The Long Halloween

[The Dark Knight]

I consider Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale collaborations modern classics: The Long Halloween and Dark Victory. They are both my favourites.

The Long Halloween is a noir, near perfect genre piece that should thrill anyone looking for a Batman thriller. The story has Batman, early in his career, taking on the mob and a serial killer who strikes on holidays. The story is taut through thirteen issues (350+ pages), set from Halloween to Halloween, with poetic pacing and tension found only in top notch graphic novels. Harvey Dent is greatly featured along with a young Jim Gordon. For Batman fans, Dent's presence alone provides an environment of premonition.

The standard rogues gallery weave through the book, including an envious Joker, a cornered, fearful Riddler, and a distant, sensual Poison Ivy. Along with a little more mayhem from the Scarecrow and Mad Hatter. What I appreciated most about these villains, is that they are reduced to their essential symbols, where a gesture or a glance conveys as much as a panel of narrated text. The clues are faultless red herrings in the grand mystery fashion.

Tim Sale's art is compelling. Noir's a difficult effect to convey in comics, and it comes through beautifully in a shadowy, mostly gray and earth tone palette behind strong inking. This cool, hushed ground provides the perfect foil against which to contrast the costumed villains, ratcheting up the tension another mark. This is my favourite Batman artwork by far.

The tone of this story arc is gloomy, without being overbearing. This suits Batman especially well. Batman spends more time trying to work out the identity of Holiday than fighting villains, so you truly get a sense of Batman as a detective. There are however, plenty of chances for Batman to use his muscle.

"I believe in Harvey Dent", is a recurring phrase. It is featured in The Dark Knight, being Harvey Dent?s political campaign slogan. In that film, Dent becomes a murderous vigilante, rather than an outright criminal to emphasize the differences and parallels between him and Batman. This is also keeping with his origin in The Long Halloween, where he only kills criminals after his scarring before allowing Batman to arrest him.

Like I said at the start, this is my personal favourite. I am very excited to hear that Dan DiDio, Senior Vice President / Executive Editor at DC, has said there is a possibility for an animated adaptation as part of the DCU Animated movies.

If you have yet to read it, I recommend this for all Batman fans and is a must have. I will cover the sequel, Dark Victory, at a later date.

[BatmanForever]

TIm Sale is a legend, he has a great style of art

[The Dark Knight]

Indeed. This art is also evident in 'Haunted Knight', another Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale collaboration.

[thecolorsblend]

I enjoyed it right up until the very last page or two, at which time Loeb seems to intentionally derail everything in regards to Holiday's true identity.  In my opinion, whodunnits are only effective insofar as they provide solid answers (means, motive, opportunity and a genuine unmasking of the villain) while providing decent clues to the killer's identity through out.

TLH is a good story but it fails on those counts.  I could overlook the dearth of clues (really, it could've been any of the supporting cast) but the murkiness behind Holiday's identity drags the story down for me.

[The Dark Knight]

I enjoyed it right up until the very last page or two, at which time Loeb seems to intentionally derail everything in regards to Holiday's true identity.  In my opinion, whodunnits are only effective insofar as they provide solid answers (means, motive, opportunity and a genuine unmasking of the villain) while providing decent clues to the killer's identity through out.

TLH is a good story but it fails on those counts.  I could overlook the dearth of clues (really, it could've been any of the supporting cast) but the murkiness behind Holiday's identity drags the story down for me.

The complete opposite for me.

At the end of the story, Harvey turns himself in to Gordon and tells him and Batman that there were two Holiday killers. Batman ignores it and explains it away to Harvey?s madness in a weak explanation. So, even after all hell breaks loose with Harvey, Batman still refuses to allow himself to see Harvey as a killer.

It is distinctive because it keeps the reader guessing, particularly with the surprise of Gilda being the first holiday killer. As a reader, I read it eager that Harvey would be not guilty. I deduce I thought in some way I could disconnect Harvey from Two Face, and believe that Harvey was a proper hero that would certainly not take the law into his own hands.

Only after the transformation would Harvey become evil. This, though, is not realistic, and Loeb does a wonderful job of acknowledging both the audience?s tendency to believe in Harvey Dent, and the truth that Harvey?s character is seriously flawed from the beginning and the acid incident only sends him over the edge, unleashing years of psychological torment.

This final twist making the resolution of the novel unclear, readers are left with the burning question: Who was Holiday? The Long Halloween sparks debate even today, years after its initial release, due in no small part to its great ending.

[thecolorsblend]

This final twist making the resolution of the novel unclear, readers are left with the burning question: Who was Holiday? The Long Halloween sparks debate even today, years after its initial release, due in no small part to its great ending.

In other words, by ending with a murky, non-conclusion, it does the very thing that a whodunnit should never do.

[The Dark Knight]

It could have been revealed, and that's that. End of story.

Does this way, it keeps the novel alive with speculation, so that it never truly dies. Everybody is naturally going to have their own interpretation to Holiday is, etc.

[riddler]

which villains are in this novel?

[Gotham Knight]

which villains are in this novel?

Lot's actually. From memory (I won't go digging it out of my bookcase), minor appearances include The Joker, Penguin, Solomon Grundy, Calender Man, Posion Ivy, the Riddler, Mad Hatter, Scarecrow, and Catwoman. Many of these factor into so certain holidays. The major baddies would be Two-Face and the 'Holiday" Killer, which I won't spoil for you.

[greggbray]

I recently re-read TLH and the Haunted Knight collection.

In a strange way I find these comics to feel like a blend of the Nolan/Burton films (yes, I know Nolan cites TLH and BYO as his chief influences for the first two films, etc.).  The scripting reads like a Nolan story had Nolan allowed the more fantastical elements in there to play, while having a visual style that somehow felt like it could easily be referencing the Batman Returns world of story. 

In any event, I love these stories.  I don't find the ending of TLH all that ambiguous.  My interpretation: the killers were The Dents.  Alberto killed one person, and claimed to be Holiday for attention, etc., but ultimately wasn't really anything more than a red herring. 

As I mentioned in another thread, I find the story of Harvey Dent's transformation into Two-Face to be one of the more intriguing and dramatic stories in all of the DC Universe.  I felt it was handled quite well in both TLH and in The Dark Knight film.

The Haunted Knight collection is also a gorgeous work. The villains truly mirror an aspect of Batman, or bring up a painful association for him as he does battle.  This use of the villain as a means to better explore the protagonist is one of the Bat-verse's strongest assets, and something that Burton did quite well in his two films, and Nolan did quite well in TDK.  Loeb really sells it here, and I hope when the reboot occurs the filmmakers pay attention to this.

On top of all that, they're cracking good mysteries.  While there are many tastes and preferences for how Batman should be portrayed, the one I return to often is that of the World's Greatest Detective.  The more of that, the better. I'm going to re-read Dark Victory.  If memory serves the material with Robin is greatly enjoyable, while the mystery itself wasn't quite as strong.