DCnU Review: The superior second part of Tony Daniel's Two-Face story, 'TEC #9 (SPOILERS)

Not gonna lie, I had absolutely zero recollection as to what happened the first part of Tony Daniel's new Two-Face story, Welcome to the Dark Side, running as a backup in Detective Comics. I mean, I actually REVIEWED that comic in depth, and even still, none of it stuck with me. Maybe that's just a symptom of the Hef-Baby stealing my brain (He's crawling? CRAP, HE'S ADORABLE AND WE'RE SCREWED), but somehow, I don't think it's all on me here. Even before the baby, I had a hard time remembering anything that happened in any new comics, which just goes right back to the annoying decompressed nature of storytelling which I ranted about, and from which Daniel's first chapter suffered greatly.

Finally, with part two, stuff actually started happening. And surprise surprise, I actually kinda liked it!

Quick recap: the first part opened with a wounded, dying Harvey stumbling into the care of Buddhist monks who seemed to be familiar with him, and they proceeded to fix his wounds, both physical and psychological. The story then flashes back to Harvey torturing a messenger from Dominic Sterano, a prosecutor who has been building a case against Harvey. Turns out that Sterano and Harvey have been enemies since Harvey's D.A. days, when Sterano tries putting the moves on Gilda. Now Sterano wants a meeting to call off their war, which could open the door to what is apparently Harvey's ultimate (if implausible) goal: to be reinstated as District Attorney! Hmm, I gotta say, it sounds better as a plot synopsis than it was as a story!

So how badly does the meeting with Sterano go? Who or what beats the living crap out of Harvey so thoroughly? What the hell is up with those monks?! Let's see if the substantially-better second part has any answers!

Oh, and apparently, the storyline is now called 50/50. Or at least, the chapter is, and the storyline doesn't actually have a name yet. Maybe they'll figure out a title in the next chapter.

( I admit, I'm no angel... )

So yeah, the story's still not exactly good, but at least something's happening, and there's plenty of potential for greatness in several directions. If even one of them pans out, this story could end up being quite worthwhile, but again, we'll just have to wait and see.

If you'd like to read the issue in full, you can buy it digitally here for the still-ridiculously-expensive price of $3.99. The main story is a Night of the Owls crossover which also brings in the DCnU version of Roman Sionis, who is still alive and also now pretty much a completely different goddamn character. You can see for yourself over here at this exclusive preview of Detective Comics #9 over at Maxim.com. Yes, you read that right: DC gave the exclusive preview of 'Tec to frickin' MAXIM. Now you know exactly what kind of readers that DC is trying to court these days. How nice.