Batman: The Long Halloween

Batman: The Long Halloween
Batman: The Long Halloween TPB Art by Tim Sale.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
Schedule	monthly
Format	limited series
No. of issues	thirteen
Main character(s)	Batman Jim Gordon Harvey Dent Carmine Falcone
Creative team
Created by	Jeph Loeb Tim Sale

Batman: The Long Halloween was a 13-issue comic book limited series written by Jeph Loeb with art by Tim Sale. It was originally published by DC Comics in 1996 and 1997.

It was inspired by the three Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Specials by the same creative team.

The entire series has been collected in both a hardcover and trade paperback book form. Loeb and Sale have also created two sequel limited series, Batman: Dark Victory and Catwoman: When in Rome.

The Long Halloween, along with Batman: The Man Who Falls, Batman: Year One, and various comics from the 1970s, all served as inspiration for the 2005 film release Batman Begins, as well as the upcoming sequel, The Dark Knight. It is also a personal favorite of current Batman star Christian Bale.[1] Dan DiDio has said there is a possibility for an animated adaptation during a Q and A at Wondercon.

"I believe in Harvey Dent", a recurring phrase from the comic, is currently being used in a viral marketing campaign for The Dark Knight film.

Plot overview

The Long Halloween is heavily influenced by film noir and films such as The Godfather. The series continues the story of Carmine Falcone introduced in Frank Miller's Batman: Year One. Set early in Batman's career a few months after the events of Year One, the story revolves around the gradual transition of Batman's rogues' gallery from simple mob goons to full-fledged supervillains. It is also the origin of Two-Face, adding along to the story in Batman: Annual 14. It follows the events in a few months following Year One and examines an entire year of Batman's career as a crime fighter, so it could be considered a "Year Two"/"Year Three", in some form. This story has been accepted into continuity after Zero Hour erased the events of Batman: Year Two from the canon. The plot follows Batman's struggle to find a mysterious killer, while Harvey Dent's and Jim Gordon's marriages are strained during the process. As the story unfolds, Carmine Falcone hires "freaks" (Poison Ivy, the Riddler, the Scarecrow, and the Mad Hatter) in an attempt to stop the Batman and restore power back to the family, only to discover that the freaks are more powerful than he expected.

Story summary

As Batman, Captain Jim Gordon, and District Attorney Harvey Dent collaborate to legally bring down Carmine Falcone, a series of mob-related murders begins. The mystery villain (eventually nicknamed Holiday) is killing mafia members affiliated with Falcone on holidays, leaving behind related tokens as a calling card, as well as the murder weapon: a .22 caliber pistol with a baby bottle nipple for a silencer.

Valid clues are few and far between, as the killings appear to be the work of a professional. Batman and Gordon turn to another holiday-themed criminal, the incarcerated Calendar Man, for insight. The evidence and rumors eventually pile up against Harvey Dent himself, who faces mounting stress at home with his troubled wife Gilda, and in his professional life. Gilda just wants to settle down and have a child with him, but Harvey is determined to solve the mystery of the Holiday Killer before taking a rest. At the same time, Bruce Wayne attempts to have a relationship with Selina Kyle, whom he does not yet realize is also the anti-hero/thief Catwoman. His dual identity is a major obstacle to any kind of romantic happiness with her.

Carmine Falcone, aware that his empire is no longer as untouchable as it once was, begins employing supervillains (referred to by nearly every other character as 'freaks') in his war against Batman. Poison Ivy is hired at one point to sway Bruce Wayne into green-lighting Falcone's attempt to launder money through the First Bank of Gotham; a move that Wayne was firmly against. The Riddler is asked to find the identity of Holiday, and Falcone also hires Scarecrow and the Mad Hatter to rob the City Depository.

As the Holiday killings continue; outrage grows on the parts of our heroes, the mafia, even the Joker who resents sharing the limelight. Batman ends up foiling the Joker's plot to spray Gotham with Joker gas at 12:00 on New Year's Day, after an intense fight with the Joker in his poison gas-equipped airplane. Falcone is devastated when his own son, the estranged Harvard-educated Alberto, is murdered on New Year's Eve and his body is lost in Gotham River. Harvey faces suspicion from all sides as the lead suspect in the Holiday murders. He continues mounting an offense on the Roman.

