Something Spooky — “Wot Day Is It? It’s Halloween!” Says ‘Batman: Ghosts’
by Austin Gorton
In Andy Williams‘ Christmas classic “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”, the line referencing “scary ghost stories” likely confuses many modern listeners. It is a reference to the Victorian tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve, a tradition that mostly died out by the early 20th century. Yet one of the most famous and adapted stories of all time fits firmly into that tradition: Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, in which the miserly Ebeneezer Scrooge is visited by four ghosts (don’t forget Marley!) on Christmas Eve determined to open his heart to the magic of Christmas.
In Batman: Ghosts, the third and final Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween special by writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale, the creators invert the dynamic, appropriating the Christmas tale of a supernatural-induced change of heart for a story set at Halloween, with Batman in the role of Scrooge.
Unlike the original story and Christmas, Loeb and Sales’ tale isn’t designed to teach Bruce Wayne the true meaning of Halloween, per se — rather, it works to remind him there’s more to life than his existence as Batman, and indirectly lead to the creation of the charitable Wayne Foundation as a way to help out the city independent of his nightly villain-punching contributions. Loeb and Sale faithfully if breezily adapt the basic beats of the familiar Christmas Carol tale. After an opening action sequence involving Penguin trying to rob a charity soiree attended by Bruce Wayne, Bruce is visited first by the ghost of his father to set the stage, then a trio of ghosts that indirectly teach him the moral of the story and effect personal change. Even smaller touchstones from the Dickens story — the door knocker that turns into the face of the herald ghost, Bruce asking Alfred “what day is it?” after he awakens from his evening of ghostly reverie — are deployed.
And in the tradition of other more modern adaptations of the story such as Mickey’s Christmas Carol and The Muppet Christmas Carol, notable Batman characters are inserted into the story in the role of the ghosts. In addition to Penguin and Thomas Wayne, Poison Ivy and the Joker sub in as the Ghosts of Halloween Past and Present, respectively (the Ghost of Halloween Yet to Come is a shrouded reaper-esque figure, as is traditional, revealed at the end to be an animated Batman skeleton). Rather than a spurned love interest, as in some adaptations, Batman: Ghosts uses Lucius Fox as a symbol of regret and paths not taken for Bruce.
But what really makes the issue sing, aside from the fun cameos, is the art from Sale and colorist Gregory Wright. Wright renders the story as if it’s perpetually lit by the flickering candle of a Jack O’Lantern, a look that lends an air of spookiness to the proceedings that is appropriate both for its Halloween setting and its Victorian-era inspiration. Wright also adds a remarkable lushness to the overall look; this is a comic that was originally released as a prestige format one-shot, and the art earns it that format.
Sale’s characters are also all iconic. Not in the sense that they are definitive renderings of each character, but in the way he centers his depictions of the characters around one defining characteristic: Bruce’s broad-shouldered heroism, Penguin’s corpulence, Poison Ivy’s mass of green tendrils, and Joker’s broad, manic grin.
No matter what they’re doing panel to panel, Sale’s depiction of each figure is built around their specific defining visual characteristic. The ability to zero in and center one distinct visual element of a character is something Sale would later apply with great success to Marvel’s Color miniseries, and it’s easy to see how these Loeb/Sale one-shot Halloween collaborations — particularly Batman: Ghosts — would lead to Batman: The Long Halloween, the pair’s celebrated and influential story which essentially takes the approach of this single issue — holiday setting paired with iconic depictions of villains — and builds an entire thirteen chapter story out of it.
Ultimately, Batman: Ghosts is a better Halloween story than Christmas Carol adaptation — as it arguably should be. Using the beats of the well-known story as a framework gives Loeb and Sale the room to focus on mood and imagery, grafting the visual iconography of both Halloween and Batman onto the broad strokes of a familiar story and character arc. The end result is a spooky tale that thrives on atmosphere, lush art, and the presence of well-loved characters, one best enjoyed on a crisp Halloween night, perhaps next to the flickering grin of a Jack O’ Lantern.
