This sequel to 'A Long Halloween' is more of a retread of its predecessor than a story that builds on what came before. We get to see the aftermath of the incidents in the previous book on Gotham and on the people involved.
This book deals with a series of murders, all involving current and former cops of the GCPD. These are people both Batman and Commissioner Gordon have worked with; good people and bad, but all who were part of the police fraternity. Gordon takes these killings personally. That, added to his estrangement from his wife and putting up with the new DA, Janice Porter, letting all the bad guys go, is taking its toll on him.
As Batman and Gordon try to figure out who is the person behind these serial killings and how the strange game of Hangman plays into it, Gotham's worst plot a sinister end game.
For me, there has been enough of a gap between reading 'Halloween' and this one to really enjoy this book. It was a page-turner, each chapter (or issue, depending on how you read it) compelling you to read the next. Cliffhangers, twists, cameos and more draw you successfully into the world of Gotham's good, bad and ugly. There is something exciting about meeting all the Rogues again, and watching each one's sinister act being foiled by Batman.
DV doesn't flesh out Batman enough, and Bruce Wayne even less. He pushes Selina Kyle away, but there isn't much of an explanation why. Selina, herself, is poorly drawn - she is wishy-washy, and her motives are always unclear. Worse, her actions towards Bruce/Batman make even less sense. What does she gain by helping or hindering him? In the end her intentions seem like a throwaway by the writer, to explain why she was so involved in the Falcone case. She disappears for huge chunks of the story, and we don't even miss her.
The machinations of the criminal underbelly of Gotham remain one of the more interesting aspects of the story. Who does what for whom and how it comes back to bite them is often more interesting than Batman's sometimes unnecessary brooding.
I get that Bats is suffering from the loss of Harvey, especially because Harvey isn't dead, he's a monster, but that still doesn't make his stupidity an option. At one point, Alfred calls Bruce out for not naming all the dead cops and not naming them in the right order - he uses it as a yardstick for assessing Bruce's competency as Batman. While the intention and end result is spot on (Bruce can no longer work alone to save Gotham), I couldn't help but wonder why Batman doesn't have it all written down. I mean, does he not take notes that he can refer to? Is he that careless? I had a boss once who never took notes in meetings - suffice to say, things were a mess when we reached action stations, because she knew nothing. Bats surely can't work like that.
The introduction of Robin is too quick and too sudden. He's a tiny child, and the entire incident makes it look like Bruce was broody and wanted to bring in a child to brighten up his life. Let's be honest, if a female character brought in a little child as her 'ward', doesn't matter if the two of them went out splitting skulls and slashing throats at night, everyone would refer to her as the kid's mom! How come Bats is excused as bringing in a 'partner'? And what kind of fool brings a tiny kid to a gunfight with Gotham's Rogues? Like... what?
Some of the twists in this story didn't work. Starting with who Porter was sleeping with. I am surprised that the new DA's role was reduced to her being a pawn in Two-Face's game, and that she would be stupid enough to have an affair with him simply because she had a crush on him when he was her professor at Gotham University. It's like the author couldn't think of any logical motivation for a female character to be bad. She has to be foolish and naive, even if no one calls her out on it.
At one point I believed that her secret lover was Bruce, and that him pushing Selina away was simply because he had found someone else. That would have made a little more sense than him disentangling himself from Selina for no apparent reason. It's not even like he has an issue with her criminality - he just... doesn't want to be with her.
Another twist that came across as silly was Calendar Man, under the Rogues' influence, talking Alberto Falcone into committing murders again. The fact that the house was embedded with speakers and they were tricking Falcone into doing there bidding seemed far-fetched and not worth the trouble. He didn't come across as a key player in the game - he was never going to be able to get rid of his sister, he didn't have the guts to do it.
The identity of the Hangman killer was a good twist. I didn't see it coming. However, the fact that Sophia Falcone was mourning the loss of her father greatly enough to take down Dent and all who helped him was a simplification of human sentiments. Couldn't Sophia have been interested in tearing Gotham apart by destroying its police force and its notorious criminal element? Couldn't it have been pure rage for taking away her birthright to 'rule' Gotham. Did it have to come down to daddy issues? Again, it's a case of male writers not being able to fathom that female characters can have a gamut of emotions and motivations not related to biology.
It's the same with Catwoman's revelation. She's incidental to the story, aside from letting slip a nugget of information that helps Batman and the reader piece together the falsity of Sophia's injuries. Her main and only motivation is to get something out of the man who she thought/thinks is her father. As I said, incidental to the plot and connected to biology. I thought she and Sophia might have had a history - but no, things weren't as progressive back in the early noughties for that to be a reality.
I don't like Sale's art; the faces look weird and Catwoman honestly has such an outrageous shape it makes one wonder what exactly was the artist smoking when he created this. It's uncomfortable to view, and borders on silly. Scratch that, it is silly.
I think 'Halloween' takes a person by storm and is an all-together more impressive story. DV suffers from the familiar - at one point I did ask myself if I'd read this series before, which is not good sign. Having said that, when you're in it, you want to know what's next, who's next and how will it all end!
Batman: Dark Victory by Jeph Loeb
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