Distinguished Critique: Batman: Haunted Knight Review
Loeb and Sale celebrate the Halloween season with a trio of issues which artfully, though imperfectly, explore the man behind Batman's mask
—by Nathan on October 31, 2025—
I'm not going to spend too much time overemphasizing how important this review is to me, but it seems like a good place to start.
But first: Happy Halloween, folks! I personally don't consider Halloween much of a holiday, at least not on the same level as I do Christmas, Thanksgiving, or Easter. We never got Halloween off from school, even as a homeschooled kid. I have fond memories of trick-or-treating and fun costumes growing up, and I always appreciated the surplus of chocolate, but it's more of a "gateway" holiday for me, making way for bigger celebrations capping off the end of the year. Halloween means the turn in to fall and Thanksgiving (and, as it so happens, my birthday), followed shortly by winter and Christmas (though not always in that order!). It's a pleasant enough "holiday," even if it just means getting some excess candy, but it's not cemented in my mind as a cornerstone celebration.
If you've read other reviews of mine, particularly of the Batman variety, you'll likely know of, at least in passing, my abiding fondness for Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Batman: The Long Halloween. It has long been my absolute favorite comic I've ever read, and part of that reason is nostalgia. I first read Long Halloween during those autumn weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and my birthday, and my fondness for that specific segment of the calendar year bled into my appreciation for the narrative.
But it's not all candy-coated ruminations of the past which have shot Long Halloween into the upper echelons of my memory; my love for the series also spawns from just how wonderfully crafted a tale it is, a marvelous murder mystery written with love by Loeb and painstakingly illustrated by the late Sale. The dialogue is crisp, the illustrations are gorgeous, the foregrounded mystery woven fantastically with fun character bits, appearances by Batman's rogues gallery, and well-threaded subplots. We watch Harvey Dent transform into Two-Face, Batman graciously leave a Thanksgiving dinner for Solomon Grundy, and Catwoman experience heartache over her divisive feelings for the Dark Knight Detective.
I don't enjoy the sequel, Batman: Dark Victory, quite as much. The narrative, at times, feels derivative of the former, over-reliant on the same tricks which make Long Halloween great. Since reading both stories, I've gone on to encounter Loeb and Sale in other narratives, such as their "color" series at Marvel (Spider-Man: Blue, Hulk Gray, Daredevil: Yellow, and Captain America: White) and their absolutely wonderful take on Clark Kent in Superman: For All Seasons. But one contribution to the Batman mythos has remained untouched, sitting on my shelves, for quite some time, and with it being the holiday which inspired Loeb and Sale's magnum opus, as well as the three tales collected here, I wanted to finally provide my thoughts.
These Legends of the Dark Knight specials represent Loeb and Sale's first collaboration on Batman (though not their first collaboration overall–that honor goes to a Challengers of the Unknown series which I'm currently reading in the hopes of providing a review). As such, I recommend you read them even before I give my review. You want to see the seeds which grew into not just Long Halloween and Dark Victory but all of Loeb and Sale's collaborations, you look here. Before there ever was a long Halloween, our Dark Knight experienced a few long nights, of the soul and otherwise.
Batman: Haunted Knight
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Penciler: Tim Sale
Inker: Tim Sale
Colorist: Gregory Wright
Letterer: Todd Klein
Issues: Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Specials #1-3
Publication Dates: December 1993, November 1994, December 1995
When I reviewed Dark Victory, I called it "derivative," as I mentioned above, because it followed similar themes and plot beats to Long Halloween. Murders on holidays, a mysterious killer, the significant involvement of Harvey Dent...Loeb and Sale leaned heavily into what they knew. Dark Victory is its own sequel in several ways–the story marks the rise of "costumed criminals" to replace the mob, it shows the origin of Dick Grayson as Robin–but it feels, in other ways, so similar to its predecessor that, ultimately, it's never reached those same heights of wonder for me.
When I first read the specials comprising Haunted Knight, I felt similarly.
What initially disappointed me about these three specials is that they were all one-shots, promising one-and-done stories that could not, in my mind, rise to the same level of artistry as Loeb and Sale's first epic-length collaboration. I had spoiled myself on how grippingly told Long Halloween was that I allowed my pedestal putting to dampen other narratives. It made for a poorer reading experience, which I will gladly state was largely rectified this time around.
