Blades

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Let me preface this by saying that this is my first Batman comic purchased since November. In the time since then I'd been getting better acqauinted with the Marvel of the 60's and 70's, and it wasn't until I went looking for JLA/Avengers, that I walked right passed the Batman rack and saw something that caught my eye. It was the COLLECTED LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT. Now I LOVE LOTDK, and I didn't have any of the three arcs the TPB contained, so I picked it up.

 

Let me also say that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, swashbuckling movies. As far as pure movie magic goes; give me Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power over Jet Li and Jackie Chan anyday. Naturally that fact that one of the arcs presented in the TPB was BLADES (James Robinson/Tim Sale), which is universally acknowledged as the Cavalier's shining moment influenced my decision to buy it greatly.

 

This may be one of my all time favorite Batman stories EVER. Before I egt into the realm of plot, let me first say that Tim Sale's art is nothing short of brilliant, and although I don't like his work in TLH as much as most he's GREAT here.

 

Now... to the real fun of this post: the plot. HEAVY SPOILERS.

 

The story begins with Batman mulling over a serial killer. Mr. Lime, as he has dubbed himself, is killing the old because he sees them as the cause of overpopulation. He's killed about a dozen already and Batman is no closer to capturing him as when he began. It's become an obsession, and longtime fans of Batman will recognize this fairly by the numbers plot device: Batman brooding and obsessed, becomes darker and darker and stop using common sense. It doesn't happen here, thankfully, but Mr. Lime proves to be an effective device to keep the Batman and Cavalier seperate as long as possible.

 

With crime raising, and the Batman nowhere to be found, we see the debut of a new vigilante: The Cavalier. He's ma swashbuckling fencer, who's debut comes in the form of stopping a mugging of a young couple and their son. In this instant we see the juxtapositioning of our two vigilantes: The Batman fights crime using his mind and skill, he's a shrewd operator of the highest order. The Cavalier is different; he's a force of nature. He hasn't trained his whole life , but it doesn't matter. With a little swordplay, a little drama, and a lot of surprise he has yet to meet a thug he can't handle.The Batman operates in the night out of necessity, he's a quasi- Vincent Price if you will who uses Gotham like the world's largest haunted house. The Cavalier uses the night because of it appeals to his delusional panache. With the Batman totally focused on a what is seemingly a dead end case, the reader begins to empathize with the Cavalier. Their first meeting is wonderful, as Batman allows the Cavalier to continue to operate because he reminds him of Zorro (Which is a wonder little human moment for a character who rarely gets them), and Cavalier foreshadows what's coming perfectly:

 

 

QUOTE

They say you're the best... at everything.

 

I wonder.

 

 

 

We finally get behind the Cavalier's facade, and the knowledge makes us like him even more. He's a stuntman who wants to fight crime until he becomes famous, then unmask and begin making movies as the star. But know the rush of making a difference is too great and he can't give it up.

 

In all tragedies, the tragic hero is basically good, however he possesses a fatal flaw which is exploited and leads to his downfall. The Cavlier's end begins with saving a woman trying to kill herself, and... he falls in love with her.

 

Soon after a string of jewel robberies begin. Now, the reader is unaware of the culprit, but for the sake of this dissection I'll just come out and say it's the Cavalier. An underworld figure saw this woman killer her husband and is blackmailing her. He's robbing jewelry stores to pay the man to get the evidence back. His love for this woman, and his desire to save her again, to BE her champion is his flaw. His VANITY. But even now, in his string of robberies, in his breach of the public trust, he has yet to do anything unforgivable in Batman's eyes. He has yet to reach his denoument; his point of no return.

 

Meanwhile, The Batman after a long and ardous game of wits takes down Mr. Lime, but it leaves him depleted mentally and physically. In their second meeting: When Cavalier is revealed as the thief on his last job, and the Batman attempts to stop him, Batman is beaten by cavalier but his life is spared. The Cavalier is no killer, and it seems for a moment that we can have a Hollywood ending, and that finally the girl can be freed from the grasp of this monster.

 

Alas, it's not meant to be.

 

It's at this moment that Batman becomes the antagonist of the story. Not in the evil sense, but in the literary sense of being one opposed to the hero: Macduff was an antagonist in Macbeth, but far from a villain. It's Batman's single-minded and absolute sanctity for human life that force the final fight. In a way, he's this tale's villain: Obsessed, brooding, and a thorn in the hero's side. However, our hero steals and eventually kills for his ladyfriend, and our villain put away a dangerous serial killer.

 

When Cavalier appears to his lover's blackmailer and demands the evidence, the blackmailer makes it plain that it will never stop. The Cavalier in a moment of rage, slaughters the blackmailer and his bodyguard. What's even more powerful is his admission that he enjoyed. It is in this moment that the Cavalier has chosen his fate, and he knows it. He has become the damned to the one man in Gotham who can possibly stop him, and he knows that he must either start running... or warm up for one last performance.

 

At their final meeting, the Batman has no knowledge of Cavalier's double mruder of the blackmailers. He's willing to let the Cavalier go, but the Cavalier knows that once batman learns he is a killer he will hunt him down, and challenges Batman to one final duel to the death. It's absolutely tremendous: two superheroic equals doing battle above the city.

 

The aftermath of the fight, Cavalier's realization that he must die, his final words to his lover, they're heartbreaking. See kids? Sometimes it IS Shakespeare. His final words are so powerful that Batman repeats them to himself twice, and I'll repeat them here. They are the mantra of every tragic hero:

 

 

Remember Batman, the potential for evil is in every man. In every man. Even you.

 

 

 

 

I give this story: **** 3/4 out of *****

[thuganomics 0]

These issues were cool, except for the death of Cavalier at the end.

 

It depresses me that a great silver age villain's career was condensed to 3 issues in the modern era.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

These issues were cool, except for the death of Cavalier at the end.

 

It depresses me that a great silver age villain's career was condensed to 3 issues in the modern era.

The Cavalier's death was nescessary. It was a modern day tragedy, and the tragic hero almost always dies.

[Guest The Midnight Rocking Warrior]

Didn't Batman beat him easily in knightfall?

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Didn't Batman beat him easily in knightfall?

Different Cavalier.

[Guest The Midnight Rocking Warrior]

Ok thanks