Tales From The Dark Multiverse: Batman: Knightfall #1

There's not one thing I didn't like about this book, it's a short read for 80 pages but that's not to say the book isn't comic caviar to the regular and an amazing pick and go for casual readers. Go grab this at your local comic book store. Read Full Review

Javier Fernandez offers some beautiful art in this issue. The tone of the visuals perfectly matches the gritty, noir style of the story. There is a darkness and despair to this story that Fernandez is able to bring out in each panel as the story grows and changes. Read Full Review

The art by Fernandez is fantastic. He can draw whatever is thrown to him by the writers and make it work. I enjoyed it very much overall. It was a nice change of pace and it worked on a lot of levels. This is the first of several Dark Universe titles and I look forward to reading all of them. Read Full Review

As far as this tale goes. It ends on an absolute shocker where we get to see what 30 " years of suffering have done to the mind of Bruce Wayne. I am hoping that all the various stories will come together toward the end of the run, but I really look forward to seeing Batman break bad. Read Full Review

This is a dark trip, but anyone who remembers the original 'Knightfall' will likely have a blast seeing what happens when it all goes wrong. Read Full Review

Snyder and Higgins craft a haunting story that is devoid of hope. Additionally, Guimares' dark color palette fits this grim and dystopian Gotham. Meanwhile, Fernandez's art excels, particularly in its close-ups. A lot of the emotional depth of the characters is seen in their eyes. It isn't hard to see just how lost Jean-Paul Valley is when his expression also mirrors that. Overall, Tales From The DC Dark Multiverse: Knightfall #1is a must-read for Batman fans, particularly fans of the original Batman: Knightfall. Fans will be happy to know that Dark Knights: Metalis not required reading before picking up this issue. The Dark Multiverse one-shots continue with The Death of Superman. Read Full Review

These Dark Multiverse tales could really be AWESOME! I can't wait for Tempus Fuginaut to make more rounds around the DC Multiverse, as he has to find that one, true hero" the one woman or man who can aid our traditional heroes as they go through the Crisis at hand. However, this is one search that could end up being a long one, but anything that Scott Snyder touches these days is on fire! Read Full Review

Overall I really enjoyed this story and the re-telling of a classic story that gave us the infamous "now I break you" that we all know and have come to love! Scott Snyder and Kyle Higgins do an amazing job pulling us into the story and keeping us on our toes the entire issue. Although there are issues with some of the inks on this one, the tones and colors really help sell the feeling of the story and the pencils are gorgeous making sure to fit within the original Knightfall series. I think this book is one of the best to be released as of late from DC and I highly recommend if you love Batman or the Knightfall story that you pick this one up and get lost in a new spin on the story. Read Full Review

Overall, the issue was very good and I'd like to see more from this universe, but I'm not sure that we'll get to. I'm definitely interested in the future of this line, especially with writers like Scott Snyder at the helm. Read Full Review

One issue in, and we're already tackling so many fascinating questions: what if we never got over the violent murder-Batman of the 90's? What if the savior to the Multiverse was hiding in a doomed timeline? What the hell are they gonna call the next crisis when Final Crisis was already taken? All of these questions are things that I am here for. If you want to be here for them too, and you want to encourage DC to let more creators tell weirder and weirder stories, I highly suggest you pick this up. Read Full Review

Storytelling across writing, artwork, and colors all mesh together into a well-crafted whole. Read Full Review

Tales From The Dark Multiverse: Batman: Knightfall #1 (Snyder, Higgins, Fernandez, Guimares) is a fantastic stand-alone alternate universe tale, with twists, turns, and more relevance now than ever. Read Full Review

Tales From The Dark Multiverse Batman Knightfallis a great start to what looks like to be a fun series of books. DC seems to be going hard on these Multiverse ideas. If the rest of the books have this twisted sense and gorgeous art readers are in for a treat. Read Full Review

A fifty-page delve into the worst-case scenarios of the DCU may not be to everyone's tastes, but if you like your alternate futures with a taste of the macabre, this new anthology series is off to a good start. Read Full Review

While a bit too short, the comic is a solid start and beginning to build to something big. This isn't just a series of one-shot comics, there's something else there that's coming down the road making these all the more interesting. This is a comic anyone can pick up and just enjoy and for those who have been reading DC's master story, it's one you probably won't want to miss. Read Full Review

As a longtime fan of the Elseworlds stories, Tales from the Dark Multiverse is a worthy successor to the throne. Utilizing an expanded page count, Snyder, Higgins and Fernandez start these one-shots off with a bang, delivering an action-packed story that will satisfy many 1990s Batman fans. Read Full Review

