Batman: The Long Halloween
- Dr. Rorschach Hound
- Aug 30, 2012
- 3 min read
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Artist: Tim Sale
A Sensational Batman Murder-Mystery By Jeph Loeb!
Ranking: 5 stars
I was a little skeptical about reading Jeph Loeb's work at first because while many of his works have been praised (BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN, SUPERMAN FOR ALL SEASONS, and SPIDER-MAN: BLUE), I've seen quite a bit of criticism against some of his other works (ULTIMATES 3, ULTIMATUM, and RED HULK), and that got me a little worried about reading his stories. But I had heard that this was considered one of the greatest Batman stories of all time, and the plot sounded really awesome to me so I decided to take the chance with this comic and try it out.
And guess what...
IT WAS A SPECTACULAR, AND THRILLING STORY!!!! JUST AWESOME!!!!
The story takes place six months after BATMAN: YEAR ONE, where Batman forms an alliance with Police Captain James Gordon, and District Attorney Harvey Dent. Their mission is to bring down organized crime in Gotham City for good without breaking the law in anyway. Their main target is Carmine "The Roman" Falcone, a mobster whose crime family has an iron grip on the corrupt city. But apparently Batman and Gotham's finest are not the only ones trying to bring down "The Roman." On Halloween night, Falcone's nephew Johnny Vitti is mysteriously shot by an unknown assassin while taking a bath. The killer left his gun (which had the serial number filed off and the handle tapped), a baby bottle nipple, which he used as a crude silencer, and a jack-o-lantern at the scene of the crime. The killer was later dubbed as "Holiday" by the newspapers, as he killed more of Falcone's men on each holiday and left his weapon and a relic of that holiday at the crime scene. This leads Batman to not only focus on bringing down the mob, but also on stopping Holiday, whose crime spree eventually leads to the downfall of Harvey Dent, and the birth of Two-Face! And the true identity of Holiday will surprise all of you!!!
Jeph Loeb did an amazing job on this! The story is very complex and the mystery of Holiday is set up so well that it gives you a thrilling urge to keep on reading to find out more! The writing is really good as well because it follows almost perfectly with what happened in BATMAN: YEAR ONE and brings back some of the same characters and events from its story (Falcone tried to kill Johnny Vitti for failing to kill Gordon's son, Barbra Gordon is still getting over the fact that her husband cheated on her, and Falcone has the scar on his face from when Catwoman scratched him). Jeph also puts a lot of emotion into events leading to Dent's downfall, sets it up to where all of Batman's foes are represented by their elemental symbols (the usual rouges gallery appearing on particular holidays relating to their characteristics), and makes references to the media by having the Joker recite the Grinch while stealing people's presents on Christmas Eve (just hilarious)! This story makes me want to read more of Jeph Loeb's works like BATMAN HUSH and SPIDER-MAN: BLUE!!!
This book actually inspired Christopher Nolan's THE DARK KNIGHT, and while reading this masterpiece, I saw that many of the themes in this book correlated with the movie (the roof top scene with Batman, Gordon, and Dent, the downfall of the mob, and how Holiday creates anarchy in Gotham City)! That's how great this tale is!!! Jeph Loeb allows us to see Batman's inner thoughts, which not only makes the story flow, but also makes us feel as if we were actually looking into the dark knight's mind. Tim Sale's artwork gives a noir and twenties feel to the story, which perfectly fits in with Batman's early days and the mafia that he is fighting. THE LONG HALLOWEEN has become one of my personal favorites in the Batman mythos, as story starts with an alliance trying to bring good to a corrupted city, and swiftly transforms itself into an engrossing and haunting tragedy when Batman suffers one of the most brutal defeats in his career.
"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."
-Harvey Dent and Batman from THE DARK KNIGHT
