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about_facesI've decided to create about_faces.dreamwidth.com as a back-up. I'm not planning on fleeing LJ anytime soon, and even if I eventually do, I'm not sure I'd want to set up shop at Dreamwidth. Having something of my own site would be ideal (ala similar fan sites such as the Aquaman Shrine), but who knows how many people would find it? Hopefully, y'all will be able to follow me no matter what happens.
So, because YOU demanded it(!!!), here's a look at the second half of Doug Moench's Two-Face story from Knightfall.
Unfortunately, we have to skip entirely past the real point of the story, which the tension between Robin and a burnt-out Batman. What is it about Two-Face stories that really brings out the tension between Batman and any give Robin? Anyhoo, fast-forward, Batman decides to try taking on Harvey alone, and gets his ass ambushed. He wakes up in the ruins of the old courthouse where D.A. Harvey Dent once presided, with a "judge and jury" comprised of the late Mr. Lyman's enforcers. Oh yeah, we know where this is going...
Scans are from Showcase '93 #8
I think this is the first time anybody's used this now-cliched scenario for Two-Face. Personally, I have a hard time imagining this scene as if I hadn't seen it several other times, and as such, it feels like a letdown from the first part's great "Rise of Two-Face" opening.
This Two-Face is now so obsessed with revenge of Batman that he's willing to kill a mob boss and use grenades to intimidate the enforcers into his employ. I've got to give him credit: he's batshit crazy, but also quite capable and dangerous. Even if Lyman's enforcers weren't already planning on betrayed Two-Face, this is one of those times where his henchmen would be thinking, "Yeah, this is ridiculous, but at least the pay's good."
Also, anyone else seeing a lot of Black Mask in Harvey's nonsensical rants? I think Moench has certain favorite pet themes.
While Robin and Alfred scramble to deduce where Harvey has Batman, Batman tries to play Two-Face's game and request a chance to defend himself. But as this is Moench's Two-Face, the game is rigged, and he declares, "For the crimes you have committed, there IS no defense!"
I think that's one of the most genuinely unsettling examples of Harvey's insanity. It's kind of a wonder that anyone would work for him.
What I'm trying to figure out is whether or not Moench's use of Eye of the Beholder's "A GOOD MAN DOES NOT DO BAD THINGS AND VICE VERSA RRARGH!" actually works in context. It really pushes the idea that Two-Face is an overgrown child, since that "lesson" was scarred into his psyche from childhood thanks to his abusive father. I'm never sure how I feel about Two-Face being a big angry kid, much as I think the abuse should be central to his madness.
So what does this mean? I'm guessing that Harvey is saying this because he wants to blame himself while still being blameless. Harvey couldn't be the "good man" Batman says he is, because he did bad things like kill Dr. Rudolph Klemper and try to get Batman to kill "Mad Dog" Pike (assuming that this story it taking that much of Eye of the Beholder into canon). But he also couldn't be a "bad man" either, because he was dedicated to justice while Batman was the one who betrayed and abandoned him. Harvey can therefore be both.
Does this make sense? Does this even work? I honestly don't know. It seems like "crazy-logic" pushed to the extreme, and I think it even reaches a breaking point once we reach the third panel below:
*facepalm* Yes, Doug Moench, I see what you did there.
So this is Two-Face going completely off the deep end now, all right. What bugs me is that Harvey actually has a reason to feel betrayed by Batman. After all, they were allies and even friends (depending on which canon you want to take into account), but Batman abandoned Harvey rather than tries to get his ally the help he clearly needed. It was obvious that Dent wasn't in his right mind, not that he was simply becoming "too obsessed."
Even if Harvey himself doesn't think of Batman's "betrayal" in those terms, Batman should still be holding himself accountable. Bruce is a sucker for guilt trips, after all, and it would make Harvey even more relevant as a living example of Batman's failures. Consider it a more brutal variation of Bruce's nightmare from Two-Face Part II:
"Why couldn't you save us, Bruce?"
Back to the story. Of course, Batman eludes Harvey's verdict, breaking free of his bonds just as Robin and Alfred arrive to battle the enforcers.
Screaming about unfairness and how the verdict was in, Harvey scrambles for higher ground, leaving the demolition site and heading to the construction site of the new courthouse. It's a lovely touch on Moench's part, until he has Batman spell it out by adding that it's "the reverse course of his life and career... of his face and mind..." Dang it, Moench, why couldn't you have stopped when you were ahead?
Battling in the scaffolding, Harvey refuses to be taken in and tries leaping to his death, hoping to take Batman with him. In an act of awesome heroism, the weakened Batman summons what little strength he has to save Harvey. What a prime opportunity for the good side of Harvey Dent to emerge, realizing that Batman isn't his enemy, and ending this sequel on a bittersweet note!
