Here goes what some would refer to as a "pretty mess".
Batman makes his way to Arkham Asylum and learns a riot has taken place with inmates seriously wounding and murdering their way to freedom. Batman learns that some of them are wired on a new drug making them tougher than usual. He attempts to learn the origin of this drug and stop whomever is behind it. - summary
If you read Scott Snyder's Batman Vol. 1: Court of Owls or Peter Tomasi's Batman and Robin Vol. 1: Born to Kill, and you were either greatly entertained or just blown out of your damn pants; well whatever you do, please do not come into this overly unoriginal, derivative, drawn out, weakly plotted, oh and I can't forget extremely predictable, slapped together pretty mess expecting the same thing. This is a truly watered down Batman story written by Peter Jenkins and David Finch, and I like Finch a lot but his writing and plotting is nowhere near as good as his artwork. This story almost feels like Knightfall part 3 only with more guest stars for no real reasons. This TPB collects Batman: Dark Knight 1 - 9 with the Knight Terrors storyline running across the first seven.
When DC kicked off their New 52 line I originally felt they were relying too heavily on Batman to drive their sales. Now think about this, he has four books on his own plus he's featured on two teams being Justice League and Justice League International. They could have kept him with two at the most and focused on other characters, this way DC wouldn't have needed to resort to kicking out any damn thing just because. DC as usual places way too much focus on key A-listers, and as a result their other books really don't do well. This phoned in story here really didn't justify another Batman series, as it could have worked a lot better as a shorter cool down arc when the Night of Owls storyline finally blew over.
The plot follows Batman as he learns that Arkham inmates are drugged up on a substance that forces them to lose their fear. As a result, enemies like Two-Face and Clayface are engaging him aggressively, and other killers such as Zsasz and the Ventriloquist are chasing down Batgirl, as well as other members of the Bat-Family. The entire climax will be ruined very early in the eyes of veteran fans due to one glaring detail. I won't spoil it though.
There are just too many elements in the plot that I find so off putting. First of all the initial story doesn't make any sense. Why would Batman's rogues gallery need an anti-fear drug in order to fight him? Excuse me but hasn't Two-Face already been fighting Batman for years? And why would Zsasz, someone whom has gone blade vs. batarang and toe to toe with Batman be afraid of Batgirl? The story is way too difficult to buy into even for a comic. Now had DC decided to completely reboot Batman along with the rest of DCU, and he was just some type of myth appearing in the public for the first time this would make sense. As it is right now this is just uncreative tripe. It really doesn't get any better since Batman survives most encounters here through deus ex machina moments, plus he's able to fight Superman and draw blood because of one particular reason and it doesn't involve Kryptonite. I can't go any deeper because of the spoiler thing, but seriously, once you read it for yourself the silliness will just be all in your face, and that's not even counting the gratuitous fan service through some chick in a bunny rabbit's outfit. I really do not see why this story couldn't have done away with the constant Alice in Wonderland references. Nightwing, Red Robin, Birds of Prey, they appear just to be there and receive no real push towards coolness for someone to even think about picking up their books.
I really tried to like this book, but for every bit of coolness to be found here such as the confrontation with Scarecrow, there's some type of lameness such as the ending to this story arc. There are two things keeping me from the lowest rating possible and one is the last two stories. Issue number eight is a confrontation against the Mad Hatter which was pretty entertaining as he used some type of sonic wave forcing people to brutally kill themselves. Plus the final issue ties into the Night of Owls storyline which is pretty good. The second reason is the visuals. Finch's artwork is the main reason this story wasn't a complete chore to get through. His artwork is very entertaining with some hulking designs for the enemies, and some punishing action taking place towards the end. The backgrounds pretty much define coolness with the woods, rain drops, and dreary lakes all standing out in the right ways. He draws his character designs with the right amount of build and definition, plus the women look great. I will always enjoy looking at Poison Ivy, and I thought it was nice how he didn't over do the fan service with her. Plus the colors deserve a nod too with everyone looking glossy and finely detailed.
Batman: The Dark Knight Vol. 1 was definitely disappointing for me, but I won't regard it as garbage though. Most long time Batman fans will probably see this book as decent at best. New fans are the ones whom will enjoy this most, because of the flashy artwork and well, it's pretty much new to them. If you read Knightfall and Hush this story is not going to impress you much. I recommend skipping this in favor of Batman: Court of Owls, Green Lantern: Sinestro, and even Aquaman: The Trench. Those stories are far better reads.
Pros: Visuals and last two stories
Cons: Everything else
