I just read The Long Halloween - what next?

[Omar 382]

And immensely enjoyed it. Are the sequels worth my time? What story lines/comics coincide with TLH?

[Diggy]

Dark Victory is the direct sequel and it's almost as good in my opinion. Long Halloween itself is a spiritual successor to Year One so read that if you haven't. Hush is by Jeph Loeb as well and it's not a direct plot successor but it uses a similar kinda style and advances the Batman/Catwoman relationship, it's not quite as good but it's fun and worth a read if you haven't already.

[Diggy]

Also the Haunted Knight trade contains 3 Halloween themed issues by the same creative team which were written before The Long Halloween, so that's worth picking up as well.

[Omar 382]

Dark Victory is the direct sequel and it's almost as good in my opinion. Long Halloween itself is a spiritual successor to Year One so read that if you haven't. Hush is by Jeph Loeb as well and it's not a direct plot successor but it uses a similar kinda style and advances the Batman/Catwoman relationship, it's not quite as good but it's fun and worth a read if you haven't already.

Thanks. I read Hush about six months ago and I was not a fan. I'll check out Dark Victory once I get done The Amazing Spider-Man Original Clone Saga.

[Totoro Man]

pseudo-spoilers below:




I hated "Dark Victory" more than I hated "Hush". it's arguably a better story-- but that's what made me hate it even more. "Hush" didn't make an impression on me-- I could see nearly every plot twist and reveal coming from a mile away. whereas "Dark Victory" looked as if it was going to go in one direction and ultimate went in another. and what made it so infuriating is that what Loeb led readers to believe was going on was more interesting then what was later revealed to be actually happening. so much work went into fleshing out Harvey Dent/Two Face in "the Long Halloween" that I really wanted him to be the focal point in "Dark Victory". the nail in the coffin for me was that Sofia Falcone gets brought back in the first issue-- I was concerned that Loeb brought her back in the first place! but I was even more afraid that Loeb would throw a curveball with her character later in the story and that's exactly what he did.

as galling as Hush turned out to be-- it wasn't as bad as Dark Victory-- because it wasn't explicitly building on existing stories and the goodwill generated by them.

[brainticket]

You may want to check Catwoman: When in Rome by Loeb / Sale also.

[MajorHoy]

You may want to check Catwoman: When in Rome by Loeb / Sale also.

I believe that's not quite as favored by many as compared to Dark Victory, but I liked it.

[Carabas]

Dark Victory is the direct sequel and it's almost as good in my opinion. Long Halloween itself is a spiritual successor to Year One so read that if you haven't. Hush is by Jeph Loeb as well and it's not a direct plot successor but it uses a similar kinda style and advances the Batman/Catwoman relationship, it's not quite as good but it's fun and worth a read if you haven't already.

Or rather fakes advancing the Batman/Catwoman relationship, and then kills it as stone cold dead as you can get in comics...

[Mace Dolex]

Personally I detest Tim Sale's art that I can't enjoy the story more but its an ok storyline if a bit overrated.

[Greg]

Dark Victory is worth a read but I much prefer The Long Halloween by a landslide.

[zwixxx]

Was this the book that, at the end, you find the ptb left out a page cos it was too long and the page contained some really important information ? If so then that really turned me off the book.

[Totoro Man]

Was this the book that, at the end, you find the ptb left out a page cos it was too long and the page contained some really important information ? If so then that really turned me off the book.

that supposedly happened in the Long Halloween. but it wouldn't have made any difference since the missing panel was Carmine Falcone acknowledging that a corpse was his son Alberto. except that was supposed to have been a red herring. since Alberto obviously never died and reveals himself later in the book. I think editorial made the right decision in getting rid of that scene. this allowed many readers to accurately guess that Alberto was one of the killers. it would have been worse if he were allowed to keep that panel in there-- because then he would have made it impossible for any readers to even properly guess who the Holiday Killer was. as it stands he made three different people responsible (if we take Gilda's confession seriously).

if Loeb weren't so interested in pulling the rug out from under his readers he would probably be a better writer.

[zwixxx]

I need to read the book again but I thought: without the page many many people guessed Alberto was the killer as "the book never showed his body so he must be still alive so he is obviously the killer". So had that page been left in, with Carmine "identifying" the body as his son, then all those clever-guessers would have remained stumped longer which I think is a good thing for a mystery-type story.

[resipsaloquitur]

In fairness, the page just adds to the ambiguity of what the hell was going on. Alberto disappears on New Year's Eve. Something falls in the river since we see the stream of blood coming from the boat. Somebody's body is found on January 6 and, by all logic, the coroner knew it was a fake since Holiday killed him. There's still a couple of unanswered questions, thank you Jeph Loeb. 1) What the hell fell in the river on Dec 31? Did Alberto have a double on the boat, or what? 2) Where was Alberto between January and September? 3) Whose body was found on January 6? Alberto's double? Some hobo? 4) Was Carmine in on the fake death?

I've seen plausible arguments that Carmine was in on it, but we never get a definitive flashback showing that he was, so it remains ambiguous. Questions #1-3 can only be answered speculatively.

[Carabas]

I think that if you read The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, and Hush, that one thing will become very clear: Jeph Loeb doesn't have a clue how mystery stories are supposed to work and instead just sets up half a dozen red herrings (some of which can pass for genuine evidence), doesn't really give any real clues, and calls it a day.