This was better than I thought it would be. I wasn't sure I'd like it because I hate the Bane character. I think he's boring. Thankfully, even though this story arc is about his villany, he's not in it as much as I thought he would be. In fact, this is more of a Robin/Jean-Paul story than either a Bruce Wayne or Bane one. So I liked the interesting new direction the Batman comics made in this early 1990s story. I'm looking forward to reading part 2, which has gotten low reviews on here and on Amazon for the same reasons I really liked this volume, oddly enough. Recommended. Love the fact that they reprinted this in full color, which sometimes these comic book companies don't do for these 600+ page reprints.