"I believe in Jim Gordon. I believe in Harvey Dent. I believe in Gotham City."
Who is Holiday?
— The Joker
The Long Halloween is a Batman mini-series that ran from 1996 to 1997, produced by the creative team of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. The mini-series came out of the duo's semi-regular yearly Batman Halloween Specials that they did for DC Comics.
The series, which is a sequel to Batman: Year One, involves a number of intertwining plotlines. To begin with, a serial killer is targeting members of Gotham's crime families. Due to the killer striking once a month, each time on some holiday, and leaving a holiday-related trinket as a Calling Card, the press quickly dubs them "Holiday" (the title refers to the first murder, which was on Halloween).
For Carmine "The Roman" Falcone, the head of Gotham's largest remaining crime family, Holiday is just the latest in a long series of problems. The Batman has been a thorn in his side and Catwoman has been robbing him (prompting Falcone to put a bounty on both their heads), District Attorney Harvey Dent is crusading to shut him down, and he's facing competition both from other mobsters and from a new breed of criminals—the costumed supervillains.
Batman, Captain Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent meet on Halloween to discuss an alliance to bring down Falcone. They promise to "bend the law but not break it", but as the stakes grow higher, they begin to distrust each other. Batman suspects that Harvey Dent is Holiday, and Dent becomes convinced that Bruce Wayne is secretly allied with the Falcone family. It doesn't help Bruce's case that Falcone is pressuring Wayne Industries into joining his money-laundering scheme.
Eventually, the Mob resorts to trying to catch Holiday by hiring supervillains. It doesn't work out as well as they hope.
Everything leads up to two events: First, the acid being tossed onto Harvey Dent's pretty little face, leading to his transformation into the villainous Two-Face. Second, the downfall of Falcone's criminal empire.
Spawned two sequels: Batman: Dark Victory and Catwoman: When in Rome. In 2024, the final installment known as Batman: The Last Halloween is to be published in memoriam of the late Tim Sale, with Batman: The Long Halloween Special from 2021 acting as its prologue.
A two-part Animated Adaptation of the story was released in 2021, entitled Batman: The Long Halloween. An audio drama adaptation of the story premiered four years later as part of the DC High Volume Batman podcast.
The comic would greatly inspire other Batman media going forward, most notably The Dark Knight Trilogy and The Batman (2022), both of which loosely adapt some of its plot beats.note
This limited series contains examples of:
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A - H
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Solomon Grundy's "hideout".
- AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle: The way the Mad Hatter's speech bubbles are written suggests this.Mad Hatter: woUld yOu likE Some moRe teA?
- Actually Pretty Funny: After Riddler suggests a few theories for Holiday's identity, Carmine Falcone points out he said he could solve any riddle but has nothing but guesses. So he asks, if his life depended on it, and has Sofia start crushing Riddler's skull with her bare hands to demonstrate it does, who he'd name as Holiday. When Riddler answers "Carmine Falcone", it actually gets a good chuckle out of the Roman and he allows Riddler to leave unharmed. Carmine's also enjoying a private joke, because Riddler's unknowingly within striking distance of the truth. Holiday is a Falcone, but it's not Carmine; it's Alberto, who's executing his father's orders.
- Adaptation Expansion:
- Many aspects of Harvey Dent's character arc, including an early alliance with Batman and his Parental Abuse, right down to the disguise Batman wears in the fateful courtroom where he got scarred, were taken from Batman Annual 14 about five or six years earlier.
- This occurs In-Universe with the nursery rhyme "Solomon Grundy." The original poem simply lists the days of the week ("Christened on Tuesday, married on Wednesday," etc.), but when Dent recites it in the sewers, he adds descriptors ("Christened on a stark and stormy Tuesday, married on a gray and grisly Wednesday," and so on).
- Adaptational Relationship Change: In this story, Barbara "Babs" Gordon is Jim's niece, not his daughter.
- Alcohol Hic: The Riddler is pretty drunk when Batman tracks him down and interrogates him in a bar.
- Amazonian Beauty: Catwoman is drawn as much more muscular than usual, with her abs visible through her catsuit.
- Ambiguously Human: Poison Ivy, unlike the rest of Gotham's costumed villains, has actual superpowers and looks almost like an evil fairy rather than a human being, given her green lips, completely white skin, and twelve feet of "hair" made of plants.
- And I Must Scream: A downplayed version appears in "St. Patrick's Day." While Bruce is under Poison Ivy's mind control, he describes himself as a kind of prisoner in his own body: he can see everything he's doing and knows it's wrong, but is powerless to stop himself. It helps that Ivy's spell makes him so blissed out that he loses the ability to be concerned about everything—including his not being concerned.
- April Fools' Plot: The seventh chapter, in which Holiday commits a fake-out non-killing against The Riddler.
- Arc Words:
- "I believe in [Gotham City/Harvey Dent/Batman]."
- "Do what needs to be done."
- "Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy."
- Asshole Victim: Most of Holiday's victims are mobsters. The only exceptions are a gun store owner Holiday had been buying from, and the coroner who had pronounced Alberto Falcone dead when he was actually alive, and might have been corrupt. Lampshaded by Dent after Johnny Viti is murdered. "Two shots to the head. If you ask me, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy".
- Back for the Dead: Downplayed. Most of the mobsters from Year One return with the ultimate purpose of being killed, although it's not a straight example due to them being alive for most of the story.
- Bald of Evil: As part of his Hannibal Lecter makeover, the Calendar Man is shown with a completely bald head—well, almost completely bald. He's tattooed the traditional three-letter abbreviations for the months of the year (Jan, Feb, Mar, etc.) in a circular pattern as a reflection of his date obsession.
