A series of horrific murders has gripped Gotham City. Now is the time for The Bat-Man to return! Your Major Spoilers review of The Bat-Man: Second Knight #1 from DC Comics awaits!

THE BAT-MAN: SECOND KNIGHT #1

Writer: Dan Jurgens
Artist: Mike Perkins
Colorist: Mike Spicer
Letterer: Simon Bowland
Editor: Matthew Levine
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $6.99
Release Date: September 17, 2025

Previously in The Bat-Man: Second Knight: The year is 1940. Most of the Western world is embroiled in a war against a fascist regime whose march across Europe shows no sign of defeat. With the specter of global war looming, it’s a time of fear and paranoia for those living in Gotham. It’s only been a few months since the city was rescued from undead monsters by the masked vigilante known as The Bat-Man, but a vicious killer has been on a murder spree that’s taking the city to its breaking point. Bodies are turning up in theatrically gruesome ways, all staged with the killer’s calling card: a hangman’s noose!

THE DRUMBEATS OF WAR

Several months after the defeat of The Voice, Gotham City is still wallowing in the Great Depression. Robert Fishman does his part, running a soup kitchen that helps to feed the hungry and those whose fortunes have fallen. Why then is he targeted by a masked man with a battle axe? And why is he murdered in grotesque fashion, tied to the clapper of a bell, and smashed into a bloody pulp? That’s what Commissioner Jim Gordon wants to know. And moreover, what The Bat-man wants to know, leading him to Maxie’s, the city’s most successful brothel, where he shakes down Maxie himself for information. He realizes that the connection with Fishman and other recent victims is their synagogue, which leads him to not only the masked murderer, but the man behind him, obsessed with fear. Unfortunately, he arrives just in time to see the two of them hanging Commissioner Gordon off the side of a building in front of a crowd of would-be film-goers!

NOTHING TO FEAR BUT… FEAR ITSELF!

Having missed The Bat-Man: First Knight last year, the most impressive part of this issue is the scripting, courtesy of Dan Jurgens. The Gotham City of this issue is complex, realistic, and best of all, NOT an entirely hopeless dystopia. The Bat-Man’s interactions with Rabbi Cohen, with Gordon himself, and with his lady friend Julie Madison (who is in on his secret, a detail that I find both enjoyable and, sadly, unique) are wonderful. The arrival of Lois Lane in Gotham to check up on rumors of a bat-person is wonderful as well, especially given that Lois’ curiosity is implicitly rooted in the caped guy she already knows about back home in Metropolis. The Golden Age detail is also impressive, as she works for George Taylor, editor of the Daily Star, as she did in the comics of 1940. The art of Mike Perkins (who handled Lois’s last solo series a couple of years ago) is also interesting, reminding me of Tony Harris’ detailed, earthy work on JSA: The Liberty Files. That includes a focus on realism, making the storefronts, vehicles, and hairstyles feel period-accurate, with the only side effect being that Batman’s headgear looks… a little awkward, if not silly.

BOTTOM LINE: I’M PSYCHED

Then again, given that the original horned bat-cowl actually kind of looked that silly under the pen of Bob Kane, maybe The Bat-Man: Second Knight #1 is so committed to its aesthetic that the creators WANT our hero to look like a man in a homemade mask, swinging over the city like a real person would have to, grounding the story in ways that modern Bat-tales sometimes lack, earning 4 out of 5 stars overall. I’ve already purchased the three-issue First Knight series, and look forward to more of this book in a way I remember from the good old days of Batman: The Cult and A Death In The Family.

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