The nerdgasmic chaos of DC Fandome has brought some great news for fans of the Dark Knight, with the confirmation that an animated adaptation of Jeff Loeb and Tim Sale’s limited series Batman: The Long Halloween is in the works.
Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s iconic Batman: Year One re-established the Caped Crusader’s canonical origin after Crisis On Infinite Earths reset the DC universe to clean up the increasingly messy continuity, and this miniseries acts as a follow-up to its events. The plot features the hunt for a serial killer nicknamed Holiday due to his M.O. of committing murders on significant annual celebrations, with his targets principally consisting of the family and associates of mob boss Carmine Falcone and the spree beginning on Halloween and continuing through to the same day the following year.
It features supporting parts for a number of Batman villains, including Joker, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Riddler, Scarecrow and Mad Hatter. Its plot also incorporates the events that result in Harney Dent’s transformation into Two-Face, and sees the most significant appearance of Calendar Man, a villain with a similar theme of planning crimes around the days of the week, holidays and anniversaries. While incarcerated in Arkham Asylum, he acts as the Hannibal Lecter to Batman’s Clarice Starling, having already deduced the killer’s identity and taunting Bruce with cryptic clues.
Batman: The Long Halloween will be told over two movies, with the first half released in summer next year and the concluding part coming out before its end. While there will be a long wait to see it brought to life, there’s still Batman: Soul of the Dragon and Justice Society: World War II to look forward to in the interim, not to mention the newly-released Superman: Man of Tomorrow. So, all in all it’s a good time to be a DC fan.