- Batman Gambit: In the penultimate issue, Batman and Gordon use Salvatore Maroni to set a trap for Holiday. As the Calendar Man points out to Batman hours earlier, it's now Labor Day and Holiday hasn't claimed a victim yet. The Maronis are still the killer's target — and the GCPD currently has "The Boss" in custody after scarring Harvey Dent. Gordon arranges for Maroni to be transferred while he and a disguised Batman joins the guard detail. Sure enough, Holiday takes the bait and they're able to finally capture him. While the Gambit technically works, it also didn't quite go according to plan. The trap was meant for Harvey Dent (who they thought was the killer); Holiday being unmasked as the "deceased" Alberto Falcone was a genuine surprise and shock. More, Sal's death wasn't part of the plan, as they were trying to get him into protective custody in time.
- Bedsheet Ladder: Well, straw rope ladder if you want to get technical.
- Berserk Button: Batman largely remains stoic throughout the story, but it's clear that Mother's Day is an incredibly difficult time for him. As such, Jonathan Crane escaping on that day drives him to an Unstoppable Rage, which is only compounded when he inhales Crane's fear gas and begins hallucinating his mother's presence. The chapter ends with Bruce Wayne collapsed on top of Martha's grave, sobbing in panic and grief.
- Beware the Nice Ones: The ending implies Gilda Dent was in fact the original Holiday Killer, having started on Halloween in an effort to get rid of Gotham's criminals so Harvey would come home more often and they could have time to start a family. After she spent the entire series wanting nothing more than to have a happy life with her husband. This depends on whether or not Gilda really is responsible or her monologue is her succumbing to grief and lying to herself about Harvey being the first Holiday.
- Big Anime Eyes: Tim Sale draws Gilda Dent with big, cherubic eyes, to make her look almost saintly compared to everyone else so her reveal as a possible Holiday killer is even more shocking.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Carmine Falcone is the chief of organized crime in Gotham, and Holiday is murdering key members of his outfit, so Batman, Gordon, and Dent are trying to put a stop to both of their activities.
- Big Beautiful Woman: Sofia spends most of the series wearing an overcoat, but in a later issue she visits Sal Maroni in jail and dolls herself up for the occasion in an outfit that shows off her ample bust.
- The Big Girl: A villainous example, Sofia Falcone Gigante, the Roman's daughter.
- Bittersweet Ending: Organized crime in Gotham is in ruins, but through little effectual effort on the part of the heroes. In the process, Dent's life and reputation were completely destroyed. Worse still, this is essentially the beginning of the rise of Batman's more colorful Rogue's Gallery to plague Gotham.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Joker, as usual, operates in this sphere. He doesn't care about the mob war or the corruption in Gotham—his only concern is that Holiday is getting more attention than him, and he refuses to allow it. As such, he plans to kill thousands of people celebrating New Year's Eve in Gotham Square on the offchance that Holiday is somewhere in the crowd. Earlier, in the Christmas chapter, he has a gun to the head of both Sal Maroni and Carmine Falcone, but doesn't bother killing them. He only tells them that if they don't find Holiday fast, he'll wipe out the whole city to do it himself—never mind that killing either of the two men would put an end to Holiday's reign.
- Bookends: It's a Two-Face story, so all the best things come in twos.
- The first Holiday murder occurs on a Halloween. So does the last.
- The first page of the story features Bruce Wayne declaring, "I believe in Gotham City." The last page of the story features Glinda saying, "I believe in Harvey Dent."
- Boring, but Practical: Poison Ivy has the ability to completely control anyone with her hypnotic plants, so the Roman hires her to...force Bruce Wayne to allow Falcone Imports to do business with—or, more accurately, launder its money in—the Gotham City Bank. It's not the most creative use of her powers, but it solves a major problem for him and has lasting effects on both Wayne and Gotham in general.
- Bottomless Magazines: Did you know that, when one is firing a .22 in such a way as to leave a bullet outline around the Riddler, you can fire about fifty or sixty bullets without giving the Riddler a chance to run away?
- Brains Versus Brawn: Carmine Falcone's two children, Alberto (the Rhodes Scholar from Oxford) and Sofia (Carmine's most effective muscle).
- Brawn Hilda: Sofia Falcone is a very large and a very strong woman, capable of squeezing the Riddler's head hard enough to make him start bleeding.
- Bulletproof Vest: Batman employs one at one point, though not as part of his standard attire.
- Butt-Monkey: The Riddler, which carries over to Dark Victory and Catwoman in Rome as well.
- By-the-Book Cop: Gordon will tolerate Bats and Harvey bending the laws, but not breaking them.
- Calling Card: Holiday leaves one at the site of each of the killings. A jack-o-lantern for Halloween, a cornucopia for Thanksgiving, etc.
- Call-Forward: The story drops a few hints towards Harvey Dent's eventual transformation into Two-Face, particularly having the half of his face that gets disfigured being hidden in shadow in several panels.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Carmine has some nasty scratches on his face that look like the work of a certain Cat. Catwoman puts a similar set of scratches on Sofia's face near the end.
- Harvey Dent is bad at anticipating nasty tricks, as seen when Falcone's men sneak up on him in the parking lot or the Joker kicks him in the balls. Sal Maroni is also able to splash his face with vicious acid from the witness stand.
- Clueless Mystery: One of the criticisms levelled against the story is that it seems like a Fair Play Mystery at first, but isn't.
- Composite Character: Alberto Falcone, in keeping with the The Godfather theme, is a mix of Michael (the studious son of The Don who is expected to do great things outside of crime) and Fredo (the somewhat effeminate son who is being kept away from the gang's day-to-day management and sees it as a sign of disrespect.)
