On the next Major Spoilers Podcast, the panel will review Batman: The Long Halloween. Interestingly, Matthew will reference the original issues, Stephen the first softcover trade, and Rodrigo the Absolute edition.
via the Wiki
Taking place during Batman’s early days of crime fighting, this collection tells the story of a mysterious killer who murders his prey only on holidays. Working with District Attorney Harvey Dent and Lieutenant James Gordon, Batman races against the calendar as he tries to discover who Holiday is before he claims his next victim each month. A mystery that has the reader continually guessing the identity of the killer, this story also ties into the events that transform Harvey Dent into Batman’s deadly enemy, Two-Face.
We want you to be part of the show! Post your comments about the Loeb/Sale series below, and they may be included in the show.
5 Comments
Hell yeah, THE LONG HALLOWEEN. Superior to THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS in my opinion, and rivalling the story that inspired it (YEAR ONE) in quality and importance. Loeb & Sale made this the definitive Harvey Dent story and even made the Calendar Man seem interesting, which ranks pretty high on the list of “tough things to do in comics.” Although Loeb went a little over-the-top with the heavy use of dialogue from THE GODFATHER, it works…mostly.
If there are any flaws in the story (from my end anyway) I would probably list them as follows…(SPOILERS for the Philistines who have yet to read this…)
It took me a long time to decide out what Harvey meant by “There were TWO.” If “G” is to be believed, weren’t there THREE? Or was it a straight line from “G” to “A”? I came to assume that Harvey Dent was innocent until he became Two-Face…and I couldn’t figure out (until DARK VICTORY) if Harvey knew exactly who the first was. Since his reaction to Calendar Man in DV indicated that he’d figured it out, I then wondered exactly when Harvey realized who the first one was? It would have to be after he became Two-Face and was able to discuss the subject honestly with himself. Or am I way off?
Also, I just don’t like Tim Sale’s style on the Joker. The impossible grin that seems to regenerate teeth at will just seems out of place in an otherwise more-or-less “real” world. I kind of dislike Sale’s Penguin as well, but it makes a little more sense.
Other than those minor faults…which I overlook and most people don’t care about to begin with…THE LONG HALLOWEEN stands as one of the best Batman stories ever put to paper.
**Although there is one instance in which I absolutely geekgasm over Tim Sale’s Joker…the aftermath of the “telegram” for Bobby Gazzo which shows more in one static panel than many artists can do with two action-filled pages. Awesome panel.
i have to reread it, but since you’re recording tomorow i don’t think i’ll have the time before the show. but i do remember it being one of the greatest batman story i’ve ever read. can’t say better than dark knight return because they are so different. i always loved tim sale artwork and it just shine in this book.
and because of you, i’m gonna go and buy the Absolute edition that i’ve been looking at since its release.
damn you major soilers
Mark almost said it all, yet the thing that made me enjoy LH that much more then a lot of other great Batman stories is…. How the relationship between Dent, Gordon and Batman is fleshed out. Something that i think LH pioneered quite succesfully…Yes sorta done before but not this well.
Just wanted to chip in my two bits. There’s not much to say that Mark and Lifeisaglitch hasn’t said for me. I would like to proffer my opinion that Tim Sale draws some of the best villains around. They seem to ascend out of the ink like creatures from a swamp, with all their little grotesque caricatures and idiosyncrasies that border on the absurd, and yet never cross that line. He treats the more normal figures within his works just as well. The depiction in LH of Bruce Wayne’s physicality was one of the first times I ever realised how imposing his figure would be in real life. My point which I think will cause the most upset however, is that I have never liked sale’s depictions of Batman. He’s too tensed and bulging. He’s like someone grabbed a truckfull of coconuts and squeezed them into a black latex jumpsuit. Sale’s batman is never the cool, patient, in-command figure we see throughout the rest of the dcu; instead he’s this rigidly rippling man with a cartoon shadow for a mask and lips that are always oddly bunched together.