Then along came the animated Batman series. The visual style was totally unique: clean, sharp, and bold. Batman Adventures: Mad Love is an original comics story drawn in the style of the popular animated series. It's even put together by Paul Dini, a major force behind the animated show. This particular story involves Batman's old foe, the Joker, and Joker's cute but deadly sidekick, Harley Quinn. Actor Mark Hamill of Star Wars fame, who plays the voice of the Joker in the animated series, claims that this is one of his all-time favorite comics, calling it "bold, lusty, gleefully demented."

    With his city under siege, Batman pushes his body to the limit as he takes on The Joker, the Mad Hatter, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc, The Riddler and the Scarecrow. But things get much worse when Bane, the man behind all the madness, confronts an exhausted Batman...

    A mass escape from Arkham Asylum and the emergence of Batman's most threatening for, Bane, sends Gotham City spinning into chaos and takes Batman to the limits of human endurance. Graphic novel format.THE BAT IS BROKEN.BANE HAS WON.But for forces of justice will not go quietly into the night. Instead, a successor to the mantle of the Bat must be chosen to carry on Bruce Wayne's war against crime. Who will be the new Dark Knight? Can he succeed where his predecessor failed? Or will Bane's campaign of terror continue unabated, laying waste to Gotham City?The second volume of the epic Knightfall story, this edition contains Batman #498-500, Detective Comics #664-666, Showcase '93 #7-8 and Batman: Shadow of the Bat #16-18.

    Now, another character is added to the Batman family. Only this time, it's a villain. Bane is the sole survivor of the Venom experiments (first revealed in Batman Legends of the Dark Knight (1989-2007) #16-20), an attempt to create drug-enhanced killing machines. As a result of these tests, Bane has spent a lifetime as the toughest inmate in the worst prison on the South American island of Santa Prisca where he acquired his berserk strength, a savage, calculating intellect, and an unparalleled megalomania. He ultimately sets his sights on Gotham City, and goes gunning for the Dark Knight.

    Plus: Blue Devil in "Speak of the Devil" by Gary Cohn, Dan Mishkin, Pete Moriarty & Dan Davis.Cyborg in "A Mind is a Terrible Thing...!" by Len Wein, Phil Jimenez & Al Vey. Front & back covers by Arthur Adams & Terry Austin.