11 November 2015

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Gotham, Part XV: Batman: Haunted Knight

Comic trade paperback, 190 pages
Published 1996 (contents: 1993-95)

Borrowed from the library
Read January 2015
Batman: Haunted Knight: The Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Specials: Three Tales of Halloween in Gotham City

Storytellers: Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale
Colorist: Gregory Wright
Letterer: Todd Klein

Year Two, April - October
Batman and Halloween go together like Doctor Who and Christmas. These three Batman Halloween tales were the earliest Batman collaborations of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, who would later do character-defining work in The Long Halloween. Their later work is better, but you can see that what they'll later perfect is nascent here. I like the style here, even when the stories themselves don't really work, like the A Christmas Carol riff that I think is supposed to have taught Bruce some kind of lesson, but mostly comes across as random. I did really like the one where Batman and Commissioner Gordon have to team up to save young Barbara from the Mad Hatter. (I am pretty sure this was the first appearance of the future Batgirl in my Batman readthrough. More on her soon!)

Next Week: If you liked Year One, then what could be better than Year Two!?

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