Review by Aaron Cooper

One of the best sagas in recent decades of the Batman mythos has been presented to us by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. For those unfamiliar with these series or the order they were produced in, here’s a bit of a primer:

Haunted Knight collects three Batman Halloween specials from 1993-1995, one-shots from the Legends of the Dark Knight series. While these are not directly related to the series that Loeb and Sale would develop, the foundations of their writing, art, style, direction and characterizations for Batman, his supporting cast and his Rogue’s Gallery are all present. It does read as a prologue of sorts, especially since the stories all tend to take place early in Batman’s career. This is highly recommended reading, especially because a lot of depth goes into the Batman legacy when in the hands of Loeb and Sale.

These specials and subsequent trade paperback paved the way for a 13 issue mini-series entitled The Long Halloween, a murder mystery in which a serial killer strikes every holiday, starting and ending with Halloween. This is quite possibly the best Batman saga of the 1990’s. First off, the team of Loeb and Sale do something most people wouldn’t dare do: develop a direct sequel to events laid out by Frank Miller in the classic Year One story. Secondly, they do it really well, far superior then the Year Two and Year Three storylines given to readers back in the late 80’s. They also throw in a revised origin for Two-Face and start to delineate where Gotham City’s mob element is phased out by the costumed freak phenomenon. Add to that, wonderful characterizations of supporting cast members such as Selina Kyle and James Gordon, something Miller did so well in Year One. The icing on the cake is that they do all of this within the framework of a massive yet still cohesive narrative.

Another important element that must be remembered when enjoying The Long Halloween includes understanding when it was released. While Batman has always endured creative ups and downs, the late 80’s was a major high for the character and his place in the comics market, with such gems as Dark Knight Returns, Year One, Son of the Demon, and The Killing Joke, as well as a critically and commercially successful major motion picture. The 1990’s were a far different story. The comics market in general suffered a near fatal plunge and as comic publishers scrambled to recover, most of the so-called creative ideas caused more damage then good, even for Batman. To actually receive a well written and well drawn series without a lot of gimmicks is a testament to the creative and editorial teams behind this book. A hardcover edition was released, and the trade paperback is still in print. Excellent reading, especially for this time of year and an Absolute Edition has been recently announced.

So successful was The Long Halloween, the team came back for a sequel: Dark Victory. Dark Victory follows the exact same format as Long Halloween. This time, a cop killer known as The Hangman is striking on subsequent holidays, and the origin of Robin comes into play. Now while this may sound like a rehash of what made Long Halloween so spectacular and would creatively suffer from doing so, in fact Dark Victory reads as a direct continuation of its predecessor as if that series never ended. It truly is the next act in a larger narrative, as if Loeb and Sale have great ambitions to rewrite the entire Batman mythos into one long narrative, and quite frankly they just may be the ones that could do it. I found this edition to be just as gripping as Long Halloween, and I’m a pretty jaded individual, especially regarding sequels. This volume was also available as a hardcover, and now softcover trade paperback. Please note: You must read Long Halloween in order to truly understand and appreciate the events of Dark Victory.

Loeb and Sale would return to this narrative they had created with their Catwoman – When in Rome limited series, now also available in hardcover. Taking place during the events of Dark Victory, Selina Kyle and her alter ego of Catwoman travel to Italy to uncover her connection to the mob seen in the preceding two limited series. It truly reads more as the side story it is, so its not as mysterious and strong as either Long Halloween or Dark Victory, but Tim Sale does some nice things with the art that hasn’t been seen before, adding more color and European touches to it and showing how much he’s grown as an artist.

Those are the series to date. Unfortunately with Jeph Loeb’s new deal with Marvel, it may be a while before this team ever returns to this narrative they’ve set up. Until then though, these are some fine volumes that should be in any DC fans collection!