Jeph Loeb's writing is keenly aware that Batman is a detective, and Tim Sale portrays a Gotham that is a fertile breeding ground for corruption and madness. Here, Batman is coming to terms with the potent image he projects and the madness it attracts. There are many fine Batman stories, but the ones that capture the spirit with extreme clarity are few. On this alone, The Long Halloween comes highly recommended. Masterfully executed, this is an excellent chance to revisit the world of Batman as fresh as in the summer of 1939. --Danny Graydon

Product Description
It's refreshing when you find a Batman story that both is epic and successfully explores the core of a resolutely explored character. Taking as its catalyst a sub-plot from the seminal Batman: Year One, the story revolves around murders occurring on national holidays, the victims connected to Mob boss "The Roman." Dubbed "Holiday," the killer uses an untraceable handgun and leaves small trinkets at the scene. Plenty of suspects are available, but the truth is something the Dark Knight never suspected. This series scores two major coups: it brilliantly portrays the transfer of Gotham rule to the supervillains and charts the horrific transformation of Harvey Dent from hardened D.A. to the psychotic Two-Face. Both orbit around the sharply portrayed relationship between Dent, Commissioner Gordon, and Batman: a triumvirate of radically different perceptions of Justice. It is always great to see the formative incarnation of Batman, drenched in noir here.Jeph Loeb's writing is keenly aware that Batman is a detective, and Tim Sale portrays a Gotham that is a fertile breeding ground for corruption and madness. Here, Batman is coming to terms with the potent image he projects and the madness it attracts. There are many fine Batman stories, but the ones that capture the spirit with extreme clarity are few. On this alone, The Long Halloween comes highly recommended. Masterfully executed, this is an excellent chance to revisit the world of Batman as fresh as in the summer of 1939. --Danny Graydon

The usual rogue's gallery weaves through the book, including a jealous Joker, out to outdo the serial killer, a cornered, yet elegantly neurotic Riddler, and a wildly abstracted, sensual Poison Ivy, along with a little more mind-altering mayhem from the Scarecrow and Mad Hatter.

What I appreciated most about Jeph [sic!] Loeb's telling is that the criminals are reduced to their elemental symbols, where a gesture or a glance conveys as much as a panel of narrated text. The clues are perfect red herrings in the grand whodunit fashion. Fans of Batman know bad things are going to happen when a stranger passes a rose to a character who then pricks their finger on its thorns. Similarly, even a hardened Gotham detective shudders upon seeing a murder victim with a smile on his face. My only misgiving about this book is that if a reader wasn't acquainted with Batman and the usual Arkham cast, the subtletly of this telling will almost certainly be missed. On the other hand, this'll be a great place to start an education.

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, muted ground provides the perfect foil against which to contrast the costumed villains, ratcheting up the tension another notch.


Batman the Early Year   January 7, 2007
 40 out of 48 found this review helpful

The Long Halloween was Jeph Loeb's tout de force on Batman. It is recounted in 13 chapters (which is how the tale was originally told 13 issues). This and Frank Miller Batman: Year one should be read together.

Loeb's take on the early Bat legend is classic. A one man, no power superhero who uses his brain. It is also a crime drama of a mafia family bring murder with Bat's rogue gallery thrown it for measure

So is it worth it to get? YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT!

Bennet Pomerantz, AUDIOWORLD


Not bad, not great   December 9, 2005
 32 out of 53 found this review helpful

I finally got around to reading this one, having long heard it touted as a worthy follow-up to Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's stunning masterpiece, _Batman: Year One_.

It's a follow-up, all right, but I'm not persuaded that it's a completely worthy one. Jeph Loeb gets some of it right, but he fritters away Batman's second year in business with quite a bit of silliness. Are we, for example, to believe that Batman encountered this much of his "rogue's gallery" during this one case? The only one that gets any real "screen time" is Catwoman, and she's well handled for the most part. But the rest are just trivialized away. And was Batman out of commission for the entire time he was under Poison Ivy's influence? If not, what did he do during that time?

I'm also not a huge fan of Tim Sale's art. Some of the panels are very nicely rendered, but what's up with e.g. the Joker and his eighty-eight five-inch teeth?

What made Miller and Mazzuchelli's masterpiece work was its utterly consistent aura of gritty realism. Loeb and Sale have pushed Batman back in a more "cartoony" direction -- with a somewhat noir-Gothic edge, but without the crisp, economical storytelling that made its predecessor such a resounding success and certainly without the same earthy approach to Batman's origins and capabilities.

To make matters worse, the world's greatest detective doesn't even successfully _solve_ the mystery at hand. Despite the good-on-the-whole handling of Harvey Dent's transformation into Two-Face, the central story -- the mystery itself -- is bungled by both Batman and the author, who hands the reader (and not Batman!) a totally gratuitous "surprise" payoff with essentially no basis in the storyline to that point.

It's pretty good on the whole, but it's far from great. I'll follow up by reading _Dark Victory_ and _Haunted Knight_ just to see whether they improved. But I don't like this stuff anywhere near as well as I liked Denny O'Neil's 1970s-era Batman, let alone Miller's brilliant work.

By the way, _Batman Begins_ fans will also want to read this as one of the sources Christopher Nolan and David Goyer consulted for their excellent screenplay. Just don't expect this to be of the same quality as the movie.


Incredible Story with Compelling Art   July 18, 2000
 20 out of 25 found this review helpful

People always ask themselves the question what is it about the Dark Knight that makes him one of the most enduring and popular characters of our time? This wonderfully scripted trade paperback edition of the Long Halloween points to the answer. The book delves deeply into the criminal elemant of Gotham and bring out the best of Batman, who you see very little of when it come to the action scenes, but a lot of in scenes depicting conversation. The mood is very dark in this comic and reminisces the first Batman movie by Tim Burton. Batman sticks to the shadows and you just can't help but feel intimidated when he slowly walks out. The element of fear has always been the Bat's strongest features and this book really shines through when it comes to that. The coloring by Gregory Wright suits the mood so well that yopu feel as if you're that third person looking at things from behind a lens. Tim Sale is without a doubt one of the most promising talents out there. His soft, smooth approach to the characters makes better than the detailed, cartoony features that have become the norm in this day and age. Jeph Loeb scripts one of his best stories in there and you can interact with the characters and understant their expectations and wants. The story is suspenseful, thrilling with action in just the right places. Loeb brings out half of Batman's rogue gallery and portrays them right without them overstaying their welcome through and through.

If you're a fan of Batman, his first movie and the Godfather all put into one, you'll never put this book down (I read it continuously without a break). If you're just a Batman fan, then You'll be seeing the character written at his best.


A great book!   November 30, 2003
 16 out of 20 found this review helpful

The Falcone crime family has been used to running Gotham City for a long time, but they now find themselves in a state of siege. Somebody is killing Falcone operatives, a murderer who kills on holidays, the Holiday Killer. District Attorney Harvey Dent wants Falcone's power broken, Salvatore Maroni wants his syndicate to move from number two to number one, a number of super-villains have been broken out of Arkham Asylum, and Catwoman is running her own game. Batman wants the Holiday Killer, but there are too many suspects. This is going to take some real work to unravel!

This is a great graphic novel! I found the story to be gripping, and thought that the characters are quite interesting. The "normal" characters are well done, and the super-villains (Joker, Riddler, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Mad Hatter, Solomon Grundy, and (introducing) Two-Face) are used excellently, with Catwoman being quite fascinating. This is a great book, with a great story and excellent illustrations. I highly recommend this book to all Batman fans!