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about_facesWhen Eye of the Beholder was released in 1990, it reinvigorated the character of Harvey Dent, giving him long-overdue psychological insight, deepening his tragedy, and making him a greater character than he was before. should have drastically impacted Two-Face the same way The Killing Joke did for the Joker.
It didn't.
If anything, the character became even more flat and one-dimensional. Hell, while the Joker popped up immediately after TKJ, it took two whole years for anyone to write Harvey, and three to use him in actual mainstream regular Batman continuity over the 90's, with the majority of those issues were tangled up in crossovers. In these overblown events, plot ruled all, and characterization suffered. Given the option to follow Eye of the Beholder's example of character depth or just going backwards and using Two-Face as an evil villain, the writers of this period generally chose the latter.
But hey, at least the covers are neat. Well, some of them anyway. Mostly, I think it's just fascinating to chart the drastic evolution of comics over these six years
As far as I know, this is the one and only time that Bill Sienkiewicz has drawn Two-Face. If ever there was an artist-character pairing that needed to happen, it's this! This cover is a small indication of what could be, but it's hardly perfect in its own right.
For one thing, why do so many artists screw up the alignment of the eyes? I know my scan is skewed, but damn, that one's way up there on his face. And what's up with the coins spiraling out of his wonky eye?
Seriously, is it so hard to keep the eyes level? Or is that what it'd really look like if his lids were eaten away by acid on that one side?
The ad for this issue gives a slightly different take on Glenn Fabry's image here:
If you ever wanted to see Jessie Custer as Two-Face, there you go. Both versions, in their own ways, are among the most horrifying takes on the scarring. I'm not sure which I prefer, but that could just be that I'm too distracted by all the clutter on the first cover. Either way, damn, I can't recall the last time I've seen Batman so 'roided up!
As for this two-part story itself, I should post it here sometime. It's probably the least-crappy of Doug Moench's four or five major Two-Face stories. For one thing, it's the only one to directly reference Eye of the Beholder, even if it's done with some inconsistency. Also, it's one of the few times I've really liked Klaus Janson's artwork, possibly thanks to the limited use of garish colors.
That said, I always felt like this story was included in Knightfall as an afterthought. It was treated as a "lost tale of Batman tracking down the last of the Arkham escapees," but if you've read the actual Knightfall storyline, it's hard to tell when Batman would have had the time to fight Harvey between saving Mayor Kroll (from the Joker and Squishy) and his confrontation with Bane.
Honestly, it almost feels more like a Two-Face story Doug Moench had already written, which was shoehorned in to fitting in the event. Maybe that's why they decided to make Harvey the main antagonist in the Prodigal crossover a couple years later (which I've posted here). Too bad that it's one of the worst takes on the character, but eh, what're you gonna do? At least a couple of the covers are neat:
Okay, when I said that "a couple of the covers are neat," I literally meant two.
The matching Shadow of the Bat covers by Brian Stelfreeze are the only ones here that really stand out, in my opinion. The rest really just remind me of the cheap production values of Batman comics at this point, just before they brought in higher quality printing and coloring. You can see for yourself how lousy the quality was just from the scans I posted of this storyline. Sure, the printing quality of older comics was just as bad or worse, but they at least had the excuse of being old, with the added benefit of retro charm. There is little retro charm to be gained from early 90's comics.
But what about the mid-90's?
... Eyyyughhh! Well, at least the printing quality is better...?
Seriously, I simply do not get the appeal of Kelley Jones' artwork. I mean, it works in pure horror (Batman/Dracula was great stuff, although that could well have been helped by the inker), but everything he draws looks like a Bernie Wrightson piece that melted.
As for the story itself, it's simply one of the worst Two-Face stories of all time. I know, I know, I throw hyperbole around a lot, but seriously: this one suuuuuuuuuucks. The fact that it was included in the lousy Batman VS Two-Face trade paperback over Eye of the Frickin' BEHOLDER... oh, there's no justice.
