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Dark Victory expands upon The Long Halloween, and has a story interesting enough to please fans of Loeb's original Batman-mob story. Robin isn't played heavily, which is a good thing for me, but any Batman fans should pick this up.
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I enjoy this book more than The Long Halloween which where this book picks off. It is really not a continuation per-se but another murder mystery very similar to Holiday killer in The Long Halloween but just picks up the story where it left off. What made this book more interesting was the origin of Robin which is a lot more interesting than Harvey Dent's backstory and arguably more interesting than Bruce Wayne's history! In this book, Robin actually makes himself useful as he would have to in order to convince Batman to take him in as a partner. There are some new, refreshing villains in this book such as Penguin and Mr Freeze! A better read than the previous book in my opinion.
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Batman: Dark Victory, written by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, was originally published as a miniseries in 1999 and 2000. It is a sequel to Batman: The Long Halloween. It takes place early in Batman's career, and focuses on a serial cop killer, the Hangman, who murders on holidays. Meanwhile Harvey Dent has escaped from Arkham and is waging war on Gotham's organized crime families. This story also retells the origin of Robin.
Loeb, as usual, tells an engaging story. He does a good job balancing a fairly large cast of characters, although he waters down Batman's rogues gallery by cramming virtually all of them into this story, then making them incredibly easy to defeat.
Sale's art is stylized and exaggerated. There's often vast differences in the sizes of characters, and his sewers are like cathedrals. But overall, the art works.
There are a few grievous plot holes here. The Hangman is killing cops on holidays, and the cops know this, yet most every protagonist in the book has trouble keeping abreast of upcoming holidays. Batman knows that Harvey Dent and his minions are using the sewers to hide out and move around, yet he can never find them. Nor is he aware that the sewers conveniently lead right into the Batcave. The mind fairly boggles.
Overall, though, Batman: Dark Victory is interesting enough to overcome its flaws, and, while not as good as The Long Halloween, is entertaining enough. Read The Long Halloween first, as Dark Victory relies heavily on it.
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This sequel to "The Long Halloween" delves into the war between Gotham's organized crime families and the chaotic team of "freaks" that have escaped from Gotham. Batman is aided (and sometimes hindered) by Commissioner Gordon and the GCPD, new D.A. Janice Porter, Catwoman, and Robin. There's a new serial killer on the loose, the Hang Man, who kills a cop on each holiday, placing a game of hang-man on the victim.
If you like your Gotham villains, then you're in for a treat. You get to see a bit of each villain, though Two-Face plays a larger part. This is also an excellent introduction to Robin... he's only a tad cheesy (doesn't he have to be?). Loeb/Sale contrast the Graysons' deaths with those of the Waynes', as well as how both orphans dealt with the tragedy. Robin's a much more hopeful character.
The artwork is incredible. I loved it! My only complaint is that the story can get somewhat repetitive... if you've read "The Long Halloween," you feel like you're following the same path, using the same pacing. Also, there's a narrative at the start of each chapter reiterating the loss of Harvey Dent... seriously, I get it after the first chapters. I don't know if the chapters were released individually, but in a bound format, it can get a bit annoying.
All in all, this is a great Batman story, and a nice followup to "The Long Halloween." You just might want to give yourself a little time inbetween readings.
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Whenever Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale collaborate on a Batman title, magic just seems to happen. Dark Victory, a direct sequel to the brilliant The Long Halloween, is no different. Picking up right where The Long Halloween left off, Batman has a new string of strangely connected murders to deal with amongst the usual chaos that happens to ensue Gotham City. To make matters worse, a breakout at Arkham Asylum springs everyone from The Joker, to the Scarecrow, to Harvey Dent AKA Two-Face, who himself may or may not be connected to the murders. Also going on in Dark Victory is the picking up the pieces by the Falcone crime family, and in the later stages of the book, Loeb and Sale also re-invigorate the origin of Batman's boy-wonder sidekick Robin. While Dark Victory isn't as overly satisfying as The Long Halloween was, it is still a spectacular gem that features some dynamite twists and more great use of Batman's rogues gallery by Jeph Loeb, and more gorgeous artwork from Tim Sale. Needless to say, if you loved The Long Halloween, there's no way you won't enjoy what you find in Dark Victory. Consider this another essential read in the Batman library.
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