BATMAN THE LONG HALLOWEEN #1
The Long Halloween issue #1 by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. This first issue titeled "Crime" starts out with Bruce Wayne having a conversation with Carmine "The Roman" Falcone at his nephew, Johnny Vitti's wedding. Bruce tells Carmine that he would not allow his money to be laundered through his bank. After that conversation we see Harvey Dent(then District Attorney) sneeking around the parking garage at the wedding writing down the car's license plates. He gets caught in the act and gets beat down and warned to stay away. Dent wakes up with Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle(Catwoman) leaning over him trying to help him out. Harvey Dent seeing the two as just society types stalks off and says he had work to do that people like them wouldn't do, in so many words. Shortly after we see Catwoman breaking into Falcone's safe, but ends up being stopped by the appearence of Batman. The two squabble awhile until they get caught in the Falcone mansion by a few of the gangsters men. Lead flys, but thankfully Batman and Catwoman escape with their lives. "The Roman", after finding out about the break-in, puts a million dollar bounty on Batman and Catwomans heads. Then later on we see Batman, James Gordon, and Harvey Dent meet up and make a pact to bring down Carmine "The Roman" Falcone, legally! The month of July comes around, Bruce Wayne and the rest of the board of directors have their monthly meeting to discus letting Carmine bank with them. The head of the board Richard Danial(being payed off by Carmine to make sure his money goes into their bank), and the rest of the board agree to let Carmine bank with them. Bruce Wayne disagrees with them and declares he would make sure Carmine would not have his dirty money at their bank! Later on that night Richard Danial gets a visit by the Dark Knight. Batman tells the Board Director to keep Falcone's money out of the bank. Danial's frightened, resigns and Bruce Wayne takes over as head of the bank. Thus keeping the dirty money out of his bank. August. Carmine Falcone orders his nephew Johnny Vitti to kill Richard Danial. In September Richard Danial's is killed. October comes around, with it the first Holiday kill occurs. Johnny Vitti is shot and killed while taking a bath! The killer, at the crime scene, leaves behind the murder weapon(with the baby bottle nipple used as a silencer) and a small jack o' lantern. And so it begins! At the end of this issue we see Catwoman lead Batman and Harvey Dent to a warehouse filled with Falcone's unlaundered money. Bats and Dent burn the warehouse along with the dirty money! Carmine "The Roman" Falcone retaliates quickly. He has the Dent house blown up! And Seemingly while Harvey and Gilda Dent is still inside! And thats the end of this first issue. In my opinion i thought this was an excellent first issue. A wonderful first issue in this mega series. I def recommend picking this up and giving it a read. So go get this!