Instead, we're reminded that this is Doug Moench writing Two-Face:
This whole exchange plays out like a repeat of the first Moench-written Two-Face story, the one with Circe. At least there's that moment of hesitation, indicating that Batman may not be wrong even if Two-Face won't see past his fanatical obsession. But it's not enough to keep Two-Face from being anything else than a mad dog that needs to be put down, as Robin does in the next page... much to Batman's consternation.
I love how all three of the big 90's Batman writers wrote Two-Face stories that ended with Harvey convulsively muttering something to himself over and over. For those who don't recall, here's Chuck Dixon's and here's Alan Grant's.
In the last page, the story flashes forward to Bruce--speaking his first words after Bane broke his back--telling Tim that he made the right decision after all, and that it was a good judgment. That, of course, is why we couldn't have that scene of Harvey coming to his senses, because Moench needed him to be a loose canon so that we could have this arc between Bruce and Tim. I really can't complain, because it's their stories, not Harvey's. But at the same time, I don't care about the hero-sidekick drama as much as I do about the tragic hero-turned-villain.
It's worth noting that this Two-Face has one MAJOR difference that sets him apart from Moench's earlier take on the character: Harvey now has a motivation for hating Batman and wanting to see him dead. Both versions are written as characters who believe that Harvey Dent is dead and Two-Face is all that remains, but Moench's post-EotB version actually blames Batman for Dent's "death." There are pluses and minuses to each take.
The most interesting aspect of the original version is that he had no specific vendetta against Batman, nor did he take any pleasure in making the hero's life hell. For Two-Face, who now considered himself ALL evil, the heroic Batman now took the place Harvey Dent used to reside as the "good" side of the balance. Thus, Two-Face simply saw himself as acting according to his nature, and Batman would react according to his nature. It's a detached, philosophically-insane perspective that had some potential.
In some ways, turning Harvey to an obsessed revenger reduces the ideological Two-Face into just another snarling, vengeance-based madman. Hell, it almost makes him the poor man's version of Moench's own Black Mask! But at the same time, it actually gives Harvey a reason to become a crime boss and an active Batman villain, which is not something he's really given for the most part.
Seriously, WHY does Harvey do anything other than become a violent vigilante in the style of the Punisher or Jason!Red Hood, or simply spend the rest of his days in Arkham just flipping his coin? There's no real leap from D.A. to mob boss, yet writers are just so used to that role from Pre-Crisis that no one's trying to reconcile it with the way the character's grown otherwise!
Once again when it comes to Moench and Two-Face, I don't love the story, but it's still a better attempt than many writers would make. Although I fear even that won't carry through to his next story, The Face Schism.
So, because YOU demanded it(!!!), here's a look at the second half of Doug Moench's Two-Face story from Knightfall.
Unfortunately, we have to skip entirely past the real point of the story, which the tension between Robin and a burnt-out Batman. What is it about Two-Face stories that really brings out the tension between Batman and any give Robin? Anyhoo, fast-forward, Batman decides to try taking on Harvey alone, and gets his ass ambushed. He wakes up in the ruins of the old courthouse where D.A. Harvey Dent once presided, with a "judge and jury" comprised of the late Mr. Lyman's enforcers. Oh yeah, we know where this is going...
Scans are from Showcase '93 #8
I think this is the first time anybody's used this now-cliched scenario for Two-Face. Personally, I have a hard time imagining this scene as if I hadn't seen it several other times, and as such, it feels like a letdown from the first part's great "Rise of Two-Face" opening.
This Two-Face is now so obsessed with revenge of Batman that he's willing to kill a mob boss and use grenades to intimidate the enforcers into his employ. I've got to give him credit: he's batshit crazy, but also quite capable and dangerous. Even if Lyman's enforcers weren't already planning on betrayed Two-Face, this is one of those times where his henchmen would be thinking, "Yeah, this is ridiculous, but at least the pay's good."
Also, anyone else seeing a lot of Black Mask in Harvey's nonsensical rants? I think Moench has certain favorite pet themes.
While Robin and Alfred scramble to deduce where Harvey has Batman, Batman tries to play Two-Face's game and request a chance to defend himself. But as this is Moench's Two-Face, the game is rigged, and he declares, "For the crimes you have committed, there IS no defense!"
I think that's one of the most genuinely unsettling examples of Harvey's insanity. It's kind of a wonder that anyone would work for him.
What I'm trying to figure out is whether or not Moench's use of Eye of the Beholder's "A GOOD MAN DOES NOT DO BAD THINGS AND VICE VERSA RRARGH!" actually works in context. It really pushes the idea that Two-Face is an overgrown child, since that "lesson" was scarred into his psyche from childhood thanks to his abusive father. I'm never sure how I feel about Two-Face being a big angry kid, much as I think the abuse should be central to his madness.