- The Consigliere: Milos Grappa, Falcone's bodyguard, apparently doubles as his consigliere and advisor.
- Consulting a Convicted Killer: Batman repeatedly consults with Julian Gregory Day, aka Calendar Man, for insight as to who Holiday might be, considering that they're both date-obsessed serial murderers. For most of the story, Calendar Man implies that he knows Holiday's identity, but deliberately doesn't share the information, instead taunting Batman with cryptic clues and offering to share it if the Dark Knight will get him released. Calendar Man finally becomes more helpful in the book's penultimate chapter, "Labor Day," when he points out that since it's a federal holiday, there's bound to be a murder.
- Contrived Coincidence: The story's issues take place on major holidays in every month of the year, but August doesn't have a major holiday...so what are the odds that the Roman's birthday just so happens to be in August?
- Curiosity Killed the Cast: A month after the Gotham City Coroner's murder, Carla Vitti breaks into his office. Carla clearly has suspicions about his death; she correctly guesses he was killed because he knew something about the Holiday murders (and by extension her son Johnny's death). Carla is right, as the Coroner either knew or had guessed Alberto had faked his death. Unfortunately, this gets her killed as Alberto can't risk her exposing and endangering his and his father's conspiracy. However, given Carmine was already purging his enemies, and Carla was one of them, Albert would almost certainly have gotten to his Aunt eventually.)
- Dating Catwoman: Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle have a romantic relationship, but at this point in Batman's career, neither know about the other's secret identity; their Batman and Catwoman personas have a bit of Belligerent Sexual Tension.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Whenever Holiday is on the prowl.
- Disney Villain Death: Sofia, the moment she sees Harvey Dent, now Two-Face, just having killed Carmine Falcone, goes berserk and wants to kill him, but Catwoman tries to stop her. During their struggle, Sofia slips and falls down from the skyscraper to her death. Catwoman even tried to save her. We don't see Sofia's corpse after that, but the result was quite obvious. Subverted in Dark Victory when she turns up still alive but paraplegic.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: While Alberto Falcone tries to claim he was Holiday by killing Sal Maroni the epilogue of Long Halloween shows that Gilda Dent killed Johnny Viti, Mickey Sullivan, Donny Sullivan, Jimmy Slick, Dapper Kevin, Willie Two Times, and Milos. She then confirms that Harvey Dent, as Batman and Alfred suspected, had killed Alberto (failed), Maroni's goons outside the restaurant on Valentines, the goons in Maroni's safe house on St Patrick's day, Chong at the tea house on Mother's Day, Lou Maroni on Father's Day, the Coroner and Carla Falcone on July 4th, and Carmine Falcone on Labor Day, with Batman personally witnessing Harvey kill Carmine. Gilda narrates that her motivation was to have more time to spend with Harvey, as with fewer crime lords there'd be less need for him in the office, but upon realizing he'd taken up the mantle she decided to share this, the murders, with him as a sort of surrogate family they'd never have between them.
- Driving Question: Who is Holiday? Why are they gunning for Gotham Mobsters and what do they hope to accomplish? Why do the murders suddenly switch from the Falcone Family to the Maroni Family after Alberto's murder on New Year's Eve?
- End of an Age: In many ways, the story chronicles the transformation of Gotham City from a town controlled by traditional criminals like the Mafia into a city overrun by the "freaks" that make up Batman's rogue's galley. The weakening of the Falcone empire due to Holiday allows characters like Two-Face, the Joker, Scarecrow and others to fill the power vacuum.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When the newly-birthed Two-Face realizes that his wife Gilda is the Holiday Killer, or at least one of them.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas:
- Johnny Viti and his mother, Carla.
- A gender-reversed version is also present in Sofia and her father Carmine Falcone.
- Inverted with Carmine and Alberto. Carmine is a very, very bad man, who dearly loves his innocent son Alberto. Then averted when it turns out Alberto might be far worse a monster than his father, who he's not very fond of.
- Horrifically subverted with Jonathan Crane, aka the Scarecrow, who killed his own mother on Mother's Day itself. For what it's worth, she was abusive toward him.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- Carla Viti truly loved her son Johnny, and his death further strains the already fragile relationship between her and Carmine.
- Sal Maroni is on good terms with his father, who becomes a victim.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Carmine Falcone is a ruthless criminal happy to kill law enforcement and innocents. He's also a deeply principled man who has a love for his family and a good sense of pragmatism. When confronted with the future of Gotham's criminals, the costumed rogues gallery, he admits that he'd rather see Gotham burn down before letting them rule.
- Evil Matriarch: Carla Viti, Falcone's sister and Mob Boss.
- Evil Power Vacuum: The comic heavily implies that Batman's deconstruction and elimination of "normal" organized crime like mob-bosses and the rise of the insane, colorful, and unpredictable super-villains isn't a coincidence. As Falcone's control over the city weakens, freaks like Scarecrow and Joker become more and more common.
- Expy:
- Carmine Falcone owes a lot to Vito Corleone and his family: Alberto is based on Fredo with shades of Michael and Sofia is a Gender Flipped Sonny.
- Loeb's portrayal and use of Calendar Man is Hannibal Lecter without the cannibalism.
- Face–Heel Turn: One of the main subplots is Harvey Dent's transformation into Two-Face.
- Fade Around the Eyes: Features a sequence like this when crime boss Carmine Falcone sends his goons out after Batman and Catwoman. In one panel, the room is lit up. In the next, Falcone's face is half-shadowed. In the last, everything is black except for one of his eyes, and his scars.
- Fallen Hero: DA Harvey Dent becomes the villainous Two-Face.
