The Long Halloween

So I'm sitting on the couch, feeling bored, and I must have been looking bored too, because Corey turned and asked me if I'd like the first part of my birthday present. I said sure, because, having only asked for one book, I didn't expect there to be "parts". And so, I grinned with delight, kissed my husband, and retreated to the bathroom to enjoy The Long Halloween.

Set not too long after Bruce Wayne became Batman - Jim Gordon is still only a captain, and Harvey Dent is fairly new to his position - The Long Halloween is an intricate dance between the story of a serial killer who only targets members of the Falcone family, and only on holidays; the tenderly sad ray of light that is straight shooter Jim Gordon and his understanding wife, the tragedy that is the result of Harvey Dent's feelings of helplessness under a captain who won't play by the bad guy's rules, and the ultimately broken friendship that binds Batman to these two men as they spend a long year in pursuit of the Holiday Killer. Covering it all, as pseudo-narrator, is the freshness of Bruce's promise to rid the city of the evil that killed his parents. Writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale combine these elements in a noir, slightly old-school art style to maximum impact. And, being a Batman story, there is the small smile, when Harvey, never having met Alfred before, speaks to him like he's just a lowly, not too bright servant, and is rewarded with Jim Gordon's silent and priceless reaction, just before Alfred's subtly excoriating reply.

This book is not for people who think that comics are only for children, or that superhero stories should be uplifting. It is a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions and, the Bard's plays aside, I can't remember ever having felt so shaken and saddened at the end of a book. The good news is, there is potentially a ray of hope at the end of the tunnel, as it turns out that my gift comes in parts because The Long Halloween is the first volume of a trilogy. I can't wait!!!


P.S. Also, now I finally know who the Crash Test Dummies were singing about in that old song about Superman and Tarzan that has the chorus, "Superman never made any money/saving the world from Solomon Grundy." Awesome.