By Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-738-5 (hardcover) 1-56389-868-3 (softcover)
Oddly disappointing, predictable but visually stunning sequel to the magnificent Batman: The Long Halloween (ISBN: 1-5389-469-6) which follows the survivors of that epic as they regroup and assess their futures.
Catwoman returns to Gotham City as the survivors of the decimated Falcone crime family assess the damage caused by the death of their patriarch Carmine “The Romanâ€, and the revelation that his son was the serial killer who murdered members of the mob and his own relatives on each public holiday.
A despondent Batman goes about his business heartsick that his old friend Harvey Dent has becoming one of the growing army of criminal super-freaks that increasingly haunt his city, and aware that he cannot keep dividing his attention between them and the insidious gangsters that infest every corner of Gotham. Jim Gordon also worries at the events that drove a wedge between himself and his fellow crime-busters. Nobody seems sure that the bad days are over, or that the right guys are have been punished.
Now another seasonal serial killer is loose. This one is throttling cops and stringing them up. With each corpse there is a child’s bloody puzzle, a semi-complete game of “Hangmanâ€. Are these deaths connected to the Holiday Killer? And now, when a young circus performer sees his parents murdered before his eyes, Bruce Wayne is moved to take the child into his home, and under his wing…
By stringing together so many threads, author Loeb loses a little focus here. This is not a bad story, just uncomfortably cramped and a touch undisciplined. But, quite frankly, in comparison to its predecessor, it was always going to come up short.
Despite all I’ve said this is still an above-average Bat-thriller, and Tim Sale’s moody depictions, especially of the baroque and bizarre Rogues Gallery (mandatory characters in any modern adventure of the Dark Knight) not to mention his unique take on the fledgling Robin make this a book worth reading, and re-reading.
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