- False Confession: The Sullivan Gang admit to blowing up Dent's house. They'll even put it in writing for ya'. Subverted in the fact that they really did blow up his house but they're clearly covering for their employer, the Roman.
- Faking the Dead: Alberto, supposedly killed right before midnight on New Year's Eve, actually staged his own death, then took up the mantle of the Holiday Killer for at least one other murder.
- Femme Fatale: Catwoman, naturally.
- Film Noir: Dark art and tone, presence of the Mafia, and a murder mystery plot give the book this feel.
- Flanderization: The Riddler, as usual for a Jeph Loeb book. Yes, riddles are his thing, but he doesn't speak entirely in them, he can actually hold a normal conversation. And while he's hardly liable to get in a fight, he's not usually portrayed as quite so feeble as when Loeb writes him. Likewise, Mad Hatter usually can say things other than lines from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
- Foreshadowing:
- Alberto Falcone twice tries to be useful and participate in his father's criminal business in the opening pages of the first chapter, but is brushed aside consistently and ignored. Turns out he's got plenty to be bitter about in his own mind. (It's also worth noting that Alberto is an M.B.A., a Master of Business Administration. Poor kid really wanted in on the family "business".)
- The first Holiday killing is done with a custom .22 caliber pistol, with a plastic nipple as a makeshift silencer. That's a very odd choice of silencer... except that Gilda would likely choose it out of plausible deniability, since an expecting mother would easily have a need for them.
- Hey, did you know Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face? Well, the series wants you to know it's comin'.
- The first thing we see Dent do is talk to himself in the third person, foreshadowing his split personality when he becomes Two-Face.
- When Harvey first discovers the literal mountains of cash Carmine Falcone has stashed away, he starts thinking about what he and Batman would do if they were "two other guys".
- Harvey infiltrates the Irish gang by wearing Latex Perfection—a moment of having two actual faces. When removing the mask, he laments that he doesn't know how Batman does it, being "two people at once".
- When Harvey Dent speaks with Vernon while working late at the office, he speaks negatively of the prospect of staying late, but Vernon suggests that it's honorable by pointing out Harvey himself is doing it. Harvey responds that there's "two ways of looking at everything".
- When Calendar Man is first consulted about Holiday he speaks about of them as a "she" before alternating between gender pronouns. Holiday turns out to not only be multiple people, but the first of them was a woman.
- When Alberto is killed by Holiday, the New Year's Eve Calling Card is left exactly where he was shot instead of being placed nearby. Alberto actually faked his death, and likely put down the Calling Card right before shooting himself non-fatally and jumping off the side of the boat. He's also the only Holiday victim to not leave a body behind.
- A recurring motif in the story compares the family lives of Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent. The first time this happens, the Gordon family is unhappily consumed with Jim's work, while the Dent home is a place of love and affection. At the same time, however, the Gordon home is always a place of light and color, while the Dent home is a place of shadow and darkness. As we discover: while the Gordons already have a baby, Harvey and Gilda have struggled and failed to have one; the Gordons eventually make peace, while Harvey and Gilda start drowning in stress and worry. And, ultimately, Gilda is revealed to take credit for the first of the holiday killings.
- When Gilda is shown her new home by Harvey, she is so overjoyed she jumps out of her wheelchair, even though as Harvey points out, she should still be disabled, which hints she isn't as injured as she claims, because is actually the killer
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul:
- Alberto is the Holiday Killer and he wears glasses. They are used to highlight his cold and sinister nature, especially after the reveal.
- There's also Vernon, Harvey's personal assistant, who proves to be The Mole for the Maroni family. He's consistently drawn with glasses so thick that his eyes can't be seen.
- Gag Ears: Certain characters are drawn with exaggeratedly large ears that fit their personalities in some way:
- Alberto Falcone's big ears fit his seemingly awkward, geeky persona, though it turns out to be a front for his true nature as a serious, cold-hearted serial killer.
- Mickey Sullivan's ears give him a Funny Foreigner image due to being part of The Irish Mob. He and his gang are some of the quirkiest baddies in the story (aside from Batman's Rogues Gallery.)
- Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: Poison Ivy's mind control, as demonstrated on Bruce Wayne, makes her victims so blissfully content and peaceful that they agree with everything she says.
- The Ghost: A chart of the organized crime families reveal that Johnny's sister Lucia and Sofia Falcone have two sons each (one of Sofia's is in jail) but none of them ever appear in person in this arc or any other. Several other characters on this chart -Lucia herself, Falcone lieutenant "Killer" Mirti, Sal Maroni's sons Pino and Umberto, and Eddie Skeevers- don't appear in "The Long Halloween" but do show up in "Dark Victory".
- Gone Horribly Right: Gilda became Holiday and started killing mafiosos in a desperate effort to end the Mob's rule over Gotham and thus allow Harvey the freedom to start a family with her. The Holiday murders do take down the Falcone and Maroni families...but they also lead to the rise of Gotham's supervillain era and corrupt Harvey Dent into Two-Face, destroying the Dent marriage forever.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Gordon and Batman take on the respective roles when interrogating Mickey Sullivan.
- Hand Cannon:
- The Joker threatens Maroni with one in the Christmas chapter.
- Mad Hatter is also seen one with in the climax.
- Subverted by Holiday's .22. The .22 is the peashooter of rounds, but in very capable hands it brought a city to its knees. To quote Clapton, "It's in the way you use it".
- He Knows Too Much: In the final issue, Batman deduces this is why the Gotham City Coroner was really killed by Holiday during the Fourth of July. The Coroner had pronounced Alberto Falcone dead… and Alberto has now been revealed to have been Holiday all along. The Coroner thus either knew Alberto was still alive, or had realized something was wrong about his "corpse"; either way, Alberto killed him to protect the secret. Bruce then deduces this is also why Alberto killed his own Aunt Carla Vitti a month later. Carla was going through the coroner's files and would have realized the truth.
