In this review of Batman: The Long Halloween: The Last Halloween #7, the hunt for Holiday rages on, even after Robin has been shot by the gangland killer.
Batman: The Long Halloween: The Last Halloween #7 main cover by Tim Sale (DC Comics)
Batman: The Long Halloween: The Last Halloween #7
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Artist: Dave Johnson
Main Cover: Tim Sale
Variant Covers: Dave Johnson, Cully Hamner
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: April 30, 2025
Batman: The Long Halloween: The Last Halloween #7 opens after Robin has been shot by “Holiday”. Batman is training him in the cave to try to remember the shooter. Robin has a busted shoulder and it is a six week recovery. After the six weeks is up, Batman challenges Robin to be a detective and find out where Mario Falcone has been all this time. Robin questions Alfred as to why Bruce hates him so much. Alfred says that it is the opposite. That if anything happened to Dick, he would never forgive himself.
Next Gordon is in his office trying to piece together who Holiday is when Detective Lopez returns and she suggests that Catwoman be added to the list of suspects. Gordon agress. While Robin finds a lead on Mario, Batman visits the graves of Martha Wayne and Mary Grayson.
With Robin’s information, Batman busts in to save Mario from Poison Ivy and an Ivy Brainwashed Catwoman. Batman is able to free Catwoman and save Mario but still questions what Catwoman’s role is in all of this. As Ivy escapes, she is shot down by a .22 caliber bullet by a man in a trench coat. Suddenly that man’s hat is shot off by another man with a .22 and a trenchcoat. The man who was shot is revealed by Calendar Man who says “This does complicate things”.
Gordon and Batman find Poison Ivy and notice that there are two bullets there but only one wound. He wants to know where Harvey and Gilda Dent are. Catwoman meets with Mrs Falcone because they both have something each other wants. Batman: The Long Halloween: The Last Halloween #7 ends with a nice moment as Robin talks to his mother at her grave about how he has found a new life as Batman’s partner.
Analysis: Any BJ Shea superfan will know that The Long Halloween and Dark Victory are very high on my Favorite Batman Stories list. Jeph Loeb is one of my favorite writers. Not just on Batman but Superman and his Marvel Color series. So when this was announced, even with the sad passing of Tim Sale, I was super excited for this series. But for the most part this run has left me a little cold. I think a part of it is the rotating art but a major part of it was the mood that Tim Sale created with his art. The rotating art just has not given me that yet. I thought Dave Johnson was solid on this art however.
Also this is the first time I have read a Loeb mystery monthly and not in trade. All the others I could binge read and be fully into but now I have to wait. I wonder if when this is over and I binge read, if it will hit better for me.
However, I really like this Batman: The Long Halloween: The Last Halloween #7! I like the moments with Batman and Robin. The Bruce/Dick dynamic has always been one of my favorite things about the Batman mythos. Batman going to see Dick’s mother’s grave and telling her that he will give Dick a purpose was great and it lef to the ending with Dick seeing his mother and telling her he has a purpose.
We only have three issues and we have not gotten much with the new Holiday and the mystery of it all. We got a small step with Calendar Man meeting…. Holiday? Harvey? A Falcone? It feels like we need to start picking things up here. And maybe we are with this Calendar Man element.
