Batman: The Long Halloween #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeBatman: The Long Halloween #1 launched one of the most formally ambitious Batman stories of the 1990s — a 13-chapter noir murder mystery that directly continued the continuity of Frank Miller's 'Year One,' chronicling the pivotal year in which organized crime began yielding Gotham to costumed super-villains and an honest D.A. named Harvey Dent started his tragic descent into Two-Face. The series is widely regarded as a definitive Batman text, praised for Tim Sale's atmospheric, cinematic artwork and Jeph Loeb's layered crime-fiction plotting. Its cultural footprint is remarkable: screenwriter David S. Goyer cited it as a direct influence on both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, and the phrase 'I believe in Harvey Dent' — introduced in this very first issue — was lifted almost verbatim into the 2008 film. The issue also marks the first appearance of Alberto Falcone, who becomes the primary Holiday-killer suspect across the entire run.
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The series was born from a conversation at San Diego Comic-Con when DC group editor Archie Goodwin approached Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale and asked whether the pair wanted to continue their Batman collaboration after three well-received Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Specials. Loeb has credited fellow writer Mark Waid with steering the story's focus onto Harvey Dent's pre-Two-Face years, territory that had not been explored deeply since Year One. The title itself came from writer Mike Friedrich, who suggested structuring the tale across 13 monthly issues running from one Halloween to the next — a formal constraint that became the story's backbone. Sale, who was already attached to DC through Archie Goodwin's earlier outreach, brought in Loeb as co-creator, with the issue colored by Gregory Wright and lettered by Richard Starkings.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published on October 16, 1996, with a cover date of December 1996; the first chapter is titled 'Crime' and runs 48 pages in prestige format — significantly longer than the standard 23-page installments that followed.
- Written by Jeph Loeb, with art and cover by Tim Sale, colors by Gregory Wright, and letters by Richard Starkings; edited by Archie Goodwin with executive oversight from Mike Carlin and editor-in-chief Jenette Kahn.
- First appearance of Alberto Falcone (created by Loeb and Sale), who is later revealed to be the Holiday killer and goes on to appear in the sequel series Batman: Dark Victory and multiple media adaptations.
- First appearance of Gilda Dent in this continuity — Harvey Dent's wife, whose ambiguous role as a possible Holiday accomplice is not resolved until the series' final issue.
- The issue introduces the central three-way pact between Batman, D.A. Harvey Dent, and Captain James Gordon to dismantle Carmine Falcone's criminal empire without breaking the law — the moral spine of the entire series.
- The phrase 'I believe in Harvey Dent,' appearing in this issue, was later used verbatim in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight (2008), and Nolan's entire trilogy has been cited by screenwriter David S. Goyer as drawing heavily from this storyline.
- The series was positioned as a direct sequel to Frank Miller's Batman: Year One, and is considered in continuity to replace the earlier 'Batman: Year Two' story arc.
- Issue #1 has been reprinted multiple times, including in the Batman by Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale Omnibus (2018), the Batman: The Long Halloween Deluxe Edition (2021), and a Facsimile Edition (April 2025); the full series was adapted into a two-part DC animated film in 2021.
Key issues in Batman: The Long Halloween
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