Jeph Loeb returns to the world that he and the legendary Tim Sale (R.I.P.) created in the mid-90s with Batman: The Long Halloween in this new sequel. When The Last Halloween was announced, expectations were unsurprisingly set extremely high. And with Tim Sale no longer with us, can Loeb craft a story that’s truly a fitting finale to The Long Halloween trilogy? Let’s find out.
Issue #1 takes place about a year after the events that transpired in Batman: The Long Halloween Special, which was the last collaboration between Loeb and Sale in 2021 and served as the prologue to this series. Harvey Dent and his wife, Gilda, are on the run, and Batman is hellbent on bringing them to justice for their crimes. Meanwhile, Commissioner Gordon’s son, James, has been kidnapped on Halloween. I’ll get back to that, but then, Batman and Robin are staking out near Carmine “The Roman” Falcone’s old penthouse, which is now occupied by the Roman’s son, Mario. They see that Catwoman has broken into the penthouse, and Robin wants to go in and apprehend her, but Batman tells him to hold off for a bit.
In the penthouse, Catwoman has a conversation with Mario Falcone and asks him why he has returned to Gotham after being away for a while. He tells her that they will all find out why he’s back in due time, but he then asks her why she broke in. Catwoman then escapes and Robin starts pursuing her. While in pursuit, Catwoman snares Robin in a bolas mid-air, and she gets away. Robin luckily survives and while he and Batman are arguing that Selina got away, they hear a gunshot in her direction. Batman goes to investigate and finds that Catwoman is missing and a taped .22 pistol and a smashed pumpkin were left at the scene. Batman then assumes that there’s a copycat of the Holiday killings.
Later, Batman meets with Commissioner Gordon, and Gordon tells him that his son was kidnapped. Batman promises Gordon that he’ll find him and tells him that he needs to tell him something else, referring to the potential Holiday Killer copycat. The issue ends with a group of masked men jumping Harvey Dent and his wife in Dent’s lair in the sewers.
I just have to say that this issue was incredible, and Jeph Loeb didn’t miss a step heading back into the Gotham he and Tim Sale created almost 30 years ago. With Sale’s unfortunate passing in 2022, Loeb enlisted a rotating team of artists to collaborate with him on The Last Halloween, and Eduardo Risso takes the reigns on this first issue. Risso illustrations pay homage to Sale’s work while seamlessly making it his own. Both Risso’s artwork and Dave Stewart’s colors invoke the essence of the Gotham that Sale created, and they brought the gritty atmosphere back to life. Loeb’s writing sets up the stakes in numerous ways, and I was enthralled throughout the issue. He immediately brought me back into world that he set up in The Long Halloween and Dark Victory, and the cliffhanger at the end of the issue truly shocked me.
Recommended if…
- You are a fan of The Long Halloween and Dark Victory.
- You want to appreciate a tribute to the legendary Tim Sale.
- You are curious to see if Jeph Loeb met the high expectations of continuing the storyline from The Long Halloween.
Overall
To be honest, I was cautiously optimistic about The Last Halloween because The Long Halloween is considered one of the best Batman stories of all time, and it influenced a lot of modern Batman stories including films. Even with the absence of Tim Sale, Jeph Loeb and the creative team stepped up to the challenge and produced an awesome first issue. And I can’t wait to see what happens next and how the story unfolds.
Score: 10/10
English (US) · 