2. The Unending Nonsense And Confusion
The Long Halloween is presented as this great mystery who is the Holiday Killer? but when you look at the full story, you see there are very few clues (almost none) pointing to the identity (or identities, depending on whether you still believe Gilda was in on it) of the killer. When a mystery story contains no clues for the reader to ascertain the identity, its a bad mystery story. When Loeb uses a trick ending, its because hes desperately trying to seem clever when in reality the Gilda-dunnit ending is implausible and unconvincing at best. But it isnt just the non-existent mystery that this book hangs upon that makes it such a tedious read its the stop/start manner of the plot that makes it so dull. Each murder takes place at a holiday Christmas, New Years, Valentines Day, etc. which means theyre spaced weeks apart and makes reading it seem ludicrously contrived. It does establish an easily identifiable pattern which should help Batman and the GCPD enormously in capturing the suspect: nearly all the targets are mobsters and all the murders happen on holidays. I realise this is set in the early years of Batman and that Bruce is relatively inexperienced at this point compared to his later stories, but how on earth did it take Batman over a year to capture this killer? Hes inexperienced but not an idiot and certainly possesses the skills and knowledge necessary to solve the case.
Riddler (another rogue who shows up for no reason) winds up having a perfect silhouette of himself shot into the brick wall hes standing in front of, meaning he saw the Holiday Killer. This was on April Fools Day and yet it takes Batman past Independence Day (July) to track down Riddler to ask him about the killers identity. How has it taken Batman over 3 months to find Riddler, especially as he wasnt doing a good job of hiding getting drunk in bars while wearing his Riddler outfit! And then theres the fact that the killer uses a .22 gun and when you see the silhouette, there are scores and scores of bullet marks that make it up how many times did the killer have to stop, reload, and resume? And Riddler just stood there perfectly still the whole time? And no-one appeared during all the noise of bullets repeatedly embedding themselves into brick? Also, all the victims of Holiday are mobsters (with the exception of the coroner). Maybe its because theyre mobsters, criminals, that Batman doesnt act quickly to stop Holiday (which I really dont want to believe as that would go completely against Batmans character) but, in the same breath, do we as readers really care about gangsters being murdered? In a book where Batman and the GCPD are racing to stop Holiday from killing again, it would have been better if the victims had been more likeable, more innocent, than mob guys who make a living off of other peoples misery they wouldve made for more sympathetic victims. As it is, I felt no urgency in the plot to stop Holiday nor did I feel any sympathy for these unpleasant people being picked off, one by one. In short, The Long Halloween is a Batman mystery story where Batman barely figures, is incompetent when he does appear, the victims and the killer(s) are totally unsympathetic, and the mystery, along with key moments in the plot, makes no sense.