- Hero of Another Story: Catwoman's entire motive is not revealed and is not resolved until Dark Victory.
- History Repeats: Catwoman claws at Sofia's face trying to save her, but only manages to give her a scratched face like Carmine's.
- Hit Them in the Pocketbook: In the first chapter, Catwoman learns that Carmine Falcone has been forced to literally stockpile millions of dollars in cash in a warehouse on Gotham's docks because of Bruce Wayne preventing Gotham City Bank from laundering it. She tells Batman about the stash, and he and Harvey Dent team up to burn the entire fortune to the ground, which genuinely enrages Falcone and leads to his vendetta against Dent (including blowing up his home, putting Gilda in the hospital).
- Holiday Motif: Batman tries to discover the culprit behind a series of murders of Gotham mafia bosses that just happen to die on national holidays (e.g., Christmas, New Year, Labor Day, Father's Day, Valentines Day). The true villain depends on the media.
- Hollywood Silencer: A baby's bottle nipple serves as a one-shot silencer for a .22 pistol. The comic kindly asks that you ignore the fact that almost all of the killings involved more than one shot being fired.
- Homage: To The Godfather. Particularly seen in the beginning which sees a man looking at the viewer when speaking to a mafia don, delivering the opening lines "I believe...", while a wedding goes on outside.
- Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: Holiday strikes on Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Independence Day, a birthday, Labor Day, then Halloween again, notably not killing the Riddler (deliberately) on April Fool's Day.
- How the Character Stole Christmas: The Joker pulls this act and even quotes from How the Grinch Stole Christmas! as he steals a tree and presents from a family, and again later when he shows up in Harvey's home to threaten him.
I - N
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming:
- Each issue corresponds with a month, and is named for a holiday that falls in that month. The only exceptions are the first and last (each correspond with October, with the Holiday killings each falling on Halloween) which are named "Crime" and "Punishment".
- August is also a downplayed version: the "holiday" is the Roman's birthday, and the chapter is appropriately titled "Roman Holiday".
- The Irish Mob: There's a small-time operation known as "The Irish", led by Mickey "The Mink" Sullivan.
- Ironic Echo:
- "I believe in Harvey Dent".
- "Two shots to the head. If you ask me, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy."
- "I did what needed to be done."
- "Working late again, Vernon?"
- Ironic Nursery Tune:
- Practically all of Scarecrow's lines are nursery rhymes.
- Also "Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday."
- The Mad Hatter also only talks in lines from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
- And, of course, Joker quotes How the Grinch Stole Christmas as he invades Harvey Dent's new house.
- Irony: Near the end of the story, Alberto tells Carmine (and the audience) that the mob, and gangsters in general, aren't going to play much of a role in Gotham City anymore. He implies that it's time for the aslyum patients to take over and that the city is done with Carmine. Unfortunately for Alberto, while he is clearly unhinged, he isn't insane enough to be sent to Arkham. Instead, after confessing to all of the crimes, he is sentenced to death. It seems the city was also done with Alberto as well, not that he cared. He refuses Carmine's offer to get him out of jail.
- It's All About Me: The Joker doesn't care who Holiday is or anything about the Falcone-Maroni war—he's just angry that someone else is getting all of the public's attention. As such, the Clown Prince of Crime decides to use deadly gas on as many people as possible on New Year's Eve on the offchance that Holiday is in the crowd.
- It's All My Fault: "Mother's Day' reveals that Bruce blames himself for his parents' death. Specifically, he was the one who asked Martha Wayne to wear her pearl necklace to the movies, even though she said the jewels were just for special occasions ("Couldn't we make it special, Mother?"). The fatal mugging began (as always) with Joe Chill demanding the pearls.
- It's Personal: Carmine still has the scars on his face that Catwoman inflicted back in Year One #3. When he takes out a bounty on Batman and Catwoman, he says the latter's name with special venom.
- The Jekyll Is a Jerk: Harvey Dent, before becoming Two-Face, is presented as more cold, obsessive, and even misanthropic than usual — to the point that despite being friends and allies, Batman and Jim Gordon suspect he's Holiday.
- Karma Houdini: Gilda, if one believes her Motive Rant at the end of the story that she committed the Holiday killings initially and covered it up after Alberto continued the murders and took credit for the previous killings.
- Knife Outline: The Riddler gets surrounded by a bullet outline on April Fool's.
- Love Makes You Evil: Gilda Dent, if her internal monologue is to be believed.
- Madness Mantra:
- Solomon Grundy repeatedly says both his own name and "Born on a Monday".
- In "Mother's Day," a fear toxin-afflicted Bruce Wayne repeatedly says "He wanted the pearls. He wanted the pearls..." as he hallucinates Joe Chill killing his parents again.
- The Mafia: Falcone's outfit is a part of it.
- Make an Example of Them: Batman theorizes that this is why Holiday let Edward Nygma, the Riddler, live on April Fool's Day. Falcone hired Nygma to determine Holiday's true identity, showing that he was genuinely worried about the serial killer and at a loss as to who it might be. Riddler's surviving allowed him to share that information with others, which made it clear to everyone that Falcone's grip on the city was slipping.
- Mob War: Holiday's killings place the Falcone and Maroni crime families at each other's throats. In Harvey's words: "They all want to do our job for us".
- Money to Burn: Batman and Harvey Dent decide to attack Carmine Falcone's operations by burning an enormous stockpile of his money.
