Book Review: The Dark Knight Rises (Novelization)

Book: The Dark Knight Rises by Greg Cox

Edition: Paperback

Description:

EVERY HERO HAS A JOURNEY...EVERY JOURNEY HAS AN END...

Eight years have passed since Batman was last seen in Gotham City. Bruce Wayne's alter ego is hunted by the law, and nothing -- it seems -- can bring him back. Not even a brazen theft committed by the enigmatic and seductive cat burglar Selina Kyle -- inside the walls of Wayne Manor itself.

But then a deadly new threat appears, as if out of nowhere. Bane. Huge, powerful, and terrifyingly methodical, Bane is bent on spreading chaos and death. Commissioner Gordon and the GCPD are unable to stop him and have nowhere to turn. But after so many years, can the Dark Knight once again save Gotham from its gravest threat yet?




Rating: 5 stars

Review:

I remember buying this novelization before I saw the movie in theatres. Yeah, that was six years ago but at least I finally got around to reading this.

The Dark Knight Rises takes place eight years after the Joker's reign of terror on Gotham City and the tragic death of District Attorney Harvey Dent. It was Dent's death that was used as a way to make a change in Gotham. Despite those eight years of peace that prevailed throughout the city, Commissioner James Gordon hated that Batman chose to take the blame for the death of Harvey Dent as a way to protect Harvey's reputation. At the time, Harvey had become psychotic and was trying to kill Gordon's son but Batman stopped him with it resulting in Harvey falling to his death.

With the public believing that Batman was a killer, he had gone into hiding, never to be seen again. While his alter ego Bruce Wayne had turned into a recluse who vanished from the public eye leaving Lucius Fox to take care of matters at Wayne Enterprises.

Gotham's time of peace was soon at an end because an impending threat known as Bane was heading their way. The lavish party in honor of Harvey Dent at Wayne Manor would be the catalyst that set things into motion with Selina Kyle who was pretending to be a maid stole something more valuable from Bruce than just his mother's pearl necklace from a locked safe. This bold robbery put a spark of life back in Bruce and had him interested in not only retrieving his most cherished possession but also to find out who the "maid" was and what she going to do with the other item she stole from him.

Alfred Pennyworth (Bruce's most trusted friend and butler) had been hoping for a way to get Bruce out of his self-imposed misery and isolation. However, not from Bruce getting back into investigating and putting back on the cape and cowl which he denied having plans of doing. But with Commissioner Gordon severely injured, it didn't take long before he was back to fighting crime. Even if it did take a little persuasion from police officer John Blake boldly going to Wayne Manor and telling Bruce what Gordon said about Bane and his army. The last spark to reignite Bruce's return as the Caped Crusader was from Blake telling Bruce he believed he was Batman and that the city needed him.

Putting on the Batsuit again was the easy part but trying to stop Bane and his diabolical plan was going to be the most difficult thing he has ever had to face. With Bane taking over Gotham leaving death, destruction and chaos throughout the city it was going to take more than just Batman to save his beloved city.

I will admit I'm not the biggest fan of The Dark Knight Rises, it felt like it was trying to do too much in one movie. As well as I can't imagine Bruce wasting away in isolation for eight years moping around Wayne Manor when he could have used that time to have helped the less fortunate people of Gotham City as well as help the city through new technological advances through his company Wayne Enterprises. How does someone this motivated to protect his city simply give up?

I never understood how Bruce's wealth could so easily be wiped out in the stock market. He certainly would not have had all of his money tied up in investments. I also never really understood how Bruce and Alfred could have parted ways without any reconciliation. They were family and it was disappointing to see the fallout between them.

With that said, I actually enjoyed reading this novelization far more than I did watching the movie. I think the book presented a better version of the story even if it's still not my favorite take on the Batman universe. I found this fast-paced, well-written story to be more engaging with it having more time to unfold. I think the story provided a better understanding as to who Selina Kyle is and what motivated her as well as why she double crossed Batman and led him into Bane's trap. Something that I liked is that unlike the movie, Selina was actually referred to as Catwoman several times throughout story.

As much as I enjoyed reading this, I only had one issue and that was the story having quite a few grammatical errors. It didn't ruin the story but it was very noticeable and hard to overlook. I have a question, when a book is riddled with so many misspellings, additional words, missing words and other writing and grammatical errors who is at fault, the author or the editor? Because someone should have gone over this to catch all the errors before it was published.