Ah, Lock-Up. I remember when he first showed up, I thought, "Really? The guy from the one episode of Batman: The Animated Series? Huh." Not exactly as compelling a show-to-comics introduction as Renee Montoya or Harley Quinn, but it was still neat to see him established in canon.
I know a lot of people don't care for Graham Nolan's artwork, but I've always enjoyed it a great deal. At his best, he had a wonderfully slick, clean style that was intense but fun and lively. His work in The Joker: Devil's Advocate is half the reason why that book's one of the best Joker stories of all time, as Nolan perfectly balances the swirling chaos of that character from comedic, terrifying, pitiful, suave, bugfuck insane, and everything in between. A shame that Nolan doesn't get more credit as being the best Bat-artist of this era, in my opinion.
Man, I will never, ever think that this version of Killer Moth is actually LESS silly than his original incarnation. It's just so... 90's. As I said before, it's a testament to the character that the goofy green-and-purple costume has proved far more enduring for the character.
Here we at least see Sienkiewicz's inks on Harvey. I've rarely ever seen an artist whose work isn't improved by Sienkiewicz on inks. One of the best pairings was between him and Dan Jurgens on pencils in a No Man's Land storyline. They dearly need to work together again.
As for Harvey's character, he's very much Chuck Dixon's Harvey: a cunning, evil monster. But while I may dislike that take, I give Dixon this much credit: he manages to write that take more entertainingly than most. He may not be a great character, but he's at least a good villain. That's... something, at least?
I actually featured this story as the second-ever post I made for this journal. This means that most of you probably haven't seen this story unless you've read the actual issues. It's not fantastic, but it's certainly more interesting as a Two-Face story than Dixon's and Moench's, and it's the closest DCU equivalent we've seen to the Judge.
It's also the first story in pretty much this entire bunch to look at Harvey from a psychological perspective of a mentally ill person being torn apart by his insanity. It's the first t treat him not just as a villain, but as a character. Thus, it's even more fitting that Harvey's next major appearance in the DCU should be this:
No Man's Land was the first crossover to actually focus more on character than event, and while I couldn't say for sure, I'd guess that most of the credit goes straight to a comics newcomer and experienced crime novelist named Greg Rucka. This story of the first meeting between Harvey Dent and Renee Montoya was one of his first-ever DC works, published right after the sequel, written in prose, about how Renee and her brother were affected by their meeting with Harvey.
As such, this cover by Jason Pearson will always hold a special place in my heart, even though I'm not sure why Batman seems to be a blow-up vinyl doll.
If you've never read NML and would like a taste of it from the Two-Face/Gordon/Montoya subplot (and if you have a few hours to waste), do check out the above two links, followed up by this post, which leads directly to:
Claim Jumping and the aftermath. These covers fill me with such mixed feelings, because I love love love the way Brian Bolland draws Harvey, but these covers don't really give him a chance to show off. That said, I like the first one because of how he manages to cram essentially four characters into those reflections, and also because Brian Bolland, as previously stated, is god.
And thus we have the final part of Harvey's NML saga, with these two covers by John Cassaday. His work on Planetary has secured me a lifelong appreciation of Cassaday's artwork, but his Two-Face isn't among my favorites. At least, not in the first cover.
I like the composition on the second, which really emphasizes how Gordon is caught in the middle of the two warring sides, as well as the implication that the two sides will actually war! We never actually saw ANY of that in any of the stories above! Although Janus came close. It's a good cover, but I don't care for the way he draws Harvey's good side. He looks like James Cagney trying out for Hannibal Lecter.
If you'll indulge me a moment of extreme anal retention, Harvey's eyes (or eye, at least) are supposed to be blue. Always. It's not just canon for every bio, but it plainly just makes a better impact. Of all these covers, only one gave him blue eyes, and I try not to let it bug me lest I feel like a total nit-picky loser. But bug me it does! Eh, maybe I can just use this as an excuse to pretend that most of these crappy Two-Face appearances over the decade were just Paul Sloane in disguise. Yeah, that's the ticket.
