DC K.O.: Knightfight #4: Why You Fight

DC K.O.: Knightfight #4 is the summit of the four-part K.O. tie-in storyline. After fighting Dick, Jason, and Tim, you’d think Batman’s final opponent would be his own son, Damian Wayne. But, as we saw at the end of last month’s Knightfight #3, Joshua Williamson had a different kind of story in mind. Batman’s final challenge is happiness. Whether or not Bruce could ever take off the cowl for more than a night or two has been a question plaguing both fans and the characters they love for literal years. And in the fourth and final issue of Knightfight, we get our answer.

Now for something very important to any bat-centric storyline. The characterization of the Dark Knight. Joshua Williamson just gets Batman. This version of Batman, or better yet, this version of Bruce, is the same as the one that cried when Gotham had its first night without violent crime in 54 years. This is the Batman who cried when Tim was “killed” during the colony storyline in Detective Comics. This is Batman with a heart. Not the same heart he’s buried over years and years of brutal training and fighting crime, but the heart his Bat-family has brought to the surface.

Dan Mora this, Dan Mora that. Holy artwork, Batman. The first page, which was shown in the preview of the issue, has the sketches of a child. Specifically, Alfred Wayne, Batman’s grandson. Mora revealed in a social media post the other day that he drew this page with his left hand to make it seem more like a child’s drawing. Chef’s kiss. In one simple page we see the history of Damian’s world inside the Heart of Apokolips. It’s a timeline in 10 crayon-drawn sketches that make the reality of Damian’s future feel as real as any comic’s timeline can. DC Comics is no stranger to resetting the multiverse and changing iconic storylines to fit a new, neat, and tidy shared universe. This isn’t that. For the first time, DC is giving us a snapshot à la Flashpoint style into the futures of the Bat-family. The three previous worlds we saw of Dick, Jason, and Tim, respectively, were all archetypes. Their history was simple: one right or wrong turn that changed the future. But Damian’s has history; it has heart. And all of that comes out in the artwork.

There is a small scene I want to single out because I think it really captures the essence of this final issue. It’s just one page where Bruce is working on a gadget I won’t spoil. That’s not what makes the scene special. The importance is in the location. For decades Batman has worked and lived underground, hiding from the city he protects. But in the future his son created, he doesn’t have to do that anymore. He works out in the open, carefree for the first time he can remember.