This is "From a Different Point of View," a feature where I discuss a comic book series with other people. This time around, due to everyone having to self-isolate, I figured I'd do a special edition where I discuss some crossovers with whichever readers that wanted to chat about them! We started off with Marvel's original Secret Wars and now we're doing Knightfall!

When last we checked in Knightfall, we started discussing Batman #500, the FINALE of Knightfall, "Dark Angel," by Doug Moench, with art by Jim Aparo and Terry Austin in part one and Mike Manley in part two, colors by Adrienne Roy and letters by Ken Bruzenak. Bane has broken Batman's back. Alfred and Robin come up with the idea of faking a car accident to explain Bruce Wayne's back injury. They then bring in Doctor Shondra Kinsolving, who is an expert in spinal injuries and recently had done wonders with Robin's father, Jack Drake, after he suffered a bad injury. She is in love with Bruce. He plans to settle down with her now that he can no longer be Batman. He tells Robin to give Jean-Paul Valley, a brainwashed assassin that Batman and Robin had been training to become a vigilante, the job of Batman.

Shondra and Jack Drake were kidnapped and Bruce couldn't save them. Bruce enlists the help of Oracle to discover that they appear to have been taken to Bane's home island of Santa Prisca. Bruce and Alfred head to Santa Prisca, leaving Gotham to Jean-Paul. Jean-Paul tracked down Bane and had a brutal fight with him at a mall, which ended with Jean-Paul barely escaping with his life and Bane barreling through a crowd. What happens next?

I noted, "That bug-eyed security guard was an Aparo go-to. It's nice to see one of his regular drawing shticks appear before he left the book."

Tom A. replied, "'Your guest just checked out.' Jean-Paul trying to throw in some banter there." I responded, "Jean-Paul thinks banter is necessary, I guess, since he's been training with Tim. I imagine him with a list of possible zingers in his room. 'It's your time up...to Bat!' 'Bat's entertainment!' Maybe the System helped him with some zingers, too." Flavio Sette joked, "Jean Paul definitely workshopped those one-liners with Tim."

Sean Whitmore wondered, "I wonder if this issue was the only Bane appearance a lot of people read at the time. Which would go to explain his dumb brute persona in other media at the time. Here Bane’s just screaming, bleeding, and barreling people over." I replied, "I would imagine that anyone picking this up, Sean, picked up #497. But yeah, the panel of him barreling people over is like a Road Runner cartoon." Sean replied, "Should left a Bane-shaped hole in the wall."

Tom noted, "And suddenly Ariana is brought into this story out of nowhere for no real reason other than to give Tim someone to talk to and angst to."

Sean replied, "I kinda miss Ariana." Flavio countered, "Ariana was a fun character, but yeah, not my favorite Tim Drake love interest, personally (I'm more of a fan of Ms. Stephanie Brown)." Flavio also pointed out, "And here we have Ariana's first appearance in the ongoing Batman books, right, Brian?" I confirmed, "Yep. I missed that Tim MENTIONED her earlier in the crossover. But this is her first physical appearance since the Robin III miniseries. Which is so weird, since, as I noted in an article, Tim and Ariana don't know each other when that series ends. And now they've been dating for a while, which is...something."

Tom wondered, "Whatever happened to her after she and Tim broke up? Did she ever get fridged?" I replied, "Luckily, she just went on to have a normal life." Sean offered up, "I like to think Ariana married Ives and they both live together with Mrs McIlvane." I elaborated on Sean's idea, "Mrs. McIlvane just sits back and watches. Good ol' creepy as eff Mrs McIlvane." Flavio found the Tim/Ariana conversation ended oddly, "My dad's gone and I just lost a friend. Well… bye!' What a weird way to end a conversation. Just drop two huge bombshells and act like nothing happened." I agreed, "Yeah, that was very weird."

I noted, "Jim Aparo was so good at drawing people's facial expressions when they're being condescending dicks like Jean-Paul is being to Tim. Their argument is so dumb." Sean replied, "It’s a bit overblown, isn’t it?" I continued, "None of their zingers are landing." Sean replied, "Tim is making it sound like Bruce is the 1966 Batman and Paul is the Punisher. The difference isn’t THAT stark between them, at least not yet." Flavio agreed, "Yep. The argument goes on for way too long and changes nothing. No one changes their mind, it's mostly ground that's been covered a couple issues ago and Jean Paul's whole speech doesn't exactly do a very good job of explaining his personal philosophy. It's just the typical 'it's the '90s, kid, people want their heroes to carry huge guns and wear massive shoulder pads and kill' speech every other anti-hero gave with a few neat touches." I continued, "'Forget the knight and remember the dark.' 'Only light cancels darkness.' You are both shitty debaters. Jean-Paul just seems like he is busy trying to come up with zingers for villains." Flavio replied, "Yeah, Moench also goes a little overboard with the mixed metaphors. 'Only light can cancel out darkness"; "Then you grab a flashlight and go after him while I fight fire with fire-- the only light I need.'" I agreed, " Yep. That sounds like a 12-year-old trying to sound edgy." Flavio added, "Moench keeps having Jean Paul make the same kid gloves joke while shaking his gauntlet at Tim."

Sean noted, "I did like, 'Then you can count me out.' 'I already have.'” I replied, "Yeah, that line worked, Sean." Sean continued, "Like, read the room, Tim." I replied, "Sort of like, 'You can't quit. I fired you.'" Flavio noted, "Jean Paul looks like he's on steroids himself." Sean joked, "Paul’s on the One Punch Man regimen." I replied, "Yeah. This new Batman goes shirtless more than old Batman. And the old Batman has one of the most famous shirtless fights ever!"

Now that Batman and Robin are broken up, what will keep Jean-Paul from descending even further? Find out in an incoming installment (this is a BIG issue. LOTS to talk about).