History ComicBook / TheLongHalloween

* TheUnreveal: Batman tries to figure out why Catwoman keeps showing up whenever he goes after Falcone, but it's never explained [[spoiler: until ''ComicBook/DarkVictory'']].

* KillEmAll: The Joker approaches both Sal Maroni and Carmine Falcone on Christmas and threatens to kill everyone in Gotham City if they can't figure out who Holiday is.

* WeaponOfChoice: Holiday's custom .22 pistol, based off the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruger_MK_II Ruger Mk. II]].

* RoguesGalleryShowcase: Most of Batman's more famous villains manage to work their way briefly into the plot.

* VerbalTic: Many of the villains do this UpToEleven 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.

* NiceHat: Mad Hatter & Scarecrow (the former's hat is about three feet tall).

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: ''ComicBook/DarkVictory'' and ''ComicBook/CatwomanWhenInRome''.

* AccidentallyAccurate: "April Fool's Day" consists largely of Carmine Falcone hiring the Riddler to solve the mystery of Holiday's identity. [[spoiler: Riddler inadvertently hits upon a crucial clue during his theorizing. He points out that the .22 pistol is a lightweight, easily-wielded weapon "perfect for a woman." His own idea is that Catwoman or Carla Viti is the killer, but it's actually Gilda who used the pistols as the "first" Holiday.]]

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: Most of the classic Batman villains featured in the book, including Joker, Riddler, Two-Face, Scarecrow, and Mad Hatter, don't have any superpowers beyond genius-level intellect--which makes [[GreenThumb Poison Ivy's]] presence all the more noteworthy. Her ability to use mind control via plants is depicted as unique among all of Gotham's criminals. Tellingly, she's drawn with completely white skin, green lips, impossibly high cheekbones, and a mass of leaves and vines growing out of her scalp as "hair," hinting at her [[AmbiguouslyHuman otherworldly]] nature.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: 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.

* BoringButPractical: 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 flashiest use of her powers, but it solves a major problem for him and has lasting effects on both Wayne and Gotham in general.

* AccidentallyAccurate: "April Fool's Day" consists largely of Carmine Falcone hiring the Riddler to solve the mystery of Holiday's identity. [[spoiler: Riddler inadvertently hits upon two crucial clues during his theorizing. First, he outright guesses that Alberto Falcone is Holiday and may have faked his own death--which, of course, is exactly what happened. Earlier, though, he points out that the .22 pistol is a lightweight, easily-wielded weapon "perfect for a woman." His own idea is that Catwoman is the killer, but it's actually Gilda, who is equally inexperienced with guns, who used the pistols as the "first" Holiday.]]

* BackForTheDead: Used somewhat in ''The Long Halloween'' - 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.

* TheBigGirl: A villanous example, Sofia Falcone Gigante, the Roman's daughter.

** Johnny Vitti and his mother, Carla.

** Carla Vitti truly loved her son Johnny, and his death further strains the already fragile relationship between her and Carmine.

* EvilMatriarch: Carla Vitti, Falcone's sister and Mob Boss.

* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler: Alberto, supposedly killed one minute after midnight on New Year's Day, actually staged his own death, then took up the mantle of the Holiday Killer for at least one other murder.]]

** First thing we see Dent do is talk to himself in the third person, foreshadowing his split personality when he becomes Two-Face.

** There's also [[spoiler: Vernon, Harvey's personal assistant, who proves to be TheMole for the Falcone family. He's consistently drawn with glasses so thick that his eyes can't be seen.]]

* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: Holiday strikes on Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, 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.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: 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 Falcons can get him to talk.

* PlotArmor: Like you’d actually kill the Riddler.

* ProperlyParanoid: [[spoiler: Carla Vitti 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.]]

* RememberTheNewGuy: 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 EarlyBirdCameo.

* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: Two Face guns down his former co worker Vernon for betraying Harvey Dent to the mob, giving the acid to Maroni that was thrown in his face.

* TheSmurfettePrinciple: [[spoiler: Carla Vitti]] is the only deliberately-killed female victim of Holiday's murder spree (presumably some of the patrons of the bombed restaurant on Valentine's Day were women, but they weren't Holiday's intended targets).

* TwoGirlsToATeam: Both groups of villains--the Mob and the "costume freaks"--have two prominent female characters each. For the Mob, it's Carla Vitti (Johnny Vitti'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).
* TheUnreveal: Batman tries to figure out why Catwoman keeps showing up whenever he goes after Falcone, but it's never explained [[spoiler: until ComicBook/DarkVictory]].
* TheVamp: Poison Ivy uses her plants to seduce Bruce Wayne and [[spoiler:gets him to get Wayne Enterprise to do dealings with Falcone's business on the latter's behalf]].

* WasItReallyWorthIt: At the end of ''ComicBook/TheLongHalloween'', 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.

* YouAreTooLate: Sofia Gigante Falcons 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 CallingCard of a basket of flowers.
** Holiday pulls a similar trick on St. Patrick's Day. Sofia correctly guesses that one of Maroni's safehouses will be the killer's target, so Holiday commits a mass shooting there in the early hours of the morning when it's ''technically'' St. Patrick's Day to prevent her from being on the scene.

* MoneyToBurn: Batman and Harvey Dent decide to attack Carmine Falcone's operations by burning an enormous stockpile of his money. Ever wonder where ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' got the inspiration for that scene?
* MonsterClown: Joker, Joker, Joker.

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: ComicBook/SolomonGrundy's "hideout".

* AssholeVictim: Most of Holiday's victims are mobsters. The only exceptions are some innocent patrons who witnessed Holiday's Valentine's Day murder of Falcone's men, a gun store owner Holiday had been buying from, and the coroner [[spoiler:who had pronounced Alberto Falcone dead when he was actually alive, and might have been corrupt]]. Lampshaded by Dent after Johnny Vitti is murdered. "[[DoubleTap Two shots to the head]]. If you ask me, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy".

A [[MovieMultiPack two-part]] AnimatedAdaptation of the story [[https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/dc-animated-films-2021-announcement has been announced]] to release in 2021, entitled ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheLongHalloween''. The same year, DC [[https://ew.com/books/batman-the-long-halloween-new-comic/ also announced]] a follow-up special by Loeb and Sale.

The series, which is a pseudo-sequel to ''ComicBook/BatmanYearOne'', 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 CallingCard, the press quickly dubs them "Holiday" (the title refers to the first murder, which was on Halloween).

A [[MovieMultiPack two-part]] AnimatedAdaptation of the story [[https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/dc-animated-films-2021-announcement has been announced]] to release in 2021, entitled ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheLongHalloween''.