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about_facesToday, let's look at the first appearance of the second--and most enduring--of the impostors: Paul Sloane!
Like Harvey Apollo, this Two-Face was originally an actor, and I can't help but think that the Apollo story influenced this one. But unlike that out-of-canon ham actor, the in-continuity Sloane was actually more of a method actor who got a little too deep in the role! Of all the in-canon impostors, Sloane is the only one who was genuinely scarred and snapped, rather than playing dress-up to frame Harvey.
In fact, Sloane's Two-Face may have affected Harvey's subsequent appearances more than we suspect! We already saw how Batman dressed up as Sloane dressing up like Harvey, and how Sloane was the first Two-Face who actually seemed to have fun being evil, all the way up to an image that damn well feels iconic:
At first, this origin seems ridiculous and contrived, and it kinda is. But I'm an actor IRL, and I've known method actors. If it's too much to say I can see this happening to them, then it certainly takes the piss out the method.
For god's sake, you know this would happen to Daniel Day-Lewis. Hell, I'd pay good money to see that!
And as with Harvey, Sloane is partially motivated by the fear that he'll be shunned for his deformity. Sloane certainly has better reason to be vain, since he's an actor, but there's so much emphasis on outward appearances in this classic stories.
It'd be one thing if the stories acknowledges the fallacy of Harvey and Paul's fears, but even Batman himself keeps saying, "Don't worry, we'll get you help, and then you'll be as handsome as ever!"
Frankly, it makes me wonder what Harvey or Paul would think of the classic Twilight Zone episode with the doctors and nurses. Y'know, the one (fittingly!) entitled, "Eye of the Beholder." If you haven't seen it yet, stop reading and click that link.
Fast-forward to the big finale:
... Shut up, Dick.
Well now, that was a pretty clever MUST USE WILDROOT CREAM-OIL HAIR TONIC BECAUSE CHARLIE WILD AND HIS AMAZING HAIR SAID SO. Damn! Those old ads were persuasive! ... I was actually going to make a joke about "that time I went crazy trying to buy up all the Blue Coal," but I'm not sure if anyone would get it.
Can you tell I had coffee today? I had coffee today.
So once again, Batman saves the day from Two-Face by cheating! Which is what one sometimes has to do, of course. But damn, Paul, don't try to suspect that the guy who pulled off the seemingly impossible is also the one who laid the seemingly-impossible rules in the first place!
Also, even though I only posted six pages out of a ten-page story, isn't it crazy how much story was packed into those six pages? Does anyone else feel this way?
Maybe it's just there's a lot more dialogue crammed into each panel, but it still moves swiftly enough so as not to feel bogged down by exposition. Modern comic writers could really learn from this kind of pacing (I'm looking squarely at you, Mark Sable, author of Two-Face: Year One which I'll post parts of here... just as soon as they stop boring the crap outta me).
This story has currently been reprinted in the hardcover collection of the Batman Annuals, vol. 1, but with the slight difference. You see, when they reprinted this story the first time in one of the Batman Annuals, we were already post-Comics Code Authority. Check it out:
Besides the obvious difference, the more subtle change is that it's a random accident (and therefore once again playing to ideas of fate and destiny and crap), not sabotage due to a jealous boyfriend, or even a possible love triangle! Was that too scandalous for post-Wertham DC Comics?
Or was it the acid that itself that was frowned upon? If you remember the only Silver Age Two-Face "appearance," acid wasn't even mentioned as the cause of the disfigurement. Could that have been another reason why we never saw Two-Face in the Silver Age?
Somehow, I suspect the sad truth is nothing more than an anticlimactic "no one cared."
Thankfully, of course, Harvey Dent returned. And eventually, so did Paul Sloane.... twice! Look forward to those posts in the very near future!
Like Harvey Apollo, this Two-Face was originally an actor, and I can't help but think that the Apollo story influenced this one. But unlike that out-of-canon ham actor, the in-continuity Sloane was actually more of a method actor who got a little too deep in the role! Of all the in-canon impostors, Sloane is the only one who was genuinely scarred and snapped, rather than playing dress-up to frame Harvey.
In fact, Sloane's Two-Face may have affected Harvey's subsequent appearances more than we suspect! We already saw how Batman dressed up as Sloane dressing up like Harvey, and how Sloane was the first Two-Face who actually seemed to have fun being evil, all the way up to an image that damn well feels iconic:
At first, this origin seems ridiculous and contrived, and it kinda is. But I'm an actor IRL, and I've known method actors. If it's too much to say I can see this happening to them, then it certainly takes the piss out the method.
For god's sake, you know this would happen to Daniel Day-Lewis. Hell, I'd pay good money to see that!
And as with Harvey, Sloane is partially motivated by the fear that he'll be shunned for his deformity. Sloane certainly has better reason to be vain, since he's an actor, but there's so much emphasis on outward appearances in this classic stories.
It'd be one thing if the stories acknowledges the fallacy of Harvey and Paul's fears, but even Batman himself keeps saying, "Don't worry, we'll get you help, and then you'll be as handsome as ever!"
Frankly, it makes me wonder what Harvey or Paul would think of the classic Twilight Zone episode with the doctors and nurses. Y'know, the one (fittingly!) entitled, "Eye of the Beholder." If you haven't seen it yet, stop reading and click that link.
Fast-forward to the big finale:
... Shut up, Dick.
Well now, that was a pretty clever MUST USE WILDROOT CREAM-OIL HAIR TONIC BECAUSE CHARLIE WILD AND HIS AMAZING HAIR SAID SO. Damn! Those old ads were persuasive! ... I was actually going to make a joke about "that time I went crazy trying to buy up all the Blue Coal," but I'm not sure if anyone would get it.
Can you tell I had coffee today? I had coffee today.
So once again, Batman saves the day from Two-Face by cheating! Which is what one sometimes has to do, of course. But damn, Paul, don't try to suspect that the guy who pulled off the seemingly impossible is also the one who laid the seemingly-impossible rules in the first place!
Also, even though I only posted six pages out of a ten-page story, isn't it crazy how much story was packed into those six pages? Does anyone else feel this way?
Maybe it's just there's a lot more dialogue crammed into each panel, but it still moves swiftly enough so as not to feel bogged down by exposition. Modern comic writers could really learn from this kind of pacing (I'm looking squarely at you, Mark Sable, author of Two-Face: Year One which I'll post parts of here... just as soon as they stop boring the crap outta me).
This story has currently been reprinted in the hardcover collection of the Batman Annuals, vol. 1, but with the slight difference. You see, when they reprinted this story the first time in one of the Batman Annuals, we were already post-Comics Code Authority. Check it out:
Besides the obvious difference, the more subtle change is that it's a random accident (and therefore once again playing to ideas of fate and destiny and crap), not sabotage due to a jealous boyfriend, or even a possible love triangle! Was that too scandalous for post-Wertham DC Comics?
Or was it the acid that itself that was frowned upon? If you remember the only Silver Age Two-Face "appearance," acid wasn't even mentioned as the cause of the disfigurement. Could that have been another reason why we never saw Two-Face in the Silver Age?
Somehow, I suspect the sad truth is nothing more than an anticlimactic "no one cared."
Thankfully, of course, Harvey Dent returned. And eventually, so did Paul Sloane.... twice! Look forward to those posts in the very near future!
