| Batman: The Long Halloween | |
|---|---|
 First trade paperback of Batman: The Long Halloween | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Limited series |
| Genre | |
| No. of issues | 13 |
| Main character(s) | Batman Jim Gordon Harvey Dent Carmine Falcone Catwoman |
| Creative team | |
| Written by | Jeph Loeb |
| Artist(s) | Tim Sale |
| Letterer(s) | Comicraft Richard Starkings |
| Colorist(s) | Gregory Wright |
| Editor(s) | Archie Goodwin Chuck Kim |
| Collected editions | |
| Trade Paperback | ISBN 1563894696 |
| Hardcover | ISBN 1563894270 |
| Trade Paperback (Titan Books) | ISBN 1840230541 |
| Absolute Edition | ISBN 1401212824 |
| 2011 Trade Paperback | ISBN 1401232590 |
| Noir | ISBN 1401248837 |
| Deluxe Edition | ISBN 1779512694 |
| The Batman Box Set | ISBN 1779514298 |
Batman: The Long Halloween is a 13-issueAmerican comic booklimited series written byJeph Loeb with art byTim Sale. It was originally published byDC Comics in 1996 and 1997.[1] It was the follow-up to threeBatman: Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Specials which were reprinted inBatman: Haunted Knight by the same creative team. The series' success led to Loeb and Sale to reteam for twosequels,Batman: Dark Victory andCatwoman: When in Rome, which are set concurrently. A third sequel, a 10-issue limited series entitledThe Last Halloween, began publication on September 25, 2024.[2]
Set during Batman's early days of crime-fighting, the story follows the Dark Knight as he partners with District AttorneyHarvey Dent and CaptainJames Gordon to uncover the identity of a mysterious killer known as Holiday, who murders people on holidays, one each month. The series is notable for its exploration of the transformation ofGotham City’s criminal underworld from traditional organized crime to the emergence of costumed supervillains, and it serves as an origin story for Two-Face.
Incontinuity terms,The Long Halloween continues the story ofBatman: Year One for the characters of Batman, Gordon, Catwoman, and Falcone, and is considered to replace the earlier effortBatman: Year Two in the character's continuity. It also revolves around the transition of Batman's rogues gallery from average real-world style mobsters to full-fledged supervillains and tells the origin of Two-Face, incorporating elements of the story inBatman: Annual #14.
Critically acclaimed for itsnoir-inspiredstorytelling andcharacter development,The Long Halloween is considered one of the definitive Batman stories. Its influence extends to multiple media adaptations, includingChristopher Nolan’sThe Dark Knight trilogy (2005–2012) andMatt Reeves’The Batman (2022). The story was also adapted intoa two-part animated film released in 2021, which closely follows the narrative and themes of the original comic.
At a wedding in June,Gotham City mob bossCarmine Falcone tries to pressureBruce Wayne to help launder his money, but Bruce refuses. Later, Bruce (asBatman) returns to investigate Falcone's penthouse but findsCatwoman similarly engaged. Batman meets with district attorneyHarvey Dent and police captainJim Gordon. The three agree to a pact to end Falcone's crime reign, bending but never breaking the law to achieve it.
Bruce, on the board of the Gotham City Bank, uses his sway and influence as Batman to oust the current president Richard Daniel and take over to rid the bank of its Falcone money. Under orders from his uncle, Falcone's nephew,Johnny Viti, assassinates Daniel. Viti himself is killed onHalloween by an unknown assailant, leaving behind an untraceable pistol, a nipple from a baby bottle used as a crude silencer, and ajack-o-lantern. Catwoman leads Batman to a warehouse where Falcone has been forced to stash his funds. Batman and Dent set the warehouse on fire to destroy the money. Falcone responds by hiring the Sullivan family, a gang of Irish hitmen led byDonald "Donny Boy" Sullivan, to destroy Dent's home with a bomb, but he and his wifeGilda survive. OnThanksgiving, the hitmen themselves are killed by an unknown agent who leaves the same type of pistol and silencer behind, along with a Thanksgiving decoration. The killer is dubbed “Holiday” by the media.Milos Grapa, Falcone's bodyguard, is killed similarly onChristmas. Holiday is believed to be a rival of the Falcone family.
