Trading Cards Galore: Two-Face and the Rogues Gallery in Skybox's "Saga of TDK" and "DC Villains!"

[about_faces]

Back in the awful days of the 1990's--the era which DC, Marvel, and Image now seem hellbent on reliving in their own ways--superhero trading cards were prevalent, fitting in with the "EVERYTHING WILL BE A COLLECTIBLE INVESTMENT GOTTA CATCH 'EM ALL" mentality that nearly sank comics as a whole. As with all things, most of these were crap, but there are a couple sets for which I still have affection, largely for how they introduced me to the greater world of comics. Yeah, I have nostalgic love for my gateway drugs.



For example, Skybox's Batman: Saga of the Dark Knight single-handedly introduced me to Batman's Post-Crisis mythos from Year One through Knightsend. It was a great idea to focus on Batman's history, big storylines, key moments, and major characters, and while it's largely dominated in the whole Knightfall mythos, it still holds up as a great overview of an entire era of Batman comics.






I've posted about this one before, but I still love it. Obviously, this is from Batman: Year One, and while Harvey's role was foolishly deemed insignificant enough to exclude from the animated film, I'm glad that whoever put this set together thought to include this moment. It more than makes up for the fact that there's no card for Harvey's origin (whereas there are several cards for both Joker and Bane's origins).



The rest of the Harvey cards largely consist of Harvey's history with the Robins. Well, not Dick, since Prodigal hadn't come out yet. Here we have Jason strangling the hell out of Harvey. I really need to post that story.



The majority of the Harvey cards center around A Lonely Place of Dying, which trade original artist Jim Aparo (who draws the Death in the Family cards) for Phil Jimenez. I normally like his art, but not here, and the coloring doesn't help much. Also, Harvey's not wearing his wonderful, terrible turtleneck, so what's the point? Here, we have Harvey doing his best Tom Atkins in Halloween III while the Joker torments him, pretending to be Harvey's evil side. Because Joker's a dick.



Yeah, it's that weird pink-and-green coloring from that Knightfall-era story by Moench and Janson. Looks like Harvey's got a bad case of pinkeye.





And it's happily ever after when Batman punches out his old ally in order to save his best and newest allies. Hooray! Oh wait, Harvey was driven back to insanity by the Joker in this story. Well, fuck you for cheering, Tim! Just because Harvey tried to kill you with a pickaxe, sheesh. Have a little compassion.



Well, at least Harvey's saga here ends with him getting the upper hand. Or foot. I'll just ignore how that story ended and pretend that Harvey finally had a happy, Bat-splattering ending.

Of course, those are just the Two-Face cards. I've found scans of the whole set over here, but be warned, they're of varying quality. More than any of the others, I really wish I had high quality scans of Rick Burchett's Year One cards, as well as the villain profiles. Thankfully, I've managed to find some great scans across the internet, including the original artwork for a few!



I'd hate Ponytail!Joker as an awful remnant of 90's-ness, except that his one story by Dixon and Nolan is fantastic. It is the ONLY good story to come out of Knightsquest. I defy you to name a better story, or even a decent one. But even if I didn't like that story, I'd still like this piece. He's just got flair, damn it.






Like the Joker, this one's by Brian Stelfreeze. Y'know, I really like how he draws Catwoman when he uses pen and ink, but when he paints her like this, the results are less than successful, IMO. I'm not really sure what she's doing here. But then, that complaint towards Stelfreeze doesn't just apply to his Catwoman.



I’ve never been quite sure what’s going on in this piece (where did the get a giant shard of glass and oh my god Harvey you’re bleeding put the glass down already god!), but man oh man, it’s so 80’s. It looks like this painting should be hanging in the home of a comics-loving coke addict right alongside a Nagel or three.



I should darken this image for better effect, because oh man, do I ever love the simple ways that Mignola plays with black and white, as well as limited, tasteful use of color. Top it off with the detail on his umbrella, and you have one of the best Penguin portraits I have ever seen. I envy the bastard who owns this piece, and I get the same feelings to a lesser extent about this one:



I love this Ra's. The inks and the colors are just perfect and haunting to me. There's more dimension and balance in these two pieces than any other Mingola artwork I can recall seeing off-hand.



I so wish I could find the art for this one. Alas, the best quality scan I've found is a signed card. Feh. Nonetheless, I love Mingola's Squishy.



Matt Wagner comes in for the last three portraits, which are the "And the rest!" set. Putting the Clayfaces together makes sense, since they are the Mud Pack. The next card, however...



Team Green. This pairing makes little sense other than color, but I love this image nonetheless. When I posted it to Tumblr, there were a handful of people who were overjoyed to seeing their ship actually put into artwork. Personally, I don't see this ever working out, but I'd love to see someone try.



Finally... yeah, this one doesn't make a lick of sense. Croc and Arnie are... carnies? Sideshow freaks? And poor Croc doesn't even warrant an actual portrait? I still like the image and all because I love Wagner's art, but still, whaaaa?


