Surprisingly (to me) my favourite Batman comic is not The Killing Joke by my favorite comic writer Alan Moore, but is Batman: The Long Halloween , written by Tim Sale with are by Jeph Loeb.
This is a superb book, it gives me the same feeling of watching The Dark Knight, but with a little twist. Unlike the hyper realistic representation in The Dark Knight, the concept of The Long Halloween is just moderately realistic. Batman still able to pull fantastic stunt, Catwoman is just too awesome a fighter for a too sexy lady.
The book pays a lot of homage to film noir, especially The Godfather. The starting of the book, some scenes in it...you will know and feel excited if you happen to be a fan for The Godfather as well. The film noir background mainly is caused by the fact of the presence of the Mafia group in the center of the plot, since the main plot revolves around the investigation of the murders of several prominent mafia figures on the major holidays or festive season by a mysterious serial murdered the press called "Holiday".
Set around the second year of Batman's adventure, The Long Halloween is also an origin story of the complex villain Two-Face Harvery Dent. If not for the presence of super hero and maniac villain, this book can be viewed as a mystery crime thriller, a mafia story and even a psychological drama. It is a very very engaging story, and the art work is just nice, for having a balance of portraying the aesthetic of superhero figures as well as the fashion, set design of Gotham City with a strong presence of nostalgic mafia setting. In short it is a Batman + The Godfather + Infernal Affairs combination kind of comic.
The Long Halloween is prominent for:
a) retelling the origin of Two Face
b) highlighting the cooperation of Batman, Gordon and Dent in crime busting
c) pointing the fact the the freak villain in Batman universe are drawn to Gotham due to the presence of Batman.
d) reminding us how interesting Two Face is after being haunted by the worst performance of Tommy Lee Jones in Batman Forever (aka Batman Growing Nipples).
e) giving new breath to those minor once laughable villain like Calender Man (that is given a Hannibal Lecter like treatment in this book, just cool).
Lecter
Calender Man
If got the chance, read this, you won't regret it!
No comments:
Post a Comment