In this review of The Bat-Man: Second Knight #3, the Scarecrow has Gotham right where he wants them. Can the Bat-Man save his city?
The Bat-Man: Second Knight #3 main cover by Mike Perkins (DC Comics)
THE BAT-MAN: SECOND KNIGHT #3
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art and Main Cover: MIKE PERKINS
Variant Covers: MARC ASPINALL, STEPHANIE HANS
Page Count: 48 pages
Release Date: 2/25/26
This review contains spoilers
“The Bat-Man: First Knight” ranks near the top of my favorite Batman graphic novels of the past several years for a variety of reasons.
The art is stunning, the story is absolute 1930’s noir and it’s a grounded and gritty Batman story to its core. I have a soft spot for the 1930s/early 1940s Batman and it told that story brilliantly. From era appropriate dialogue to making the real world events of the time like the Great Depression and the unfolding of World War II have major impact on the story, Dan Jurgens shows again why he’s one the best comic writers out there
When the sequel, “The Bat-Man: Second Knight,” was announced I was beyond hyped if that’s even possible. I couldn’t wait to see more of this universe, especially since we also got the animated series Batman: Caped Crusader which also takes place in a similar time frame. Period piece Batman stories can work and I couldn’t wait to see where this story took us. I was really looking forward to seeing some of Batman’s rogues gallery in this timeline and I was not disappointed.
With Second Knight now wrapping with issue #3, my wish was fulfilled. My fanboy heart was kind of hoping we’d see a version of The Joker here but much to my surprise, Jurgens did not go to that well and instead brought in The Scarecrow. No complaints here, as it shows writers don’t need to keep leaning on the Clown Prince of Crime to tell a compelling Batman story.
Much to my surprise, other characters from a different DC comic were brought in. Seeing Lois Lane of the Daily Star (not Planet, which if you know your Superman history is factually accurate before they changed the name of the paper in the comics) raised my eyebrow, but at the time of the first issue it only made sense given the world and what was happening in Gotham.
I was somehow even more surprised when the Man of Steel showed up in the second issue, which ended with him and The Bat-Man meeting for the first time. Even though this is the first time we’ve seen Batman and Superman of this era interact, their relationship gets off to the usual rocky start.
That brings us to issue three.
Imagine Bat-Man appearing in the 1940s Fleischer Superman cartoons and you’ll pretty much have the start of this issue. If you look closely you’ll notice some callbacks to previous first Dark Knight/Man of Steel meetings including their first live action meeting in 2016. If you’ve seen or read any other Batman/Superman teamups you know where this goes. Identities are deduced, differences are set aside, and both work together for a shared goal.
Oh and there’s a chemical attack happening at City Hall thanks to Scarecrow and the Hangman. Can Batman and Superman make peace to save everyone or will it be up to Commissioner Gordon?
I won’t spoil this issue as overall I really dig what they did with the story. However, if you’re a fan of these two series like I am, I wouldn’t plan on a “Third Knight” coming although these are comics and you can never fully say never. Jurgens ends his story in a way very VERY few writers have in terms of Batman and it caught me off guard.
Analysis
The interaction between Batman and Superman at the start picks up immediately where the second issue left off.
The heroes have figured out the other’s secret identity and discuss what they know about the happenings in Gotham. Both split up as one goes to get Scarecrow (who they’ve figured out is Jonathan Crane) and the other to the tree lighting ceremony if the other can’t find him. It’s the same ole same ole we’ve seen in countless Batman and Superman stories over the years.
As much as I enjoyed this story, I for the life of me can’t figure out why Superman is in it. Was it because they needed him to help Batman divide and conquer to stop Scarecrow. If that was the case, I can think of other characters you could have included. The only reason I can think of is that Jurgens is working on a Superman series set in the same timeline, like a Fleischer cartoon but in comic form by modern writers and artists.
Scarecrow’s origins got an era-approiate twist in that he’s a disgraced US scientist looking to sell his fear gas to Nazi Germany and the payoff of that here is rather brilliant. It reminded me of something from Indiana Jones and his comeuppance will get a cheer out of you, especially if you’re American. You’d think going into this issue this was going to be the big payoff but that’s not the case here. There’s one more surprise.
It’s surprising in the sense that Bruce tells girlfriend Julie Madison something he’ll do once the case is over. He tells her he’ll stop being Batman.
He openly said it in earlier issues but anyone who has read enough Batman stories knows Bruce won’t actually stop 99% of the time, yet this is one of those 1% times. Not since the end of The Dark Knight Rises have I seen Bruce get this ending.
That’s why I said there’s likely no way to continue this story, although it is a comic book so logic doesn’t need to always be applied to these things. So there could be a third entry in this series but by no means is it something I absolutely need to have. Maybe if the series sold/sells like crazy, they’ll lure Jurgens back.
Oh and there’s one more shocker in the story. Jurgens takes Bruce’s ending one step further and we see Bruce, the eternal bachelor for most of existence, take a leap and propose to Julie Madison. For a story with no Alfred, no Robin, or no Bat-family it’s absolutely incredible to see Bruce get a happy ending
It’s an ending you usually see in a fairy tale, not a Batman story.
Final Thoughts
First Knight was a tough act to follow and bringing in Superman and Lois Lane into this universe was unnecessary. It pulled me out of the story at one point hoping they weren’t setting up the 1940 Justice League. Having now seen the ending to Second Knight, I doubt that’s the case.
The artwork is as beautiful as it’s been for all six issues of both “Knights”. It’s an absolutely gorgeous book to look at and the larger format really brings it to life.
The story for the first half of the three issues was solid but the unnecessary addition of Superman overall hurt the story. It’s why I’ll definitely take First Knight over the sequel. Jurgens remains one of my favorite comic writers of all time but the choice here perplexed me. Maybe DC forced his hand on this? Not everything has to connect and Batman and Superman don’t need to always cross into each other’s worlds.
The ending surprised me in that we never see Bruce get a happy ending. I respect the choice but it does sadden me that we likely won’t get a Third Knight. I really wanted to see a Joker in this world but I guess I’ll have to wait until we get that second season of Caped Crusader (season one is excellent by the way).
Overall, I enjoyed this series and issue but Superman wasn’t needed and it hurt the story.