- Monster Clown: Joker, as always, is a psychotic killer who looks like a clown.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Joker when drawn by Tim Sale looks like his jaw is bigger than the rest of his head.
- Mythology Gag:
- Dent's dialogue is littered with references to the number two.
- Batman refers to criminals as being "superstitious" and "cowards" at one point, referencing one of his most famous quotes from Detective Comics #33.Criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot
- Nobody Suspects the Woman: Subverted. When Carmine Falcone consults the Riddler on the Holiday Killer's identity, Riddler DOES address two women as potential suspects (Carla Viti and Catwoman), but doesn't see them as any more or less likely culprits, and Falcone eventually throws him out on his ass for wasting his time. In the end, the killer's identity remains ambiguous, as Batman believes Holiday was both Alberto Falcone (who claims credit for the bulk of the murders), and Harvey Dent (who cryptically states there were two killers, and Batman theorizes was talking about himself). He never suspects Gilda Dent, Harvey's wife, who is seen disposing of Holiday's gun and costume, mentioning that she had access to Dent's files on Gotham's criminals and wanted him to spend less time working.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Batman goes batshit when he finally gets his hands on Holiday, breaking both of the killer's arms.
- No Longer with Us: No, the Almost Dead Guy meant Dent escaped the operating chamber, not that he died.
- Noodle Incident: The last time anyone sees Poison Ivy at the end of the St. Patrick's Day chapter she's receiving payment from Falcone and is never seen again until the final one, where she's being broken out of Arkham. Presumably Batman caught her and sent her there sometime in between, though how he did so is left to any reader's guess.
- Not Proven: After Alberto is unmasked as Holiday, Batman and Gordon both conclude Carmine had to have known his son wasn't dead and was in on the Holiday killings. But they can't prove it (or at least they're unable to prove it before Two-Face executes Carmine).
- Not So Harmless: Regardless of your thoughts on who Holiday really was, effeminate weakling Alberto manages to sneak into Gotham County Jail and murder Sal Maroni in cold blood. He would have got Gordon too if not for a disguised Batman.
O - Z
- Once an Episode: Nearly every chapter opens on a close shot of a figure in heavy chiaroscuro. (Excusing the Joker, of course, who enters the scene being seen from behind and in full color).
- An Offer You Can't Refuse:
- Maroni offers to testify against Falcone, an offer that Harvey, being District Attorney and all, jumps at.
- Falcone uses strongarm tactics to get the bank's board members on his side. His bodyguard Milos even offers to "convince" Bruce Wayne, but Falcone employs a much more subtle tactic against Gotham's favorite son.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Holiday's pistols come from a weapon maker in Gotham's Chinatown district who goes by the moniker "The Gunsmith"; no one knows his real name, and he's killed on Mother's Day before Sofia Falcone can get him to talk.
- Orgy of Evidence: The Holiday serial killer leaves behind a holiday-themed item at each killing, making it look like there's a pattern. It turns out that Gilda, the original Holiday, knew to plant such evidence to trick the police.
- Pet the Dog: Batman giving Solomon Grundy (this is BEFORE Grundy became a super-villain again) a Thanksgiving dinner.
- Plant Person: Poison Ivy, who up until this point in the comics was usually depicted as a human being with a plant motif, receives a redesign that pushes her into this territory. Her skin is chalk-white, her lips and eyes are green, and—most tellingly of all—her "hair" is now a gigantic, moving set of vines, leaves, and flowers. It's wider and bigger than her entire body (one panel shows that a single vine is able to reach across an entire ten-foot dinner table), and she even seems to control it independently.
- Plot Armor: Though Holiday shows up on April Fool's Day to attack Riddler, they leave him alive as a twisted "prank." Unlike all the other victims, Riddler is a major member of Batman's Rogues Gallery—there was no way he was going to die.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Zig-Zagged with Carmine Falcone. He has nothing but contempt and distrust for the "freaks" like Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, and Joker that are becoming more prevalent in Gotham. However, he also sees that they can do things that his organization can't, and so hires them to help him further his own agenda. It's particularly apparent with Ivy: Carmine pays her to use her mind control power on Bruce Wayne to get him to allow Gotham City Bank to do business with (read: launder money from) Falcone Imports.
- Prehensile Hair: Poison Ivy seems to be able to control the vines and plants growing out of her head like a separate limb. Several panels depict the vines reaching out toward other people.
- Price on Their Head: A plot point in the opening chapter. After the scuffle at the Falcone Penthouse during Johnny Vitti's wedding, the Roman places $1 million bounties on Batman and Catwoman's heads. This naturally doesn't hinder Bruce's activities, but Selina by contrast is forced to lay low for several months. As Batman later speculates, this is likely why Catwoman gives him and Harvey Dent intel about the Roman's warehouse: destroying Falcone's stockpiled money will take all his attention off her.
- Properly Paranoid: Carla Viti died in August when she broke into the coroner's office to look at the files on the Holiday killings, with the obvious implication she suspected something was wrong about Alberto's supposed death. She was right and got killed for it.
- Psycho for Hire: As Holiday's activities wear down Falcone's organization, he's driven to working with Poison Ivy, Riddler, Scarecrow and Mad Hatter, against his better judgment. He really should have listened to that better judgment; in the last issue Two-Face leads them all in a raid on Falcon's penthouse that ends with the gangster's death.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Organized crime has been almost completely neutralized, only to be replaced by the arguably worse supervillain element—and Gotham's DA now among the supervillains.
- Rats in a Box: The interrogation of the Irish Gang.
- Red Herring: The Calendar Man. He implies that February—with its numerous holidays—will be a bloodbath, but the only real killing occurs on Valentine's Day, which Calendar Man never brought up. He likewise gets passed over entirely when Two-Face breaks the big players out of prison. There does happen to be a bloodbath between Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day, but that's from Maroni taking out hits on Falcone's men, and these aren't indicated to be holiday killings.
