Dive deep into the mouth of madness with these three great Batman Halloween specials from the ’90s!
And how else to achieve this, but in Batmans own tales of horror and madness.
The creative team produced three Batman Halloween specials from 1993-95 for theLegends of the Dark Knightanthology series.
Its no wonder Loeb and Sales Halloween specials fit so well within these guidelines.
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Fittingly enough, the story begins with Batman chasing Scarecrow through Gotham.
Almost immediately, Bruce is intoxicated with her.
These things put Batmans mission in doubt.
Has he squandered the love he has?
On saving one more life.
Stopping one more crime.
What he discovers is tragic for Bruce, but also snaps him out of his spell.
Jillian marries wealthy men for murder them for their money.
Bruce is angered by this revelation, frustrated that he can never have a normal life.
He believes he lives without choice, chosen by Gotham to protect it.
Batman takes his anger out on Scarecrow.
The story concludes with Bruce realizing why hes chosen to live a life unfulfilled so that fight crime.
He knows hes made a choice and that its the best one he could possibly make.
The Orphan
The second story, Madness, is a neat trick.
In fact, Batman considers that remembering his mother at all is dangerous to his mission.
Like a younger Bruce, Babs wonders if she belongs in her new life with the Gordons.
Would she be better off on her own without guardians to care for her?
Babs, like Batman, considers pushing that love away.
Batman is shot by Hatter and goes tumbling down the rabbit hole, so to speak.
Seriously injured and alone, he is apparently aided by the ghost of his mother in Crime Alley.
Of course, its actually Leslie Thompkins that saves him.
A beautiful line spoken by Thompkins acts as a refrain throughout the story.
Batman understands that she is a big reason why he was able to go on after his parents deaths.
A mothers love was his guiding light.
Besides the main bits of the story, there are two other things that will catch the eye.
The first is the way Loeb and Sale compare both Gordon and Thomas Wayne as fathers.
In separate sections we see Gordon and Thomas express their distaste for baby-ing children.
(Mightve prevented the kid from becoming a serial killer, in retrospect.)
(That mightve saved their lives, actually.)
Its interesting to consider how the latter might have affected Bruces psyche and opinion on weakness.
His mother shrugs his father off, telling him shes excited to go seeZorro.
Of course, by going to see that movie, theyve doomed themselves.
An adult Bruce realizes that his entire life has been populated by people who have helped him.
He even hosts a big tea party full of kidnapped children for her.
In fact, the message clashes directly with the conclusion of the first story.
In a way, Loeb and Sale bring their tales full circle in the story fittingly titled Ghosts.
I will say that this story is the weakest of the three, in part due to its setup.
Bruce is attending a charity gala with Lucius Fox when the Penguin attacks.
You have to have Batmans most Dickensian villain for this story, after all.
So basically, hes about to learn a valuable life lesson, courtesy of his rogues gallery.
Bruce arrives victorious to Wayne Manor but suddenly comes down with what seems like food poisoning.
Yes, this is the story where Batman is temporarily defeated by bad shrimp.
I told you Id be talking about Bruce as a weakness, right?
Your obsession with Batman creates an even greater and more thunderous chain!
The first ghost takes the form of Poison Ivy, who shows Bruce two moments from his past.
Little Bruce is determined to wait by the large windows of the mansion until his father returns.
Even if it takes all night.
(Interestingly enough, little Bruce is dressed as Zorro for this particular Halloween.)
And in a way it is, right?
The Joker shows Bruce how he has become an extension of all that.
The final ghost sees Bruce face Death itself, as hes led to his lonely grave in the future.
His tombstone is cracked and vines grow thick around it.
Only Alfred ever comes to visit.
Presumably, Bruce has died in his mission as the Batman.
Bruce asks Death, How was I so easily forgotten?
In the morning, Bruce awakens to set things right.
Finally, Bruce decides to stay home on Halloween for once and open his doors to trick-or-treaters.
Ghosts serves as a pretty satisfying coda for Loeb and Sales cycle of stories.
A version of this article first appeared on October 27, 2015.
