Cover Gallery: The Golden Age
Sep. 5th, 2010 02:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
about_facesToday, I present the first of several upcoming looks at Two-Face cover appearances over the ages. Feel free to skim past my blathering and commentary to just look at the neato pictures, if you're so inclined! :)
Note: all cover images taken from comicvine.com, my #1 source for character appearances when I'm trying to track down, say, a minor cameo of Highfather making Two-Face cry in an issue of NEW GODS. Yes, it happened. But I'll save that for the Cameos Megapost down the line. :)
While Harvey doesn't appear on this one, I feel remiss in not including the cover for his first appearance! Appropriately enough, his first cover appearance doesn't happen until the second part of his story!
Which of course, leads into the dramatic conclusion issue a year later, featuring a cover that has absolutely nothing to do with the interior story, nor does Harvey at any point dress up like that (but what the hell, it's the Golden Age!):
That's the last appearance of Harvey Kent, AKA Two-Face. By the next time Harvey shows up, he's now Harvey Dent in this issue:
Thing is, this Two-Face isn't actually Harvey. "How now!" I hear you exclaim? It's true! It's really his butler (he has a butler, apparently), who's been framing sane!Harvey for the crimes, making him question his own sanity in the process. Today, that story would end with Harvey going crazy again, but nope, not in the Golden Age! Yay sanity! Boo butlers! Hooray beer!
So it's still a happy ending for Harvey Dent, and the first of several impostor Two-Faces! Eventually, I'm gonna do a whole post dedicated to the impostors. Or maybe do it as a series. I'm not sure how long-winded I plan to be with each impostor.
Really, I could go on and on about our next guy, Paul Sloane:
Yup, also an impostor. Really, this is like FRIDAY THE 13TH V: A NEW BEGINNING levels of silly with the fakes, but threefold! That's right, there's one more!
This (awesome) cover's not an artist error: it's actually a plot point that this Two-Face is scarred on the wrong side, which is how Batman deduces--by the frickin' end of the story--that, gasp shock horror, it's an impostor Two-Face! And once again, Harvey Dent is cleared of all charges and goes right back to his happy ending!
Until two (sigh) years later, when it all quite literally blows up in his face:
Aaaaaaand we pretty much get back the classic Two-Face we all know today. Well, except for the fact that Two-Face is pretty much erased for the entire Silver Age. This above appearance is 1954, with Harvey's grand return to villainy, but he won't make an actual appearance in comics--leading nor minor--until 1971: a full seventeen years later.
Most significantly, Two-Face never gets adapted for the live-action BATMAN TV show, which means he never enters pop culture knowledge in any form, campy or otherwise! But ah, that's a rant for another time. Perhaps in the next post, wherein we skip right ahead to the glorious (and underappreciated) Bronze Age!
I'm also planning on looking at all of the Impostor Two-Faces over the years, but I can't decide if I should do them all in one post, or in a series of posts, since lord knows I can ramble on sometimes! Furthermore, I can't decide how many scans I want to include. Whole pages (but not whole stories)? Or choice panel snippets with commentary?
Do you folks have any preferences either way?
Note: all cover images taken from comicvine.com, my #1 source for character appearances when I'm trying to track down, say, a minor cameo of Highfather making Two-Face cry in an issue of NEW GODS. Yes, it happened. But I'll save that for the Cameos Megapost down the line. :)
While Harvey doesn't appear on this one, I feel remiss in not including the cover for his first appearance! Appropriately enough, his first cover appearance doesn't happen until the second part of his story!
Which of course, leads into the dramatic conclusion issue a year later, featuring a cover that has absolutely nothing to do with the interior story, nor does Harvey at any point dress up like that (but what the hell, it's the Golden Age!):
That's the last appearance of Harvey Kent, AKA Two-Face. By the next time Harvey shows up, he's now Harvey Dent in this issue:
Thing is, this Two-Face isn't actually Harvey. "How now!" I hear you exclaim? It's true! It's really his butler (he has a butler, apparently), who's been framing sane!Harvey for the crimes, making him question his own sanity in the process. Today, that story would end with Harvey going crazy again, but nope, not in the Golden Age! Yay sanity! Boo butlers! Hooray beer!
So it's still a happy ending for Harvey Dent, and the first of several impostor Two-Faces! Eventually, I'm gonna do a whole post dedicated to the impostors. Or maybe do it as a series. I'm not sure how long-winded I plan to be with each impostor.
Really, I could go on and on about our next guy, Paul Sloane:
Yup, also an impostor. Really, this is like FRIDAY THE 13TH V: A NEW BEGINNING levels of silly with the fakes, but threefold! That's right, there's one more!
This (awesome) cover's not an artist error: it's actually a plot point that this Two-Face is scarred on the wrong side, which is how Batman deduces--by the frickin' end of the story--that, gasp shock horror, it's an impostor Two-Face! And once again, Harvey Dent is cleared of all charges and goes right back to his happy ending!
Until two (sigh) years later, when it all quite literally blows up in his face:
Aaaaaaand we pretty much get back the classic Two-Face we all know today. Well, except for the fact that Two-Face is pretty much erased for the entire Silver Age. This above appearance is 1954, with Harvey's grand return to villainy, but he won't make an actual appearance in comics--leading nor minor--until 1971: a full seventeen years later.
Most significantly, Two-Face never gets adapted for the live-action BATMAN TV show, which means he never enters pop culture knowledge in any form, campy or otherwise! But ah, that's a rant for another time. Perhaps in the next post, wherein we skip right ahead to the glorious (and underappreciated) Bronze Age!
I'm also planning on looking at all of the Impostor Two-Faces over the years, but I can't decide if I should do them all in one post, or in a series of posts, since lord knows I can ramble on sometimes! Furthermore, I can't decide how many scans I want to include. Whole pages (but not whole stories)? Or choice panel snippets with commentary?
Do you folks have any preferences either way?
