Batman: Dark Victory

AUTHOR: Loeb, Jeph

ARTIST: Tim Sale (illustrator); Gregory Wright (colorist); Richard Starkings (letterer)

PUBLISHER: DC Comics

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 1999-2000

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 2001

Publication History

Following the success of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s previous graphic novels—Batman: The Long Halloween (1996-1997), which won both the 1998 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series and the 1999 Eisner Award for Best Reprint Graphic Album, and Superman for All Seasons (1998), which was nominated for the 1999 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series—the frequent collaborators began work on a sequel to The Long Halloween intended to tie up many of the story’s loose ends. Of particular interest to Loeb was introducing Batman’s sidekick, Robin. Though Sale was, by his own admission, initially skeptical of pairing their dark, moody version of Batman with a teenage sidekick, he was later won over by the story Loeb wrote introducing Robin.

Loeb and Sale’s subsequent effort, Batman: Dark Victory, was published by DC Comics as a thirteen-part limited series between December, 1999, and December, 2000, and was later released as a single graphic novel in 2001. Issue 0, a promotional giveaway, was included as a prologue in the collected novel. It received positive reviews from critics and was listed as the eighth-best Batman graphic novel in a list compiled by IGN Comics in 2005.

Plot

Continuing the story of Batman’s early years as the “Caped Crusader,” Batman: Dark Victory is set several months after the conclusion of Batman: The Long Halloween. As the graphic novel begins, Batman is more isolated than ever before. Blaming himself for the downfall of his closest friend, former district attorney Harvey Dent, now a villain known as Two-Face, Batman has withdrawn from his former allies, refusing to accept help from either Commissioner James Gordon or Catwoman in his fight against crime.

Meanwhile, the criminal underworld of Gotham City teeters on the brink of annihilation. The city’s crime boss, Carmine Falcone, was killed by Two-Face at the end of The Long Halloween, and Batman’s classic rogues’ gallery of freakish criminals has waged war on the more traditional gangsters. Sofia Gigante, Falcone’s disabled daughter, has seized control of the crime families, but their power seems to be on the decline.

To make matters worse, Janice Porter, Harvey Dent’s replacement as district attorney, has retried and overturned the death sentence of Alberto Falcone, the “Holiday Killer” whom Batman captured in The Long Halloween and placed under house arrest in Falcone’s father’s old cabin. Shortly after Alberto’s release, a new set of killings begins when the body of Clancy O’Hara, the chief of police, is found hanging from a Gotham City bridge. A newspaper clipping with a hangman puzzle on it is taped to his chest.

As more police officers are killed by the mysterious Hangman Killer, Batman races to discover the murderer’s identity. Learning that all of the documents left behind on the victims’ bodies come from Dent’s files, Batman descends to the sewers to find his old friend.

Though Two-Face escapes from Batman, the criminal begins his own investigation of the Hangman Killer to clear his own name. When Gordon is nearly killed by the Hangman, it is Two-Face who saves him, assuring Gordon that he is being framed for the murders.

As the Joker escalates the war between the “freaks” and organized crime, Bruce Wayne adopts Dick Grayson after his family is killed in an act of sabotage by the mob. Gordon, still searching for the Hangman, leads a police raid on Two-Face’s underground hideout. Although Batman and Gordon finally catch Two-Face and put him on trial, Two-Face escapes when the other criminals attack the court building. Janice Porter is kidnapped during the escape and subsequently shot by Two-Face. Two-Face then leaves her body in Alberto Falcone’s bed in order to persuade Alberto that he has killed her as part of a larger plan to drive Alberto mad.

Investigating the Falcones, Batman meets Catwoman, who has been investigating Sofia Gigante and can find no record of her ever visiting a physical therapist. At the same time, Sofia and Alberto meet in the Falcone family mausoleum, where Sofia smothers Alberto, saying that he is not a true Falcone.

Two-Face’s hideout is then attacked, and the Hangman is revealed to be Sofia Gigante. Her intention was to kill everyone who had helped Harvey Dent and then frame him for the crime, while posing as a paraplegic to avoid suspicion. In the ensuing fight, Two-Face shoots Sofia, and then the Joker shoots Two-Face. The Joker is about to shoot Batman as well when Dick, wearing his iconic Robin costume, arrives and saves Batman.

At the conclusion, Mario Falcone, the last surviving member of the Falcone family, burns his family estate and leaves town. Robin takes an oath in the Batcave to assist Batman in his mission to protect Gotham City.

Characters

•Batman, a.k.a. Bruce Wayne, the protagonist, is a billionaire who masquerades as a vigilante crime fighter in Gotham City. He attempts to foil the plots of both Sofia Gigante and Two-Face while also uncovering the identity of the Hangman Killer.

•James Gordon, the police commissioner of Gotham City, works with Batman to discover the identity of the Hangman.

•Robin, a.k.a. Dick Grayson, is an orphaned circus performer who is adopted by Bruce Wayne. His relationship with Wayne is initially cold, but the two eventually warm to each other. After learning of Wayne’s secret identity, he becomes Batman’s sidekick, Robin.

•Sofia Gigante, the acting head of the Falcone crime family, is obsessed with getting revenge on Harvey Dent, who murdered her father. Ostensibly confined to a wheelchair, her disability is actually a ruse. She is later revealed to be the Hangman, a mysterious killer who targets police officers, killing one on every holiday of the year.

