Loeb hasn’t aged that well for me and while I was a huge fan at one point, his stuff isn’t quite as solid now as I remembered it. Surprisingly, I still found myself enjoying this re-read. Having already added the Absolute Batman: The Long Halloween and Absolute Batman: Dark Victory to my collection, I grabbed this latest Absolute edition, pulled up my adult diaper, and strapped in for a trip down memory lane. Hard to believe I picked up these stories as they were released back in the day. That also gathers Loeb and Sale’s Catwoman collaboration When in Rome.I can’t friggin stand that some of this stuff is over 20 years old. It is rather surprising, therefore, that an Absolute edition has been issued.

This isn’t essential Batman, nor essential Loeb and Sale, but neither is it flat or disappointing. There are imaginative layouts, the well designed Poison Ivy and a stylised Joker that hasn’t yet crossed into the unworkable creation he’d become by Dark Victory. Their combined displays contribute to humanising him in a touching fashion. Long before the over-wrought Noel, Loeb appropriates Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol plot, and the ghosts of past, present and future manifest before Batman. It was a set piece either Sale or Loeb was very fond of during this period. The first part is a mundane fight with the Penguin, notable only for more glass being smashed as someone dives through. The third, story, though, is the clincher and is the signpost toward what would be achieved with The Long Halloween. Loeb’s secondary plot is an improvement, playing off Barbara’s desire for independence against her step-father’s natural instinct to protect her, but the remainder of the story is professional, yet ordinary. A youthful Barbara Gordon features, and Sale makes fine use of her round-lensed spectacles as a decorative motif, opaque in the manner of all glasses he illustrates. It’s bettered, however, by the following year’s Mad Hatter tale. It doubles as game of spot the guest for the more knowledgeable comic reader. He channels the light and shade of 1940s comics, but the look is never dated, and the effort put into a scene of a costume ball at Wayne Manor is impressive. The opening encounter with the Scarecrow is an acceptable Batman story with the art better than the plot, which has a couple of logical lapses, one being the cumulative wealth of so many millionaires is required for what? There’s the occasional wonky face or odd pose, but it shows that from his earliest professional days Sale was an extremely effective stylist. There’s a distinct progression from year to year.

Prior to their immensely successful The Long Halloween, the team of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale produced three Batman Halloween specials between 19, collected in Haunted Knight.

Batman haunted knight