Batman: The Long Halloween
Batman: The Long Halloween TPB Art by Tim Sale.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Limited series
Number of issues	13
Main character(s)	Batman Jim Gordon Harvey Dent Carmine "The Roman" Falcone Joker
Creative team
Creator(s)	Jeph Loeb Tim Sale

Batman: The Long Halloween is 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 trade paperback, and as part of the DC Comics Absolute Editions. The series' success led to Loeb and Sale to reteam for the sequel, Batman: Dark Victory, and Catwoman: When in Rome, which parallels the events in Dark Victory.

Taking place during Batman's early days of crime fighting, The Long Halloween tells the story of a mysterious killer named Holiday who murders people 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. The story also ties into the events that transform Harvey Dent into Batman's deadly enemy, Two-Face.^[1]

In continuity terms, The Long Halloween continues the story of Batman: Year One. It also revolves around the transition of Batman's rogues gallery from simple mob goons to full-fledged supervillains. It also tells the origin of Two-Face, adding along to the story in Batman: Annual #14.

The Long Halloween was influenced by film noir and films such as The Godfather.^{[citation needed]} Jeph Loeb has stated that the genesis of the story was influenced by writer Mark Waid, who, when told that Loeb was working on a story set in Year One, suggested focusing on Harvey Dent's years prior to becoming Two-Face, as that had not been depicted in depth since the original Year One story.^[2]

[edit] Plot

Carmine "The Roman" Falcone rules over an intricate crime family which in turn rules over Gotham. However, the Falcone mob is in desperate need of a means to launder their ill-gotten gains, and the Roman sees the Gotham City Bank as a likely source. To that end, he has used his influence on several members of the bank's board of directors, including bank president Richard Daniel, to persuade them to accept his family's business. Carmine takes advantage of the occasion of his nephew's wedding to similarly convince Bruce Wayne, but Bruce is not swayed and does not agree to compromise. Bruce is eager to leave and pursue his regular night activities, until he meets up with Selina Kyle, who convinces him to stay. Meanwhile Harvey Dent, district attorney of Gotham City who is driven to eliminate crime from Gotham, has been in the basement parking garage of the Roman's home, copying down the license plate numbers of various cars. But his actions have not gone unnoticed, and the Roman's goons come and give him a beating, warning him to lay off for his own sake. Luckily, Bruce and Selina soon arrive, on their way home for the evening, and help him to his feet. Harvey brushes himself off and curtly walks away. Although Selina asks Bruce if he has further plans for the evening, Bruce claims he is tired and leaves.

Harvey meets up with Captain Jim Gordon of the Gotham City Police Department later that night and the two discuss possible means of bringing the Roman down, including involving Batman. Similarly, Bruce and Selina meet again in the Roman's penthouse, this time in their costumed guises of Batman and Catwoman. The Roman, furious over this invasion of privacy and at being taunted by his rival Sal Maroni over the break-in, puts a million dollar bounty on their heads. Batman chases Catwoman through the city but she eludes him even as she dodges questions regarding her motivations against the Roman. Batman gives up the chase to answer a Bat-signal sent out by Harvey and Jim, who discuss the strains on their marriages while they await Batman. When he appears, the three discuss the lengths they will go to bring the Roman down. The three enter a pact to bend the rules if necessary but never break them. Batman then disappears into darkness, but he leaves behind the Roman's ledger, an incriminating piece of evidence from the penthouse. Soon, Bruce is in a meeting of the board of Gotham City Bank, protesting the position of the other members in favor of accepting the money. When he proves unable to sway them, Batman pays a visit to Richard Daniel, the bank president, warning him to keep the Falcone money out. Daniel subsequently resigns from his position and Bruce steps in. In August, Falcone orders his nephew Johnny to come home from his honeymoon to take care of the problem. In September, Johnny kills Richard Daniel, gunning him down as he steps out of a theatre.

