Batman’s hunt for the kidnapped James Gordon Jr. leads him and Robin to Arkham Asylum. A clue received there leads him to hunt another rogue as the new Holiday shootings continue in Batman: The Long Halloween — The Last Halloween #2, written by Jeph Loeb, drawn by Klaus Janson, colored by Dave Stewart and lettered by Richard Starkings.
A massacre at a Wayne property has Batman hunting what he assumes is a large animal, only to discover something far more horrifying, something he barely believes in: a werewolf. Batman: Full Moon #1 is written by Rodney Barnes, drawn and colored by Stevan Subic, and lettered by Rus Wooton.
A new anthology of DC horror stories begins with DC Horror Presents #1. The first story is written by David Dastmalchian and Leah Kilpatrick, drawn by Cat Staggs, colored by Romulo Fajardo Jr. and lettered by Simon Bowland. The second is written by the Boulet Brothers, drawn by Butch Mapa, colored by Kristian Rossi and lettered by Bowland.
Matt Lazorwitz: Happy Halloween, Will! We’ve definitely talked about this on the podcast, and I’m sure it’s come up here in the column too, but what are your feelings about blending Batman and horror?
Will Nevin: I dig it, brah. Body horror, psychological horror, jump scare, creepy vibes — I think you can do a lot in the Batman universe that ties in very naturally. Batman and horror >>>>>>>> Batman and science fiction.
Matt: Batman and horror works because of the vibes and because of the inherent commonality between crime and horror stories: They both live on tension. And that’s why those are the two genres that Batman works best in.
Will: It’s no coincidence that crime and horror are among the oldest comic genres.
A Bird in the Hand
Matt: I want to love this series. I really, really do. I love pretty much anything else set in this particular time period/world of Batman. And after this second issue, I am not in a place where I dislike this. But I remember picking up each issue of The Long Halloween and Dark Victory and being almost breathless with anticipation. Here I’m just looking at a competently done comic and it’s not filling me with the excitement those other books did, and as much as they want me to be excited for these other (admittedly great) artists, I can’t stop thinking about how this would look with Tim Sale drawing it.
Will: And Klaus Jansen’s work here is great! The vibes are … maybe a little off since the colors are so vivid, but you’re right in that this is no Sale. I still think one artist would have been the better approach here, but no one asked me. Hell, *this* could have been the thing Loeb and Jim Lee reunited for. Alas.
Matt: The story is drawing threads from all of the previous Loeb/Sale works. We have Holiday guns from Long Halloween. Mario Falcone coming up from Dark Victory. Heck, there’s a mention of Mad Hatter kidnapping Barbara from Haunted Knights. But we’re also drawing in some newish stuff. Penguin has been nothing more than cameos in any of the previous stories, but here we get a featured scene with him, although it doesn’t end well for Oswald.
Will: Do you get the sense that this Batman is kinda dumb? That he’s easily played? Because that’s what I came away with after reading this chapter.
Matt: Batman seems… overly emotional anyway. And he has reasons to be. The kidnapping of James Jr. and someone doing the Holiday copycat thing would definitely set him on edge. But we’re at a point where Batman has been in action for pushing a decade? The compartmentalization that we see him able to do should be more in place than here where we see him roughing up Mad Hatter in his cell in Arkham and flat out not hearing an obvious clue.
Will: Yeah, he’s super violent to the point of being reckless there. If Batman is this worked up and frazzled two issues in, that doesn’t give him a lot of room to escalate as this story progresses.
Matt: Now, last issue you said you wondered how Joker factored into this, and I was skeptical that it was him, thinking the clowns who attacked Two-Face might be a false flag. Now we have Scarecrow-looking goons shooting Penguin. I am more inclined than ever to believe that we are dealing with the mob, maybe Mario Falcone, maybe someone else, either using the masks to make a statement or to try to pit the villains against each other.
Will: I don’t know whether it was you or someone else who speculated that this final chapter would be the mob falling to the freaks, but you can see the outline starting to take form: The mob is making a war for themselves that they cannot win.
Matt: I viewed this story as, after two volumes of the freaks taking and taking, the mob trying to strike back, and them not realizing exactly what they were biting off until it was too late. And so far, I’m sticking with that theory.
Buy Batman: The Long Halloween – The Last Halloween #2 here.
Full Moon Over Gotham
Will: You know, Matt, I bet someone could do a good Batman Meets Werewolf story.
Matt: There’s a pretty decent episode of Batman: The Animated Series that does it, actually. But I don’t think this series is going to go down in the annals as one of the better Batman Meets Werewolf stories, alas.
Will: The art is serviceable. I think that’s the best you can say there. But this commits about the worst sin imaginable when it comes to Batman fighting a goddamned werebeast: It’s boring as shit. I literally fell asleep reading this.
Matt: This is definitely overwritten. The werewolf narrator is going on and on about how he can’t control himself while he is in full wolf form. This is a visual medium, so we could see him lose control and talk about it later. It’s got that poetic narration thing that bugged us with books like Batman: Damned. Let the story tell itself.
Will: Create werewolf. Insert into Gotham. It can’t be that hard.
