It’s an eight-dollar return to the scene of long ago drama, this new special comic from DC: it’s Batman: The Long Halloween, “Nightmares”. And it’s dark, with patches of brightness.
Writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale return to Gotham City, with the Calendar Man now teaming up with a bunch of nasty crooks. And Batman is kicking heads and taking names, looking for a reckoning day with the Calendar guy.
It’s an interesting, many-faceted, two-faced kind of story. Loads of Dick Tracy-style disfigured villains, pursued by a Batman who is quiet and angry. There are loads of support characters who hover in the background.
Colourist Brennan Wagner keeps a palette full of weird bright greens and oranges, never shying away from lurid 1940s tones. It’s fun to read, part theatrical self-parody, part straightforward thriller.
Letterer Richard Starkings’ captions are rendered in upper and lower case, making for smaller letters and slower reading. The dialogue font has a retro look, resembling the olden days of yore hand-lettered balloons.
Tim Sale’s drawings also harken back to less formal days, those Golden Age days when shadows covered a lot of the background, where exaggerated faces and simple panel compositions were more than enough to entertain. And isn’t that what we actually long for at Halloween?
DC Comics, Batman: The Long Halloween Special #1, $7.99 for 49 pages of content. Teen
Newsdesk