A review by fandom4ever
Batman: Dark Victory by Jeph Loeb

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Dark Victory is a sequel to The Long Halloween. While probably not absolutely necessary to have read it, I think it will definitely help one to understand the finer details of what this story is launching off from. I read The Long Halloween a few years ago and thought it was just okay. I liked this one much better. Dark Victory had a great mystery that had me guessing the whole time who was behind the Hang-Man murders. They had the classic set-ups of false suspects and also a whole host of people that could be guilty. 

I loved the set-up of how alone Bruce is at this time. With Harvey Dent becoming Two-Face, he lost a friend and an ally, not only as Batman but as Bruce Wayne, and it’s this traumatic blow that causes Batman to pull away from Jim Gordon and working with the GCPD. Not only that but it becomes plain that Bruce is walling himself off from everyone. This leads beautifully into him taking in the newly orphaned Dick Grayson. The side by side panels of Dick’s situation vs Bruce’s situation were wonderfully done. The character growth of Bruce in this story was great and having the beginnings of his time with Dick leading into that ending really spoke volumes. 

The only thing I didn’t really like or get was why Batman and the GCPD just allowed the supervillains who escaped Arkham to continue running free for a year, even when they crossed paths with them, as they were more worried about whomever the Hang Man was. It made sense story-wise because they were part of the plot, I just felt that a line or two could have been used explaining why they were letting these murderers roam Gotham. 

The art tended to be exaggerated in the human form, where some characters are just not nice to look at or are rather jarring, but if you can get past that, you’ll find a great story. I liked the little pictures at the end of each chapter which saw Gordon sitting at his desk with a board behind him that was constantly adding each new piece of evidence as another body was found. A great story showing more of Batman’s early days and a retelling of Dick Grayson’s origins.