Batman: The Long Halloween – The Last Halloween #2 – Jeph Loeb, Writer; Klaus Janson, Artist; Dave Stewart, Colorist, Richard Starkings, Lettering & Design
Ray – 9/10
Ray: The host of artists following each other on this series have a lot to live up to – both to the one before them, and to the towering legacy of Tim Sale. Second up at bat is Klaus Jason, an icon in his own right who got his start as an inker but has developed his own distinct style. While Risso last issue felt like he was reinventing his style to evoke Sale a bit, Janson’s style is distinctly his own, and the transition in how characters appear can be a little jarring. Janson’s Batman is bigger, more brutish, and his Gotham feels grimmer and dirtier. This is fitting, as we spend much of this issue in the grittiest place in Gotham – Arkham Asylum, as Batman and Robin seek answers about the disappearance of James Gordon Jr. Batman puts the screws to Mad Hatter, Robin gets the brunt of mind games from the manipulative Calendar Man, and a chance encounter with Catwoman (there to seek medical treatment) gives them the clue they need.
This series is a slow burn, focused on the mystery of the kidnapping but with quite a few subplots in the background. Is another Holiday Killing spree beginning? What does Solomon Grundy have to do with this, and where are the Dents? But the biggest change this issue is that Gordon is no longer the only one enforcing the law in Gotham – the FBI is in town, ostensibly to help with the kidnapping case, but as soon as they take control of the Bat-signal, it becomes clear that they might have other interests. The final page, after a tense confrontation with the Penguin with a shocking twist to it, sets the stakes high for Batman. I’m not sure yet if this is going to equal or even rival the two masterpieces that came before it, but this is off to a promising start and it’ll be interesting to see how the art shifts throughout and how the continuity between issues builds.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
