Knightfall vs. No Man's Land

[RubberLotus]

Which Bat-Crossover of the 90s is, in your opinion, better...

in terms of plot?

in terms of art?

in terms of character interpretations?

overall?

[Jorriss]

Cataclysm for art, for sure.

For plot, Knightfall. The idea behind is was a lot better and quite frankly, I hate it when a hero is improving a city or state and all of the sudden some event happens that makes them start over. It's why I vehemently hated Chemo being dropped in Bludhaven.

[Captain Jim]

I liked both, but if I had to choose, I'd pick NML.

[Doug Side]

I would say Knightfall, but I am extremely biased towards anything Dixon had his hand in.

[Sn4tcH]

I haven't read NML the entire No Mans Land, in fact I've only read the stories that most people point to as the "good parts".

But I really don't like Knightfall (Are we counting Knightsend in this as well?). I thought it was really kinda boring, and it feels very "90's" to me. I liked Bane in it though, he was a cool villain at that point.

[T Hedge Coke]

NML was better comics, but Knightfall had the better novelization.

[catsmeow]

NML was the best.

[nepenthes]

Knightfall for the drama and cheese factor of it
NML for characterisation and plot. its flaw is that it's too long and wanders about. some would call that 'epic' though.

Contagion has characters, suspense, action, drama all in a single volume. My favourite of the crossovers by far

[The Batman]

I'm with Jim on this. I liked them both a lot but NML was better. One thing was that NML just felt better paced overall, starting slow and building itself up to a conclusion. Knightfall started out strong but dragged in the middle and rushed too much at the end. KnightQuest just seemed to go on longer than it should've and Knight's End seemed to go too fast.

[T Hedge Coke]

I liked that O'Neil chose to lop of quite a bit of the padding with his Knightfall novelization, using it instead to focus on the sensual and emotional aspects the comics were unlikely to explore; Bruce Wayne sitting naked in the snow realizing maybe he does actually enjoy hitting people sometimes and perhaps sex would be nice to have again one of these days.

[Sean Whitmore]

Though a fan of both, I think I gotta give this to Knightfall.

The plot was fairly juvenile (bad guy's plan is to throw a bunch of other bad guys at Batman to make him tired and then beat him up), but the buildup was intense. Bane kept getting built up as stronger and smarter than we thought, and Batman kept getting progressively weaker. When they finally met for their showdown, all my 13-year-old brain could think of was: "Crap, meet pants."

Also, NML wasn't so much a storyline as it was a change in status quo. Most NML comics were one-off stories that just happened to deal with living in a ravaged city.


SEAN

[Brack360]

NML without question, in terms of story, art, and characterization. NML was unprecedented in its epic nature and storytelling format. Knightfall was the first big crossover that set the tone for future crossovers, but the artwork was mediocre at best and a lot of the plot points were rather contrived.

[Kiryu]

NML without question, in terms of story, art, and characterization. NML was unprecedented in its epic nature and storytelling format. Knightfall was the first big crossover that set the tone for future crossovers, but the artwork was mediocre at best and a lot of the plot points were rather contrived.

Agreed, and Batman in an essentially post-apocalyptic world was such a great new setting for the character.

[ShadowBanker]

I vote Knightfall. Any plot line involving a natural disaster treads a thin line.

[Protoman]

NML got me into batman, absolutely loved it

[Shush]

Both were overly long and drawn out, but given the choice, NML.

[brundlefly]

NML without question, in terms of story, art, and characterization. NML was unprecedented in its epic nature and storytelling format. Knightfall was the first big crossover that set the tone for future crossovers, but the artwork was mediocre at best and a lot of the plot points were rather contrived.

I agree. The coolness of Bane as the focused, obsessed hunter at the center of Knightfall was its only standout quality for me. Mass Arkham Asylum breakouts had been done repeatedly beforehand, plus the storyarc of 'successor takes up the hero's mantle and tarnishes it, forcing the original to return and reclaim it' was done better previously in Captain America between Steve Rogers and John Walker, imo. Meanwhile, NML, while a bit sprawling and unfocused at times, was ambitious, fairly innovative, and had better artwork and more cohesive writing. Of course, I'm also a little biased since two of my favorite DC villains (Two-Face and Luthor) had such standout roles in NML.