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Batman: The Long Halloween (Batman)

by Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale (Illustrator), Gregory Wright (Colors), Richard Starkings (Letters)

4.25 of 5 stars 4.25 · rating details · 25,375 ratings · 739 reviews

"THE LONG HALLOWEEN is more than a comic book. It's an epic tragedy." - Christopher Nolan (director The Dark Knight Rises)Taking place during Batman's early days of crime fighting, this new edition of the classic mystery tells the story of a mysterious killer who murders his prey only on holidays. Working with District Attorney Harvey Dent and Lieutenant James Gordon, Batm...more

Paperback, 376 pages

Published November 1st 1999 by DC Comics (first published November 1st 1997)

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Jan 13, 2013 Ronyell rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Hardcore Batman fans!

Shelves: action-adventure, american-hero-or-heroine, best-books-of-2013, book-series, dc-comics, drama, family-situations, favorites, graphic-novels-comics, modern-age-comics, my-blog-reviews, mystery, read-in-2013, reviewed-books, sexy-bad-boy-hero, strong-hero, young-adult-teen-books, jeph-loeb, books-i-already-own

The Origins of Harvey Dent has begun!

Two Face

Introduction:

Now, I have been reading many Batman comics whose stories dealt with Batman defeating one of his greatest foes, the Joker. But, I had always wanted to read some “Batman” stories that dealt with another one of Batman’s greatest foes, Two-Face! I got interested in Two-Face’s story when I saw one of the episodes on “Batman: The Animated Series” that dealt with the origin tale of Two-Face and I was amazed at how well that episode portrayed the rel...more

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Jan 23, 2013 StoryTellerShannon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novels

This was one of the three Batman comics which influenced the making of the movie BATMAN BEGINS. The sequel to that film THE DARK KNIGHT grabbed heavily from this particular graphic novel. It's something of an early years of Batman's time as he deals mostly with the mob and an avenger named Holiday who kills people during almost any holiday. There are some good connection setups between Batman, Gordon and Dent. Film noirish style as to the murders some would say.

ARTWORK: B; STORY/PLOTTING; B plus...more

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Aug 12, 2008 Andy rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: batman fans

Shelves: comix-novel

Every comic book artist thinks their interpretation of Batman is the best, but most of them are overdrawn. Tim Sale gets it – he’s one of the best Batman artists I’ve seen. I think he captures the insanity of the Mad Hatter and the Scarecrow so well, and his rendering of Batman is one of the best.
I was listening to Amon Tobin’s “Out From Out Where” while reading “The Long Halloween” and the music fit the comic perfectly (especially “The Searchers”). Try it some time: I think Tobin should score...more

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Dec 22, 2012 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, batman

Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale... I swear, these guys should just rent a house in the middle of nowhere together and just produce Graphic Novels!

I had bought the original single issues of Batman: The Long Halloween, but when DC decided to publish them in their Absolute format, I couldn't resist but to double-dip... one of the best purchases I've ever made. This story is worth reading and looking at in the larger hardcover version and it is one of the books I will cherish until they pry it from my dead h...more

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Jan 03, 2013 Zach rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who care about the origin of Two-Face and/or like their detectives in bat ears and a cape

