Review: Batman: The Long Halloween by BooGaming 👻(haunting Riri 24/7)

[cunning ore]

Thread for discussing Batman: The Long Halloween, reviewed by BooGaming 👻(haunting Riri 24/7)!

[silk halo]

Don't read this unless you've read the entire story!

||Last gripe, the identity (or more accurately, the motivations and M.O.) of Holiday made no sense to me.

Alberto Falcone as Holiday made a lot of sense. From when he became Holiday, he only hit Maroni's people or people that needed to die to keep his secret. Going after Maroni also makes sense, as he wants to protect the Falcone empire but his dad doesn't let him. All the nonsensical stuff like only killing on holidays, purposely missing Riddler, and killing his own aunt to protect his secret can all be chalked up to him being kinda nuts.

It is also revealed though that Alberto wasn't the first Holiday (which also makes sense as the first hits were all on Falcone's men). The first Holiday was Gilda Dent, Harvey's wife. While this twist was very fun to read, thinking back on it it made no sense. The reason she started killing was because she wanted a family with Harvey, who had no time due to the Falcone case. Her solution? Just kill the Falcone empire. Makes sense to me. What doesn't make sense though, is the way she goes about it. Why only do hits on holidays if you want this done as soon as possible? Why not go directly after Falcone, instead of his henchmen who, let's be honest, don't matter that much anyways? Why stop when Alberto picked up the mantle? Why accuse Harvey of being Holiday when you know you are Holiday (and also, she wanted Harvey to take over, so why accuse him instead of trying to ask him in a supportive way?). Some of these points can be once again chalked up to being criminally insane, but overall it just didn't make a whole lot of sense||

[supple creek]

This is a great book! And I agree with you, the reveal is the weakest part of the story. Same can be said for the other Batman mystery by Loeb, Hush: identity of the main villain seems to be least disliked part of the story. Maybe Loeb just don't know how to make satisfying reveals?

What I do recommend you to read is Dark Victory! It continues right after the end of TLH, and imo completes the story. While definitely not underrated, most people usually think it as the almost-as-good-sequel to The Long Halloween, while I would go as far as to say The Long Halloween is an almost-as-good-prequel to it. And it actually has quite good reveals, at least in my opinion.

And if you want to know more of Selina's motivations, you should read Catwoman: When in Rome during or after Dark Victory. It is definitely weakest of the three, but opens her character more

[silk halo]

I really want to read all of the TLH books but unless DC makes compacts for those too I don’t think I’ll be able to read them any time soon 😅