- Remember the New Guy?: When the supervillains of the story gather in Falcone's office in the final chapter, the Penguin—who hasn't appeared in the plot at all—is part of the group, although he doesn't get any lines. Penguin would get more attention in Dark Victory, so presumably this was an Early-Bird Cameo (tee hee).
- The Resenter:
- Harvey is shown through the story to resent Bruce's lot in life, thinking Bruce doesn't care about other people and unaware that he's Batman.
- Alberto Falcone. Brushed aside numerous times when attempting to join the family business (Alberto even got an M.B.A.—a Master of Business Administration!), he ultimately accuses his father of a lifetime of neglect. According to his Motive Rant in the interrogation room, despite the family business being handed down from father to son, Alberto grew tired of being shut out of the mafia's affairs and instead decided to remake himself as Holiday—that is, one of the supervillains, the rival power to the falling mafiosos.
- The Reveal: A couple different ones that make for an Ambiguous Ending. Initially it's revealed that Alberto Falcone, previously believed to be another victim of Holiday, is actually Holiday himself, and he claims responsibility for all of the murders. However, when Dent is arrested he says that there were two Holidays, and while Batman assumes this refers to Dent killing Falcone on Halloween, Dent's wife Gilda claims in the final pages that she started the Holiday killings, but that she suspects Dent might have been responsible for some of them, particularly the "killing" of Alberto. Ultimately, which killings were done by which individuals is completely up in the air. The only exception is the final "official" Holiday killing of Maroni, which was without a doubt committed by Alberto.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Two-Face brutally kills Vernon, who was planted in his office by the Maroni family, for betraying his trust.
- A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside an Enigma: When Falcone brings in the Riddler in the hopes his perspective can shed some light on the mystery:The Riddler: It's a mystery. Broken into a jigsaw puzzle. Wrapped in a conundrum. Hidden in a Chinese box. A riddle.
- Rogues Gallery Showcase: Many of Batman's famous villains manage to work their way into the plot in some form or another. Specifically: The Joker, Catwoman, Calendar Man, the Riddler, Solomon Grundy, Poison Ivy, the Mad Hatter, the Scarecrow, the Penguin and, of course, Two-Face.
- Room Full of Crazy: Calendar Man's cell is covered with calendar pages and news clippings of Holiday's crimes.
- Run the Gauntlet: Much like Jeph Loeb's other Bat-books, this one practically parades all of Batman's major rogues. God bless him for it.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: Alberto is often pictured with opaque lenses in early chapters when his father discusses "business".
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Harvey Dent rants that this is why no one can touch Falcone: he's successfully bought off police officers, judges, and politicians, so he never faces consequences for his actions. We see this in action in the Thanksgiving chapter: the Irish Gang openly confesses to attempted murder by trying to blow up the Dent home, but they make bail in less than an hour.
- Self-Made Orphan: Jonathan Crane (the future Scarecrow) killed his mom. On Mother's Day.
- Serial Killer: Holiday, who kills on a holiday every month, leaving behind their gun and a small symbol of the holiday in question.
- Shout-Out:
- Many, especially to The Godfather.
- Most notably, the first words in both the film and the comic are "I believe in..."
- When Maroni goes to visit his father for advice, his father tells him "You can act like a man!"
- The Joker breaks into a family's house on Christmas and steals their presents, while quoting lines from How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.
- One of the minor hit-men working for Carmine has a Verbal Tic of saying everything twice, with the nickname "Two Times." A gangster with the same tic and nickname shows up in GoodFellas.
- The title, and part of the plot, are a reference to The Long Good Friday, which also centres around traditional criminals (The Mafia here, a London Gangster in the film) being pushed out by a new breed of criminal (super villains here, the IRA in the film).
- Calendar Man's depiction is basically one long nod to Hannibal Lecter, especially as played by Anthony Hopkins.
- Many, especially to The Godfather.
- Smug Snake: Calendar Man. He really has fun jerking Batman around.
- Spared for Humor's Sake: The Holiday Killer is a serial killer who targets mobsters, striking once a month and always on a holiday. The one exception is the month of April: in honor of April Fools' Day, Holiday instead corners The Riddler in an alley and fires enough bullets to leave an outline of him in the wall behind, but pointedly lets the Riddler himself walk away unscathed.
- Spin-Off: As noted in the introduction, The Long Halloween came about in part due to Loeb and Sale's work on the Batman Halloween Specials from 1993-1995.
- Spoiler Cover: Downplayed. Two-Face is featured on the cover of the book, although Harvey Dent becoming Two-Face is a twist that doesn't happen until late in the story. However, people who are familiar with the Batman franchise should already know it's coming, considering that the character had been around for over 50 years at the comic's release.
- Start of Darkness: Story serves as one for Harvey Dent, whose devotion to take down The Roman slowly transforms him into Two-Face.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Batman of course remains a master of the technique, but Holiday also has a talent for appearing suddenly to shoot their victims then disappearing just as fast. Gordon even points out the similarities.Batman: Whoever Holiday is, he or she can always get up close. Suggesting that the killer knows his or her victims.
Gordon: I've seen you get in pretty close without anybody noticing. - The Smurfette Principle: Carla Viti is the only deliberately-killed female victim of Holiday's murder spree (some of the patrons of the bombed restaurant on Valentine's Day were women, but they weren't Holiday's intended targets).
- Superhero Paradox: Lampshaded. Gordon points out that the number of inmates at Arkham Asylum has doubled since Batman started operating, and wonders if there's a connection.