Shelves: comics, batman

Though it obviously wasn't the first comic book I ever read, this was the book that "officially" started me reading comics. As a kid I'd been a big fan of the screen versions of Batman, but the comics I'd read never seemed to capture what I enjoyed about the character: not just the action or the colorful cast of characters, but the potent generic blend of film noir, gothic, and detective/espionage fiction (yes, somehow I'd managed to miss Dark Knight Returns, Year One, The Killing Joke, etc.). I...more Though it obviously wasn't the first comic book I ever read, this was the book that "officially" started me reading comics. As a kid I'd been a big fan of the screen versions of Batman, but the comics I'd read never seemed to capture what I enjoyed about the character: not just the action or the colorful cast of characters, but the potent generic blend of film noir, gothic, and detective/espionage fiction (yes, somehow I'd managed to miss Dark Knight Returns, Year One, The Killing Joke, etc.). I finally read The Long Halloween in 2005, when I heard how influential it was to the then-new (and great) movie Batman Begins. And sure enough, this was everything I liked about Batman, but even better in some ways: it combined the grittiness of the Christopher Nolan interpretation with the more stylized aesthetics of the Tim Burton films and the 1990s animated series in a way that still feels definitive to me, maybe even more so than other canonical Bat-texts like the aforementioned Year One. Reading it again now, its flaws are more evident to me: especially in Jeph Loeb's writing, which occasionally reads as if he's aping Frank Miller aping Mickey Spillane aping Raymond Chandler, with motif-like repeated lines that try to evoke Batman's obsessive inner monologue but end up making him sound like an epic poet with a closed head injury (Hope you like the phrase "Carmine 'The Roman' Falcone. Gotham's untouchable crime lord." Because you'll be reading it at least once per chapter.). These misgivings aside, however, Tim Sale's art is still fantastic, hitting the sweet spot of cartoony gothic noir, and Loeb's narrative forms an essential part of the Batman story: giving us the origin of not only the villain Two-Face (a spoiler only if you've never read a Batman comic or seen The Dark Knight before), but also the shift from Gotham City's dominance by conventional organized criminals to the more familiar, freakish "Rogue's Gallery." I also can't say how nice it is to see a story starring the character who made "Detective Comics" famous that is actually, you know, a detective comic. As for that movie connection, it really is interesting to read this again now that Nolan has concluded his trilogy, as its DNA is evident even in the most recent and least Long Halloween-esque installment (Anne Hathaway's Catwoman, for instance, feels right at home alongside Loeb/Sale's). So yes, this deserves its place in the pantheon of great Bat-texts, even if it lacks the social relevance that makes, say, The Dark Knight Returns of interest to non-devotees. It's strictly a Batman comic about Batman, not about vigilantism or police corruption or urban violence: Loeb uses these ideas as a backdrop, of course, but doesn't have much to say about any of them. But it's also just a fun, pulpy, riveting read, which after reading the doggedly experimental League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier was a nice thing to experience!(less)

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Sep 24, 2012 Callie Rose Tyler rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: comics

One of the greatest things about Batman is his diverse and always colorful cast of villians. Although this story centers around the mob and mob boss "The Roman" Falcone he in no way steals the show. Catwoman is a prominent character with appearances by Solomon Grundy, The Riddler, Joker, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, and the Mad Hatter. Not to mention we get a TWO FACE origin story that unfolds perfectly.

This story is a classic whodunit, or rather whos-doin-it. Serial killer dubbed "holiday" is on the...more

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Feb 21, 2013 Eric rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Graphic novel fans

Recommended to Eric by: Joe Carl

Shelves: graphic-novels

I had never really been a fan of DC comics and frankly never much liked DC's universe of characters, having always gravitated towards Marvel comics. But I loved the movie Batman Begins, and with that in mind, a friend recommended this to me. I gave it a shot and am very glad I did.

This collected graphic novel was a wonderfully told, self-contained tale, and much more reminiscent of Alan Moore graphic novels than of the campy Batman comics I remember as a kid.

The 13-issue comic series featured a...more

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Dec 20, 2008 Joe rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Batman fans

Shelves: graphic, hero-mythos

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 21, 2013 Fintan rated it 3 of 5 stars

I wanted to love this, but just ended up liking it.

The story is the strong part of this series. Set early in Batman's career it shows us his transition from fighting mobsters and organized crime to battling the classic rogues gallery of nutjobs. At its core the main feature villain is Twoface and his origin story. This is handled pretty well, with a couple of new twists and turns to add depth and intrigue to a familiar tale .

