“The ABC’s of The Joker” - N is for “New Year’s Eve”: Many times, The Joker appears in villainous company with other members of Batman’s rogues’ gallery, showcasing the amazingly diverse and three-dimensional characters the Caped Crusader has to face while protecting Gotham City. A fantastic look at this gallery comes in writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale’s 13 issue story arc ‘Batman: The Long Halloween’, with issue 1 released in December 1996. In this year long mythos classic, we as the reader see the Dark Knight in his 'Year One’ days as vigilante, working with family men Commissioner James Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent to simultaneously take down the Roman and the Falcone crime boss family and find the identity of The Holiday Killer, a murderer who strikes on major holidays, beginning on Halloween. In Chapter 4, originally published in March 1997 (illustrated by Sale, Gregory Wright and Richard Starkings), the Batman has to stop The Joker from dropping Joker Venom from his small plane on an unsuspecting crowd of Gothamites gathering to count down to the New Year in the Gotham Square. Batman jumps into the cock pit of the plane and just before the clock strikes 12, changes the plane’s course, grabs the Joker out of the plane as it crashes into the nearby harbor, saving the citizens celebrating the New Year. Knowing Joker did this stunt because he felt threatened by The Holiday murders, demonstrating Joker’s classic vain and obsessive nature, the issue ends with the Dark Knight vowing to rid all evil from his city in this new calendar year. ✌🏼💜💚🃏📚