While we've finally reached the end, I haven't posted even half of Harvey's cover appearances from the 90's. So if I've missed out on your favorite, don't worry, I'll almost certainly be getting to it. Eventually.
It didn't.
If anything, the character became even more flat and one-dimensional. Hell, while the Joker popped up immediately after TKJ, it took two whole years for anyone to write Harvey, and three to use him in actual mainstream regular Batman continuity over the 90's, with the majority of those issues were tangled up in crossovers. In these overblown events, plot ruled all, and characterization suffered. Given the option to follow Eye of the Beholder's example of character depth or just going backwards and using Two-Face as an evil villain, the writers of this period generally chose the latter.
But hey, at least the covers are neat. Well, some of them anyway. Mostly, I think it's just fascinating to chart the drastic evolution of comics over these six years
As far as I know, this is the one and only time that Bill Sienkiewicz has drawn Two-Face. If ever there was an artist-character pairing that needed to happen, it's this! This cover is a small indication of what could be, but it's hardly perfect in its own right.
For one thing, why do so many artists screw up the alignment of the eyes? I know my scan is skewed, but damn, that one's way up there on his face. And what's up with the coins spiraling out of his wonky eye?
Seriously, is it so hard to keep the eyes level? Or is that what it'd really look like if his lids were eaten away by acid on that one side?
The ad for this issue gives a slightly different take on Glenn Fabry's image here:
If you ever wanted to see Jessie Custer as Two-Face, there you go. Both versions, in their own ways, are among the most horrifying takes on the scarring. I'm not sure which I prefer, but that could just be that I'm too distracted by all the clutter on the first cover. Either way, damn, I can't recall the last time I've seen Batman so 'roided up!
As for this two-part story itself, I should post it here sometime. It's probably the least-crappy of Doug Moench's four or five major Two-Face stories. For one thing, it's the only one to directly reference Eye of the Beholder, even if it's done with some inconsistency. Also, it's one of the few times I've really liked Klaus Janson's artwork, possibly thanks to the limited use of garish colors.
That said, I always felt like this story was included in Knightfall as an afterthought. It was treated as a "lost tale of Batman tracking down the last of the Arkham escapees," but if you've read the actual Knightfall storyline, it's hard to tell when Batman would have had the time to fight Harvey between saving Mayor Kroll (from the Joker and Squishy) and his confrontation with Bane.
Honestly, it almost feels more like a Two-Face story Doug Moench had already written, which was shoehorned in to fitting in the event. Maybe that's why they decided to make Harvey the main antagonist in the Prodigal crossover a couple years later (which I've posted here). Too bad that it's one of the worst takes on the character, but eh, what're you gonna do? At least a couple of the covers are neat:
Okay, when I said that "a couple of the covers are neat," I literally meant two.
The matching Shadow of the Bat covers by Brian Stelfreeze are the only ones here that really stand out, in my opinion. The rest really just remind me of the cheap production values of Batman comics at this point, just before they brought in higher quality printing and coloring. You can see for yourself how lousy the quality was just from the scans I posted of this storyline. Sure, the printing quality of older comics was just as bad or worse, but they at least had the excuse of being old, with the added benefit of retro charm. There is little retro charm to be gained from early 90's comics.
But what about the mid-90's?
... Eyyyughhh! Well, at least the printing quality is better...?
Seriously, I simply do not get the appeal of Kelley Jones' artwork. I mean, it works in pure horror (Batman/Dracula was great stuff, although that could well have been helped by the inker), but everything he draws looks like a Bernie Wrightson piece that melted.
As for the story itself, it's simply one of the worst Two-Face stories of all time. I know, I know, I throw hyperbole around a lot, but seriously: this one suuuuuuuuuucks. The fact that it was included in the lousy Batman VS Two-Face trade paperback over Eye of the Frickin' BEHOLDER... oh, there's no justice.
Ah, Lock-Up. I remember when he first showed up, I thought, "Really? The guy from the one episode of Batman: The Animated Series? Huh." Not exactly as compelling a show-to-comics introduction as Renee Montoya or Harley Quinn, but it was still neat to see him established in canon.
