Batman: Knightfall – Part 1: Knightfall review (2026)

Knightfall was one of the seminal comic book events of the 90s. Five months after the record-breaking Death of Superman storyline, DC Comics shocked fans by breaking Batman with his own colossal, unstoppable villain Bane. Knightfall regularly ranks among the best Batman stories of all time making it ripe for adaptations in various media.

The most iconic has been Christopher Nolan’s take in The Dark Knight Rises. Like The Long Halloween and No Man’s Land, Nolan borrowed elements of the stories instead of doing a pure adaptation. That allowed Warner Bros. Entertainment the window to craft a more faithful to the source material version of Knightfall.

In an immediately positive sign, Warner Bros. announced that the Knightfall adaptation would be a three-part series. That would allow the story to properly unfold and cover the saga’s three arcs — Knightfall, Knightquest and Knightsend. Unlike the disastrous Crisis on Infinite Earth’s trilogy, Knightfall is a tremendously faithful adaptation that retains the essence of the story even if it’s not always a page-by-page recreation.

It doesn’t hurt that Knightfall is written by DC comics writer Jeremy Adams, who penned the equally fantastic Battle of the Super Sons. Adams is a devoted DC fan who can be counted on to do right by the comics and their creators.

Adams incorporates elements of Knightfall-prelude mini-series Batman: Vengeance of Bane and Batman: Sword of Azrael before diving into the Knightfall story itself. In the extended prologue, Adams details the origin of Bane from a baby born in a harsh prison into a man (Michael Mando, Spider-Man: Brand New Day) intent on taking control of Gotham.

Batman (Anson Mount reprising his role from Injustice) meanwhile, deals with the misguided threat of Jean-Paul Valley (Pablo Schreiber) who has been brainwashed into becoming the violent avenging angel, Azrael.

Knightfall finds Batman/Bruce Wayne at a particularly vulnerable spot. He’s been reckless with his crimefighting approach and struggling to deal with the more emotional aspects of his war against crime. His ward/original Robin, Dick Grayson, ended their partnership and his replacement, Jason Todd, was killed by The Joker. Knightfall director Jeff Wamester (Green Lantern: Beware My Power) earns some bonus points for briefly showing these pivotal moments for Batman.

Batman is now getting adjusted to a new Robin, Tim Drake (Jack Giffin), who’s proving to be a more than capable sidekick. Bruce explains these major life changes in vague fashion to his therapist, Shondra Kinsolving (Toks Olagundoye). Shondra arrives later in the Knightfall story, but adding her to the mix earlier makes sense.

Bruce is also keeping a close eye on Jean-Paul with the help of his faithful butler, Alfred (Simon Templeman). When Bane begins his attack on Gotham, it’s not through the traditional means of a face-to-face encounter with Batman. Instead, Bane unleashes chaos by breaking out the criminals at Arkham Asylum forcing Batman to battle some of his greatest foes before facing Bane.

Wamester does a solid job showing the cumulative effects of Bane’s strategy with Batman taking more damage than usual since he’s on a relentless grind to apprehend the criminals. While some of the bigger name rogues are absent, Batman deals with formidable threats like Mr. Freeze, Firefly, The Mad Hatter, The Scarecrow and Zsasz.

These encounters are understandably short since the film version of Knightfall can’t devote 20 minutes to Batman taking down each villain. Commissioner Gordon (Bruce Boxleitner) does get some moments to share his concerns while Batman brushes them off and there’s some solid moments with GCPD regulars Dets. Montoya and Harvey Bullock.

Adams did make some changes to the source material that didn’t always work namely The Riddler’s role, the omission of Bane’s three henchmen and the absence of Killer Croc, who has a significant role in the comic story. The film leans too hard on the animated violence with heads being popped, sliced and ignited to justify its R-rating but the more effective horror elements of Knightfall typically tends to be what isn’t shown. Or the jump scares featuring Bane.

Despite those changes, Knightfall does an excellent job with its presentation of Bane. Wamester subtly shifts this take on Bane to that of a horror movie boogeyman who skulks in the shadows but is still within reach to snatch his victims. Mando gives an excellent performance truly capturing the presence and unique threat that Bane presents to Batman.

Tim Drake has become the forgotten Robin after the introduction of Damian Wayne, but he shines in Knightfall. Giffin is another standout of the cast giving the 90s Robin the proper tone as a reliable support system for Batman.

Robin gets to show off his detective skills while also being a supportive encouraging friend to Jean-Paul while he struggles to overcome his programming. This will prove important as the story plays out.

Knightfall has a stunning animation design with shading effects that resembles the heavy shading style of 90s comics. The action sequences are very well done with some incredibly hard-hitting moments. The opening battle with Azrael and Batman plays out like a violent ballet while Bane’s fight with Robin is more like a tense escape sequence.

To stay true to the comic, Knightfall ends on a deflating moment with Bane succeeding in his goal of breaking Batman. This is an iconic comic moment wonderfully done in animation style with a fitting final act.

Knightfall is right in the conversation for one of the best DC comic adaptations Warner Bros. Animation has done. There are some tweaks, but overall, this is an outstanding first chapter in the Knightfall trilogy that should immensely satisfy Batman fans.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

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