One of the big selling points is that it's an epic story featuring as...more

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May 09, 2013 Chance rated it 5 of 5 stars

The author's purpose for writing Batman: The Long Halloween is to entertain the reader. The subject of the book is a mystery that batman and the Gotham City Police Department have to solve with the help of the district attorney. The story follows the point of view of batman that follows him for a year that starts on Halloween and end on its and that's why it is called the long Halloween. The story follows batman which give long and detailed panels of dark and brooding thoughts. The style of the...more The author's purpose for writing Batman: The Long Halloween is to entertain the reader. The subject of the book is a mystery that batman and the Gotham City Police Department have to solve with the help of the district attorney. The story follows the point of view of batman that follows him for a year that starts on Halloween and end on its and that's why it is called the long Halloween. The story follows batman which give long and detailed panels of dark and brooding thoughts. The style of the story is a detective narrative where batman keeps the story going through inner thoughts and insight to keep the reader on track with where the story is going.
The overall theme to the book is really hard to find because they're very undertone and i think there are a few of them and i think the first theme is that everyone is touchable. this theme is really kind of hard to describe but it has to deal with the story which the mystery centers around this Crime boss and his family and rival gang where murders happen on every holiday. Anyway this is important because the Crime boss of the Falcone gang nicknamed "The Roman" is Gotham's most untouchable crime lord and this line is told throughout the book and in the story it shows that he is not as untouchable as he might think because the story centers around him and his family.
the other theme to the story is to always remember family. this theme is probably even more relevant than the other theme because this theme is used throughout the story and is part of the cause of the story and it's mystery without giving away spoilers
As I said before the style of the story is a narrative detective story that follows Batman as he and the police try and solve a series of murders revolving around the Falcone crime family and the crime boss over the course of year starting on Halloween and ending on Halloween. Each chapter follows a different villain and a different holiday each having a murder dealing with the mysterious person only known as holiday.
My overall opinion of the book is that it did its job really well because I was entertain the entire time and throughout the entire book I was always guessing who the killer really was and I almost didn't want it to stop. So the book is very engaging which i really liked about it and I enjoying the pacing in the book it flowed very nice together and didn't feel like its was dragging on and on. I absolutely loved the character devlopment in this the way each person interacted with each other with their own distinct personalities really kept the story going and kept it entertaining. The thing i didn't like about the book was some of the characters because even they were devloped pretty some of them felt like theey didn't need to be in it at all. I liked and didn't like the art most of the time it was good and helped illustrate the narrative and had very good details and paneling but what I didn't like was the sometimes it drew me out of the story such as one of the villains named joker looked to weird at times which is weird you would think that a murdeous clown couldn't be drawn any weirder but in this it just kind of distracted me from the rest of the scene. The one thing I would change about the book is that I'd make it just a bit longer because I didn't want it to end but there are 2 sequels to the books written and drawn by the same team so i will have to pick those up and read them. The book that it seems pretty similar to that i have read recently was The Dark Knight Returns which is another batman graphic novel so there are pretty similar in that sense.
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Apr 09, 2013 Baal Of rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, graphic-novels

This batman story has earned it's place as one of the best along with The Dark Knight Returns and Year One. Contrasting this story with Y: The Last Man, a highly acclaimed comic book series I read earlier in the year will help me explain what I like so much. This book has characters who talk like real people, even the the more fantastic Batman villains like the Scarecrow, and exhibit real human elements while still acting like the classic Batman characters, where Y:TLM has nothing but a bunch of...more

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Mar 15, 2013 Bagus Hendy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novels

BLOOD, Mafia, criminals, trust, and The Dark Knight
this is one of the best Batman's book, why?

the idea of story are so epic, while batman the caped crusader against most powerful mafia powers in gotham. and mysterious murderer case by "holiday" who always taken his victim each major holiday like christmas, labor day, thanksgiving

and now, batman must solve this "holiday" case while the two most powerful mafia-families Maroni and Falcone starts to declare crime-wars in gotham city. batman give hi...more

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Jan 01, 2013 James rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Have to confess that despite being a pretty decent Batman story, this didn't quite live up to its billing for me. I don't know whether it was Tim Sale's artwork (which I won't criticise, there's nothing at all wrong with it, it's just that aesthetically I didn't warm to it), the familiarity (Christopher Nolan has made no secret of the fact that this was one of the pivotal Batman stories that informed his movie trilogy), or perhaps the way that the presence of a significant portion of Batman's to...more

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Dec 02, 2012 Brian rated it 5 of 5 stars

I may be overselling The Long Halloween due to its critical acclaim, but oh well, I really enjoyed this book. Did the fact that Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy had clear elements derived from this book make me like it more? Yeah, I won't pretend otherwise.

