Broken Frontier

Halloween is a time for ghosts, goblins, monsters and mayhem and nowhere is that more true than in the DC Universe.

With the success of last year’s Christmas themed Infinite Holiday Special, DC seemed unable to resist tackling another holiday special – this one devoted to spooky, candy fueled Halloween. There are thirteen tales of horror, thrills, and even humor written by some of comicdom’s most well-known names including Mark Waid, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, Steve Niles, and even DC Editor in Chief Dan DiDio. In this case, though, is this collection of tales a treat or a trick?

Unlike DC’s previous Christmas special, the Infinite Halloween Special has a framing device. The denizens of Arkham Asylum have made good a partial escape and are waiting for the shift change to complete their bid for freedom. In the meantime the Joker encourages his fellow inmates to tell tales of terror involving some of the DCU’s most prominent heroes. Villains run the gamut from werewolves to zombies to ordinary humans with a nasty streak. Facing them are some familiar heroes like mistress of magic Zatanna, the new Aquaman, and Superman as well as some old faces not seen in a while – like the Resurrection Man.

As with any anthology, the results are a mixed bag with some stories stronger than others. Steve Niles’ zombie story involving Superman, for instance, falls a little flat while Dan DiDio’s loving parody/tribute/spoof of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown hits an amusing high note. Mark Waid, in turn, crafts a Flash ghost story that manages to have a lot of heart and an emotional core. The overall package, however, is well worth the price of admission to see some writers flexing little used talents for the chilling and macabre.

Likewise, the art for this issue runs an entire spectrum of styles from Dustin Nguyen’s sepia toned, water color-like work on the Zatanna story "kcirT ro taerT" to Bernard Chang’s very traditionally comic book look for Robin’s "The Watchdogs." While some of the art works for the stories, other styles do lack some punch or seem more ill-suited to the story the author is trying to tell. For all of that, though, there is a lot of talent on display here and once again it is fun to see artists tackling stories and characters that they do not always get a chance to handle.

While the Infinite Halloween Special is a bit pricier than the usual comic it is an oversize issue containing thirteen separate, stand alone, short stories. For those who consider themselves fans of the anthology format, this issue is a nice outing from one of the "big two" publishers. For those who are not familiar (or fans of) anthologies, this could be a title to change their minds. Easily accessible to newer readers and with a wide enough range of stories and characters to provide a little something for everyone DC could be on to something with these holiday themed specials. Here is hoping that this title is only the first in a series of annual Halloween spook-taculars.