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Customer Reviews: Average Rating:  Rating :  - A Great, Far-Reaching Mystery From Early In The Batman's Career
Not long after Batman's arrival in Gotham City, he, Captain Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent are making slow progress in cracking the criminal empire of Carmine 'the Roman' Falcone, whose reach extendeds into seemingly every nook of the city from the alleys to the courtrooms and boardrooms. Into this a new player mysteriously enters on Halloween night, an unseen killer who comes to strike on nearly every major holiday, taking out someone else close to the Roman or his empire. The mystery of the identity of this 'Holiday killer', and the events triggered by the killings, are the main focus of The Long Halloween, while subplots involving many of Gotham's most famous denizens are woven in seamlessly.
The Long Halloween, taking a full year of comics time to unfold, occurs in and around other events that took place early in the Dark Knight's career. Suspects and motives for the killings are in plentiful supply, and among the suspects are the three main figures on the side of good, Batman, Gordon, and Dent, who have to entertain the possibility that one of their allies could be the suspect they're all searching for. Adding to the tension of the situation, not all of the murder victims are criminals; being close to Falcone is enough to get you killed, and not all of Falcone's immediate family are members of his 'Roman Empire'. Falcone, his family, associates and rivals are probed in depth here. One of the most interesting things in The Long Halloween is the dicotomy between different aspects of the same person. Carmine Falcone, for example, is both a devoted, generous family man, and a guy who tried to have his nephew assasinated when he thought the nephew was going to testify against him. Falcone's pain at the deaths of his friends and family members over the year is real, but he himself doesn't hesitate to rob others of their lives and family with the activities of his crime empire. In one of the most memorable scenes in a tale full of memorable scenes, the Batman even confronts Falcone with this.
In The Long Halloween, you see the transition from Gotham as a crime-ridden city under the thumb of a traditional mafia-style organization - the Roman's Empire - to the Gotham of 'today': full of monsters, costumed madmen and assorted other 'freaks'. The transition was gradual; Batman didn't just show up into a normal city one day and then the next week busloads of freaks abruptly arrived. Gotham had been 'weird' for a long time (Solomon Grundy, for example, has periodically wreaked carnage in and and around Gotham for years prior to Batman's first appearance) but in The Long Halloween you see the transition accelerating; even the Falcone syndicate is on some level aware that things are irrevocably changing as they find themselves forced to turn to costumed figures such as the Riddler for help in trying to figure out Holiday's identity. There's a fantastic double page shot on Pages 342-343 that illustrates this 'transition' brilliantly.
Writer Jeph Loeb and artists Time Sale are at the top of their games here. Loeb expertly fills in a lot of blanks about the history of Gotham and some of its best characters; Sale's artwork is some of the most distinctive in comics and suits the tale perfectly; Gregory Wright's colors are the perfect complement to Sale's art.
Random pluses and minuses: the way most of the issues reprinted herein (Long Halloween # s 1-13) end on big events or cliffhangers is good, and so is the touching scene just before the end of issue two. Speaking of individual issues, I'm glad they're separated by the cover arts to each issue, instead of gathering the covers at the back; I wish DC would present all their collections this way. One negative is that, in the investigation of the Holiday killings, we see very little of the actual detective work being done, we don't follow with the investigation to see what clues are and aren't left, forensics-wise, for example. If it had been, it could have added to the fun in every whodunit of trying to figure out the killer for oneself. One thing that could be viewed as a negative, but that I don't, is the fact that Batman - a non-superhuman - manages to get the best of Solomon Grundy during their encounter. The reason I don't think this is a negative is this: it's been established that Grundy's temperament and intelligence vary with his different incarnations; it's become just as obvious by now though that his physical parameters vary to a much Greater extent with each incarnation. Presumably, Batman would have been much harder pressed against an incarnation of Grundy that can go blow for blow against Superman. And another great positive - the definitive, detailed origin of one of Batman's greatest enemies, who I'll refrain from naming, is in here.
'The Long Halloween' is essential DC - longtime fans will love how so many different elements and characters come together in a great tale, and for people who've never read a Batman comic in their life this is an excellent place to start - back close to the beginning, with lots of the main characters, and leaving you hungry for more. + See Full Customer Review |  |