Matt: We have one of my least favorite tropes here: the Batman who doesn’t believe in the supernatural. You can argue your Arthur C. Clarke magic and science thing, but Batman isn’t dumb. He’s worked with Zatanna, who can speak backward and make things happen, and has worked with the Spectre, the wrath of God made flesh. He is not going to just shrug at magic. Maybe if we were “Year One” era, but this seems later and it just seems like a convenient way to add drama.
Will: In this story he’s goddamned dating Zatanna! Which is an interesting idea, I guess, but I can’t tell if it’s going anywhere. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, I know: Batman would not believe in magic until he had no other option but to accept its existence. And then he’d probably want to learn all he could about it. Caped Crusader handled this pretty well, don’t ya think?
Matt: Absolutely. I think there’s something interesting between Bruce and Zatanna; they’re both heroes, they’re both orphans, they have a shared history. But I don’t see it working out, and I think that will be part of this story.
And OK, I think I have discovered my answer to your “Bruce Wayne would not wear a salmon colored shirt.” Wanna hear it?
Will: You really do love inflicting trauma upon me, don’t you? Let’s do a capsule review of White Knight while we’re at it, buddy boy. But, yes, let’s pick up that nauseating thread from “Cold Days” and revisit Elizabeth Breitweiser’s greatest professional sin.
Matt: Here, Zatanna talks about the new outfit she purchased for their date, at what looks like a high-end restaurant. What she wears is a belly shirt with a corset top, ripped jeans and open toed shoes. That is not the outfit you wear to that type of restaurant. Just feels like an artistic miscue.
Will: That was incredibly confusing — I wasn’t even sure that was Zatanna at first. Between the pondering narration and this art, this was a borderline disastrous book.
Buy Batman: Full Moon #1 here.
A DC Horror Halloween
Matt: We’re back in not completely Bat territory for one book this week, but it’s Halloween, so why not include some DC Horror Presents, huh?
Will: Tales from the Crypt but make it DC. Weird that the miniseries is (1) happening and (2) wasn’t weekly in October, but whatever. I’ll take it!
Matt: I could have used a horror host here. DC did those kind of horror anthologies back in the day with House of Mystery, House of Secrets and Witching Hour. While those old hosts were all taken and made a part of The Sandman, where they are now best associated and as we’re in a place where Sandman-related characters are a bit toxic, I could absolutely have gone for Deadman, Zatanna or even Detective Chimp giving an intro to each story. That’s not a major quibble, but something I enjoy as a fan of those old books.
Will: Aww, shit, Deadman would have been perfect here. So, the first short. Tell me a little bit about Dollhouse.
Matt: Dollhouse is a fairly minor New 52-era villain. Daughter of Dollmaker, another villain from the same era who is only slightly better known, she is a third-generation serial killer. She likes to chop up bodies and make hideous Frankenstein creations out of them. So a decent schtick for a Bat rogue, but like most of the characters introduced in Tony Daniel’s first year on New 52 ‘Tec, she is pretty much forgotten. Until now. Honestly, the whole Dollmaker family seem like second-rate Professor Pygs, as they have a similar schtick and Pyg is way creepier.
Will: But if someone is going to jump out of a high-rise apartment to escape a villain, she seems like a pretty good choice, right? There wasn’t a lot to the story here, but it did bring to mind one of my favorite (and speaking of) Tales from the Crypt episodes: “Loved to Death.”
Matt: Oh, that is a good one. This is thin, but fun, and it’s co-written by David Dastmalchian, who, like with Paul Dano on Riddler: Year One, it feels unfair that this guy is such a good actor and can write comics so well. Seriously, if you’re not, read Count Crowley over at Dark Horse. That is a damn fine horror comic that does a great job balancing horror, comedy and character work.
Will: I recognize that guy! He’s one of Joker’s goons from The Dark Knight. And probably other things, but that’s the only one I know. Good for him. And you’re right — I hate talented people. Those jerks.
Matt: And our second story comes from drag performers the Boulet Brothers, telling a story of murder and the undead on Themyscira. Again, with only 10 pages it’s thin, but I like the emotional heft you get from Diana having to fight her own undead mother, and seeing the usually confident Wonder Woman hesitate because, well, it’s her mom.
Will: Reminiscent of the recent World’s Finest story with Wonder Woman, isn’t it? I like stories in which all is not well on Themyscira — not because I dislike the Amazons or anything like that, but it’s interesting when paradise is not … well, paradise.
Matt: And the little note at the end where it’s Circe responsible for it? I like it, especially after last week’s Absolute Wonder Woman. Not only does it reinforce Circe’s anger at Diana and her family, but it stands in nice counterpoint to the series where Circe is raising Wonder Woman.
Will: Agreed — that was a fun lil’ stinger there on the end. But looking ahead a bit, we don’t know much about the next issue, unfortunately … other than that the cover fuckin’ rocks.
Matt: Yeah, these are some great covers. We’ll see what else is going on in the upcoming weeks, but I wouldn’t be against covering the rest.
Buy DC Horror Presents #1 here.
Bat-miscellany
- Villains Month at BatChat wraps up with a Halloween episode about one of the spookiest Bat rogues: Man-Bat.
- Short White Knight review: It sucks.
- Longer White Knight review: It suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks.
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Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of 5. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the podcasts BatChat with Matt & Will and The ComicsXF Interview Podcast.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