Note that I did say "largely."
It's nearly impossible to not allow my love of Long Halloween to flavor my reading experience of these stories or my review. I think I've spent more time hyping up Loeb and Sale's thirteen-issue saga than discussing this story. So without further distraction, let's reach into the plastic pumpkin and pull out something savory and sweet:
Loeb and Sale nail Batman.
What becomes quickly and clearly apparent reading these issues is that they're not merely a "prologue" to Long Halloween in exemplifying how well the duo works together, though they do exemplify the pair's working style exceedingly well. These Legends of the Dark Knight specials showcase that, even before they could dream of a lengthy epic, Loeb and Sale could craft highly interesting takes on Batman's character driven by a unique theme woven in different ways throughout each issue: obsession. Loeb completely understands the sheer totality with which Batman has subsumed Bruce Wayne's life, and in each issue, highlights a specific area of Bruce's existence which Batman has impacted, possibly even corrupted.
Taking place on different Halloweens, each special is given the opportunity to unpack the heart of a man who routinely wears masks far beyond the age of any trick-or-treating ghost or vampire. Bruce is placed into situations where he must abandon the pursuit of love in order to pursue criminals, where he struggles between his identity as a costumed crimefighter and the vagaries of a normal life. Bruce is a man of sacrifice, and though Loeb is extremely sympathetic in his portrayal of the character, he is not without his criticisms: this is the existence Bruce feels was forced upon him, but despite the oath he swore to his parents and the nobility the reader can find in that promise, such a choice will never be fulfilling for our Mr. Wayne. Being Batman will always leave him worn out, a little lost, somewhat empty. The path is endless and riddled with hardships (and riddles), and as you watch Bruce follow its zigzags, you can't help but simultaneously feel encouraged by his purposefulness…and frustrated by his obsessiveness. He could be happy. He just won't allow himself to be.
Loeb and Sale's first narrative, "Fears," highlights this by bringing Batman into conflict with the Scarecrow while Bruce wonders about the latest woman in his life; "Madness" sees the Dark Knight battle the Mad Hatter even as the little man's obsession with Alice in Wonderland distorts and corrupts Bruce's childhood love for the book and the mother who read it to him; "Ghosts" watches Bruce enter a Dickens-inspired dreamscape as he wrestles with whether being Batman is the best method of honoring his father's legacy. Fans of Darwyn Cooke's Batman: Ego will see shades of similar internal grappling in "Ghosts"–a concept used more effectively by Cooke, I'd argue–but the point Loeb and Sale make across these three issues dramatically touches on the near crippling, unintended consequences which come with dressing as a bat almost every night.
Bruce's pain is felt acutely here, in more ways than physicaly, tugging on that notion that he denies himself a full measure of humanity by totally embracing the very thing which gives him purpose: his parents' legacy. Loeb and Sale heap on the turmoil through Scarecrow's fear toxin, a thorny maze, a dust-up with the Mad Hatter, and sinister nightmares. They never stray too far into horror territory, but bring up enough visual imagery (such as crows, scarecrows, men with skull masks, ghosts, clowns) and indulge in grim concepts (such as child kidnapping) to provide enough tinges of darkness to make each issue somewhat unsettling. The tone works, especially as Loeb and Sale strive to make Batman this ethereal creature of the night, lunging from the shadows. He's darkness pitted against darkness, a wraith sweeping up other ghosts and ghouls.
Enjoyable as Loeb's dialogue is in these issues, Sale establishes himself as a near perfect Batman artist, etching here the style and skill which would later define Long Halloween. I've always loved his villain designs, whether it's the elongated face he gives the Joker, the small razored teeth filling Penguin's mouth, or the lanky frame of Scarecrow. I've touched elsewhere on his scene crafting, highlighted wonderfully in these stories by his sense of timing with panels–the man knew how to break up a page into smaller bites for effective tension building, and he understood when to freeze-frame a single fantastic moment in a splash page or dual full-page panel.
