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Awesome / The Long Halloween

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  • If nothing else, this series deserves one for its use of the Calendar Man. Lame, forgettable villain with a dumb gimmick? In this comic he's a Hannibal Lecter-style genius, who claims to know the truth behind the Holiday case, and enjoys rubbing it in Batman's face. Not just his personality is improved on, his appearance is also greatly redesigned, giving him an almost albino skin and an always-calm demeanor.
  • Batman's fight in the climax, where he takes on Mad Hatter, Scarecrow, the Penguin, Solomon Grundy, Joker. He's helped somewhat by Catwoman.
  • Batman stopping Joker from spraying a square with poison gas on New Year's Eve, fighting him aboard the crop-duster.
  • Batman and the police tracking down the guy who bombed Harvey Dent's house from a nail.
  • Thomas Wayne saving Falcone's life after the assassination attempt 20 years in the past. His status as a medical doctor is usually an Informed Ability, but here he saves a man who's been basically ventilated with bullets, with nothing but his doctors bag and Alfred assisting him. Unknown to Thomas, young Bruce is watching from the staircase, and thinks of watching his fathers work as "being like magic".
  • Wimpy, weakwilled Alberto being revealed as the true identity of the Holiday Killer. By contrast, this is like finding out that Fredo Corleone from The Godfather was the mastermind behind everything that hit his father and brothers. If he was the Holiday killer for all the hits (it's possible there were up to three different killers), that would give him a bodycount of dozens.
  • Harvey Dent's degeneration into "Two-Face" almost comes off as triumphant, as in the span of two days, he effects his own escape from the hospital, brings Solomon Grundy under his sway, releases Arkham's most dangerous "freaks" and leads them on an attack on Carmine Falcone's mansion, kills his nemesis while delivering a spectacular Ironic Echo /Bond One-Liner combo, and ties up the last loose end with the treacherous Vernon Fields' death. Though it cost him his reputation, social standing, and soul, the birth of Two-Face and his subsequent Roaring Rampage of Revenge is nevertheless a thing of tragic beauty.

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