1. The Epic Tragedy That Wasnt
The director Christopher Nolan has described The Long Halloween as an epic tragedy - which it simply isnt. Its about how Harvey Dent became Two-Face and the fall of Gothams White Knight, ideas which definitely influenced Nolan in the making of The Dark Knight and he even uses a line from this book in The Dark Knight Rises when Gordon says I believe in Harvey Dent. But how great was Harvey? Besides being somewhat idealistic and his obsession with bringing down a known mob boss (which he is unsuccessful with), he didnt do anything particularly meaningful that would make him a great district attorney and a paragon of human virtue. He fails to catch Holiday (even adding himself to the growing list of suspected Holiday killers by murdering on a holiday himself) and then arrests the one man in the case who was squeaky clean Bruce Wayne. Thats right, he somehow convinces the police to arrest Bruce on the most tenuous of clues: that Bruce and Carmines dads knew each other and Thomas Wayne once saved Carmines life. Harvey believed Bruce was somehow doing favours for the Falcone family, but he had no proof just a hunch. That apparently is enough to get Harvey a day in court with Bruce in the dock and Alfred on the stand. Harvey also reveals to his wife that he regularly takes home evidence from his cases. After failing to wring information out of some suspected mob goons, Harvey suggests turning them loose after falsely putting word out on the street that they cut a deal in other words hes more than happy to have these men killed by Falcone. Loeb would have you believe that this is a book about the downfall of a good man who becomes the psychotic killer Two-Face but thats not even remotely what happens in this book. The Harvey Dent in The Long Halloween is a bungling, cruel and petty man whose values are shaky at best his transformation from this into the murderous and ruthless Two-Face is not a big change at all, nor is it as tragic as Loeb would like to believe it is. So if its not a tragedy of a good man turned bad, nor a compelling mystery, nor an exciting Batman book, what is it? Its an awful comic. Just like the Loeb/Sale Batman book that follows this, Dark Victory, and the Loeb/Lee book Hush, they are all utterly awful Batman books. Want to read great Batman stories? Look for the ones by Grant Morrison, Scott Snyder, Paul Dini, and the 2 80s Batman books by Frank Miller avoid anything Batman-related with Jeph Loebs name on the cover. * So thats Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. But what do you think agree or disagree? Maybe you have a contender for most overrated Batman book ever? Let me know in the comments below.