Sale's allowed to indulge in some really clever artistic choices in these issues, whether he's turning the Bat-signal into a creepy pumpkin, laying Batman into his spectral mother's arms in an image calling to mind Michelangelo's Pietà, or presenting Thomas Wayne as an eerie spirit reminiscent of something Kelley Jones would draw. A very fun splash page where Bruce Wayne steps into a Halloween costume party features attendees dressed as classic comic and literary characters, from Hobbes the tiger, to Dave Sim's Cerebus, Mike Allred's Madman, Jeff Smith's Phoney Bone, a guy who looks suspiciously like Hawkeye, and characters from The Wizard of Oz and Peter Pan. I initially wanted to compare it to a "Where's Waldo?" page, except Sale beat me to the punch by including a guy dressed as Waldo!
As a writer, Loeb's no slouch–I know some of his later material earned some fairly reasonable criticism, but the man had his day. He nails the characterization, but his dialogue is fantastically human and relatable. His narrative style echoes tricks he would later use on Long Halloween and Dark Victory–summary and character introductions which feel more natural than expository; repetition which feels rhythmic and intentional rather than lazy; clever dialogue which provides insight into characters or offer unique speech patterns, such as the Scarecrow's reliance on nursery rhymes or the Mad Hatter's Lewis Carroll-inspired dialogue. Everything feels purposefully pieced together…
…which may make my main criticism all the harsher.
I did say "largely" above, didn't I?
This tome is crammed with treats, but a small trick waits in the final narrative; of the three specials, "Ghosts" is the weakest, partially because of its length. "Fears" is the longest narrative and well-deserving of its page count, and I'd argue "Madness" could have used some additional length. But "Ghosts," approximately the same length as "Madness," struggles to justify even its similar page count, primarily because it's simply a Batman-based, Halloween-infused adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Instead of Ebenezer Scrooge learning to love his fellow man, Batman learns he must balance his existence as a crimefighter with the normalcy that should come with being Bruce Wayne.
The concept is solid, and the build-up is interesting, but once Loeb and Sale hit the extended dream sequence with the spirits, the whole piece crumbles. Sequences move by too quickly, some dialogue feels recited straight from the original narrative, and scenes, though adapted to Bruce's specific situation, are purely copied from Dickens' story. A bit of "Batman set dressing" can't paper over the special's copy-and-paste feel, especially when Bruce Wayne begins acting as excitedly as Scrooge does at the story's end. I just don't buy Bruce Wayne running through his house, exclaiming about spirits like a joyful boy, and I struggle even to accept Halloween as the holiday used to impart such a dramatic lesson and engage in character development as a result. It makes sense with Christmas, the season inherently one of joy, wonder, magic, and childhood dreams. Halloween? It doesn't carry the same weight.
It feels too harsh to say "Well, I guess two outta three ain't bad" and give this volume a 66/100. It would absolutely deserve a higher score were I assigning a numeric ranking, because each story isn't equal in length or substance. "Fears" and "Madness" are standout pre-Long Halloween experiments, as Loeb endeavors to write the Dark Knight right and Sale applies his wonderful stylistic tendencies to Gotham and its grim gang of characters. Both stories are microcosms of the greatness which could follow, showing the artistic stylings of a master storyteller and Loeb's crisp writing that would make Long Halloween such a classic series. "Ghosts" is a letdown, mainly because Loeb decides to slap Batman stylings on a Christmas Carol retelling without finding a clever way to either retool the story to his writing strengths or discern a better way to show Batman's internal struggle over two warring facets of his identity.
Picture ringing your neighbor's doorbell, holding out your pillowcase, bag, or plastic pumpkin, and watch them drop in three pieces of candy. You take a look and see a Reese's, a Butterfinger, and a leftover piece of bubblegum from a Fourth of July parade. A little disappointing, right? Or maybe that's just me. Halloween is for chocolate, so you'll know I'll be gobbling those Reese's and Butterfingers over Skittles or Smarties every time. Those are the pieces I'm here to savor with this volume, and unlike with chocolate, I can always return to relish them again. I'm not much of a "read this story annually or every Halloween" kind of guy, but if you're looking for a story to read to celebrate the season, sitting in a comfy chair with this volume out sounds like a nice way to spend your Halloween.