Still, I haven't had a good Batman mystery in a long time. The twists about who Holiday really was were well-handled without being too obvious. Also, this book jumps off from Year One which is always a good place to start.

I found myself cont...more

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Oct 18, 2012 Ryan Milbrath rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“I believe in Harvey Dent.” The phrase almost seems iconic now. Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight almost made it a catch-phrase. I know when times seemed tough, I would tell my significant other, “I believe in Harvey Dent.” Nolan didn’t come up with this pearl, though. In fact, the source material creates more layers to this phrase, than the movie ever could. The Long Halloween is considered the fifth best comic series for Batman. It’s a retelling of the fall of Harvey Dent and the Falcone Crime...more “I believe in Harvey Dent.” The phrase almost seems iconic now. Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight almost made it a catch-phrase. I know when times seemed tough, I would tell my significant other, “I believe in Harvey Dent.” Nolan didn’t come up with this pearl, though. In fact, the source material creates more layers to this phrase, than the movie ever could. The Long Halloween is considered the fifth best comic series for Batman. It’s a retelling of the fall of Harvey Dent and the Falcone Crime Family and the rise of Gotham’s “new brand” of psychotic criminals. Batman Annual (vol. 1) #14 was the first to cast Dent as a character tormented by mental instability instilled by his traumatic experiences with his abusive, alcoholic father. Taking up where Batman Year One left off, Jeph Loeb, crafted an origin story for Two-Face that was inspired by this previous work.

What makes Loeb’s work one of the best in the Batman canon, is its roots in Noir. Batman as a hero has always been a detective, albeit a fighting one. The series written in DECTECTIVE COMICS, is a classic piece of Noir. Loeb uses a good, ole fashion, who-dunit mystery to reveal the origin of Two-Face, and the polarizing views of Harvey Dent, Jim Gordon, and Batman. Who is the Holiday Killer? In the end, there are three likely suspects, all sharing a plausible motive. The mystery is vehicle for Loeb. The killing off of the Falcone crime family by a serial killer, the entrance of new, insane criminals, and the creation of Two-Face all herald the new age of Batman, the Batman most people are familiar with, the Batman that battles insane, sadistic criminals, who live more chaos than material satisfaction. Our three heroes represent philosophical stances towards crime: Jim Gordon by the book, within the confines of the law, Batman, vigilante who will not kill to bring justice, and Harvey Dent, later as Two-Face, who wields justice by any means necessary. In the end, Loeb compels the reader to ask themselves, who do they believe in?

The classic story of The Long Halloween, would not be complete without an art direction that supports it. Tim Sale’s art focuses on the Noir theme of the story. He uses dark colors, high degree of shadows, and panels of black and white to emphasize that gritty, detective feel to the work. I think, the artwork is better here, than in the Dark Knight Returns, though both do well with creating classic and enduring images of Batman. Tim Sale makes The Long Halloween live to its potential.

I believe in Harvey Dent. Who knew such a short string of words could mean so much to the Batman Universe?
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Sep 12, 2012 Subroto rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novels-comics

I know supposedly elements of this one inspired Cristopher Nolan. Like the setting of Batman, Gordon, and Harvey Dent talking on the roof of the Gotham City Police Department is taken from this story and used in The Dark Knight, as is Gordon's line "he does that" to Dent when Batman disappears from the conversation in the middle of Dent's sentence, the mountains of cash, the bodyguard's look as a decoy etc etc.

But that said Long Halloween is a good series - no doubt about it ! I can imagine how...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Guitar Chick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow.
I usually consider myself more of a Marvel fan, but this is a complete masterpiece. It blew me away, even though I'm familiar with a lot of the point points from the Batman films Christopher Nolan has recently done.
First of all, the art is beautifully done and easy to understand even if you're not a big graphic novel person (and I've previously only read a few). Even if you're not a big super-hero fan, I'm pretty sure most people can appreciate the art going on in this book.
Another cool thi...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Travis Roberson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Confession time: Throughout all my Batman fandom, I've never read The Long Halloween. And I could write a multitude of paragraphs about it, but it's late and I'll keep it short and sweet. The Long Halloween is the the best Batman story ever.

