Summary
I’ve read a lot ofBatmancomics over the years, and I’ve helped a lot of friends get into Batman, so I truly believe thatBatman: The Long Halloweenby Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale is one of the best ways to get into the Gotham mythos. While it’s important to read Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s iconicBatman: Year One,The Long Halloweenis required reading right after, and I’ll explain why.
The Long Halloweenis an iconic comic that takes place early in Batman’s career, making it a perfect place to start for new readers. The story follows Batman as he tries to solve the murders committed by the brutal Holiday Killer. This mystery takes Batman an entire year to solve, and it includes a great many of Batman’s supporting characters. It features almost all of his rogues as well as characters like Harvey Dent and James Gordon.
The Long Halloweenis agreat introduction to Batman’s rogues and his supporting cast. The story naturally introduces them, and they all interact just enough to get the gist of who they are without either overpowering the main story or not getting enough page time. It’s a fantastic story, and I’ve used it several times to introduce people to Batman’s greater rogues and how Gotham City evolved over time.
Tim Sale and Jeph Loeb’s Best Batman Story Isn’t The Long Halloween
While The Long Halloween is a defining story for the Dark Knight, the lesser-read Haunted Knight may be the duo’s strongest take on the character.
The Long HalloweenIs the Perfect Introduction to Batman’s Dark World
Batman: The Long Halloweenby Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale, Gregory Wright, and Richard Starkings
Gotham City is full of supervillain criminals — but it wasn’t always this way. I believeThe Long Halloweenis a great start for new readers becauseit actually shows the fall of the organized crime that previously plagued Gotham City. It’s important to show that Batman is actually effective, and he pretty much helped run the mob out of Gotham. This fall from grace eventually gave rise to the supervillains — also referred to as the freaks. It’s the perfect transition between the old crime that was seen inBatman: Year Oneinto the absolute madness that Gotham City eventually becomes.
The Long Halloweenis a great jumping on point as readers can fully see the relationship Batman had with Harvey before he became Two-Face.
I’m always impressed by howThe Long Halloweenhandles certain villains. While many fans are familiar with Harvey Dent and the story of Two-Face, not everyone has seen the actualTwo-Face transformation, which is covered in this story.The Long Halloweenis a great jumping on point, as readers can fully see the relationshipBatman had with Harvey before he became Two-Face, something that is only rarely mentioned in comic books to this day. It’s important to see the actual history of these characters, and I believeTheLong Halloweenpresents this history in a very easily digestible format.
The Long HalloweenAdds a Perfectly Updated Version of Two-Face’s Origin
Readers Can Perfectly See the Tragedy of Harvey Dent’s Fall
Harvey Dent’s transformation into Two-Face was the first time that Batman really lost a friend to villainy.The rise of Two-Face was a major moment in Batman history, and it cements how important of a villain Two-Face is for Batman. While new readers know that Two-Face is a Batman villain, in my experience, very few are aware of the actual friendship the two shared and that they worked together to defeat Gotham’s criminals.
The other thing that makesThe Long Halloweensuch a perfect jumping on point is how it perfectly leads into its sequel,Batman: Dark Victory,also by Loeb and Sale. Batman’s villains are important to him, but his supporting side characters are equally important, if not more so. WhileThe Long Halloweenis a perfect showcase of the fall of the Gotham mob and the rise of the freaks,Dark Victoryperfectly showcases Batman’s most important allies, such as introducing the character ofDick Grayson, who would become Robin.
Again, I’ve met plenty of people who knew Batman had Robins, but the exacthowisn’t always clear to them. I’ve even known people completely unaware that there was more than one Robin, which is somethingDark Victoryhelps clear up.Dark Victoryintroduces the character of Dick Graysonand shows how he first met Bruce Wayne and the tragedy that befell him at Haly’s Circus. It explores Dick’s hatred of Tony Zucco and his quest for revenge for his parents' death, and it ultimately shows how Dickbecomes Robin afterward.
Dark VictoryWill Introduce New Fans to Dick Grayson’s Robin
The Long HalloweenandDark VictoryAre a Crash Course in Batman History
Not only this, butDark Victorycontinues the story fromThe Long Halloweenwith another confrontation between Batman and Two-Face, as well as wrapping up the final parts of the mob still left in Gotham City. It’s a fantastic follow-up that perfectly brings in the final important parts of Batman’s mythos for new fans to catch up on.
I’vealways recommendedLong HalloweenandDark Victoryto new readersbecause of the sheer amount of important subjects that they cover in such a short amount of time. Between the two comics, new readers will seeBatman take on and defeatsome of the biggest mob bosses in Gotham, the fall of Harvey Dent, Batman’s childhood after his parents' death, and the introduction of Dick Grayson. There simply isn’t any other self-contained Batman comic out there that covers all of these important beats this quickly and with such skilled writing and art — at least not any that I’ve seen, and I’ve read a lot of Batman comics.
Loeb and Sale are also known for their beloved Superman series,Superman For All Seasons, which is available now both digitally and in collected editions from DC Comics.
Comic books can be daunting.Batman is a characterwho has existed for nearly a hundred years at this point, and if someone wanted to see the introduction of Dick Grayson, their only other option is the Golden Age, which isn’t even the same Dick Grayson in comics today. The Golden Age has since been relegated to Earth-2, and Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson simply aren’t the same characters who had the same experiences as the characters in the comics today. Because of this,it can be confusing to know exactly how to learn about these characters, but these two comic series perfectly solve that problem.
Variant Cover by Series Artist Eduardo Risso
Comics are a large and complex system. I get that, but there are so many answers to this problem, and I truly believe that these two comics are some of the perfect introductions to the character of Batman and his world — especially consideringLoeb will be returning to the story one last time this fall forBatman: The Long Halloween - The Last Halloweenwith Eduardo Risso, which will feature cover art from the late Sale.
Make no mistake, the iconicBatman: Year Oneshould still be read first, as that comic showcases Batman’s first outing and encounter with the mob, butTheLong HalloweenandDark Victoryshould definitely be followed up next, as together, they introduce a new reader to everything they need to know aboutBatman.
Batman: The Long HalloweenandBatman: Dark Victoryare available now from DC Comics.Batman: The Long Halloween - The Last Halloween#1is available September 25th, 2024 from DC Comics.
September 25th, 2024
Variant Covers:
Eduardo Risso, Jim Lee
Gotham City learns to fear Halloween once more as a terrible event threatens to destroy Jim Gordon’s life and puts Batman and Robin’s teamwork to the test more than ever before. In a city of liars, masked vigilantes, and criminals… can anyone be trusted?
Batman
One of DC’s most iconic heroes, Batman is the vigilante superhero persona of billionaire Bruce Wayne. Forged by tragedy with the death of his parents, Bruce dedicated his life to becoming the world’s leading martial artist, detective, and tactician. Recruiting an entire family of allies and sidekicks, Bruce wages war on evil as the dark knight of his hometown, Gotham City.