Overall,Knightfall is a solid but not flawless opener to the Tales from the Dark Multiverse anthology, benefiting from a strong premise and great art. Fans of the original 90s event or of Scott Snyder's Batman work, especially Metal, will be satisfied but readers looking for an in-depth exploration of this world and its characters may be disappointed. Read Full Review

The parts can't overcome the sum but Batman fans will enjoy the parts that work. Read Full Review

For fans of Knightfall this is a compelling alternate take even with the surprising time jump and occasional spotty artwork. Read Full Review

The main "What If" idea still has that intriguing factor in Tales from the Dark Multiverse #1. We looked at what would happen if Jean-Paul Valley was never stopped, in Batman Knightfall. In the next issue, we look at "The Death of Superman", which is open to a plethora of story ideas. Will Tempus Fuginaut find a hero in the Darkness or is his search in vain? Read Full Review

Ultimately though, as a what if? yarn which asks a fairly intriguing question, Tales from the Dark Multiverse does a solid enough job of spinning a dark, disturbing tale out of the Knightfall saga. And while the story itself never really gets past the realms of superficial spectacle, if nothing else, this oversized one-shot has introduced me to the immense talents of Javier Fernandez, an artist Im going to be keeping a close eye on from now on. Read Full Review

Snyder and Higgins set up some cool things here, but without the proper time and space to develop any of it, it all falls flat. I am now officially worried about the rest of theseTales From The Dark Multiverse books since Knightfall seems like the easiest of these stories to tell. Oh well, the art is pretty good here, but I still left with the feeling that this book had no real reason to hit the shelf besides DC trying to see how far they can go to milk this Dark Multiverse thing. Read Full Review

With presentation that can best be described as competent, the only thing to discuss about this issue is why it exists in the first place. Read Full Review

There is a great idea at work here, but unfortunately its buried beneath a convoluted plot with no characters and uninteresting art. Read Full Review

I Review Comics

May 29, 2020

It may be a hard pill to swallow but DC is a better publisher than Marvel. There are some rough patches like Brian Michael Bendis's take on Superman or the Batman Wedding that turned into a disaster but the line has consistent bright spots regardless of the missteps. DC does seem to have more cool concepts that work and even better art. Elseworlds/What if Stories aren't new but the stories presented from the Dark Multiverse exist to tell a natural progression of an existing story rather than trying to reinvent the wheel or pushing some sort of social agenda. A couple of years ago we had the New Age of Heroes line where DC blatantly ripped off and repurposed Marvel heroes into the DC Universe. The line failed due to lack of promoti on but the characters were generally fun and some even beyond being reskinned Marvel heroes. Tales from the Dark Multiverse gives us another blatant rip-off. This time it's Marvel's What if? series. The rip even extends down to Tempus Fuginaut (Sideways) acting as a stand-in for Uatu, The Watcher. The difference is that DC flips the What If? comics format and production values into an actual event. Tales from the Dark Multiverse also clocks in at 53 pages and is presented in prestige format. What happens if Jean-Paul Valley remained Batman after Knightfall? The fun of any What if? comic is seeing how a slight change in circumstance can alter the entire story, usually with horrifying results. I won't spoil any of the key events in the book but believe me when I say that things are messed up. The general premise of this story is that Azrael remains Batman after Knightfall and turns Gotham into a police state. The story is very grim and keeps the tone of the Dark Knights Metal One-Shots. Azrael has never been my favorite character but I enjoyed seeing his evolution into "Saint Batman". This seems like the natural progression of the Knightfall event as well as Azrael's character. The ideas are wild in some cases. Some characters have been killed off and others have been irreversibly changed. The book is very efficient and gives you the info you need without wasting your time on stuff that doesn't matter. Another thing worth pointing out is the art direction. There are a lot of winks and nods to the original Knightfall storyline and the art style is right out of the 90's. There is a brief montage of the original event in the opening pages which catches the reader up to speed. Javier Fernandez manages to homage the original while keeping things fresh. All of the new designs are cool and feel like natural extensions of what already existed. There is also a creepy undercurrent to the story and the atmosphere conveys it perfectly. I have the entire "Tales From the Dark Multiverse" event but hadn't had the chance to really get into it due to my day job. It was a pleasant surprise as the comic was excellent. The story, art, and premium format go a long way. The twists and turns are also genuinely surprising. If you haven't read the book I suggest you pick it up. Especially if you're a fan of the original Knightfall storyline. more

REYNARD

Oct 16, 2019

Thank you for putting a book out like this DC. Interesting how the Fuginaut acts as the opening narrator of the issue. I wonder if he'll act as a sort of "crypt-keeper" for these stories. Very excited for the Infinite Crisis and Blackest Night issues.

