Writer: Jeph LoebPlot: Following a lead on the Hangman from Tony Zucco, Batman encounters the Scarecrow, then takes time to visit Holiday.
This seemed to be more of a setup issue than anything. Nothing much really happened. The whole Scarecrow scene didn't even need to be there, even though it was somehow part of the Zucco subplot.
Batman somehow knew where the Scarecrow was holding up, so he goes there, stops him quickly, and we see nothing more of him. It was almost like he was making a token appearance. Sale's Scarecrow almost looks like one of McFarlane's Spawn creations. I can't recall if he drew Crane the same way in The Long Halloween, or in one of the Legends Of The Dark Knight Halloween Specials, but he sure looked spooky.
I didn't get why the Scarecrow kept spouting nursery rhymes. That's hardly his usual banter, and the method of delivery was more along the lines of the way the Mad Hatter might say it.
Whoever the Hangman killer is, the bloody note in this issue is pretty easy to solve, as long as you know some Christmas carols. The pronoun we need for some of the killer's identity has been left out, so whether that means it's a woman or man is too early to tell.
Batman certainly uses more violence than we're used to seeing, and that might be because Dark Victory isn't a Code-approved series. He smashes Zucco's head to the desk, applying quite a bit of pressure, once it's there, and yanks the Scarecrow into the top of the cab of his truck. More non-Codeness comes through in Pino's verbiage later on.
What will become of the strange voices in the Falcone residence?
