story.
Warner Bros. Animation has previously delivered fairly faithful animated versions of major DC stories such as Watchmen, Batman: Year One, The Death of Superman, and Reign of the Supermen. With Knightquest, viewers will finally get an animated version of the period when Batman’s replacement starts crossing boundaries Bruce wouldn’t.
The Knightfall Trilogy will be the final series of films overseen by longtime executive producer Sam Register, who announced his retirement from Warner Bros. on the same day Knightfall Part 1 was released.
James Gunn has said future DC animated projects will be more closely tied to the larger DCU, including shared voice talent and connections to that universe. He hasn’t directly confirmed whether Warner Bros. will continue producing these kinds of standalone, direct comic-book adaptations.
Batman: Knightfall Part 2: Knightquest is currently available for preorder, though Warner Bros. hasn’t announced a firm release date yet.
