Batman: The Dark Knight Vol. 1: Knight Terrors (The New 52) [Hardcover]

Batman is back in this new volume of consisting of the issues 1-9: Knight Terrors, A Rush of Blood, Catch Me If You Can, Welcome to the Jungle, Handful of Dust, Run Rabbit Run, The Final Curtain, The Madness, and I Can No Longer Be Broken.

A mysterious woman dressed as a white rabbit enters into the Arkham injects the inmates with a special venom. An explosion causes chaos inside Arkham. Batman rushes inside, afraid that his old enemy Two-Face has escaped, but to his surprise, Two-Face is very much alive. The venom injected into him has caused him to take on a hulk like appearance and he now refers to himself as One-Face.

Through out the new series, Batman faces off with Clayface, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Deathstroke, Mad Hater, and Bane. He also allies with other superheroes like Robin, Batwoman, Batgirl, Nightwing, Black Canary, Katana, Starling, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Red Robin and Superman.

The new Dark Knight series is less kid friendly and more graphic, especially in the illustrations of the villains. This works effectively as it makes the characters less cartoon-like and more realistic. It was nice seeing the many cameos from the DC comic book world. I would still like to know more about the White Rabbit. Maybe future issues will involve her more. Overall, I like the new art and story direction for Batman: The Dark Knight!

Note - I received an ARC from DC Comics and edelweiss.

This review contains SPOILERS so please read at your own risk. Also, I have read a lot of Batman in my day, so if you are a newer Batman fan, then you may enjoy this, remember, these are just my opinions on the book. Let me first say that the art in this book is grade-A comic book art and earned the two star review that I gave this book. I really do not see how this has 4 stars at the time of this review, but let me start by saying that this book felt extremely repetitive to me. First and foremost, prisoners are escaping Arkham Asylum...like that's never happened before. It seems that more often than not a conflict revolves around the insane asylum for Batman's rogue gallery. Anyways, who ever wrote this book really does not like Batman, or at least that's what he conveys to me as the reader.
Let me explain. In the second issue Batman fights two face and basically loses until Two-Face collapses from some cop-out of a reason. In another issue Bane, who has a new and improved venom that makes him even smarter and stronger, so much so that he attempts to take Batman out by...throwing a rock? But in the end, were it not for Flash, Bane would have beaten Batman just like in Nightfall. It almost makes me feel like Batman is a useless superhero and a mediocre detective.
There are two redeeming issues in this book and those are the last two. The eighth issue was actually good, they stopped with the dumb white rabbit plot and moved onto a Batman-esque story where mad hatter is taking out people with some satellite sonar thing. Why he didn't use any hats still eludes me, but it makes more sense than the first 7 issues. The last issue is a Night of the Owls tie in and is probably the best issue in the whole book. Why? Because it DOESN'T focus on Batman. At this point in reading I was tired of seeing my favorite hero get embarassed (sans issue 8) so it was nice to get a break.
I have read through this comic book up to issue 13 and have finally decided to drop it from my monthly subscriptions. I feel like none of these writers have been able to grasp what the Dark Knight is truly about. If you guys want a good book in the New 52 or just a good Batman book, read Batman by Scott Snyder, THAT MAN understands Batman from all angles in my opinion. Other good New 52 books include Geoff Johns Green Lantern, Scott Snyder's Swamp Thing, Jeff Lemiere's Animal Man, and even though the writing is not solid, I have always enjoyed pure action comic books Geoff Johns Justice League.

Incredible story, great artwork, a great way to usher in the new batman revamp; I definitely recommend this for any batman fan.