In a previous Saturday Night Showcase we looked at the first story in DC’s “High Volume” podcast series, a set of audio dramas adapting major Batman comic stories over the years, with new audio to fill in gaps and I’m assuming set a complete narrative unique to High Volume. The first one was Batman: Year One. While I’m not a fan of most of Frank Miller’s take on Batman, even the stuff other fans actually like (aka NOT All-Star Batman & Robin), the podcasts are well acted, performed, and scored, while the video versions using the panels they’re adapting are a nice touch. Creating panels for the original parts would be nice, though.
The Long Halloween, by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, sets Harvey Dent’s transformation into Two-Face along with a serial killer…and that’s really all I know about the story. There is an animated adaptation as well, but you’d think a story tied to Halloween, at least in title, would include some paranormal element or Batman foe Calendar Man, and to my knowledge neither is the case. Instead, the killer is called Holiday, with a twist as to who the villain is. Still, as the second story in the High Volume series, each in multiple parts, I thought tonight was a good time to show off the first episode because it’s all I have time to break out this week, and it makes up for missing a local free comic convention because I’m still kind of a mess.
The story is still set early in Batman’s career, with Jim Gordon still not commissioner. Not having read the original miniseries I don’t know how accurate that was to the story. As I said, this also shows how Harvey became Two-Face, but that doesn’t happen this episode. Enjoy.
You can catch the full series via the YouTube playlist or on the official High Volume website if you just want to find the audio only versions.
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