On the day of Halloween, Johnny Viti is shot twice in the head by an unknown assailant while taking a bath. The perpetrator leaves behind the murder weapon, a .22 caliber pistol with the nipple of a baby bottle used as a crude silencer, as well as a jack-o-lantern. That night Harvey, Batman, and Jim discuss the murder, and Harvey lets it be known that he couldn't care less about the death of a mafia hitman. The three discuss the particulars of the murder and toss about possible suspects, when Batman notices that their conversation is being eavesdropped upon. Catwoman, listening in on their discussion from the rooftop, offers to help Batman hit the Roman where it hurts the most: his money. Catwoman's information leads Batman and Harvey to a warehouse on Gotham Harbor, where they discover that the Roman has stockpiled over twenty million dollars in literally towering stacks of cash. Harvey contemplates stealing some of it, but Batman puts a curb on such thoughts. Instead they together set fire to the warehouse and destroy the money to strike a blow that Falcone cannot ignore. Harvey cheerfully returns home to help his wife Gilda give out candy to trick-or-treaters.

But as he is rummaging through his mail, a bomb hidden inside a package goes off and blows the Dent house sky high, with Harvey and Gilda barely surviving. For months afterward, the killings continue. On New Year's Eve, the scheming Joker intends to release his gas on Gotham Square at midnight, killing the crowd and hopefully Holiday. To that end the Joker has hijacked a plane and killed the flight crew. Batman arrives just as the Joker is taking off and hitches onto the plane. As Batman fights with the Joker in mid-air, Harvey Dent is working late on the Holiday case. Just as he is leaving, his new assistant Vernon comes in with new information on the Roman case. He has searched old police files and discovered a connection between Carmine Falcone and Bruce Wayne. On Carmine's yacht in Gotham Harbor, the Roman is talking with Maroni during the New Year's party Carmine is hosting. Sal says that the Holiday killings have been bad for business and that they should put aside their differences to put an end to it. But Carmine subtly suggests that Maroni might be behind Holiday, using as evidence the fact that the hits have all been on members of the Falcone family. Then while Carmine is talking with Carla, she points out his tendency to surround himself with enemies. Carmine's response implies that she too could be counted among that number. Carla stomps off to go out on deck, just in time to see Alberto fall overboard, shot by Holiday.

Harvey arrives home, apologizing to Gilda for his lateness. She notes his hair is wet despite the fact that he was wearing a hat. Harvey enters the living room to find the Gordons there to celebrate New Year's with them, but Harvey heads off for the kitchen. Jim follows, leaving Gilda and Barbara to discuss the possibility of the Dents having children. Gilda however feels like it's a lost cause, since Harvey is always working. Barbara tells Gilda that business is a taboo subject that evening, but in the kitchen Harvey and Jim are discussing Harvey's recent discovery about Bruce Wayne. Above the city, just as the clock strikes midnight, Batman pummels the Joker and aims the plane toward the harbor. At the last possible moment he grabs the Joker and leaps to the nearby clock atop a skyscraper. The plane harmlessly splashes down into the water and Gotham is saved. The murders continue, and soon it is August 2, Falcone's birthday, and the date on which Maroni is going to trial to testify against Carmine Falcone, but before Harvey can leave home and head for court, Gilda stops him. She is disturbed by something she has found in the basement--a .22, just like one of Holiday’s guns. Harvey claims that it’s simply evidence he brought home from work, curtly ignoring Gilda’s surprise as he goes. Batman has other things on his mind than the trial, namely finding the Riddler, who Holiday let live on April Fool’s Day. Batman tracks him down at a small tavern and challenges his connection to Holiday. Riddler explains that the Roman hired him to find out who Holiday was but kicked him out when the solutions he gave were less than satisfactory. This information leads Batman to posit that maybe Riddler was left alive to spread the word that the Roman was looking for Holiday.

Carmine is similarly being disputed by Carla, who disapproves of the family hiring freaks like Poison Ivy and the Riddler, as they have done of late. Sofia interrupts the argument to lead Carmine away... to a surprise party in his honor. August 2 is the Roman’s birthday, after all. In Sal’s cell before the trial, Jim Gordon pats Maroni down to make sure he’s not carrying any weapons into the courtroom. But Vernon meets Sal at the door of the court to give him stomach medicine for his ulcer. Harvey is optimistic as Sal takes the stand that his testimony will bring organized crime in Gotham to a halt. Once under oath Maroni admits to killing two members of the Gazzo family, a mob operating in Metropolis. When Harvey inquires if the Roman ordered the hit, Sal fakes a coughing fit and reaches for his stomach medicine. It is not medicine but actually acid. Sal hurls it in Harvey’s face and he falls to the floor screaming. Harvey is rushed to the hospital but once there he stabs a doctor and escapes. And Carla Viti, investigating the coroner’s files on the Holiday victims, becomes one herself.

