Batman: Knightfall - Publication

Publication

The initial idea for the character of Azrael stemmed from a two-part story idea pitched by Detective Comics writer Peter Milligan circa 1991, as he was leaving that position. After line editor Dennis O'Neil decided to expand it into a larger epic, he and the Batman line writers Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench and Alan Grant convened an authors' summit over a long weekend to flesh out the details and story points. At the same time, the Superman team was planning for a similar character-altering storyline, and neither they nor the Batman group initially had any knowledge of each other's plans. Dennis O'Neil denies the Knightfall storyline was in any way inspired by the Death of Superman and that it was already in development by as much as three years. Had the Batman staff known, the storyline would likely have been pushed down a year.

The serial stories of the monthly Batman comics titles began slowly building toward the "Knightfall" arc several months prior, in conjunction with the publication of the Sword of Azrael miniseries and Vengeance of Bane one-shot which also laid foundation for the larger story.

"Knightfall" ran from April to October 1993, Batman issues 492 through 500 and Detective Comics issues 659 through 666, with the two titles sharing a single narrative during this time. The massive story was quickly collected into two volumes of trade paperbacks. Volume one was subtitled Broken Bat and the second Who Rules the Night. Knightfall was the first time that multiple Batman titles had shared a single narrative for an extended period since the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

"Knightfall" was immediately followed by "Knightquest" in the monthly serials. "Knightquest" is divided into two storylines, one following Bruce Wayne ("Knightquest: The Search") and the other on the new Batman ("Knightquest: The Crusade"). The stories were not treated as crossovers and the Batman titles continued as they had before "Knightfall" where the creative teams each pursued its own storyline. Instead of a crossover, "Knightquest" was more of an umbrella title that also encompassed some issues of Shadow of the Bat. (To avoid giving away their plans, the publishers treated it as though it were the new status quo, so issues were not numbered as chapters.) Additionally, The Crusade served as a launching point for the first ongoing monthly series featuring Robin in solo adventures.

Although previous parts of "KnightSaga" had taken considerable time to run their course, the entirety of "KnightsEnd" was published within two months, as the Batman books had to prepare themselves for DC's impending company-wide crossover Zero Hour, which would immediately follow the "KnightSaga". Nothing was truncated as the Batman editorial line made use of all of the Batman-related titles at their disposal, such as Catwoman, Robin and Legends of the Dark Knight (normally an anthology title with stories set in the past). "KnightsEnd" was later collected in trade paperback as Knightfall Volume 3.

The serial nature of the Batman titles continued beyond the end of KnightsEnd, with the Prodigal storyline, and into subsequent unbannered stories. This continued in later arcs such as "Contagion", "Legacy", "Cataclysm", "No Man's Land", and "War Games", and has on occasion continued into the present.

The intent of the writers was to counter the then-popular style of violent heroes in comics, and demonstrate that the traditional Batman made for a better hero. The issues featuring Jean-Paul Valley as Batman on the cover depict him with highly exaggerated musculature and legs which taper into disproportionally tiny feet, mimicking the styles of contemporary "violent hero" artists such as Rob Liefeld.