Knightfall: Part One collects the first few chapters of a Dark Knight storyline that was released with the intention of equalling the success of The Death Of Superman story arc that ran in D.C's neighbouring comic book series. It was supposed to be the ultimate Batman storyline that cultimated in his downfall as The Dark Knight faced off against his hardest adversary to date.

To be fair, the big baddie of this series, Bane, barely appears in this opening omnibus until right at the end. Instead fans are treated to a veritable who's who of Batman villains as Bane releases the entire population of Gotham's notorious Arkham Asylum in one night leaving the city in complete and total chaos. Batman is forced to face off against almost every big bad guy he has ever put away and the end result, of course, is that The Dark Knight is left emotionally, physically and mentally drained.

Meanwhile Bane collects data on how Batman reacts and responds to all his different adversaries in preperation for their upcoming battle; the better to beat the Vigilante he sees as his biggest threat to power.

All this cultimates in a very good and cleverly written story that takes a fresh look at just how far Batman will push himself in the pursuit of truth and justice, law and order. It is one of the strongest Batman stories ever written and right up there with classics like The Killing Joke and A Death In The Family.

Is it the greatest Batman story ever told? Probably not ~ this is still reserved in my eyes for The Dark Knight Returns ~ but it does come close and is well worth looking out for either on Ebay or in your local independent Comic store. Seriously, if you are a Batman fan, old or new, who has never read this, there has never been a better time to check this out ahead of the new movie out later this year......