"Better than Year One!?"

Yep.

"Better than The Dark Knight Returns!?"

Well...I can think of about 20 stories off the top of my head that are better than The Dark Knight Returns, but that's besides the point.

This is the perfect Batman story. It has everything a B...more

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Aug 02, 2012 Jays rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: just-for-the-pictures, orphan-lit, yuletide

I actually read this originally back in the mid 1990s when it was released in comic book form, one issue each month for a year. The good news, more than 10 years later it still holds up.

I think it stays relevant because the story, the hunt for a serial killer called "Holiday" who only kills on, you guessed it, holidays, isn't really the story. Holiday is the macguffin for telling a much more in-depth story about how Gotham City works and how the desire to make big changes all at once can litera...more

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Jul 25, 2012 Phillip rated it 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely essential for fans of Batman. It's the best written story in the Batman canon that was largely the influence for The Dark Knight movie in that its plot revolves around the partnership between Batman, Lieutenant Gordon & D.A. Harvey Dent in taking down the mob led by Carmine Falcone (the mob boss from Batman Begins). Joker does make an appearance, but the main protagonist is a serial killer dubbed Holiday in that his modus operandi is striking on holidays & whose victims are mo...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Grey Liliy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime, detective, comics, classics, mystery, serial-killer, loved

Edition Read: Individual Issues on Comixlogy.

The Team Up of Loeb & Sale in The Long Halloween and Dark Victory is something I've seen referred to as a classic, and amazing reboot of the Batman story. And it is every bit as good as I had heard.

The Long Halloween manages to merge Gotham's Mob life and it's Rogue gallery together into a compelling mystery surrounding the killer Holiday. Everyone from Rogues to Mobsters get their moment in gorgeous artwork and compelling dialogue.

In particular,...more

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Jul 10, 2012 Doug rated it 4 of 5 stars

The summer of 2008 was of course remembered (culturally, anyway) as the time when Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" proved that a film based on a comic book could be every bit the epic it's required to be and still plumb deeply enough to be given Oscar consideration.

A bit closer to home, it was also the summer that I adamantly insisted to each and every one of my friends who cared about such things (rough estimation: zero) that the film's dramatic frission had nothing to do with the Batman...more The summer of 2008 was of course remembered (culturally, anyway) as the time when Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" proved that a film based on a comic book could be every bit the epic it's required to be and still plumb deeply enough to be given Oscar consideration.

A bit closer to home, it was also the summer that I adamantly insisted to each and every one of my friends who cared about such things (rough estimation: zero) that the film's dramatic frission had nothing to do with the Batman-Joker dynamic, despite Heath Ledger's legendary performance. The Joker, as channeled by Ledger, was pure id...and as well-acted as such a thing may be, that's a flight that usually lacks the turbulence that makes good drama.

What caused me to pace my apartment at 3 a.m. after catching a midnight showing of the film was the character of Harvey Dent - a determined, crusading true believer who is ultimately disfigured both inside and out by those very same qualities. Actor Aaron Eckhart never got the credit he deserved for making Dent all too human and all too monstrous, leaving us with what I felt was the film's central gut-punch of a question: Do even the best of us have a tipping point that leads to self-eradication? Is there a sort of death-in-life that can happen when our best is erased by outside forces?

So with the usual hooplah building around the next installment of the film series, and with me harboring doubts Nolan can capture the same thematical undercurrents, I took a flier on the graphic novel that is most responsible for framing the plot of The Dark Knight. It is worth noting that The Joker, as well as other villians, takes on a brief and forgettable role, leaving the comic to do what Nolan knew he couldn't - craft a tale that centers on Dent's rise and fall.

The great thing about good graphic novels is that they can pack some good thematic punch into just a weekend's worth of reading. The Long Halloween succeeds in this, primarily because the team behind it hits all the notes lightly. Supervillains show up just enough to keep things entertaining, and the plot unwinds believably even with the all-important cliffhangers.