OnNew Year's Eve, Batman stops theJoker from using deadly laughing gas to kill everyone in Gotham Square. Meanwhile, Dent's corrupt assistant, Vernon Fields, finds evidence supposedly linking Falcone to Wayne. Aboard the Falcone yacht, Falcone's son,Alberto, is killed by Holiday on New Year's Eve. Over the next few months, Holiday's targets change to that of the Maronis, a rival crime gang in Gotham. A war between the Falcones and Maronis breaks out, and Falcone is forced to turn to enlist Gotham's "freaks" (such as theRiddler,Poison Ivy, theScarecrow, andMad Hatter) to hold his ground. Per Falcone's instructions, Poison Ivy ensnares Bruce Wayne onValentine's Day, coercing him into laundering money for Falcone. This unintentionally takes Batman out of the equation. It is not untilSaint Patrick's Day that Selina Kyle figures out what has happened to him and, as Catwoman, frees him from Poison Ivy's clutches. The Riddler becomes the first target to be spared by Holiday onApril Fool's Day, which Batman comes to suspect as being a message from Holiday to Falcone.
Meanwhile, the pistols left behind by Holiday and the bullets gleaned from Holiday's victims are traced to aChinatown neighborhood, but the gunmaker is found dead as Holiday's victim onMother's Day. On the following day, Dent follows up on Vernon's investigation and has Bruce arrested, claiming that as Bruce's fatherThomas Wayne saved Falcone's life after he was shot, that Bruce is loyal to the Falcones. However, Bruce's butler,Alfred, testifies that Thomas Wayne's report never came to light due to police corruption, which helps declare Bruce innocent, especially in light of the murder of the Gotham City coroner onIndependence Day.
Sal Maroni, having been arrested earlier, offers to testify against Falcone after his father is killed onFather's Day. During the trial, he throws a vial of acid—secretly given to him earlier by Vernon—at Dent, disfiguring half of Dent's face. Dent is rushed to a hospital but escapes into the sewers, befriendingSolomon Grundy when he encounters him. Gordon deduces Dent may be Holiday, but Batman refuses to believe it until he can talk to Dent himself.
After Falcone's sister,Carla Viti, is murdered on Falcone's birthday in August, Batman questions Julian Gregory Day, theCalendar Man, on where to find Dent. Day suggests that, since it is Labor Day, Holiday will try to kill Maroni. Batman stages a plan with Gordon to move Maroni, giving Holiday the means and opportunity. During the transfer, Holiday murders Maroni, but Batman – having disguised himself as one of the security guards – takes him down. Holiday is revealed to be Alberto Falcone, son of Carmine Falcone, who had faked his death.
On Halloween, Dent resurfaces asTwo-Face. He releases most of the super-criminals fromArkham Asylum, then seeks out and kills both Carmine Falcone and Vernon, despite Batman's attempts to stop him. Falcone's daughter,Sofia, is also apparently killed in a struggle with Catwoman.
His revenge complete, Two-Face turns himself in to Gordon and Batman but tells them that there were two Holiday killers. Gordon is confused, as Alberto has already confessed to all of the killings. While Batman initially dismisses Two-Face's statement, he points out the fact that Two-Face, having killed Falcone and the last of his collaborators on Halloween, could technically be considered Holiday. While Two-Face is imprisoned at Arkham along with the recaptured criminals, Alberto can delay his execution based on insanity.
Months later, on Christmas Eve, Gilda is packing boxes to leave Gotham but takes one box to her furnace, containing a pistol, a hat, and what appears to be her husband's clothing. As she burns the items, she thinks about how she took it upon herself to start the Holiday killings to try to end Falcone's hold on Gotham and reduce her husband's workload so that they would have time together. She has the wild suspicion that Alberto was lying, instead choosing to believe that Dent himself had taken up the killings on New Year's Eve and that the two were finally working together by sharing secrets. Nevertheless, she is content with Alberto as their scapegoat, knowing the authorities are incapable of finding the other Holiday killer without Dent on their side and states that she still believes her husband can be cured.
