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Rating:  -
The Long Halloween expands on the origin story created by Frank Miller with Batman: Year One. Gotham City is ruled by mobsters with Carmine Falcone at the head. Batman finds that he can't bring Falcone down on his own but the shaky alliances he formed with Harvey Dent and Lieutenant Gordon in the first book merge to find the three working together to bring down the mob boss. As Falcone's men start getting knocked off systematically on holidays (the mystery killer is subsequently dubbed "Holiday"), Batman, Gordon and Dent scramble to uncover the killer's identity and get as much evidence as possible to incriminate Falcone. The twists and turns through this 13 issue series are classic, iconic, and confusing making rereads not only necessary but exciting as well. The morally ambiguous conclusion and the surprise ending by Jeph Loeb brilliantly recall the mood of such classic films as The Empire Strikes Back and The Usual Suspects; his work here is his best in any medium. Tim Sale's physically intimidating Batman is the perfect blend of seasoned fighter, master detective, and stealthy prowler and the art is consistently beautiful and brooding throughout the series. The Long Halloween is Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's most famous and critically acclaimed book and the brilliant world they create to transition from Miller's Gotham to the classic Gotham that readers are familiar with, by including cameos of some of the pantheon of Batman villains in their "earliest" appearances, is masterful. Anyone looking to read up on the Dark Knight would do well to start with Year One and then pick up this classic tale of crime and mystery in Gotham City.
Rating: -
I came back from a ten year Bat hiatus this time last year after reading an essay on the Dark Knight in my English 101 class. Back then Batman was apart of my daily afterschool TV diet: The character, the stories, the rogues gallery. He was an integral part of my childhood and now as I embark on a second chapter in my life I am thrilled to say that he is still there. After reading up on what was going on during DCs Infinite Crisis/One Year Later, I asked around for what the fans thought was the best, or at least a really good, Batman story. All the answered varied but I did notice a pattern and Long Halloween was one story I decided to risk and tackle.
Best $$$ I ever spent! An intricate tale of whodunit, a wonderful cast of characters and Tim Sale's art, all combine and come together in this work of art that is sure to make the reader have an appreciation for the Dark Knight and forever leave the idea that Batman is for kids/60s camp TV show. This is the Batman you take seriously! Jeph Loeb, a wonderful craftsman on the pen, keeps you guessing and even with all the explanations at the end leaves his audience thinking: "How did he do that?" He showed it here and he showed it in Dark Victory and Hush which I also highly recommend.
The story is about a mysterious murderer nicknamed Holiday who is suspected as being responsible for the murders linked to Carmine "The Roman" Falcone's organized crime and its strangling grip it holds on Gotham City, which we first meet in Frank Miller's Year One. Here we are also introduced to another integral character in Batman's mythos, DA Harvey Dent, whose forboding tendancies become more apparent and are a significant harbinger of things to come. Even I, as a hardcore Joker fanatic, place this a bit higher than Moore's Killing Joke but for now, let's save that for another matter. 13 chapters of suprises will leave you gasping for more as it was difficult for me to put this down the first time I bought it, and it took me three and a half to four hours.
Now some people will complain that Loeb's habit of using villains' for eye candy is excessive and albeit annoying. I would have to disagree. They are the perfect red herring and distraction for the Dark Knight. Joker becoming jealous and going into the crime lord's villa and challenging him was chilling, Ivy's feminine wiles to distract Bruce were well done and Scarecrow and Mad Hatter's Team up was a riot!
Tim Sale's art has been underhanded way too many times. I think he adds an interesting take on the characters and making them his own. I like how he made Selina look. She wasn't a blonde bimbo like how you would normally see her. The black long hair made her look sultry and a bit predatory, which fit like a glove with her characterization. Some people have complained the Joker looked a bit toothy here. Well apparently he did also in Hush. It just adds to his overall psychotic/predatory nature. Sale adds a sort of definition to the women instead of making them look all bulimic a la the Gotham Knights episodes. And for that Long Halloween gets my fifth point.
It's a great buy! If you like detective, film noir, Batman or a combo of all three, well, what are you waiting for!?
Rating:  -
I did not care for this book at all. It's just a very repetitive murder mystery. Each issue/chapter is like this: Batman fights a supervillain (who are all presented in the most one-dimensional way possible here), a mobster gets killed, and various other little bits of plot involving fake mob stuff and red herrings that you know won't actually have anything to do with solving the mystery.