I know a lot of people don't care for Graham Nolan's artwork, but I've always enjoyed it a great deal. At his best, he had a wonderfully slick, clean style that was intense but fun and lively. His work in The Joker: Devil's Advocate is half the reason why that book's one of the best Joker stories of all time, as Nolan perfectly balances the swirling chaos of that character from comedic, terrifying, pitiful, suave, bugfuck insane, and everything in between. A shame that Nolan doesn't get more credit as being the best Bat-artist of this era, in my opinion.
Man, I will never, ever think that this version of Killer Moth is actually LESS silly than his original incarnation. It's just so... 90's. As I said before, it's a testament to the character that the goofy green-and-purple costume has proved far more enduring for the character.
Here we at least see Sienkiewicz's inks on Harvey. I've rarely ever seen an artist whose work isn't improved by Sienkiewicz on inks. One of the best pairings was between him and Dan Jurgens on pencils in a No Man's Land storyline. They dearly need to work together again.
As for Harvey's character, he's very much Chuck Dixon's Harvey: a cunning, evil monster. But while I may dislike that take, I give Dixon this much credit: he manages to write that take more entertainingly than most. He may not be a great character, but he's at least a good villain. That's... something, at least?
I actually featured this story as the second-ever post I made for this journal. This means that most of you probably haven't seen this story unless you've read the actual issues. It's not fantastic, but it's certainly more interesting as a Two-Face story than Dixon's and Moench's, and it's the closest DCU equivalent we've seen to the Judge.
It's also the first story in pretty much this entire bunch to look at Harvey from a psychological perspective of a mentally ill person being torn apart by his insanity. It's the first t treat him not just as a villain, but as a character. Thus, it's even more fitting that Harvey's next major appearance in the DCU should be this:
No Man's Land was the first crossover to actually focus more on character than event, and while I couldn't say for sure, I'd guess that most of the credit goes straight to a comics newcomer and experienced crime novelist named Greg Rucka. This story of the first meeting between Harvey Dent and Renee Montoya was one of his first-ever DC works, published right after the sequel, written in prose, about how Renee and her brother were affected by their meeting with Harvey.
As such, this cover by Jason Pearson will always hold a special place in my heart, even though I'm not sure why Batman seems to be a blow-up vinyl doll.
If you've never read NML and would like a taste of it from the Two-Face/Gordon/Montoya subplot (and if you have a few hours to waste), do check out the above two links, followed up by this post, which leads directly to:
Claim Jumping and the aftermath. These covers fill me with such mixed feelings, because I love love love the way Brian Bolland draws Harvey, but these covers don't really give him a chance to show off. That said, I like the first one because of how he manages to cram essentially four characters into those reflections, and also because Brian Bolland, as previously stated, is god.
And thus we have the final part of Harvey's NML saga, with these two covers by John Cassaday. His work on Planetary has secured me a lifelong appreciation of Cassaday's artwork, but his Two-Face isn't among my favorites. At least, not in the first cover.
I like the composition on the second, which really emphasizes how Gordon is caught in the middle of the two warring sides, as well as the implication that the two sides will actually war! We never actually saw ANY of that in any of the stories above! Although Janus came close. It's a good cover, but I don't care for the way he draws Harvey's good side. He looks like James Cagney trying out for Hannibal Lecter.
If you'll indulge me a moment of extreme anal retention, Harvey's eyes (or eye, at least) are supposed to be blue. Always. It's not just canon for every bio, but it plainly just makes a better impact. Of all these covers, only one gave him blue eyes, and I try not to let it bug me lest I feel like a total nit-picky loser. But bug me it does! Eh, maybe I can just use this as an excuse to pretend that most of these crappy Two-Face appearances over the decade were just Paul Sloane in disguise. Yeah, that's the ticket.
While we've finally reached the end, I haven't posted even half of Harvey's cover appearances from the 90's. So if I've missed out on your favorite, don't worry, I'll almost certainly be getting to it. Eventually.
