{"id":30827,"date":"2024-10-31T09:00:04","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T09:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=30827"},"modified":"2024-10-30T17:48:04","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T17:48:04","slug":"batman-the-long-halloween-deluxe-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/10\/31\/batman-the-long-halloween-deluxe-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Batman: The Long Halloween Deluxe Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Jeph Loeb<\/strong> & Tim Sale<\/strong> (DC Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-77951-269-7 (HB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Utterly Uncanny and Irresistible Comics Chillers\u2026 9\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

This book includes some Discriminatory Content<\/strong> included for dramatic effect. <\/em><\/p>\n

The creative team of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale tackled many iconic characters in many landmark tales, but one of their earliest is still, to my mind, their best.<\/p>\n

Set during the Batman: Year One<\/strong> scenario created by Frank Miller, and originally released in 1996 as a 13-part miniseries (running from Halloween to Halloween) it shed newer, darker light on the early alliance of Police Captain Jim Gordon<\/em>, Assistant District Attorney Harvey Dent<\/em> and a mysterious masked vigilante who seek to unseat, if not destroy, the unassailable mob boss who runs Gotham City: Carmine \u201cThe Roman\u201d Falcone<\/em>…
\n\"\"
\nTrenchant with narrative foreboding – long-time fans already know the tragedies in store for all participants, although total neophytes won\u2019t be left wondering long – this gripping Noir thriller effortlessly carries the reader along on a trail of tension. Here and back then, Gotham is a dirty paradise for criminals and the corrupt, a modern Sodom and Gomorrah unofficially ruled by a ruthless, savage patrician of evil.<\/p>\n

However, good people live here too. At this moment, when the Big Boss is seeking to allay growing fears in his deputies over legal strikes by a certain cop and pushy ADA, a rise in freaks, killers and weirdo thieves, and tales of attacks by a nut dressed as bat, more trouble strikes…<\/p>\n

As seen in opening episode \u2018Crime\u2019<\/em> a costumed burglar is targeting Falcone\u2019s holdings. The Roman\u2019s evening and life in general suddenly get worse as, beginning at one of his lavish soir\u00e9es, a mysterious killer stalks him, callously slaughtering close family and criminal employees, once a month, on every public holiday. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year\u2019s, Valentine\u2019s Day and so on, each hit crushing more of The Roman\u2019s perfect world, just as the three compulsive crimebusters had secretly sworn to.<\/p>\n

Is the Holiday Killer<\/em> a rival mobster, a victim of criminality, one of a newly ubiquitous plague of super-freaks, or has perhaps one of our heroes stepped over a line in their zeal for Justice? To make matters worse, Batman is real and \u201chis\u201d army of costumed nuts continually insert themselves into every attempt to get back to business… And what part does the sultry Catwoman<\/strong> play in all this?<\/p>\n

The personalised pogrom continues in \u2018Thanksgiving\u2019<\/em> (with Solomon Grundy<\/em> adding an appetite for destruction), and expands across \u2018Christmas\u2019<\/em> and \u2018New Year\u2019s Eve\u2019<\/em> (The Joker<\/strong>, Calendar Man<\/em>), \u2018Valentine\u2019s Day\u2019<\/em> and \u2018St. Patrick\u2019s Day\u2019<\/em> (Catwoman, Poison Ivy<\/em>) and \u2018April Fool\u2019s Day\u2019<\/em> (with The Riddler <\/em>being asked questions for a change).<\/p>\n

With bodies dropping and Gordon, Dent and Batman increasingly at odds over ending the killings and stopping The Roman, the assassination campaign intensifies on \u2018Mother\u2019s Day\u2019<\/em>, \u2018Father\u2019s Day\u2019<\/em> and \u2018Independence Day\u2019<\/em> (all sinisterly celebrated by Scarecrow<\/em> and the Mad Hatter<\/em>), before personal tragedy strikes home on a \u2018Roman Holiday\u2019<\/em> when Dent is literally defaced and confirms his descent into madness as Two-Face.
\n\"\"
\nMost shockingly, with his organisation in tatters and his surviving familia at each other\u2019s throats, \u2018Labor Day\u2019<\/em> sees Falcone – and Batman – no closer to exposing the Holiday Killer. All that changes in concluding chapter #13 as \u2018Punishment\u2019<\/em> ushers in Gotham City\u2019s era of the freaks…<\/p>\n

Effortlessly blending the realms of the mobster with Batman\u2019s more usual super-foes (most of whom make a memorable appearance) and graced with startlingly powerful images of Mood, Mystery and Mayhem from the magic pencil and brush of Tim Sale, this serial killer whodunit is an utter joy to read that should keep you guessing until the very end.
\n\"\"
\nAs a Deluxe Edition, there are plenty of extras added here, culled from many, many previous collections, but especially Absolute Batman: The Long Halloween<\/strong>. These include sketches, promo pieces, cover designs for previous collections, the captivating \u2018Long Halloween Interview\u2019<\/em> conducted by letterer Richard Starkings, Loebs & Sale\u2019s picture-packed \u2018Original proposal\u2019<\/em>, and an exhaustive feature on the creation of all \u2018The covers\u2019<\/em> of the iconic limited series. Also included are comprehensive \u2018Character studies\u2019<\/em>, the creative process behind the cover to Overstreet\u2019s Fan<\/strong> #18, plus covers, sketches, unused alternate images and even the Action figures designed for the event.<\/p>\n

This is one of the very best Batman adventures of modern times and a tale any comics reader and crime buff must see.
\n\u00a9 1996, 1997, 2021 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-77951-269-7 (HB\/Digital edition) Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Utterly Uncanny and Irresistible Comics Chillers\u2026 9\/10 This book includes some Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect. The creative team of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale tackled many iconic characters in many landmark tales, but one of their earliest … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Batman: The Long Halloween Deluxe Edition”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,33,75,76,105,225,325],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-batman","category-catwomman","category-crime-comics","category-dc-superhero","category-mature-reading","category-mystery","category-the-joker"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-81d","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30833,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30827\/revisions\/30833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}