Batman: The Long Halloween #13 is an issue of the series Batman: The Long Halloween (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 1997.
Synopsis for "Chapter Thirteen: Punishment"
Alberto Falcone reveals himself as Holiday and prepares to shoot James Gordon. The fallen guard rises and attacks Falcone, beats him to a pulp and when he is done, he takes off his armor and reveals himself as Batman. Gordon arrests Alberto for the murder of Salvatore Maroni.
When the word is known about the identity of Holiday, Carmine Falcone visits his son Alberto in prison and offers him help getting out with no consequences. Alberto refuses, given the fact that he has made a name for himself and that he is now bigger than any member of the Falcone Crime Family. Gordon and Batman analyze the situation and realize that it all makes sense: Alberto faked his own death to throw them off while he continued killing people. However, Batman feels guilty because he always suspected his friend, the district attorney, Harvey Dent.
On Halloween night, James and Barbara visit Gilda at her home. The woman is still worried for his husband, as there has been no signs of him.
Later, in Arkham Asylum, someone is setting some of the most dangerous inmates free. The mysterious man approaches Calendar Man's cell and flips a coin to decide wether to set him free or not. In the end, the man leaves Calendar Man in his cell.
A few moments later, at Falcone's Penthouse, Carmine is furious because Alberto has been sentenced to die and sill he refused his father's help. On the outside, someone is taking out all the Falcone guards by killing them. The power in the whole building is gone and Carmine is left with his daughter Sofia to confront whoever has entered his building. They follow the trail of dead security guards bodies until they arrive at Carmine's office, where they are confronted by a group of what Falcone would call "freaks". Solomon Grundy, The Mad Hatter, Joker, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Catwoman and the mysterious man are waiting for Carmine to get inside. Carmine points his gun towards the mysterious man, who is leading the rest of them and demands an answer. The leader of the gang rises and reveals himself as Harvey Dent, only that he is different now. The left half of his face is completely scarred and he calls himself Two-Face. Joker urges Two-Face to kill Carmine so they can split the city between them. At that moment, a smoke bomb is thrown inside through a vent in the roof. Batman comes down on top of Grundy and knocks him down as he releases more smoke bombs. Batman then takes the enemies one by one, from the most dangerous to the less threatening. First Grundy and Joker, then Ivy, Hatter and Penguin and in the end Scarecrow. Batman asks Catwoman whose side is she on and she replies that she is on the same side as always. Batman didn't noticed Two-Face and the man has taken Carmine Falcone as a hostage. Batman recognizes Harvey but Two-Face explains him that Harvey is gone. Batman tries to make Harvey think his actions but Two-Face tells him that no matter how many times they send people like Falcone to jail, they'll come out and it will be and endless vicious cycle and that justice can be decided like a flip of a coin. Two-Face tosses his coin and it lands on the scarred side and thus Two-Face shots Falcone twice in the head. Sofia is enraged to see what Two-Face has done and tries to attack him while Catwoman tries to hold her. Their struggle lead them to the window when Sofia stumbles and crushes it with her weight. Catwoman tries to save her but Sofia falls down from the building. Batman tries to make Harvey surrender, but Two-Face tricks him and knocks him down with the weapon.
Two-Face goes to the District Attorney's office and confronts Vernon Wells, his corrupt assistant. Two-Face realized that Wells was the person who gave Maroni the acid the day of the trial and with a flip of his coin, Harvey kills Vernon. After recovering, Batman arrives late at the scene and finds only Two-Face's coin at the same time that the Bat-Signal is lightened in the sky.
Batman arrives at the GCPD Headquarters and finds Two-Face waiting for him. Two-Face tells him that he did what was needed to be done. James Gordon appears in the rooftop and Two-Face explains them that he just did what the city needed to be rid of the organized crime once and for all. Gordon tells him that despite the goal, Dent betrayed everything he believed in and Two-Face tells him that it is not true. He turns himself and tells Gordon to arrest him in order to let the system decide his fate. Before Two-Face is taken away, he tells Batman and Gordon that there were two holiday killers all the time. Gordon and Batman try to make sense of what Two-Face said. Gordon explains that Alberto confessed to be the author of all the crimes and Batman tells him that Dent is obsessed with the number two and that it might be just a delusion, but that considering that Two-Face killed Falcone with a .22 gun on Halloween, in the end, Two-Face was holiday too. Gordon and Batman realize that they achieved their promise, to get rid of Falcone once and for all, but the price they had to paid seemed to be quite extreme.
Gordon goes to his family, where he decides that despite the events, he must go on his mission to make Gotham a better city by telling himself "I believe in Gotham City".
Batman is sure that what he is doing is of consequence and he won't give up on the promise made to his parents. Batman tells himself "I believe in Batman".
Two-Face is send to Arkham Asylum, where the only thing he can think of is his wife, Gilda...
On Christmas Eve, Gilda is packing up boxes for her move away from Gotham, but before she leaves, she takes a box down the basement furnace. She describes aloud to herself how she read in Harvey’s case files about the removal of the serial numbers of guns and how baby bottle nipples could be used as silencers. She then removes from the box a .22 pistol and drops it into the flames of the heater, along with a familiar-looking hat and coat. And she claims that she took it upon herself to start the Holiday killings, in an attempt to end the Roman’s hold on Gotham and thus lighten Harvey’s caseload so that they could have a child. Her belief is that Harvey took up the killings on New Year’s Eve and that Alberto is lying to the police with his confession. She also says that she knows Harvey will eventually be alright and that they will reconcile as she tells herself "I believe in Harvey Dent".
Appearing in "Chapter Thirteen: Punishment"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Falcone Crime Family
- Carmine Falcone (Dies)
- Holiday
- Sofia Falcone
- Two-Face
- Scarecrow
- The Joker
- Solomon Grundy
- Mad Hatter
- Poison Ivy
- Catwoman
- Penguin
- Vernon Wells (Dies)
Other Characters:
- Barbara Gordon
- Gilda Dent
- James Gordon, Jr.
- Calendar Man
- Sal Maroni (Appears only as a corpse)
Locations:
Items:
- Two-Face's Coin
- Joker Venom
- Scarecrow's Fear Toxin
- Batarang
- Catwoman's Whip
- Bat-Signal
Vehicles:
Trivia
- Two-Face reveals at the end that there were two Holiday killers. Batman assumes that Harvey is talking about Alberto Falcone and himself as he killed Carmine Falcone in Halloween using Holiday's weapon. However, Two-Face's revelation indicates that he knew from the beginning that Gilda was the responsible for the first killings and thus his reluctance to investigate the case.
See Also
- Cover gallery for the Batman: The Long Halloween series
- Images from Batman: The Long Halloween Vol 1 13