•Two-Face, a.k.a. Harvey Dent, is the former district attorney of Gotham City. After being disfigured by sulfuric acid, he became the criminal mastermind Two-Face. He lives in the sewer system below Gotham City, plotting to eliminate the remaining crime families of the metropolis and seize power of the criminal underworld.

•Janice Porter is Harvey Dent’s replacement as district attorney of Gotham City. She is distrustful of Batman and responsible for releasing Alberto Falcone from Arkham Asylum. She is later revealed to be Two-Face’s lover.

•Alberto Falcone is the youngest son of deceased Gotham City crime lord Carmine Falcone. Exposed as the infamous Holiday Killer, Alberto is placed under house arrest in his family’s home, where he is secretly manipulated by Two-Face, the Scarecrow, and Calendar Man into believing that he is being contacted by his father’s ghost.

•Catwoman, a.k.a. Selina Kyle, is the love interest of both Batman and Bruce Wayne. An accomplished thief and vigilante crime fighter in her own right, she eventually leaves Gotham City after being rejected by both Batman and Wayne. She is possibly the illegitimate daughter of Carmine Falcone.

Artistic Style

Sale’s Batman illustrations are known for a film-noir style that complements the brooding nature of Loeb’s writing. There never seems to be enough light in Sale’s illustrations; shadows fall across faces during conversations, and characters are frequently illustrated as silhouettes lit by the moon or by large splashes of color amid large dark backdrops. The end result is a gritty look reminiscent of artwork from the 1940’s. Sale’s illustrations display his careful control of pacing, breaking each movement or beat into its own small frame until the action explodes into a large full-page spread that effectively utilizes negative space, highlighting Sale’s talent with backgrounds. Particularly in the action sequences, Sale’s illustrations are lucid yet artful, full of classic heroic poses that complement the action without interrupting it.

Sale’s carefully chosen departures from this style, however, have the strongest impact on the reader. Because the overall color scheme of the graphic novel is so dark and inky, perhaps the most effective moment in the graphic novel is when Sale juxtaposes a stark, black-and-white flashback to the young Bruce Wayne with a lush blue depiction of Dick Grayson in nearly the same scene on the opposing page. In doing so, Sale manages to draw parallels between the two distinct heroes while still articulating their dissimilarity.

Themes

The major theme of Batman: Dark Victory is loneliness and the need for human connection. Following the events of Batman: The Long Halloween, Batman has resolved to isolate himself as Bruce Wayne, rebuffing Selina Kyle’s romantic advances. As Batman, he consistently rejects the aid of both Gordon and Catwoman. His mission is his and his alone; he cannot bear to lose anyone else. However, isolated and alone, Batman finds himself becoming dark and brooding, obsessed with never being wrong and with never making a mistake. Dick Grayson becomes Batman’s last opportunity to connect with someone. What Loeb and Sale eventually suggest is that in Robin, Batman finds a companion and an anchor to his humanity.

The motif of loneliness and isolation is not restricted to Batman, and many other characters feel acute isolation throughout the graphic novel. James Gordon, for example, is estranged from his family; his wife lives in Chicago, with their children, and refuses to speak to him on the phone. Only when his wife returns, when Gordon’s family is made whole again, does he find the resolve he needs to see the Hangman case through to its end. Even Sofia Gigante, the villain of Batman: Dark Victory, can be understood as a deeply lonely character. It is the rage she feels at her father’s death that drives her to become the Hangman.

Impact

As a stand-alone comic, the impact of Batman: Dark Victory is somewhat limited. Because it is a direct sequel to Batman: The Long Halloween, much of its nuance and effect can be lost on a reader who is not intimately familiar with the story lines that Dark Victory continues. However, when read shortly after finishing The Long Halloween, and perhaps its precursor, Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One (1987), Dark Victory emerges as an important transitional moment in the Batman canon. As the final chapter of Batman’s early career, a story that began in Year One, Dark Victory depicts the final step in the transition between Miller’s corrupt Gotham City that is ruled by crime bosses and the chaotic, costumed-villain-plagued Gotham City more familiar to Batman readers. With the dissolution of the Falcone Organization at the conclusion of Batman: Dark Victory, the last organized crime syndicate in Gotham City has disappeared. The city is now ruled by Batman’s well-known rogues’ gallery.

Batman: Dark Victory, along with its precursor, Batman: The Long Halloween, has had a significant influence on Christopher Nolan’s Batman films, which also tell the story of Batman’s early years as a crime fighter. Many other characters from Loeb and Sale’s work on Batman feature prominently in Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008), but perhaps more important, Nolan’s films have borrowed heavily from the style and characterization of Loeb and Sale’s Batman comics. Dark Victory and Nolan’s films share a preference for psychological realism and a dark, brooding aesthetic over the colorful, campy feel that was a hallmark of many earlier depictions of Batman. In fact, Batman star Christian Bale has said that Dark Victory was one of the graphic novels he read in order to prepare for the role.

Further Reading

Loeb, Jeph, and Tim Sale. Batman: The Long Halloween (1996-1997).

Miller, Frank, and Dave Mazzucchelli. Batman: Year One (1987).

Moore, Alan, and Brian Bolland. Batman: The Killing Joke (1988).

Bibliography

Brooker, Will. Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon. New York: Continuum, 2001.

Daniels, Les. Batman: The Complete History. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2004.

Sweet, Matthew. “NS Profile-Batman.” New Statesman 134, no. 47 (June 27, 2005): 28-29.