As of Labor Day, Harvey Dent has been missing for a month since last issue’s incident in the courtroom. He has been hiding out in Gotham’s sewers where he crosses paths with Solomon Grundy. At first Grundy attacks him, but when Harvey begins reciting the nursery rhyme from which Grundy received his name, he stops and calms down. Batman and Jim Gordon are baffled by the turn of events that have befallen Harvey. Jim has come to the conclusion, based on his discovery that Harvey possessed a .22, that Harvey is Holiday. Batman refuses to acknowledge it, but Jim needs proof otherwise before he believes Harvey is innocent. Jim needs to hear it from Harvey himself. Batman first searches at Falcone’s penthouse, asking Carmine if he knows where Harvey is. The Roman is enraged at Batman, accusing him of knowing that Dent was Holiday but standing aside while he killed, because criminals were the only victims. Batman departs and seeks out Catwoman, demanding to know why she is so interested in Falcone. As usual she runs away rather than reply. Batman confronts Gilda next about her husband’s whereabouts, inquiring about the .22 they found. Batman tells her that he found gun metal shavings on Harvey’s workbench, as if he had filed away the serial numbers there, but Gilda can provide no explanation. Batman finally ends up at Arkham Asylum, talking to Julian Day, the Calendar Man. Batman tells Day that they know Harvey is Holiday but not how to find him. Julian suggests that, it being a holiday, there is only one option as to the location of Holiday.

That night Jim Gordon, at Batman’s request, moves Sal Maroni to a new cell. Batman advised by the Calendar Man that Maroni is most likely destined to be Holiday’s next victim. Sure enough, the Calendar Man's prediction comes true when Holiday surfaces to shoot Sal twice in the head during the prisoner transfer. Sal’s helmeted guard lunges toward Holiday, who shoots him multiple times in the chest and takes him down. Holiday turns his gun on Jim Gordon, who can only helplessly stare up into the face of the man about to kill him... Alberto Falcone. Sal’s helmeted bodyguard leaps up. It is Batman, who was protected from the .22 bullets by a kevlar vest. Batman pummels Alberto and almost kills him, but Jim stops him. Alberto is placed under arrest and jailed. A few days later Carmine comes to visit his son Alberto in jail and offers his assistance. He tells Alberto that he can get him out if he will plead guilty to Maroni’s murder alone and drop any notion of being “Holiday.”

Alberto spurns Carmine, saying he felt slighted when Carmine sent him to Oxford and kept him out of the family business. He says that Gotham now belongs to the freaks, and he is one of them. On Halloween, Jim and Barbara Gordon go to visit Gilda to check up on how she is managing alone. She is still left wondering where Harvey is and if he is even still alive. Meanwhile, there has been a breakout at Arkham. All of the maniacs have been set free by a solitary figure who, after flipping a coin, decides to leave Calendar Man in his cell. Carmine is furious over Alberto’s unwillingness to accept his help, which has subsequently led to his impending execution for the Holiday murders. As he is ranting in the kitchen to Sofia, the lights cut out suddenly. The two explore the house with their guns drawn, finding guards dead all around. They burst into the Roman’s office to find all of the Arkham escapees there, along with Solomon Grundy, Scarecrow, the Mad Hatter, Penguin, Catwoman, and their mysterious leader, who reveals himself to be Harvey.

Harvey is about to kill Carmine when Batman drops in, taking down the villains one by one under the cover of a smokescreen. The distraction of Batman fighting the villains has allowed Harvey the opportunity to grab Carmine, however, and he faces down Batman with a gun to Carmine’s head. When Batman appeals to Harvey to let Carmine go, Harvey tells him that his name is now Two-Face. Two-Face then flips his coin which lands scarred side up. Evil wins; Two-Face shoots Carmine twice in the head from point blank range. Sofia screams and rushes forward to attack Two-Face, but Catwoman stops her. The two wrestle and fall through a glass window. Outside Catwoman is able to grab onto a ledge, but Sofia plunges to the ground many stories below. Two-Face knocks Batman out and goes to take revenge upon Vernon for his part in Harvey’s disfigurement, giving Maroni the acid after being on the mobster's payroll to pay off his law school loans. Batman finds Vernon’s dead body later and, following the Bat-signal to the police department, then discovers Harvey on the roof ready to turn himself in. Harvey says that justice has been done now that he has killed the Roman. As Gordon slaps the cuffs on Harvey, Two-Face drops one final bombshell as they take him away; he tells them that there were two Holiday killers.