Tim Sale appears to be a pretty good artist, although I think some of his character designs are a little ridiculous, even for a comic book (best example: His Joker that has like 800 teeth). Also, I feel there's just nothing about his art that really connects with me, but maybe that's just me.
This book is supposed to be sort of a sequel to Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's Batman: Year One, which is much better than this. You should get the deluxe edition of Year One and avoid Long Halloween and its follow-up, Dark Victory. Those two books are some of the few comics/graphic novels I have actually sold after buying them. And I actually felt bad for the person I was selling them to.
Rating: -
The Long Halloween is 369 pages of why I love Batman. It starts off on a good premise. Batman is in about as close to a straight up detective role as I've seen him in. The opposition includes gangsters, several of his more psychotic and dememted foes, and even the people he believes in.
The story is very interesting and entertaining but maybe not quite brilliant, similiar to the other Jeph Loeb stories I'm familiar with. The connections with Year One were interesting, however a comparison would be futile, these are two very different stories. The fact that so many villains appear inside of a year is possibly not the most commensense idea ever, but like Loeb's Hush story it's justified if you enjoy the way they handle it and the art.
Tim Sale's art is, in my opinion, incredible. Very unrealistic in many ways, even for the world of comic books, but nonetheless very pleasing to the eye. Certain panels were just gorgeous. I love his interpretations of all of the characters (with the exception of Poison Ivy, which also happened to be my least favorite part in the book story-wise) and his backgrounds were very effective.
If you love Batman, read this book.
Rating: -
While I tend to focus more on Marvel Comics, I vastly like the idea of Batman. The character, the history, and even the rogues' gallery are all very intriguing to me, though I haven't read too many actual Batman comics (so far, most of my knowledge comes from the movies and from friends). The Long Halloween is something that I've been meaning to read for some time now, because it is considered by many to be one of the greatest Batman stories in existence, which is a true honor (from what I've heard, there are some amazing Batman books as well as some that should be burned). At long last, I finally read The Long Halloween, and I couldn't be happier.
Some spoilers to follow
Taking place very early on in Batman's career, The Long Halloween tells the story of a serial killer known as Holiday. Starting on October 31st and ending on the following October 31st, Holiday kills every month on a national holiday, including Thanksgiving, Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, and Independence Day. Most of the targets are associates and family members of Carmine "The Roman" Falcone (introduced in Frank Miller's Batman: Year One). Falcone is the mob boss currently in control of the crime-ridden Gotham City, and it appears that someone is out to end his reign. Batman, Police Captain James Gordan, and District Attorney Harvey Dent have formed an alliance to put an end to Falcone's empire themselves, but Holiday is making things tough for them, because as much as they want Falcone out, they want it done legally.
Furthermore, the emerging supervillains that eventually become Batman's rogues' gallery begin giving Batman some trouble. The Joker claims that Gotham isn't big enough for two psychotic murderers and, in an attempt to kill Holiday, tries to release his toxic gas on a crowded square in the center of downtown Gotham, while Catwoman tends to show up and ruin things for Batman whenever he gets close to Falcone. It doesn't help that Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle (Batman and Catwoman) are in a relationship, and yet neither knows that they are fighting each other when they meet as their alter egos. Even Falcone hires villains like Poison Ivy, the Riddler, and the Scarecrow to get some of his dirty work done. And by the end, Two-Face is born from Harvey Dent, taking Batman's friend away forever.
The Long Halloween serves as the transition of power from the mob goons to the supervillains in Gotham as well as a retelling of Two-Face's origin. It is also a very well-told noir detective story (after all, Batman is the world's greatest detective). Jeph Loeb masterfully tells his story of Dent's descent into madness, the fall of Falcone, and the very gray nature of Batman and Gordan's "victory". The twists are also completely unexpected. Just when you think that you've figured out who Holiday is, the rug is pulled out from under you (I thought I figured it out, and I sort of did, until the final twist is revealed). Furthermore, the art is perfect for the book. When I first picked up The Long Halloween, I was a little put off by the art, but as I started to read the book, I realized that the style of art perfectly fit the story.
This is a must-read for any Batman fan. It is a great story for anyone; no prior knowledge of the characters is required (in fact, it helps set up certain characters' personalities), and it involves nearly every major Batman villain imaginable. Also, this is one of the stories that served as inspiration for the amazing Batman Begins film. Batman doesn't get much better than this.
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