Knightsend
Knightsend is a comic book story arc that first appeared in Batman #509
Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham to find that his replacement, Jean Paul Valley, has become increasingly violent and reckless. He must return to as Batman and defeat Valley in order to win back the mantle of the Bat.
Associated Issues
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During the pursuit for the enabler, the device is thrown down Gotham City bridge. Catwoman must wet her fur and confront dangerous underwater thugs to get it back only to find out that when the price is right, even good intentions can be turned around...
Knights End: Part One
Bruce Wayne is training in the woods outside Gotham while a ninja is trying to find him, sent by Lady Shiva.
Batman (Jean Paul Valley) is having hallucinations of St. Dumas and he tries to fight through them. Robin does some investigating of Valley and reflects that he's going crazy. Robin meets up with Bruce Wayne who invited Nightwing for a debriefing on what they know about Valley. Nightwing and Robin agree to join Bruce in taking down Valley.
Valley had been brainwashed since birth to become a "human machine for punishment and death" by his father, as has been done throughout his bloodline for centuries.
Meanwhile Batman (Valley) contacts Rudy Elzen and offers to meet him and give him semi-automatic guns in exchange for something. Lady Shiva's ninja emissary sets traps for Bruce Wayne while Robin and Nightwing take down a gang of thugs.
At the meeting with Rudy, Batman reveals he has no guns for him and threatens Rudy's life if he doesn't tell him where Carleton LeHah is. Rudy says he doesn't know anything and his goons attack Batman with a sledge hammer. This sets Batman off and he pummels the thugs, sending them fleeing, taking off Rudy's ear with a batarang before knocking him out. Valley confuses himself in his own mind, almost calling himself Azrael instead of Batman.
Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne wearing the Mask of Tengu, goes through the obstacle course booby trap setup by Lady Shiva's emissary. The ninja is upset because he thinks Wayne killed his sensei and attacks him. The fight eventually takes them into a River where Wayne bests him on a floating log. Back in Gotham, Wayne stands atop a gargoyle on a skyscraper with a rope in hand reflecting that this is where he first jumped off when he first became Batman. He backs off, not ready to take the plunge.
Nightwing and Robin descend into the Batcave while Batman (Jean Paul Valley) is away. Nightwing is upset that Jean Paul was picked over him to take up the mantle of Batman despite his past mental problems Bruce had assumed he was over. Robin explains Bruce thought Nightwing had moved on. A light appears in a tunnel and Nightwing prepares to battle what he believes to be Jean Paul.
Meanwhile in Gotham, Batman takes on some gun dealers and asks one of them where he can find LeHah. LeHah (or at least a hallucination of him) appears and Batman attempts to attack it while the arms dealer escapes.
Back in the Batcave the man in the tunnel is revealed to be Harold. Harold invites Robin and Nightwing down a shaft where they find his workshop where he has access to Valley's files. Robin finally learns how the new Batman has been getting around- the subway Bat-train.
High above Gotham on the tip of a skyscraper, Bruce Wayne wearing the mask of Tengu, struggles to get the nerve up to make a leap of faith off the building.
Meanwhile Batman tracks down one of the gun dealers who is bound in a dark basement and asks him about LeHah. The dealer assumes he's talking about one of the other dealers and tells him to go look for a guy named Candy in a club. Batman tells the dealer to stay awake or the rats will eat him.
Bruce takes on ninjas sent by Lady Shiva and they back him into a corner. Facing superior numbers he jumps off the side of a bridge, landing on a moving van, and rolls off to face another especially tall ninja master. They battle in traffic, Bruce takes special care not to kill any civilians in the process.
Batman abducts a man from the club that goes by the name Candy and takes him to a gun dealer's apartment. They find the dealer dead in his apartment, Batman suspects LeHah.
Bruce defeats the tall ninja, sending him into the windshield of a moving car, driven by another female ninja specializing in chains. She has Bruce on the ground nearly defeated when her chain gets caught on a moving truck dragging her away. He runs after her to make sure she survived while Lady Shiva looks on and smiles.
Police find the gun dealer that told Batman where to find Candy in the basement, petrified by the rats, screaming.
Back in the Batcave, Batman hallucinates again and sees St. Dumas who tells him that LeHah did not work alone in murdering his father. Robin and Nightwing watch from a monitor, as Valley loses his mind screaming to himself.
Story continued from Batman: Shadow of the Bat #29 Story continues in: Batman : Legends of the Dark Knight #62
The original Batman is fighting his double while Catwoman is still trying to retrieve the enabler from the hands of Selkirk, the ambitious weapons dealer. The chaos that follows culminates atop the vilain's penthouse in a surprising climax...
The issue opens with Nightwing in a rage, believing Batman (Bruce Wayne) to be dead he strikes at Jean Paul Valley who claims that Wayne's death proved that he is the one true Batman. Robin wonders aloud if Valley is the best Batman for Gotham City. A woman's baby is stuck in a car on fire but her cries are ignored by Nightwing and Valley as they trade blows. Robin saves the child moments before the car explodes, sending him tumbling. He tells a police officer to clear the bridge, the Batmobile has exploded.
Nightwing and Valley fight to the edge of a bridge and Valley pulls them both over. Nightwing saves them both using Valley's grappling hook in his armor but the rope snaps and they plummet into the water below. Batman (Bruce Wayne) emerges from the fire of the Batmobile and tells Robin to leave Nightwing.
At the bottom of the bay Nightwing frees himself from Valley and swims up to a party boat. Bullock and Montoya arrive and deduce that there's a battle to see who will be Gotham's Batman. Valley beat Nightwing to the boat and yanks him on board. The two fight, busting through walls and ruining gambler's poker games. Valley threatens to kill Nightwing and then Robin afterwards. Valley gains the upper hand and is about to finish off Nightwing after knocking him out on a slot machine when two police officers order him to stop. He throws Nightwing into the officers and escapes back to the Batcave. Ranting to himself and to St. Dumas that he has taken back the city, Valley notices someone in the mansion above, only its not Robin as he believed, but Bruce Wayne waiting for him.
Story continued from: Batman : Shadow of the Bat #30 Story continues in: Batman : Legends of the Dark Knight #63
