Batman: Haunted Knight

Product Information

What is there to say about Long Halloween that hasn't been said? Its a sequel to Miller's Year One that bridges the gap to Batman's modern era. Its moody, its scary, its cool, and I recommend it. Unfortunately it casts a long shadow. And in that shadow, you will find Dark Victory. I was surprised to hear that DC was making this collection into an Absolute Edition. Not sure I would’ve called it a necessity. I imagine it’s for completists like me or to bookend the Long Halloween and Dark Victory. Nothing here that falls into the category of essential Batman, but a recommend to fans of Loeb and Sale’s other Batman work. Absolute Batman: Haunted Knight is a collection of The Long Halloween and Dark Victory “prequels” in which Loeb and Sale laid the foundation for their later collaborations. Fear is a Scarecrow story that was fun. I believe this was Jeph and Tim’s first Batman story together. Madness focuses on the Mad Hatter and it reminded me of the Mad as a Hatter episode of Batman the Animated Series. This is sort of the “vintage” Hatter story with the "Alice in Wonderland" flavor. Ghosts is a riff on A Christmas Carol. Probably my least favorite of the bunch. Bruce reflects on his life and considers his future. Eehh. The first chapter is "Fears". In this story Batman fights Scarecrow while he starts having romantic feelings for a woman he met at one of his parties. This story focusses on the relationship between Bruce and Alfred but more importantly focusses on Bruce's fears and what makes him Batman. In this chapter Batman dives deep into his thoughts and he takes us with him. The story was unoriginal to say the least, in fact, it was almost painfully cliche. Batman fights the scarecrow and got poisoned with 'Scarecrow Poison' causing Batman to lapse into a dream where he marries a girl he just met. Upon waking, he decided to abandon his crusade (which we all know will NOT happen) and leave with the girl from his dream. Alfred saved the day by informing Bruce that the girl was not being completely honest. Hearing the news, Bruce had a change of plans and saved Gotham city. If that isn't cliche I don't know what is.

Jillian's words in Bruce's mind- "Did you ever have the feeling that you wanted to go? Did you ever have the feeling that you wanted to stay" Last thing i'm going to mention is that all of the great writing comes to life by the exceptional art by Tim Sale. Finally, we get When in Rome. I had hoped this would force Loeb to stop reusing the same ideas. In some ways it did, but not enough. Despite the change in hero and setting, we still get mostly reused villains. (Cheetah is an exciting but head-scratching addition.) The story is oddly paced and feels empty without the rich characters and setting of Gotham and very little to replace them. Invested as I have become in the complex dynamics between the Falcones and Maronis, I don't care at all about the "Mafia." In the end, transplanting so many ideas from Gotham to Italy only serves to make the Loeb version of the DCU feel smaller than ever. Perhaps this title will appeal to Catwoman fans in the audience, but I can't rightfully count myself among them and this entry did not make me a believer.My second Jeph Loeb Tim sale book about Batman, hmmmmm what do we have here. Oh 3 short stories about batsie. Cool. Batman: Ghosts is a Halloween version of A Christmas Carol with Thomas Wayne taking the place of Jacob Marley, and the three spirits being Poison Ivy (Halloween Past), the Joker (Halloween Present), and a Grim Reaper figure (Halloween Yet to Come) who turns out to be Batman. The message from the spirit is that Bruce Wayne should not let Batman take over his entire life. Scarecrow on the other hand, was busy blowing up power stations so he could loot the city in the dark, because that is definitely something the scarecrow would do. And here I was thinking he was obsessed with fear. Besides, didn't 'Scarecrow Poison' make people fearful and afraid? Then why did Batman dream of a relatively happy thing? And how did Halloween play a part in any of this?

Fears’ sprints through this possible budding romance between Bruce and Jillian, Batman hunting down the Scarecrow, and facing his own fears that stem from the night of his parents’s murder. The Halloween theme aside, what sets this story firmly into this horror anthology is a nearly pitch perfect use of Scarecrow and the effects of his toxin. It is never over done. We get some great imagery that would go on to inspire future iterations of both the villain and Batman lore as a whole. Loeb really allows us to see Bruce/Batman at his most vulnerable. He also leaves us with a bit of a mystery. What is making Batman deal with these issues at this moment in time? Is it a delayed effect of the Fear Toxin? The possibility of a real relationship with a woman? Guilt over how he must split his life right down the middle? It’s a solid little mystery without over explanation and a satisfying resolution. It even has some old school Alfred quips. During the story "Madness", the villain Two-Face is referenced in the line "Joker. Scarecrow. Two-Face. Each has its own private madness that drives them". Two-Face does not appear in the Loeb/Sale series until the end of Batman: The Long Halloween, so this story cannot precede it.A side note: I love playing I Spy The Quote From One of Nolan's Films. From Fears, "Professor Crane isssn't here right now. But, if you'd like to make an appointment--?" Honestly this was a great Batman book and I enjoyed it from beginning to the end. Loeb and Tim Scale are too good when they collab together. so far what I've found after reading around 4 books written by this duo is that Loeb writes his stories in a way that they doesn't feel like a coherent plot, I mean his story moves in circular way instead of linear way. And his stories are always a character study, rather than a plot. This is not your traditional super-hero story. The Long Halloween is a realistic, noir, murder-mystery story about a killer the media calls Holiday who hits his preys on holidays. It is the best Batman story I have a ever read. Like Mr. Christopher Nolan said, it’s not only a comic book, it’s an epic tragedy, the crime drama of the century. There are many twists and turns, the reader is always left to guess who Holiday really is and it is beautifully told and drawn. Any fan of books in general should read this. It is a masterpiece. No wonder it’s a modern classic. Gotta give Dave Stewart a huge shout out for his coloring on When in Rome. Had a nice water-colored look at times that was super smooth. Awesome stuff that really compliments Sale’s drawings and makes that story really stand out among the others in this collection. What made this story stand out was the elaboration on how the Mad Hatter was such a disturbing character. I quote the Batman: "In taking his identity from Alice in Wonderland, Jervis Tetch unknowingly perverts a happy childhood memory."

Then a panel confirms all of this where Bruce's father appears in lots of chains and those chains were symbolic representations of his mistakes. It started with the Penguin coming uninvited to one of Bruce's parties to rob the rich of their riches. After the Batman captured the Penguin, the Penguin was never heard of again throughout the story. Okaaay.... Alright, this story was just weird. And it wasn't Arkham Asylum hauntingly beautiful weird, it was just weird.Madness gives us a story involving The Mad Hatter as he forces Batman to confront his unresolved issues surrounding his parents death. Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale are my favorite duo when it comes to writing and drawing Batman comics and sadly, this is the last comic I hadn't had read from them. This collects Choices, Madness and Ghosts, three short stories that were conceptually at different times but all take place on Halloween in Gotham City. Man oh man, does Batman let his rage shine through in this one. Not only is he royally pissed off at Jervis Tetch but he also has to rescue Commissior Gordon's daughter after she is taken captive. His final fight scene with Hatter is particularly brutal and managed to get an audible "Holy Shit!" out of me. These are the ones that remind me why for all those years, Batman stays on the top of the list of my favourite superheroes. At the same time they lit the fuel of my enthusiasm and make sure, he will stay on the top for many years to come. Batman: Haunted Knights collects 3 Halloween Specials of Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (Fears, Madness, and Ghosts) written by Jeph Loeb with art by Tim Sale