Batman - Knightfall.

By Dennis O'Neil.

Synopsis:
A novelisation of the serial story that appeared in Batman No. 488-510, Batman: Shadow of the Bat No. 16-30, Detective Comics No. 656-677, Legends of the Dark Knight No. 59-63, and Robin No. 1, 7-9.

Bane, a prisoner who was experimented on by the military and turned into a superhuman, releases the inmates of Arkham asylum; among them Batman's worst enemies. While Batman drives himself to the edge of exhaustion recapturing them all, Bane observes his chosen enemy's fighting techniques, and waits...

Review:
The Batman franchise has an enormous backlog of material to draw from, and in this case, O'Neil has made excellent use of that. Which is nice.

As someone who actually quite liked the sixties TV series and hasn't had much exposure to the origins of Batman, the dark tone was a little disconcerting, especially as there isn't a nice neat resolution at the end, and the characters are actually affected (apparently permanently) by the events of the story.

The style feels unfinished, as if it could have done with one more rewrite, but the characterisation, gruesomness, and coolness of the villians makes up for that. Although O'Neil's habit of refering to Batman and Robin's "costumes" jars a little.