So what does this mean? I'm guessing that Harvey is saying this because he wants to blame himself while still being blameless. Harvey couldn't be the "good man" Batman says he is, because he did bad things like kill Dr. Rudolph Klemper and try to get Batman to kill "Mad Dog" Pike (assuming that this story it taking that much of Eye of the Beholder into canon). But he also couldn't be a "bad man" either, because he was dedicated to justice while Batman was the one who betrayed and abandoned him. Harvey can therefore be both.
Does this make sense? Does this even work? I honestly don't know. It seems like "crazy-logic" pushed to the extreme, and I think it even reaches a breaking point once we reach the third panel below:
*facepalm* Yes, Doug Moench, I see what you did there.
So this is Two-Face going completely off the deep end now, all right. What bugs me is that Harvey actually has a reason to feel betrayed by Batman. After all, they were allies and even friends (depending on which canon you want to take into account), but Batman abandoned Harvey rather than tries to get his ally the help he clearly needed. It was obvious that Dent wasn't in his right mind, not that he was simply becoming "too obsessed."
Even if Harvey himself doesn't think of Batman's "betrayal" in those terms, Batman should still be holding himself accountable. Bruce is a sucker for guilt trips, after all, and it would make Harvey even more relevant as a living example of Batman's failures. Consider it a more brutal variation of Bruce's nightmare from Two-Face Part II:
"Why couldn't you save us, Bruce?"
Back to the story. Of course, Batman eludes Harvey's verdict, breaking free of his bonds just as Robin and Alfred arrive to battle the enforcers.
Screaming about unfairness and how the verdict was in, Harvey scrambles for higher ground, leaving the demolition site and heading to the construction site of the new courthouse. It's a lovely touch on Moench's part, until he has Batman spell it out by adding that it's "the reverse course of his life and career... of his face and mind..." Dang it, Moench, why couldn't you have stopped when you were ahead?
Battling in the scaffolding, Harvey refuses to be taken in and tries leaping to his death, hoping to take Batman with him. In an act of awesome heroism, the weakened Batman summons what little strength he has to save Harvey. What a prime opportunity for the good side of Harvey Dent to emerge, realizing that Batman isn't his enemy, and ending this sequel on a bittersweet note!
Instead, we're reminded that this is Doug Moench writing Two-Face:
This whole exchange plays out like a repeat of the first Moench-written Two-Face story, the one with Circe. At least there's that moment of hesitation, indicating that Batman may not be wrong even if Two-Face won't see past his fanatical obsession. But it's not enough to keep Two-Face from being anything else than a mad dog that needs to be put down, as Robin does in the next page... much to Batman's consternation.
I love how all three of the big 90's Batman writers wrote Two-Face stories that ended with Harvey convulsively muttering something to himself over and over. For those who don't recall, here's Chuck Dixon's and here's Alan Grant's.
In the last page, the story flashes forward to Bruce--speaking his first words after Bane broke his back--telling Tim that he made the right decision after all, and that it was a good judgment. That, of course, is why we couldn't have that scene of Harvey coming to his senses, because Moench needed him to be a loose canon so that we could have this arc between Bruce and Tim. I really can't complain, because it's their stories, not Harvey's. But at the same time, I don't care about the hero-sidekick drama as much as I do about the tragic hero-turned-villain.
It's worth noting that this Two-Face has one MAJOR difference that sets him apart from Moench's earlier take on the character: Harvey now has a motivation for hating Batman and wanting to see him dead. Both versions are written as characters who believe that Harvey Dent is dead and Two-Face is all that remains, but Moench's post-EotB version actually blames Batman for Dent's "death." There are pluses and minuses to each take.
The most interesting aspect of the original version is that he had no specific vendetta against Batman, nor did he take any pleasure in making the hero's life hell. For Two-Face, who now considered himself ALL evil, the heroic Batman now took the place Harvey Dent used to reside as the "good" side of the balance. Thus, Two-Face simply saw himself as acting according to his nature, and Batman would react according to his nature. It's a detached, philosophically-insane perspective that had some potential.
In some ways, turning Harvey to an obsessed revenger reduces the ideological Two-Face into just another snarling, vengeance-based madman. Hell, it almost makes him the poor man's version of Moench's own Black Mask! But at the same time, it actually gives Harvey a reason to become a crime boss and an active Batman villain, which is not something he's really given for the most part.
Seriously, WHY does Harvey do anything other than become a violent vigilante in the style of the Punisher or Jason!Red Hood, or simply spend the rest of his days in Arkham just flipping his coin? There's no real leap from D.A. to mob boss, yet writers are just so used to that role from Pre-Crisis that no one's trying to reconcile it with the way the character's grown otherwise!
Once again when it comes to Moench and Two-Face, I don't love the story, but it's still a better attempt than many writers would make. Although I fear even that won't carry through to his next story, The Face Schism.
