Batman: The Long Halloween is one of the most celebrated limited series in the character’s history. Written by Jeph Loeb with art by Tim Sale, it follows a Dark Knight at the beginning of his crime fighting career trying to take down a mysterious serial killer known only as Holiday. Over the course of the story, a gang war erupts between Gotham’s crime families and we get appearances from most of Batman’s rogues gallery, who are also in their early years.
It’s been hugely influential since its 1996 publication, showing the hero in a (relatively) realistic, psychologically grounded and adult-orientated situation. All of which makes sense why it’s been selected for the DC Universe Animated Original Movie treatment. This has seen popular Batman comics like The Dark Knight Returns, Under the Red Hood, Hush, The Killing Joke, Gotham by Gaslight and Son of Batman adapted for animation and the results are usually pretty good.
Like The Dark Knight Returns, The Long Halloween will be split into two parts, which are coming in summer and fall of this year respectively. Part 1 has now officially been rated by the MPAA, who’ve given it a PG-13 for “violence, bloody images, language and some smoking.”
This rating is a good indication that it’ll be an accurate adaptation of the comic, but while I’m sure the story will be well told, I just hope the animation captures Sale’s memorable depictions of Gotham’s weird inhabitants. For me, the art is the main attraction of The Long Halloween and I’ve often been disappointed in how DC’s animated films take unique graphic styles and file away the edges to make them more generic looking (and cheaper to animate).
If the first part’s been rated, though, it’s likely we’ll see some images or a teaser trailer soon, potentially alongside the release of the next DC animated movie Justice Society: World War II, which is coming at some point in the next few months. Fingers crossed for a full Batman: The Long Halloween reveal shortly.