I have recently finished “The Long Halloween” and I just have some questions regarding continuity. I know that the New 52 and Rebirth has basically mad the whole issue of continuity rely on a pick-and-choose solution. But let me ask anyway.
I know that “Year One” comes before “The Long Halloween”. But are there any stories in between I should know about? What about what came after “The Long Halloween”? I’m interested in checking out “The Black Mirror” and I want to know if it has any connection to “Year One” and “The Long Halloween”. I mainly ask because I know in “The Black Mirror” there is a grown version of Jjames Gordon Jr.
Now on a side note…when the H*ll did DC decide to give Gordon a son? I always thought he only had the daughter, but between his sudden important role in stories like “Black Mirror” and “The Death of the Family” I just want to figure out just how important he is and what kind of stories he has been in.
After The Long Halloween there’s a sequel called Dark Victory, and taking place in the middle of it is a Catwoman side story called When in Rome. It should be noted that the continuity of those have always been kind of questionable.
As for James Gordon Jr, he does become a big part of the Bat mythos, especially in the Batgirl title and other Batman stories, and that’s all I’m going to say without spiling anything.
Both The Long Halloween and Dark Victory are hard to reconcile with other “early career” post-Crisis Batman stories. The Long Halloween is essentially an expanded version of Batman Annual #14, and most stories will assume that BA14 is the canonical origin of Two-Face instead of TLH. (That’s largely due to the presence of villains in TLH who shouldn’t predate Two-Face.) One exception is Two-Face: Year One, which directly acknowledges TLH.
James Gordon Jr as a baby in Year One. Pretty sure Black Mirror briefly mentions Year One. They’re certainly linked in some ways but the books are also decades and hundreds of issues apart.
If you’re asking if you should read Year One first the answer is 1000% yes. It’s one of the best and most important Batman stories, if not the best and most important Batman story. To me, it should be the first Batman book anyone reads. It’ll also give you a lot of context for Jim Gordon as a character which will certainly enhance Black Mirror and many other Batman stories you read.
Long Halloween is definitely meant to be a follow up for Year One. But I don’t think Black Mirror references anything significant from The Long Halloween.
Black Mirror is connected to Year One via James Gordon Junior because it explains what happened to him between Year One and the “present-day” continuity.
Miller was originally trying to write Barbara out of continuity in favor of an infant son - James Jr. - but bringing The Killing Joke into canon ironically saved Babs from nonexistence.
As for The Long Halloween and other prequels, some of the Legends of the Dark Knight stories presumably take place in the same general time frame, but the continuity on those is pretty loose.
Actually, now after finishing “Year One”, I’m not sure if these 2 stories share continuity. Selena Kyle in LH is Caucasian with long hair. In YO, she seems to be African American with extremely short hair. Also, I just feel like there is a gap missing in between YO and LH that just feels off
They are both very good stories, I just don’t feel like they really are connected
On the Selina point, you may just be running into the art style. Sure, the hair’s different, but if you look at this image, her skin is clearly lighter than Bruce’s. With the dark, washed-out pallet and the haircut, she does look black in some shots, though.
That gap is probably because there are a bunch of Legends of the Dark Knight stories taking place in that era as well. For example, the fact that the police aren’t quite as hostile to Batman is something that was developed in the “Prey” arc by Doug Moench from issues 11-15.
I’ll grant that they don’t have a ton to do with one another plotwise, but there’s no reason they can’t share a continuity.
Just know going in that Jeph Loeb goes out of his way to contradict this series in Catwoman: When in Rome. In fact, this miniseries had already been contradicted by other retellings of Catwoman’s origin that were trying to pretend that Frank Miller’s version of the character wasn’t reeeeeeeally a sex worker. Newell stayed faithful to Miller’s intent, for better or worse.
And as a bonus, you’ll quickly realize that Tim Burton must have thumbed through this comic and taken note of some of the panels before making Batman Returns. (Note: I didn’t say that he read the captions.)
The Long Halloween is definitely in continuity with Year One. Aside from the references and direct carry-overs to Year One, like Falcone’s scar, that’s the pretense that Loeb and Sale were approached by DC with. Character appearances always vary greatly from book to book with different artists and Sale has a very distinct style.
Also LH isn’t meant to take place immediately after Year One. It’s just in the same continuity. In Year One Batman has no rogues gallery and in LH he has a full rogues gallery. There’s a gap. There’s a few other stories that are meant to be direct follow ups to Year One and take place before LH. I highly recommend the following:
-Batman: Dark Moon Rising by Matt Wagner. Includes Batman: Monster Men (Not the Rebirth nonsense) and Batman: Mad Monk
-Batman: The Man Who Laughs (Joker’s introduction)
Both of those are written as pretty direct sequels to Year One. Would also check out the Legends of the Dark Knight series which was also meant to spin out of Year One’s continuity.
Dark Victory is a sequel to The Long Halloween, with both old and new characters. It even has Mr. Freeze put into it along with Robin along with his own origin. Anyone who has read The Long Halloween, should read it. Also Haunted Knight is rather before or after both of them making these 3 Batman comics a holy trilogy of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s take on the Caped Crusader himself.
OK, If our interested in stuff between Year One and Long Halloween, check out Legends of the Dark Knight #1-23, it fills in the gaps and sets up Long Halloween. After that read Dark Victory, Robin Year One and Batgirl Year One. The whole James Jr thing is explained in a story called Batman: Night Cries. It is sadly to dark to be on here, but the hardcover on ebay is $10.
Black Mirror does have minor connections to Year One, but as long as you read it, you will understand everything.