Best, Dent is treated as his character deserves, giving us feelings of empathy and concern as the narrative logic leads to the only conclusion that can be possible. The Long Halloween is a quintessential tragedy, a story of a good man with everyday flaws who we know is going to be fed to the meat grinder by the world he lives in.(less)

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Jun 30, 2012 Jennifer Hooker rated it 4 of 5 stars

Anyone who knows me well knows two things about me: 1) I love comics, and 2) I'm really picky when it comes to comics. If the art isn't good, I'll stop reading because to me, the art and words have to tell the story together for me to like it. If the art is too cartoonish or too unrealistic, I won't read it. I know it's a terrible thing to have but if I was accepting of everything I wouldn't have time to eat I'd be reading so often. I read this gn because I have had a long love affair with Bats...more

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May 10, 2012 Tripp added it · review of another edition

Shelves: graphic-fiction, omniscient

As per the blurb, Christopher Nolan and David Goyer, architects of the Dark Knight trilogy of films that is about to conclude this July with The Dark Knight Rises, consider this graphic novel the most important of three comic book influences on their project, the other two being the Batman stories done by Neal Adams and Batman: Year One. For fans, The Long Halloween has been accepted into official Batman continuity as a perpetuation of the story begun in Year One, i.e., a kind of Years Two-Three...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Priya rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you thought you enjoyed "The Dark Knight", then this comic will give you much more entertainment than the movie. The movie itself was inspired by this comic and some of the scenes and lines are directly adapted.

Reading this novel was like watching a Batman movie. Gotham City's growing crime rate and the strain it puts in Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent's personal life is beautifully depicted.

The illustrations were out of the world!! Reading this book is an experience never felt before. This book...more

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Feb 25, 2012 Nenia Campbell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: x-1990s, graphic-novels

Someone is going around committing brutal murders on every holiday - St. Patrick's, New Year's, Christmas - turning Gotham into a year-long horror-fest as everyone from the mob to the Dent-Batman-Gordon triumvirate tries to figure out who's launching their own peculiar brand of rough justice to take out the Falcone family - and perhaps Gotham City, as well. This is a Halloween that is never going to end unless someone can stop the murders - and fast!

I think The Dark Night borrowed a lot from thi...more Someone is going around committing brutal murders on every holiday - St. Patrick's, New Year's, Christmas - turning Gotham into a year-long horror-fest as everyone from the mob to the Dent-Batman-Gordon triumvirate tries to figure out who's launching their own peculiar brand of rough justice to take out the Falcone family - and perhaps Gotham City, as well. This is a Halloween that is never going to end unless someone can stop the murders - and fast!

I think The Dark Night borrowed a lot from this comic in terms of the darkness of the plot and the emphasis on the Falcone mafia. It's a lot like one of those hard-boiled noir crimes from the 1960's where all the detectives are jaded and tough, the women are sexpots who carry knives in their fancy evening bags, and the criminals are homicidal maniacs with a taste for murder and mayhem...or big-time mafiosos that want to turn the city into their own little playground.

Unlike Dark Night, however, I feel that this interpretation of Batman really captures Harvey Dent's downward spiral and ultimate transformation into "Two-Face." Whereas in the movie it seems abrupt and kind of random personality shift (did the acid eat away at his frontal cortex as well as his skin?), here you see glimpses of the corruption wearing away at him from the inside, out; the acid is the catalyst that splits Two-Face from Harvey and gives him a mask to hide behind.

I'm not a graphic novel connoisseur, unlike some, but I loved the way the artist uses color and shadow to set the mood. Without scenery descriptions, it's really important to convey the mood to your audience and he does a really good job. For example, washing out the face to highlight someone's eyes; or depicting the killing scene in black and white and leaving the murder object/clue in color. The aesthetic appeal of the artwork can make or break a graphic novel/manga, and this one was fantastic! The mystery itself was also quite well done. You don't get to find out "who done it" until the end, and there's a twist! I'd definitely recommend this to fans of classic batman; especially people who like both campy old and sinister new. It's a happy medium between the two.

