| Holiday | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Batman: The Long Halloween (1996-1997) |
| Created by | Jeph Loeb Tim Sale |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Either Alberto Falcone or Gilda Dent, potentially both. |
Holiday or the Holiday Killer is a fictional character appearing in the Batman story The Long Halloween (1996-1997) by writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale as well as Dark Victory. The true identity of the killer is never definitively revealed in the story itself; both Alberto Falcone and Gilda Dent confess to being Holiday, with Gilda claiming she committed the first three murders and that her husband Harvey took over subsequently.
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Set shortly after the events of Frank Miller's Batman: Year One, The Long Halloween follows the crusade of Batman, Captain James Gordon and Harvey Dent to topple mobster Carmine Falcone's crime family. At the same time, however, a mysterious assailant begins killing mafiosi members on holidays, starting with Halloween.
The killer's identity remains a mystery for most of the story, but the method is always the same. The killer's weapon is a .22 pistol (using a rubber baby bottle nipple as a silencer) with the handle taped and the serial number filed off, which is left at the crime scene along with a holiday trinket representative of the holiday. This leads to the nickname "The Holiday Killer".
Holiday's crime spree occurs for 13 months, with the only holidays without a murder being April Fools' Day, where the killer confronts the Riddler but leaves him alive in the spirit of the holiday, and New Year's Eve where the 'victim' later turns up alive). There are several red herrings that appear in the story to further deepen the mystery, but ultimately, Alberto Falcone is revealed to be Holiday on Labor Day, Gilda Dent later confessed to the first three killings, and Two-Face briefly assumed the role.
Although the youngest Falcone appears to meet his end on New Year's, Alberto Falcone turns up alive and well in September. After the murder of Sal Maroni, Falcone is captured by Batman and Jim Gordon, confesses to all of the Holiday murders, and is sentenced to death.
It becomes clear that Alberto faked his own death on New Year's Eve. A number of the killings after this point are to cover up that fact. Carmine Falcone's daughter Sofia tracks down the Gunsmith with intentions of finding out who Holiday is, but finds him dead. Jasper Dolan, the Coroner, is killed because he knows that Alberto is still alive. Carla Viti is killed as she searches through the police files on Holiday, possibly because of some clue to Alberto being alive is held within. Although the lack of a body cast early suspicion on Alberto, unused Tim Sale-drawn panels cut in early drafts showed Carmine Falcone weeping over a badly-decomposed corpse after New Year's. These pages were published, in penciled form only, in The Long Halloween' collected editions.
Alberto's reasons for becoming Holiday are also the subject of debate. In the final issue, he claimed to have been lashing out against his father for never taking him seriously or including him in the family business. Alberto also seemed to be addicted to the dubious fame of being a wanted serial killer, as he appeared proud of his actions to the police in his confession. Also, one of the running themes of the story seemed to be the change in Gotham City from one plagued by mobsters to one ridden with "freaks" such as The Joker, Poison Ivy, and Two-Face.
Gilda Dent, the wife of Two-Face, confessed (in a private monologue) that she was the original Holiday, who murdered the first three victims. While burning the supposed evidence of her crime, she claimed that she began the murders because Harvey could not settle down and raise a child with her until the Falcone crime family was finally destroyed. In Gilda's confession, she mentioned that on New Year's Eve, she had heard of Alberto's murder at sea. Afterwards, Harvey had returned home with wet hair, stating that it had been snowing even though he was wearing a hat. She took this as a sign that Harvey himself had taken up killing Falcone family members. As a result, she stopped killing and took a passive role, waiting for Harvey to finish the job so they could settle down. Whether or not Gilda's claims were truthful were never verified, as she left Gotham and was never brought to justice.
Technically, Two-Face was the final Holiday, as he murders Carmine Falcone and Vernon Fields on Halloween, and while there was no 'marker' for the holiday, Two-Face leaves his double-sided coin.
Dent (before becoming Two-Face) is an early suspect of the Holiday murders. In the first issue, Batman provides Dent and Gordon with a ledger from Falcone's safe with a list of members of the family and it gives Dent information to track and kill the family members. Although the ledger is a crucial piece of evidence, Dent cannot use it, being inadmissible in court against the Roman because he would have to reveal that Batman had stolen it.
There is also a .22 pistol that Gilda finds in their basement, which Dent maintains was evidence. The killer is seen filing the pistol at a craftsman work area; Dent is also shown having a work area with the same layout later.
In addition, the murder of the Irish gang would seem to be an act of revenge, as they blew up Dent's house and injure his wife. After Dent becomes Two-Face, both the ledger and a Holiday-style .22 are found in his briefcase in his basement. This leads Batman and Gordon to conclude that Dent is Holiday since the beginning.
Dent is seen as a main suspect for a large portion of the story, notably for a number of enigmatic comments he makes such as saying of Johnny Viti's murder: "Two shots to the head. If you ask me, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy", a phrase Two-Face says after Falcone's death.