'Batman: Knightfall - Part 1: Knightfall' Review: A Bloody Return to Form for DC Animation
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
By Jack Ransom - August 28, 2026
The first part of DC’s animated adaptation of Knightfall. When the mysterious behemoth known only as Bane (Michael Mando) frees Batman's (Anson Mount) entire rogue's gallery from Arkham Asylum, the Caped Crusader is pushed to his mental and physical breaking point.
For those unaware, Knightfall was a huge-scale Batman saga that is up there alongside The Dark Knight Returns, Year One, The Killing Joke & Hush (to name but a few), in terms of iconic Bat-tales. It’s an ambitious, multi-villained, Bat-family epic that cemented Bane as one of the Caped Crusader’s most lethal and horrifying foes. When it was announced last year that it was getting the animated treatment I was excited, yet a tad skeptical as the animated output over the past few years has been substantially mediocre to fine.
I can confidently say that this is the best animated flick since The Dark Knight Returns two-parter back in 2013 and is a huge step up from the Tomorrowverse output that ran from 2020 - 2024. At just shy of 80 minutes this first chapter is a lean, mean and gloriously dark beginning to the saga that effectively manages to introduce and establish: Azrael, Bane and Batman’s exhausted, increasingly rageful mindset that sees him on the tipping point of total burnout. As well as incorporating a host of Bats’ rogues gallery and the increasingly headstrong Tim Drake as Robin.
Bane’s origin was shown in snippets throughout The Dark Knight Rises, here it takes centre stage for a chunk of the duration in harrowing detail and wholly establishes his vendetta, drive and disdain for Gotham and why his violent liberation of it is needed in his eyes. Azrael (Jean-Paul) of whom most casual viewers may recognise from Batman: Arkham City & Knight will very much become a prominent player in the latter instalments, though his visceral entry scene and subsequent identity/faith crisis and de-programming is an interesting touchstone. Lastly, the film offers up a real sense of vulnerability and pain with Bruce’s interactions with his therapist.
Thankfully the blocky, flat and simplistic animation style that defined the Tommorowverse has been replaced with a gloriously faithful spin on the source material art style. Exaggerated muscles (Bane is terrifyingly sized in this) and costumes, gothic lighting and a real sense of gravitas to some of the shot choices. The action is thrilling and bloody as hell as well: from Azrael’s aforementioned opening scene, which can only be described as if the developers of Mortal Kombat remade the docks/harbour sequence from Batman Begins. Bane’s full blown horror movie origin is gnarly and remorseless, both his clash with Robin and Batman’s encounter with Zsasz is nail-biting, the montage of foe’s being rounded up by the Dark Knight is well put together and of course, the iconic finale spine-cracking brawl hits like a truck.
Anson Mount previously voiced Bats’ in the unfortunately pretty average Injustice adaptation back in 2021, however he fares much better here. His tired, broken, bitter and even more stoic take is a real standout and makes the glimpses of sensitivity even more impactful. The highlight has to be Michael Mando’s interpretation of Bane which is honestly the best the character has been. Mando channels the remorseless psychosis of Vaas (Far Cry 3) but with any semblance of humour scraped off, instead replaced by ice cold focus. It also emphasises how wasted he was in Spider-Man: Brand New Day! Pablo Schreiber nails Jean-Paul’s sense of guilt, confusion and fear, and Jason Flemying (Mad Hatter), David Dastmalchian (The Riddler), Andrew Morgado (Zsasz) and Jack Griffin (Robin) make notable supporting players.
Batman: Knightfall Part 1: Knightfall is a real return to form for DC animation and quickly cements itself as one of the best features they have produced. Its bloody, high-stakes, action packed, faithful visual translation and strong voice cast (particularly Mando) elevate it above a lot of its genre peers. Bring on Part 2 & 3!
'Batman: Knightfall - Part 1: Knightfall' is available now on digital platforms. Find it HERE.
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