Batman: The Long Halloween

Comic Info

Batman: The Long Halloween #1

Reprints Batman: The Long Halloween #1-13 (December 1996-December 1997). A new killer has surfaced in Gotham City and is targeting the Maroni family and its associates. The killer has been nicknamed Holiday for his or her attacks on holidays…striking once a month. Now Batman, Gordon, and Harvey Dent are trying to determine who Holiday is and stop the killings…but as Batman faces off against some of his toughest enemies, he begins to question if Holiday could be someone he already knows.

Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale wrote and illustrated Batman: The Long Halloween and it is considered one of the best Batman titles. The story has been collected many times in graphic novel form and with thirteen issues, it is a sizable collection.

I am not a huge fan of Jeph Loeb but this series works for me. The story does travel all over the place, but it also has to be remembered it was written as a monthly serial more than a collection. Each month the mystery of who Holiday was added to so for it to jump from one holiday to the next doesn’t seem as random. The dialogue is pretty minimal, and Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle’s romance is interesting. It seems like Jim Gordon is suppose to be a major player in the story but he really feels sidelined by the Harvey Dent storyline.

Batman: The Long Halloween #7

Sale’s basic, stark illustrations really give the Batman story a classic feel. He does illustrate all the characters very boxy but they have a bit more dimension than Kirby illustrations. The minimal dialogue allows Sale’s art to really take center stage and all the holiday imagery is fun and adds lots of flashes of color.

I do have some issues with the conclusion of Batman: The Long Halloween. ****Spoiler Alert**** I don’t mind the killer revelation…it seems like it is decently plotted out and feasible, but the final revelation about two Holiday killers and who the other killer is seems a bit far fetched. I just don’t see Harvey Dent’s wife resorting to murder to get her husband closer to her and I actually always forget that part of the story until I read it again. It is like in Identity Crisis when we learn Jean Loring killed Sue Dibny and torched the body to cover her crime. It doesn’t make sense and it isn’t very logical.

Despite the questionable ending, Batman: The Long Halloween definitely should be checked out. It is a nice solid Batman story and a kind of fun murder mystery storyline. It has almost all the Batman villains you could want and is a nice origin story for Two-Face. Loeb and Sale followed up Batman: The Long Halloween with Batman: Dark Victory.