Br'er Lapin AKA 20-Ish Ceiln

Oct 22, 2019

This is better than I expected. The ending was cool.

M1sf1r3

Nov 28, 2019

Prelude: It's time for DC's version of "What If's?" and I'm intrigued by it. Hopefully this first issue meets my expectations. The Good: It's an interesting story that's for sure. The exploration of Saint Batman is quite well done here. Really liked the new characters and world that have been created. The Bad: I wish Saint Batman survived not Nano Batman instead. Just seems repetitive from what we've already seen with Metal. World could have been expanded on. I get that it's a one shot but it would have been nice. Conclusion: An interesting issue and start to Tales of the Dark Multiverse. This series has potential but at the cost of being shallow.

Nihilist

Oct 16, 2019

There were two moments of shock I experienced while reading this comic. First was at the very beginning, when I realized this comic won't tell just a dark elseworld story founded on events from Knightfall. It apparently was intended to be something more - something used in a bigger narrative, with a purpose in a bigger event. I was extremely happy, especially since Snyder is the mastermind behind the Dark Multiverse, and I know, I know, he wasn't alone, Williamson and Tynion IV wrote few things and contributed to its creation. Bottomline, though - Snyder earned my trust when it comes to elseworld stories, so seeing this comic made me optimistic, to say at least. And then the second shocker happened, at the very end of the book, bursting my bubble of hopes and dreams. It was revealed that the entire issue was pointless. Seems like nothing from it will carry on, nothing will be used in latter events. And that's the real tragedy of this comic - it's not bad, by any means, but it's pretty much completely pointless. Sure, it was fun to explore a dark "what if" scenario of Knightfall, see Bruce getting Eddie's X Factor therapy, ad meet Bane's kid with Fetal Venom Syndrome. I liked it all, but I still can't ditch the feeling of disappointment after seeing the end of it. If another crisis is coming, I'd expect some soid groundwork this time. No Justice was very, very rushed and didn't even feature a decent story of its own, Heroes in Crisis was worthless garbage, and Dark Nights Metal's potential was kinda wasted on mediocre tie-ins and Green Arrow randomly teaming up with Harley and Nightwing to fight Mr. Freeze in medieval armors and shit. Now, if this comic directly lead somewhere, I'd be all for it. But since it created an interesting world and then instantly abandoned it altogether, I have my doubts and concerns. more

Azrael

Oct 17, 2019

A much darker story than I expected, which I like. The positives are that Azrael was great and the way Gotham was turned was cool. But it felt a bit rushed at the end and Bane’s son was underwhelming. Also how Batman got a new body was a bit silly. The glove by the multiverse shifting being who is narrating the comic also had a glove that looked WAY too much like Thanos’ gauntlet.

EDiakota

Oct 17, 2019

"Gotham is mine... I am hers." - BATMAN

Darkseid24

Oct 16, 2019

I don’t think this is bad, it’s just rushed. It has some cool disturbing ideas like what Azrael did to Bruce, but what is sad, that we don’t really get to see, what happened to Gotham or how it affected certain characters. Penguin is in it, but we don’t see what happened to the other villains. Overall this should be a 4 part mini series to make people care.

Psycamorean

Oct 21, 2019

This was okay. There was some good here. But it quickly became stupid, unfortunately.

Spacey Medicine

Oct 23, 2019

Uatu is rolling in his grave. "I have come to this dark multiverse to see if I can find a hero who is not dark... but alas, they are all dark... I don't know how this keeps happening."

Afre

Oct 16, 2019

Eh. Too rushed.

Big Brother

Oct 16, 2019

I can't believe Snyder has so much pull at DC now. It's an edgelord nightmare.

RKS

Oct 18, 2019

Wow, just wow. It takes a special kind of screw up to be given all the toys in the toy box to play with and produce such a nonsensical steaming pile of monkey crap story. This had a lot of potential and I was looking forward this book, yet I was sadly disappointed with the actual final product. Snyder and Higgins take a fan favorite character like Jean Paul Valley and reduce him to a one dimensional character without any depth, development, real motivations, or realistic growth that should have been included in this thought exploration of an "Elseworlds" book. If this is the best that two "professional" writers could come up with that's just sad. They had 49 pages to tell their story and there just wasn't much there. How hard would it h ave been to have someone who understands the character to work on the book. Snyder and Higgins owe the fans, Joe Quesada, Grant Morrison,and Dennis O'Neil an apology for dropping the ball on this one. more