But even reading it directly after a re-reading of Dark Victory, it’s hard to fully place Rome within the ongoing narrative Rome’s connections are frustratingly vague. When in Rome, as the introduction to the deluxe edition tells us, was originally intended to be published parallel to Batman: Dark Victory 1, but instead came out a couple years later.
That’s unfortunate, given the circumstances - I’d hoped the third part of the trilogy would be a triumphant finale - but better than there was a little more than that there wasn’t.
In contrast to the Long Halloween books, Rome is considerably more a superhero action story - Loeb taking Catwoman for a spin - than it is a noir whodunit. At less than half the length of its predecessors, When in Rome is also a quarter of the mystery - fewer suspects, fewer layers, fewer red herrings. But, no artist’s work looks quite like Tim Sale’s, and it’s rather hard to imagine stories set around Long Halloween without him.įor those who haven’t read When in Rome, my best advice is truly to go into it expecting a spin-off and not a sequel. If there were more from Long Halloween - if DC did as they did with Tom King’s Batman/Catwoman Special, where other artists completed John Paul Leon’s unfinished artwork in tribute - I would certainly buy it. Sadly, in the interim, Sale passed away, which makes this endeavor bittersweet what seemed a new beginning for the “Long Halloween-verse” is now most likely, understandably, its end. I had never read Catwoman: When in Rome, an oversight that seemed all the more glaring given my enjoyment of Long Halloween and Dark Victory, so this seemed an opportunity to accomplish a couple goals at once. Wanting to be fully versed in the mystery ahead of reading the special, I stuck the new, timed-for-the-animated-movie deluxe editions of Long Halloween and its sequels on my reading list. I was excited when Jeph Loeb and the late Tim Sale re-teamed last year for a new Batman: The Long Halloween special.
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