Alright, friends and neighbors! I'm back at an actual keyboard with a real chance to sit down and type this out. Travelling was amazing but coming back to the Midwest was hard. I could feel the cold radiating through the bulkhead of the plane before we even touched down. Like a dummy, I hadn't brought a coat so my shock was even more severe. I got back to the apartment and unpacked, shivering the whole way, I shoved a couple books back onto the shelf. Something there leaped out at me. A comic that reopened the genre for me. That comic?
The Long Halloween.
Written and inked by the highly regarded team of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. Loeb and Sale are renowned for spinning excellent yarns about the Dark Knight, netting them both Eisner Awards in the process. I may be getting a bit ahead of myself here, but I assume if you're reading this blog you have at least a passing familiarity with Batman and his endeavors. Created by Bob Kane, Batman has been an anomaly in the comic industry for his nature of being a non-super hero, a man whose gadgetry and detective skills are more involved in the story than superhuman feats. Possessing a rich and immersive back story to draw on, The Long Halloween tells an epic tale of corruption and human fallibility in the city of Gotham.
Having the origin story exquisitely retold in Frank Millar's Batman: Year One, Loeb and Sale were approached about continuing the world set in motion in Millar's tale of gangsters and corrupt policemen. Year One was a straight-forward, old school retelling of the first year of Batman's first 12 months getting into form, becoming the figure that would stand against evil in Gotham. While the plot resolved in the collected issues there was definitely more story to tell. Mob Bosses left in power and super-criminals on the horizon remained to be taken down by the bat.
Setting this 13-issue arc into motion is the marriage of Johnny Viti, nephew of "The Roman" Carmine Falcon. Asking for for Bruce Wayne's favor on a bank vote, Falcon is rebuked and swears to investigate into the Wayne Foundation and put the screws to Bruce. A burglar on the scene sends the reception into disarray, necessitating Batman's intervention. Meanwhile Harvey Dent, nosy DA that he is, is in the garage taking down license plates on those in attendance for future record. The contrast of the two knights, and the main underlying theme of the book, is apparent here - The Dark Knight, brawling with mobsters in the office upstairs, The White Knight dutifully doing the paperwork in the parking garage and receiving a beating for his work. The disparate methods these two forces of justice approach their work with is a central theme to what unfolds and things quickly spiral out of control. Inspiring a majority of Christopher Nolan's fantastic 2008 take on The Dark Knight, The Long Halloween sets up a pact between Bats, Dent and long suffering Commissioner Gordon in a long-form plan to bring down The Roman and his family.
All sides agree to work within the law, or "bend it" at the most. As I wrote above, however, things quickly go awry and people start turning up dead. First off is Johnny Viti, shot in his bathtub. Next, the Irish gang that attempted to bomb Dent for his noble actions. On New Years, Carmine's son is shot during a party aboard the Roman's yacht. So it goes for a calendar year, an organized, calculated hit on someone involved with the mob on all the major holidays. Suspicions and paranoia run rampant. Accusations are cast. No one feels safe. The first time I read the comic I was genuinely mystified, pouring over the pages trying to suss out the person behind the Holiday Killings. Bats? Dent? Catwoman? Batman works his way through the rogues gallery of usual suspects, apprehending them all and interrogating them for whatever he can get on the matter. Joker, Riddler, Solomon Grundy, The Penguin, Scarecrow - they all make excellent appearances here, in wonderfully fleshed out versions of themselves. It's a thoroughly gripping tale of intrigue and deception, with the ending leaving your head spinning and the reader asking themselves if what they saw was true.
True to form for some of the best Batman stories, it's a full on noir comic. Pistols with serial numbers filed off, heat-waves setting the scene for smokey, booze filled weddings, footprints in the snow from criminals and confrontations in the sewers - it's all here. This hits all the hallmarks for all my favorite scenes for a story. The scenes and dialogue are incredibly dynamic and of the highest quality. The inspiration for The Dark Knight is clear throughout the book - entire scenes have been drawn upon, while motifs are apparent in others. What is essentially a crime story plays out in fantastical fashion, with a pair of twisted and obsessively driven detectives at the center.
I honestly cannot recommend this comic enough. If you've never read a Batman comic it's a great starting point - all the major players are here with a massive yet digestible story at the heart. It's also one of the high water marks, so there are few places to go but down. If you have read anything about Batman - WHY HAVEN'T YOU READ THIS? You should know better. I'm disappointed in you. You should know better.
For reals, yo. Read The Long Halloween. It's amazing.
The Long Halloween.
Written and inked by the highly regarded team of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. Loeb and Sale are renowned for spinning excellent yarns about the Dark Knight, netting them both Eisner Awards in the process. I may be getting a bit ahead of myself here, but I assume if you're reading this blog you have at least a passing familiarity with Batman and his endeavors. Created by Bob Kane, Batman has been an anomaly in the comic industry for his nature of being a non-super hero, a man whose gadgetry and detective skills are more involved in the story than superhuman feats. Possessing a rich and immersive back story to draw on, The Long Halloween tells an epic tale of corruption and human fallibility in the city of Gotham.
Setting this 13-issue arc into motion is the marriage of Johnny Viti, nephew of "The Roman" Carmine Falcon. Asking for for Bruce Wayne's favor on a bank vote, Falcon is rebuked and swears to investigate into the Wayne Foundation and put the screws to Bruce. A burglar on the scene sends the reception into disarray, necessitating Batman's intervention. Meanwhile Harvey Dent, nosy DA that he is, is in the garage taking down license plates on those in attendance for future record. The contrast of the two knights, and the main underlying theme of the book, is apparent here - The Dark Knight, brawling with mobsters in the office upstairs, The White Knight dutifully doing the paperwork in the parking garage and receiving a beating for his work. The disparate methods these two forces of justice approach their work with is a central theme to what unfolds and things quickly spiral out of control. Inspiring a majority of Christopher Nolan's fantastic 2008 take on The Dark Knight, The Long Halloween sets up a pact between Bats, Dent and long suffering Commissioner Gordon in a long-form plan to bring down The Roman and his family.
I honestly cannot recommend this comic enough. If you've never read a Batman comic it's a great starting point - all the major players are here with a massive yet digestible story at the heart. It's also one of the high water marks, so there are few places to go but down. If you have read anything about Batman - WHY HAVEN'T YOU READ THIS? You should know better. I'm disappointed in you. You should know better.
For reals, yo. Read The Long Halloween. It's amazing.
