The Long Halloween takes place in the early years of Batman's crime fighting career which is broken down in a 13 issue series that lasts an entire year where it's an issue a month. The story of the series is that there is a mass murderer that have earned the name "Holiday" because he/she has been murdering people on holidays, one death per holiday and its up to Batman and him teaming up with Jim Gordon and D.A. Harvey Dent in a race against the clock to find out who Holiday is before they go on to murder anymore people while also trying to put an end to a crime war between Gotham's most powerful families, Maroni and Falcone.
The Long Halloween also acted as a main introduction for one of Batman's most eluding foes, The Calendar Man, who knows every holiday on the calendar by heart and also knows the true identity of the Holiday killer but refuses to share this with Batman. He instead riddles and gives Batman hints from his Arkham Asylum cell. Among The Calendar Man, there are a number of other villains of Batman that make appearances in this book just as well such as Catwoman, Poison Ivy, The Joker and The Riddler just to name a few and they all have crazy moments within this book.
The one thing that this book also show cases a lot of is the "Love Story" between Batman and Catwoman's true identities and the constant run ins that these two have. Also during the story, you get to see Bruce breakdown and show his human side while as Batman especially when he is facing Scarecrow and his gas affects Batman and Batman goes into his inner child and breakdown.
Speaking of Love Stories, this book shows the struggling marriage that Harvey and Gilda Dent are having and how throughout the book you are actually concerned about this marriage and wish that they can re spark the spark in their marriage before its too late. While we're on the topic of Harvey Dent, let me just say that when he became two face I seriously felt bad for Gilda cause I knew that their marriage was finished after Harvey had half of his face burned off courtesy of the acid thrown at him.
Before I wrap this review up I think it's only fair and right if I talk about a character in the book that certainly knows about holidays, The Calendar Man. Originally named Julian Gregory Day, and originally debuted in Detective Comics #259 (September 1958), The Calendar Man is mostly considered as a joke villain throughout the DC Universe. But in The Long Halloween, Jeph Loeb has The Calendar man playing a Hannibal Lector-esque type roll, that is both interesting and also necessary as he is locked up in Arkham and knows the true identity of who The Holiday murderer is but won't tell Batman but instead is taunting Batman via Cryptic Clues on who The Holiday Murderer is. The clues are so cryptic that in one instance, Batman believes that Harvey Dent is actually the Holiday Murderer because of the evidence that batman finds at the house. But apparently word at the Dent house is that Harvey loves to bring work home as he said to Gilda during the story as she found a gun that looked like the murder weapon at the house.
I don't wanna spoil the book for anyone that hasn't read it yet but I highly recommend fans of Batman and fans of really well told comic book stories to pick up Batman: the Long Halloween. This book is just about Batman, but rather Batman/Bruce Wayne, Jim Gordon, Harvey Dent and even Selina Kyle/Catwoman just as well. You can purchase the single issues Digitally for $1.99 each or you can get the graphic novel for $16.49 on amazon.com or go to your local comic book store and pick it up.
Before I go I will leave you with a quote about the story that rings true and it's by director of the latest batman trilogy Christopher Nolan and it goes like this, "The Long Halloween is more than a comic book, it's an Epic Tragedy".
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