Later Jim and Batman discuss what Harvey might have meant with his final statement, since Alberto has confessed to all the Holiday murders. Batman postulates that, since Harvey killed the Roman on Halloween, he was the second killer. Jim goes home to his wife Barbara and says that he has to keep fighting for the good of Gotham, despite what it has cost. Batman similarly says to himself that he must keep up his work, for the sake of the promise he made to his parents years ago on the night of their deaths. In the extended edition of the story it is revealed that Alberto was able to avoid the gas chamber and was determined insane. Now sharing a cell next to the Calendar Man the two stare at each other constantly saying holidays and stating their criminal names.

On Christmas Eve Gilda is packing up boxes for her move away from Gotham, but before she leaves, she takes a box down the basement furnace. She describes aloud to herself how she read in Harvey’s case files about the removal of the serial numbers of guns and how baby bottle nipples could be used as silencers. She then removes from the box a .22 pistol and drops it into the flames of the heater, along with a familiar-looking hat and coat. And she claims that she took it upon herself to start the Holiday killings, in an attempt to end the Roman’s hold on Gotham and thus lighten Harvey’s caseload so that they could have a child. Her belief is that Harvey took up the killings on New Year’s Eve and that Alberto is lying to the police with his confession. She also says that she knows Harvey will eventually be alright and that they will reconcile, because she believes in him.

[edit] Critical reaction

Critical reaction to The Long Halloween has been mostly positive.

Hilary Goldstein of IGN Comics praised the Jeph Loeb's "tight, engrossing, and intelligent writing that never betrays the characters", adding that Loeb "mixes Batman and Bruce Wayne's lives as well as anyone has, and brilliantly demonstrates the bond of brotherhood shared by Batman, Jim Gordon and then District Attorney Harvey Dent."^[3] Goldstein later ranked The Long Halloween #5 on a list of the 25 best Batman graphic novels.^[4]

Yannick Belzil of The 11th Hour said that "Jeph Loeb has crafted a story that is unique to the characters. It's a complex murder mystery, but its also a Batman story." Belzil added: "Buoyed by a film noir-ish plot that features a Gothic twist on the gangster/murder mystery plot, terrific character-based subplots, and beautiful, cinematic art, [The Long Halloween is] an addition to your collection that you won't regret."^[5]

[edit] Continuity

The Long Halloween begins in June, approximately six months after Batman: Year One, which ended in December. This six-month gap accounts for the fact that the villains in Batman's rogues gallery are already established in The Long Halloween. Several stories take place in between Year One and The Long Halloween, including Batman and the Monster Men, Batman and the Mad Monk, and Batman: The Man Who Laughs, the last of which tells of the first encounter between Batman and the Joker, following up on the events of Year One.

[edit] Identity of Holiday

Since the conclusion of The Long Halloween, the identity of the Holiday Killer has remained a mystery, enough so that neither Jeph Loeb nor Tim Sale will reveal who did it. The mystery stems from Two-Face revealing there were "two Holiday killers", followed by his wife, Gilda, revealing she did the killings as well. Numerous theories have clashed, from Wizard magazine offering their theory that Gilda did it,^[6] to a Long Halloween fansite^[7] suggesting that it was Alberto Falcone who committed the murders.^[8]

[edit] In other media

The Long Halloween was one of three noted comics that influenced the 2005 feature film Batman Begins, the others being Batman: The Man Who Falls and Batman: Year One.^[9] The Dark Knight adapted many elements of this story, such as the decline of the Gotham mob, and the rise in prominence of "freaks" such as the Joker, the Scarecrow and Two-Face, and the "I believe in Harvey Dent" campaign slogan.

[edit] References