The project was sparked when group editorArchie Goodwin approachedJeph Loeb andTim Sale atSan Diego Comic-Con and asked if the two of them wanted to do more Batman work.[3] Jeph Loeb has stated that the genesis of the story was influenced by writerMark Waid, who, when told that Loeb was working on a story set in theYear One continuity, suggested focusing on Harvey Dent's years prior to becoming Two-Face, as that had not been depicted in depth since the originalYear One story.[4][5]
Batman: The Long Halloween has received positive reviews and is praised as one of the definitive Batman stories to date due to Jeph Loeb's involving storyline and Tim Sale's dark, moody art.
Yannick Belzil of The 11th Hour said that "Jeph Loeb has crafted a story that is unique to the characters. It's a complex murder mystery, but it's also a Batman story." Belzil added: "Buoyed by afilm noir-ish plot that features a Gothic twist on the gangster/murder mystery plot, terrific character-based subplots, and beautiful, cinematic art, [The Long Halloween is] an addition to your collection that you won't regret."[6] Hilary Goldstein ofIGN Comics praised Loeb's story as "tight, engrossing, and intelligent writing that never betrays the characters", adding that he "mixes Batman and Bruce Wayne's lives as well as anyone has, and brilliantly demonstrates the bond of brotherhood shared by Batman, Jim Gordon and then District Attorney Harvey Dent."[7]IGN later rankedThe Long Halloween #4 on a list of the 25 best Batmangraphic novels,The Long Halloween has "all the ingredients of a classic Batman story: a mysterious killer, appearances by notable villains, striking visuals, and an imperfect ending." Loeb is credited for makingCalendar Man "interesting and necessary."[8] Similarly, Rhenn Taguiam ofGameRant ranked it as the fourth best Batman story. He praised it for its depiction of Gotham and its exploration of Harvey Dent's transformation into Two-Face, he regarded the story as a quintessential Batman tale.[5]CBR's Guillermo Kurten ranksThe Long Halloween as one of the top Batman miniseries, specifically placing it at number six. He praises it as one of the most influential Batman stories, highlighting its blend ofcrime-noir elements with Batman's role as the "World's Greatest Detective." Kurten commends Tim Sale's atmospheric and stylish artwork, which captures the dark, noir tone of the series.[9]
The influence ofThe Long Halloween storyline can be seen in television adaptations of Batman. In thefourth season ofGotham, several elements from the storyline were adapted, contributing to the show's narrative arc.[10]The Long Halloween significantly influencedChristopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, especiallyThe Dark Knight (2008).[11]The Long Halloween heavily influencedThe Batman (2022), shaping its portrayal of a year-two Batman and the evolution of key characters likeSelina Kyle andOswald Cobblepot.[12] In the 2011 video gameBatman: Arkham City, players can unlock a Catwoman skin based on her appearance inThe Long Halloween.[13] Similarly, the 2013 gameBatman: Arkham Origins offered a pre-order bonus pack that included an optional suit for Batman inspired by his look inThe Long Halloween.[14]
A two-partanimateddirect-to-video film adaptation of the limited series was a released as part of theTomorrowverse film arc.[15] Part One was released on June 27, 2021, and Part Two was released on July 27 the same year. A deluxe edition combining both films was released on September 20, 2022.[16][17]The films star the voice talents ofJensen Ackles as Batman/Bruce Wayne,Josh Duhamel as Harvey Dent,Billy Burke as James Gordon,Titus Welliver as Carmine Falcone,David Dastmalchian as Calendar Man,Troy Baker as Joker,Amy Landecker as Barbara Gordon,Julie Nathanson as Gilda Dent,Jack Quaid as Alberto,Fred Tatasciore as Solomon Grundy,Jim Pirri asSal Maroni,Alastair Duncan as Alfred, andNaya Rivera as Catwoman in her final film role.[18][19]
The acclaimed team of writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale reunited to chronicle a dark year of the Dark Knight's past withBatman: The Long Halloween, a thirteen-part limited series.
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