My one complaint is that the villains' respective back stories buy into the whole "crazy people are dangerous" stereotype. I study psychology and find this very upsetting because it adds to the stigma we, as a society, have that prevents people from talking about their illnesses and seeking treatment. One of the villains, for example, is a schizophrenic: schizophrenics are rarely violent, and when they are it's usually because they feel persecuted by their own delusions. Another is an autistic savant - again, autists are rarely violent, unless they feel trapped or cornered. I'd much rather take my chances with a schizophrenic or autistic individual than with someone who has antisocial personality disorder (the latter being people who do not have consciences as we think of them and do kill people).(less)

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Dec 21, 2011 Alex rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novels

This is a great little Batman story that seems to have developed a status as a "classic" over the years that it can't really quite live up to. A wave of murders related to the Falcone family - a big crime syndicate in Gotham whom Harvey Dent is desperate to break - sweeps the city, each happening on a the night of a big holiday festival. Everyone seems to be a suspect from Catwoman, to Bruce Wayne, to Falcone's sister , whilst meanwhile a whole bunch of regular Batman villains turn up in an effo...more This is a great little Batman story that seems to have developed a status as a "classic" over the years that it can't really quite live up to. A wave of murders related to the Falcone family - a big crime syndicate in Gotham whom Harvey Dent is desperate to break - sweeps the city, each happening on a the night of a big holiday festival. Everyone seems to be a suspect from Catwoman, to Bruce Wayne, to Falcone's sister , whilst meanwhile a whole bunch of regular Batman villains turn up in an effort to put their own stamp of mayhem on Gotham (the action takes place just after Frank Miller's Batman: Year One)

Lots happens over the course of the year and during the course of this fairly short novel. It's never dull and it's great to see Batman involved in a bona fide murder/detective mystery that actually seeks to double cross the reader as to the identity and motivations of the killer. The ending, in particular I thought was terrific and wrapped things up more satisfactorily than many similar novels might do, with a reveal of a killer that you didn't expect who had surprising but plausible motivations.

The trouble is, there's too much going on and it's all too rapid fire for it to ever engage as much as it might do. Villains come and go before their presence has even been established and I never quite got a handle on the range of personalities involved with the Falcone gang. On top of all this we've got Batman and Harvey Dent's inner life to worry about and more killings to throw into the mix. It's remarkable that Loeb handles all of the material as well as he does in short comic-book form, but I can't help feeling that this is a story arc that needed 60-70 issues to play across and not just the 13 it got. There's huge potential here and from my recollection of reading it several years ao, Dark Victory handled a similar scenario with a bit more aplomb.

Essential Batman reading material. Relentlessly entertaining but perhaps lacking the depth it might have had.(less)

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Dec 17, 2011 Scott rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a fantastic Batman story, set in the earlier days, shortly after Batman: Year One. I read the 13-issue graphic novel in 2 days. Very engrossing. It cameos a great deal of Batman's archfoes although it is primarily a gangster/detective noir tale. Gordon and pre-Two-Face Harvey Dent get fleshed out in a realistic and engrossing manner, Falcone too (my least favorite part of Batman history).

As for the art, I'm not a huge fan of Tim Sale's mini-chin faces and anatomy renderings but his form...more

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Nov 13, 2011 Tony Goodwyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Do you know what my people call this past year? The Long Halloween... my nephew was the first one to die. On Halloween night. It could have stopped there. But, it didn't. And we both know why. You and the cops just let it continues because he was killing our people. Mia famiglia! And you stand here and act like your hands are clean." -- Carmine Falcone to Batman

In Gotham, several months after the events in Batman: Year One, a killer starts knocking off Falcone family mobsters on specific holida...more "Do you know what my people call this past year? The Long Halloween... my nephew was the first one to die. On Halloween night. It could have stopped there. But, it didn't. And we both know why. You and the cops just let it continues because he was killing our people. Mia famiglia! And you stand here and act like your hands are clean." -- Carmine Falcone to Batman

In Gotham, several months after the events in Batman: Year One, a killer starts knocking off Falcone family mobsters on specific holidays throughout the year, starting on Halloween. He leaves a card and calls himself Holiday. Batman forms an alliance with Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, and occasionally Catwoman, to find and bring Holiday to justice.