- Talking the Monster to Death: Dent calms down Solomon Grundy from a murderous rage by continuing the nursery rhyme the brute is named after and that he constantly repeats.
- These Gloves Are Made for Killin': This trope occurs whenever the Holiday Killer strikes as they murder their victims while wearing gloves of the dark leather variety with Menacing Hand Shot in Deliberately Monochrome colors.
- Title Drop: Falcone angrily tells Batman that the mob have been calling the Holiday incident the "Long Halloween"—a night of macabre horror that started last Halloween, with no end in sight.
- Took a Level in Badass: The Calendar Man. This is the story that gave this guy any credibility towards his status as a villain. Unfortunately, this was rarely followed up on again until Batman: Arkham City.
- Two Girls to a Team: Both groups of villains—the Mob and the "costume freaks"—have two prominent female characters each. For the Mob, it's Carla Viti (Johnny Viti's mother and a mob boss in her own right) and Sofia Falcone Gigante (the Roman's daughter and favorite child who loves him unconditionally); for the supervillains, it's Catwoman (who, while not entirely evil, is still a thief) and Poison Ivy (who's hired by the Roman to hypnotize Bruce Wayne).
- The Un-Favorite: Sofia, bless her heart, whose Father's Day gift gets barely a word of thanks out of Carmine and who takes on a certain dull look later in the story during a conversation about Alberto. It also bears noting that Carmine has been letting Sofia sit in jail for who knows how long before finally summoning her from prison on St. Patrick's Day.
- Unreliable Narrator: Even Batman doesn't have a complete grip on the facts of the case, so his conclusions are just as suspect as anything else in the story.
- The Un-Reveal:
- Batman tries to figure out why Catwoman keeps showing up whenever he goes after Falcone, but it's never explained until Dark Victory.
- Just who the Holiday Killer really was. Alberto takes credit and he without a doubt committed the last killing (Maroni), but the ending suggests it was Gilda, Harvey's sweet, gentle wife who was Holiday, or at least the original one. And even then, she speculates that her husband committed some of the murders.
- The Vamp: Poison Ivy uses her plants to seduce Bruce Wayne and gets him to get Gotham City Bank to do dealings with Falcone's business on the latter's behalf.
- Verbal Tic: Many of the villains do this as if they can only speak in line with their personal gimmick. Riddler speaks entirely in riddles (which gets downplayed in the sequel), Mad Hatter only speaks in lines from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Scarecrow speaks only in nursery rhymes (for... some reason) and Solomon Grundy can only say "Solomon Grundy born on a Monday." Two-Face completing the rest of the poem seems to win Grundy to his cause.
- Wacky Wayside Tribe: The Joker's attempt to spread his poison into Gotham Square on New Year's Eve is only tangentially related to the overall plot — Joker figures Holiday is "probably" in the crowd and is going to kill him for stealing away Joker's spot as most infamous supervillain in Gotham.
- Was It Really Worth It?: At the end of the story, in light of of Harvey Dent's transformation into Two-Face and his subsequent killing of Carmine Falcone, Batman and Jim Gordon have this moment.Batman: The promise that we made to bring down the Roman. What it cost us. Harvey...
Gordon: If you're asking me "Did the good guys win?" Yes, the good guys won, Batman. But, I won't know if it was worth it for a very long time... - "Well Done, Son" Guy: Alberto just wants to impress his father, but Falcone wants to keep Alberto out of the family business. Sofia too, as seen in "Father's Day".
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Gilda began the Holiday killings with the best of intentions—she wanted to start a family with Harvey, but he was too obsessed with his work against the Mob to focus on their marriage. She figured that if the mobsters were dead, Harvey could finally relax, and so took up the guise of Holiday to speed the process along.
- Wham Shot: The final page of the penultimate issue after Sal Maroni is assassinated by Holiday while in GCPD custody. In the darkened hallway, Gordon shines his flashlight on the serial killer...and it's not Harvey Dent as he and Batman had feared. Holiday is none other than the "deceased" Alberto Falcone.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Meta example. According to Loeb, this is actually how Editor Archie Goodwin roped him and Tim Sale into what would become The Long Halloween. During breakfast at the San Diego Comic-Con in the mid-1990's, he wondered aloud whatever happened to Carmine Falcone and the other mobsters from Year One. Once they'd confirmed Frank Miller wasn't going to use them again, the rest is history.
- What You Are in the Dark: Lampshaded by Harvey when he says that it would be very easy to get away with stealing from Carmine Falcone's mountains of untraceable cash he stores in a warehouse, meaning if it were "two other guys" rather than him and Batman...
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: Carmine might say he loves his son more than anything in the world, but Alberto reveals this is a more accurate portrayal of their relationship. Carmine is overjoyed to see his son is alive again... but when Alberto asks, he can't even recall his birthday. Batman's opinion, for what it's worth, is that their final argument is being staged for his and the police's benefit, because Carmine clearly visits Alberto's grave on his birthday - Valentine's Day.
- You Are Too Late:
- Sofia Gigante Falcone tortures a Mook on Mother's Day for whatever information he has on Holiday. He eventually blabs that the serial killer's .22 caliber pistols come from a weapon maker in Chinatown known only as "The Gunsmith." She heads there to continue her investigation, only to find that Holiday beat her to the punch and chose the Gunsmith for their Mother's Day murder, leaving behind the Calling Card of a basket of flowers.
- Holiday pulls a similar trick on St. Patrick's Day. Sofia plans to lead a hit on one of Maroni's safehouses under the assumption that he's the killer, but the real Holiday shows up in the early hours of the morning, when it's technically St. Patrick's Day, to wipe out every mobster in the building (although Maroni himself survives).