The Long Halloween is over. Holiday is imprisoned. Life goes back to normal. Or does it?
Picking up the pieces of the lives of Gotham’s crusaders and protectors, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale cap off their exploration of Batman’s earliest days with “Dark Victory”, an often overlooked classic that is a must read for all Batman fans.
Written by Jeph Loeb
Illustrated by Tim Sale
Collecting BATMAN: DARK VICTORY #0-13, this epic continues the story of THE LONG HALLOWEEN. It is early in Batman’s crimefighting career, when James Gordon, Harvey Dent, and the vigilante himself were all just beginning their roles as Gotham’s protectors.Once a town controlled by organized crime, Gotham City suddenly finds itself being run by lawless freaks, such as Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, and the Joker. Witnessing his city’s dark evolution, the Dark Knight completes his transformation into the city’s greatest defender. He faces multiple threats, including the seeming return of a serial killer called Holiday. Batman’s previous investigation of Holiday’s killings revealed that more than one person was responsible for the murders. So the question remains: who is committing Holiday’s crimes this time? And how many will die before Batman learns the truth?
After being confounded by much of the internet’s reaction to Zack Snyder and Ben Affleck’s on-screen interpretation of Batman in Dawn Of Justice (best live action Batman, my arse), I’ve found myself returning to the Batman comics that shaped my interpretation of the Caped Crusader. Now, I could have talked about any number of comics here that are, arguably, better comics: “The Long Halloween”, for one; “Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On Serious Earth”; even something like “Year One” or “A Death In The Family” or those lesser known classics like Matt Wagner’s “Dark Moon Rising Trilogy” or Ed Brubaker and Doug Mahnke’s “The Man Who Laughs”. No, the book I want to talk about is one that I think is an essential part of Batman’s canon, but one frequently overlooked in favour of its predecessor: “Dark Victory”.
Now, sure, “Dark Victory” can be something of a mess. It essentially retells many of the same story beats of “The Long Halloween”, simply shuffling the cast around and giving the mysterious killer a slightly altered gimmick that still coincides with one murder per major holiday throughout the year. However, for all that, it’s still one of the best Batman comics ever created. Why? Because Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale just work so damn well together. Most creative teams wouldn’t have been able to follow “The Long Halloween”, but Loeb and Sale trudged back into those waters and pulled another all-time classic story out of the mud.
The central crux of “Dark Victory” is how Sale and Loeb explore how the events of “The Long Halloween” have left the lives of its three protagonists in ruins. Batman has been left a sullen husk of a man, having lost the two friends he’d ever made since putting on the cape and cowl, and has pushed everyone in his life away. Jim Gordon has ended up doing something much the same, dedicating himself to his new position as police commissioner to the point where his wife has left him. Harvey Dent, meanwhile, is locked up in Arkham, half the man he used to be. Underneath all the plot retreads and messy mysteries of “Dark Victory”, the core of what makes the book great is how Loeb and Sale explore the lives of these three men even further and try to bring them back towards the light.
“Dark Victory” is also notable for being, for my money, the best origin story of Dick Grayson as Robin. What Loeb and Sale understand more than anyone about Dick Grayon’s introduction to the world of Bruce Wayne is that he’s an injection of hyperactivity and of fun. “Dark Victory” is, for the most part, as grim and serious and noir as its predecessor… right up until the final five chapters, when everything starts to change.
Thanks to Tim Sale’s beautiful artwork that opens Chapter Nine with the wordless emotional connection between Bruce and Dick, the story shows that Bruce can change and can make a difference by working to make sure Dick doesn’t take the same dark path he did. Dick, in turn, brings Bruce back towards the light by creating a dynamic duo that sparks a wildfire that transitions the isolated Batman who thinks the fight against crime is his burden and his alone that we meet at the beginning of this story into the Batman who collects orphans the way people collect pets in order to create a support network that allows him to feel again.
Continued belowI’ve talked a lot about the story and the writing, so let’s get into what everyone really remembers about these stories: Tim Sale’s artwork. Creating a timeless, gothic atmosphere, Tim Sale’s Gotham City feels like it also has one foot firmly planted in the 1930s. This is Gotham City filtered through The Untouchables where cop and gangster alike is in his best suit, overcoat and fedora. There’s a harsh, noir-tinged, shadow-draped reality to Tim Sale’s art that grounds the fact that this is a hard boiled crime story that ends with a grown man dressed as a bat and a teenager in a yellow cape fighting a clown and a disgraced District Attorney with half a face.
And yet Tim Sale’s art isn’t afraid to embrace the wilder aspects of comic books. Batman is a gargoyle come to life, hulking and gray-toned, leaving a wild trail of cape in his wake as he moves through the room. The Joker’s haunting maw is close to inhuman. Characters’ features are exaggerated, feeling one part realistic and one part cartoonish, keeping that line between fantasy and reality blurred while, once again, a grown man dressed like a bat discusses a string of violent murders with the police commissioner. It’s outlandish and utterly realistic, all at the same time, never ashamed that Batman is the central figure of this hard boiled detective story. Coupling Sale’s heavy inks with Gregory Wright’s muted, flat colours and the artwork is brutal in its simplicity, creating a Gotham City that has never been imitated.
This is the final chapter in what I consider to be the first act of Batman’s life, retold through “Year One” and “The Long Halloween” (among others) before this, that takes Batman from being a tortured loner looking to unleash the pain he felt in losing his parents on those who would do harm unto others to a genuine Caped Crusader who seeks to make the world a better place for his being here. Who turned his pain into something bigger than himself and realised he didn’t have to suffer alone and, eventually, that he didn’t have to suffer at all. Without this story punctuating this first act of Batman, we wouldn’t have the kind of Batman who teams up with Justice League, who’s best friends with Superman and who goes on to become a world renowned superhero.
Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale went back to the well one last time and found a story that would bring Batman out of the darkness that they’d left him in and brought him out towards the light. Sure, “Dark Victory” is messy. So was “The Long Halloween”. Stretching out a mystery over thirteen chapters with layers upon layers of side plots, betrayals, red herrings and almost-got-‘ims means that the actual structure groans under its own ambitious weight. Just like its predecessor, though, “Dark Victory” is more than the sum of its parts and thanks to Loeb and Sale’s meticulous character work, becomes an essential chapter in the life of the Dark Knight.