Subplots include Batman wondering about Catwoman's loyalties; Harvey Dent's tragic eventual disfigurement and transformation into Two-Face, one of Batman's most dangerous foes; turf wars between the Falcone and Maroni families; and Calendar Man's involvement in trying to catch a killer who, like him, is themed around holidays. Denizens of Batman's rogues gallery make feature appearances, including the Joker, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Riddler, Mad Hatter, and Solomon Grundy.

This was an engrossing read, which kept me interested throughout the entire tale even as various elements were introduced and, at times, seemed to take away from the story. Not the case in hindsight, though without a clear idea of the overall narrative, it was easy to occasionally get confused. It's clear to see where parts of the story influenced Christopher Nolan's Batman movie, particularly those scenes involving Harvey Dent/Two-Face, and they work well both as sequential art and in transfer, with some occasional tweaks, to the medium of film.

The idea that crossing a moral line is very easy to do takes center stage near the end of the story, with two examples. Batman, who barely manages to pull back from the edge upon discovering and confronting Holiday, only seems to do so with the help of Jim Gordon. Two-Face, on the other hand, is alone, and plainly crosses the line in the name of "doing what must be done" after his horrific transformation, killing two people responsible for his turmoil. The message here is clear: be careful not to cross the moral threshold, lest you become the very thing you despise. It is wonderfully set up and built on throughout the story, and the payoff at the climax yields dividends for the reader.

There is also the implication that belief can be a powerful force, be it for either good or ill. At the introduction of the story, when Bruce Wayne, in a scene taken directly from the first Godfather film, tells Carmine Falcone he believes in Gotham City, he is obliquely referencing one of the reasons he fights crime as Batman. The same line is applied to another character (names withheld for spoiler purposes) at the tail end of the story, when someone involved in the Holiday killings cites belief in another character as justification for their involvement. It's a chilling turn of events, which totally took me by surprise, but which also solidifies its impact and ties the threads of the story together nicely.

I read this right before reading Hush, which I didn't realize until afterwards was also written by Jeph Loeb. I have to hand it to the man, he has a talent for weaving a lengthy narrative and keeping it interesting the entire way. He also seems to enjoy spotlighting the villains in the rogues gallery briefly before moving on to the next one!

Artwork in comics tends to be very subjective, and Sale's art works very well with the narrative here, for me. He maintains the iconic look of the characters while leaving just enough room for exaggerations that still support the overall tone of the story (the number and length of teeth the Joker has, the length of Batman's cape in certain shots). Things do seem rather flat and cartoony at times, which is why I'd get sick of looking at it constantly, but it works well with the plot and characterization in the story. It has a very noir feel to it, which is definitely supported by the art style. Wright's use of flat colors can likewise be a bit off-putting at times, but actually help the artwork maintain symbiosis with the story.

Overall, a very good read. The writing is tight, the artwork is pretty good, and both work to make a graphic novel worthy of your time. Highly recommended.(less)

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Oct 05, 2011 Williwaw rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Batman fanatics

Recommended to Williwaw by: Graphic Novel Club

Shelves: comics

The colorist, Gregory Wright deserved more credit. His name should have appeared on the cover, because without his work this book would have suffered. The layouts are great, but the line work is rather crude. Wright's work props everything up and makes the book aesthetically sound.

What a twisted plot! (Maybe too twisted?) Not sure I believed the "revelatory" ending. Did I miss something? How can a mystery be that wrapped up and then get unwrapped again and again? You'll have to read it to see w...more

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About Jeph Loeb

Joseph "Jeph" Loeb III is an Emmy and WGA nominated American film and television writer, producer and award-winning comic book writer. Loeb was a Co-Executive Producer on the NBC hit show Heroes, and formerly a producer/writer on the TV series Smallville and Lost.

A four-time Eisner Award winner and five-time Wizard Fan Awards winner (see below), Loeb's comic book career includes work on many major...more

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