Unlike other Batman Trade Paperback stories that I've read, Haunted Knight consists of not one, but three short tales. Each revolves around (or on) Halloween, and each puts Gotham City's Dark Knight against his arch nemeses of the past, testing his physical capability, as well as his mental fortitude. All three were written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by Tim Sale.
In the first of the three tales, Fears, Batman has to face Scarecrow, that psychiatric mad doctor villain of his, who has a tendency to use poisonous gas in order to induce hallucinations out of his victims. While trying to catch Scarecrow, Batman will be beaten and wounded, quite badly, on very sharp thorns of a garden labyrinth, in which he found himself along with his foe. All the while, Bruce Wayne is charmed by a new lady friend, Jillian Maxwell, who seriously toys with his heart, and who may have ulterior motives in her interest, since she may not be who she says she is. Never having been the superhero who was above being beaten or even defeated, here we once again see a very vulnerable Dark Knight, one who is more human than I think most people who don't read DC comics even realize.
In Madness, Commissioner Gordon's young daughter, Babs, is taken by the Mad Hatter, that creepy villain and nemesis of Gotham's favorite hero, who sporadically spits out disturbing rhymes when he speaks, straight out of Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland. During their fight scene on top of a speeding train, Mad Hatter cuts and wounds Batman badly, leaving him unconscious and almost having bled out. During this burdensome time, Bruce Wayne recalls the memory of his mother, and their happy times when she would read Alice in Wonderland to him, as he listened with wide eyes and open ears. When he finally catches up to the maniacal dwarf, perhaps it was fitting - not to mention ironic - that it was not only Batman's fist, but also a looking glass that doomed the Hatter. Lewis Carrol couldn't have written it better himself.
Ghosts is an adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carrol, and it casts Batman in the role of Scrooge, while his father plays the ghost-like figure of Jacob Marley, who warns his son of the upcoming phantom visits he will soon have; except not on Christmas eve, but on Halloween. After a brief stint with The Penguin, a sequence in which Batman dives form a high-rise building and catches the vertically challenged villain, he reflects on his life as Batman, and is thereafter visited by spirits of past, present and yet to come. They are played by classic villains of The Dark Knight universe: Poison Ivy and Joker play the parts of Ghost of Past and Present, respectively, while the Grim Reaper is played by none other than Batman's ghost. Through a series of flashbacks and flash-forwards, Bruce Wayne realizes that he has to dedicate some time to himself, while limiting the days he spends as Batman, as that is the true meaning of Halloween: be yourself on most days, but only occasionally don your favorite costume.
Haunted Knight may not be as epic of a Batman tale as, let's say, The Long Halloween, or even The Dark Knight Returns, but it is nevertheless a memorable and entertaining piece that offers everything that any fan of The Dark Knight could possibly want: dark and rainy Gotham nights, Batman on the prowl of any and all criminal activities, all of the favorite villains of Gotham City making a cameo, and above all, an important lesson about oneself is to be learned in each tale. The artwork is gorgeous and kinetic, and the writing never strays from what we expect out of Batman's universe. It is definitely a must-read for anyone who's looking to educate themselves further about The Dark Knight mythology.
B
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