Review by Karl Verhoven

The Long Halloween is a Batman classic standing the test of time. While perfectly acceptable and better if read in isolation, follow-up Dark Victory is good without matching the previous quality. Did Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale risk further diminishing returns and possibly reputation by beginning another sequel over twenty years later? Well…

What first has to be addressed is the tragedy at the heart of The Last Halloween. After completing the art for a prologue chapter Sale died, and the choice was made to switch artists with every succeeding chapter. Sale’s was always a strong individual interpretation of Batman and his world, and that applies to each of the chosen artists. However, ultimately as good as they are, and it’s a mouth-watering selection, the lack of consistency affects the story. Some work broadly in Sale’s style by contrasting light and dark, some adorn their pages with design motifs, and sadly some just hint at the artists they were back in the day. Furthermore, there’s been little guidance regarding secondary characters and who shed and gain years at a time. The sample art is from Klaus Janson and Mark Chiarello.

The changing artists might have worked better had this followed the original pattern of concentrating on annual holidays, but Loeb fudges that aspect before pretty well discarding it. Again set relatively early in Batman’s career, but with Robin now his partner, broadly speaking The Last Halloween concerns Gotham’s traditional gangsters afraid their time is up with the arrival of the more colourful and unhinged villains. Loeb starts with the kidnappings of various people and drops plenty of small clever aspects into eleven chapters. Janson’s sample art shows Loeb’s view on the idea of Batman causing crime in Gotham, the way Batman comes back from death’s door is elegant and there’s some dialogue to be appreciated. “The man dressed as a bat” yells a thug, reminding us these are the days before Batman and Gotham are synonymous.

Robin is integrated far better than in Dark Victory, and Loeb enjoys Catwoman’s presence, but the ongoing plot is too easily sucked into Batman taking a tour of Gotham’s villains one after the next, and consequently loses cohesion. Having the viewpoints of alternating narrators isn’t fatal, but it also distils the original vision. The sustaining mystery is who’s using the distinctive gun once owned by serial killer Holiday, with a secondary query being how they can effect almost invisible escapes. The gears grind when some people who should be intimidated by Batman retain their secrets to make him work harder, or recovery from serious injury is almost instant, and Loeb works too hard throwing red herrings into the last chapters, which largely just mark time until the final revelation. And when all is said and done, the motivation for setting everything up is relatively trivial.

If considered on its own merits, this is a passable Batman story. However, it’s inevitable that at some point The Last Halloween will be repackaged alongside Loeb and Sale’s earlier material and it will show a slide from beginning to end.