At one point in the story, Dent finds some evidence linking Bruce Wayne to Falcone. Gordon seeks him out and finds him at Crime Alley, laying a rose at the spot of his parents' murder. Still infected with fear toxins from the Scarecrow, Bruce sees Gordon as a hallucination version of Joe Chill. He runs to his parents' grave in a frenzied stupor, while the cops move in to conduct a full-man assault. Gordon manages to talk Bruce into coming for questioning, without making an arrest. While under questioning at the police headquarters, Bruce recalls his father Thomas Wayne conducting an emergency surgery on a younger Carmine Falcone, at the urging of his father Vincent. Falcone had been wounded by Luigi "Big Lou" Maroni in a gangfight, and Vincent did not want to take his son to hospital, for fear of publicity. After saving his life, Thomas was offered, but refused, a reward or favor from the mob boss. Young Bruce witnessed this all in silence, and years later, he realized that his father had made things the way they were by letting the mobster live. Alfred Pennyworth makes it clear to Dent that neither Bruce nor his father had anything to do with the mafia, and Bruce is cleared from any wrongdoing. Frustrated, Dent is left feeling bitter about being cheated out of yet another chance to bring down the "Roman," and he confesses to Gilda that he feels he had bad luck, while flipping a coin given to him by his alcoholic, hospitalized father.

Sal Maroni, a major competitor of Falcone's criminal empire, agrees to testify against Falcone in exchange for leniency, after watching his father "Big Lou" and a number of his bodyguards get killed by Holiday. Vernon Field, Dent's bookish, nerdy assistant, is bribed by Maroni's men and agrees to deliver something to Maroni in court. Maroni's day in court arrives (coincidentally August 2, on Falcone's birthday), and he splashes Vernon's acid in Dent's face in revenge for his father, still assuming Dent was Holiday. Dent's face is scarred down the left side, and his mind cracks in two. Later that night, Dent escapes from the hospital into the sewers, where he befriends Solomon Grundy.

While healing from three gunshots he received in police custody, Maroni is murdered by Alberto Falcone, as he is transported to another holding cell by Jim Gordon. Alberto reveals himself to be Holiday; he faked his own death and had been working on his father's behalf ever since. Batman is already present, disguised as a SWAT officer, and beats Alberto within an inch of his life before Gordon arrests the Holiday killer. In custody, Alberto reveals his motives for the murders; his birthday was Valentine's Day, and his father was always too busy to spend time with him. The Holiday murders were Alberto's way of 'making time' for his father and to gain acceptance into the family. Before the end of the series, Alberto is sentenced to the gas chamber. Unused pages seen in the TPB of The Long Halloween show Alberto in Arkham asylum, having been deemed insane by the courts, but these pages weren't used due to space constraints. They were instead shown in the follow-up sequel: Batman: Dark Victory and re-inserted in the Absolute edition of the Long Halloween.

In the Halloween climax, Falcone is accosted in his home by the entire Rogues Gallery of villains, including the Joker, Catwoman, Solomon Grundy, Poison Ivy, the Mad Hatter, Scarecrow, and the Penguin (making his first and only appearance in The Long Halloween). The group is led by none other than Two-Face, formerly Harvey Dent. Batman arrives on the scene and dispatches all but Catwoman and Two-Face. Harvey murders Falcone, Holiday-style, in front of his mobster daughter Sofia Falcone Gigante. She is enraged and attempts to attack, but gets tangled up with Catwoman and ends up throwing Catwoman and herself out a window. Catwoman survives unscratched, but Sofia is not so lucky (she returns in Batman: Dark Victory and figures prominently).

Two-Face surrenders, having done what he intended to do (he killed Vernon in revenge earlier that same night). Before being sent to Arkham, he cryptically tells Gordon and Batman that there were two Holiday Killers. They infer that he meant himself, having killed Falcone on Halloween. Batman and Gordon accept that their friendship has changed, but they still have work to do.

In the coda, Gilda Dent is planning to leave Gotham City forever. In the final revelation of the series, she explains to an unpresent Harvey that she was the first Holiday Killer. She also explains her reasons for becoming the Holiday Killer - she wanted to free Gotham City of its criminal menaces, so that her dedicated husband could spend more time with his family. She also theorizes that Harvey himself took the same path for similar reasons. She used his files as District Attorney to learn what she needed to know, and was unaccounted for at the time of the murders, adding that without Harvey's help, Batman will never discover the true nature of the murders. She hints that when Alberto faked his own death on New Year's Eve, she simply let him take over and had nothing further to do with the killings, although that is unclear. She opens up the furnace door and disposes of the incriminating trenchcoat, fedora, and last .22 pistol.