This story moved very briskly unlike the previous Crossover Event in the Batman comics, Knightfall, which drew its story out and had many subplots.

This could be good as I am not really a fan of stories being padded out for the inevitable TPB collection but in this case it could have been a bit longer: the origin of the virus and the motivation of the group releasing it are left in the dark, and the solution to the problem is solved by some people reading a manuscript in the Azrael comic - and then that's the end of the crisis with the inoculation and restoration of order to the city all occurring off screen. On the other hand the search for the people who survived an earlier release is a bit of a shaggy dog story that goes nowhere, so maybe that time could have been better spent on the main storyline.

The art also leaves a bit to be desired, but that might be a matter of taste. I prefer the lean naturalistic look that was the defacto house style in DC comics from the late-1960s to early-1990s. It is still on display, but getting accentuated, in Knightfall. It's gone here for artists to do their own thing, from Kelly Jones extreme gothic impressionistic Batman in some issues to a quasi-cartoonish in the Robin issues. ( )