This list will actually include more than ten entries, as many of them can be grouped into two-for-one specials. The first such pairing is the Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale mystery The Long Halloween and its direct sequel Dark Victory; both books appear in McKenzies pile of homework, and the influence of both, even at this early stage, is fairly apparent. Christopher Nolan colored his Gotham with a rich underground populated by the likes of Carmine Falcone and Sal Maroni, and Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale were rightfully credited by Nolan and David S. Goyer as the source of characters such as these. The Gotham underground has appeared elsewhere, of course, but perhaps never so vibrantly as in The Long Halloween; Dark Victory continued that trend, and is an excellent book, but The Long Halloween deserves most of the laudation here. The news that Jada Pinkett Smith will be portraying gangster Fish Mooney a character never before seen in Batman comics means that the Gotham series will be creating new characters. Sure, the likes of Maroni and Falcone may show up someday, as the villains of Gotham age and Bruce gets closer and closer to the mantle of the Bat. But even if they dont appear in the flesh, their characterizations in The Long Halloween and Dark Victory can provide strong frames for Fish Mooney and other new thugs.
