Evan Leach's Reviews > Batman: Dark Victory

Dark Victory is the sequel to Batman: The Long Halloween. The Long Halloween tells the tragic story of Harvey Dent (aka “Two Face”) and his fall from grace. Dark Victory follows this up by continuing the stories of Harvey, the Falcone crime family, and the Bat himself in the aftermath of Harvey’s imprisonment.

The book follows the exact same format as its predecessor, and somewhat surprisingly uses the exact same theme to tie the episodes together. Each issue takes place on a different holiday, and each holiday a victim is murdered by an anonymous serial killer. Batman & Gordon struggle to crack the case, which has no lack of suspects since Arkham Asylum has suffered a major security breach and most of Batman’s famous foes are on the loose.

I thought The Long Halloween was a real classic, and its sequel does a number of things well. Dark Victory is most famous for telling how Batman & Robin got together, but it doesn’t beat this story into the ground. Instead, it manages to tie the Dark Knight’s acceptance of Robin as a partner into the events of The Long Halloween and Bruce’s own sense of loneliness. I am one of those readers who finds Robin mostly annoying, but I thought that his character fit nicely into this story and actually added to my enjoyment of the tale.



The story is interesting, and like The Long Halloween features the full panoply of Batman rogues. Loeb & Sale do a good job of making this more than standard beat-‘em-up fare (always dull) and creating a memorable story with recurring themes that fit nicely into the narrative. I have always really liked Tim Sale’s artwork, and this book is no different. With the exception of the way he draws the Joker (which is a little too “out there”), I love how he interprets everything in the Batman universe, and the art in this book is a dark joy to behold.



The one nitpick I have is the similarity to the plot of The Long Halloween. I love the recurring characters and the extension of some of The Long Halloween’s storylines. But building the story around another holiday killer made the story feel a bit too much like a re-hash of The Long Halloween, particularly in the first half before the plot begins to separate itself. But that’s a minor complaint, and overall I thought this was a very strong story with outstanding artwork that will satisfy the vast majority of Bat-fans out there. 4 stars, highly recommended!