Since we're on the subject of villains (and when are we not?), this brings me to my other favorite cards: DC Villains: The Dark Judgement, a tie-in for the subpar Underworld Unleashed crossover event.



These cards were decidedly more grotesque, and much of the art is not to my tastes, but I still love any celebration of villainy for comics. Once again, you can find the entire set scanned here, which can give you a fascinating who's who of characters from the mid-90's, including forgotten villains from Fate and Guy Gardner: Warrior, as well as an astonishing number of heroes turned evil. Like Raven from Teen Titans. That's her up there between Mongul and Bane. What in the name of god is she wearing? I mean, she's nearly naked, so must clearly be evil now, because sex is bad, but still.







Here, artist Thom Ang has painted what seems to be the cover to KGBeast's original graphic novel for Vertigo publishing.



Christopher Lloyd IS Black Mask.



When I first got these cards, I was a teenage boy, and as such I liked the more grotesque and scary cards, whereas I found Mark Chiarello's above to be the weakest. I hated that my least favorite artist of the lot was going to draw Harvey. Go figure, I now think Chiarello's cards are by far the best of the lot, and not just because he drew one of my favorite Two-Face images ever:



Yeah, I now feel like such a fool for ever disliking this art. Maybe it's still not to your own personal tastes, but I adore all of his cards. By total coincidence, the Harvey card was right next to Chiarello's amazing portrait of Hal Jordan as Parallax, which was my first exposure to the character. Shortly after that, Parallax became my favorite non-Batman villain, and Hal as GL became my favorite superhero. I had such a thing for fallen angels and villains who weren't all evil. I still do.



Judge Dredd artist Simon Bisley gets the next set, and since this is Bisley, grotesquery is par for the course. Either you dig it or you don't. I don't love his work, but I enjoy it for what it is. You sure as hell aren't going to see a Joker like that from anybody else.



Once again, Talia is the least malicious-looking villain in the set. You would think that she's a heroic warrior if only it weren't for her, y'know, genocidal ideology. Again, though, I have to ask what the hell is going on here. She looks like she's an armor bikini away from being a cover of Heavy Metal. And speaking of Heavy Metal...



Julie Strain IS Catwoman.



Yup, that's a Lady Shiva, all right.



Yadda yadda Francine yadda yadda SKREE! and so on.



Oh hai thar, Jim Carrey in a better costume! I used to love this piece, but now, the Carrey-ness and the CGI just kinda annoy me. Stu Suchit here is one of several artists in this set to experiment with CGI, because artist love their hot new toys, I guess. Do any of them look good? Well, let's take a look at Simon Erich's CGI take on Killer Croc:



Eugh. Not so good at all, is it? It looks like a drawing from some cheap role-playing game sourcebook. So maybe it's time to write off CGI entirely. But wait! The next CGI set is done by Bill Sienkiewicz! Bill goddamn Sienkiewicz, an artist so good that his inks can improve ANYBODY'S pencils! Surely his CGI artwork can't be bad!



Okay, not bad... just... kinda abstract. But okay, I could dig seeing more avant-garde takes on Batman villains, sure.



It... hrm. I didn't think it was possible to make Squishy look LESS intimidating than how many artists depict him, but his "aroo?" eye and squiggly mouth really don't help.



... no. The Penguin on acid? This just looks like a case of "I don't know what to draw when it comes to the damn Penguin, so I'll just make him look super-weird," which seems to be a common affliction for artists. And oh god, the textures on his coat and vest, they hurt. It's like he's wearing Geocities.



Okay, aside from the Sega CD graphics quality for Preston's metal collar, this isn't bad. The abstract look works for Clayface III, as his melty face seems to be constantly shifting and swirling underneath his head-condom containment suit. Not sure why he's carrying the whole Mud Pack, though. Did Sienkiewicz just forget to include any of the other Clayfaces? Well, at least he ended on a strong note, right?



Wat. I don't care if the technology was new, there is no excuse for... for that. It looks like a project from some freshman animation student. I can't believe I'm saying this, but Anarky deserves better.



Scott Hampton's Bane wants YOU.



For some reason, Kent Williams (a Vertigo artist) envisions Solomon Grundy as an old man with a pet snake that has apparently swallowed a pole. All I see here is an albino version of Crazy Ralph from Friday the 13th. "You're heading down to Slaughter Swamp? That place has a death curse! You're doomed! You're all dooooooooooomed!"



Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson IS Ra's al Ghul.


That wraps up the Batman villains, but as always 'round here, it always comes back to Harvey Dent. If you read that promo sheet above carefully, you may have noticed something about a very rare "Two-Face Skymotion Card" which featured "cutting-edge technology" to show Harvey turning and shooting... AT YOU!






Years ago, I found a gif that actually showed this card's animation on a loop. I have no idea where that gif went, and I haven't found it since. Thankfully, some person on eBay provided photos of the next best thing:



As you've probably guessed, the card is basically lenticular, with the images moving as you turn it. As the description promised, it's Harvey turning around and taking aim at you.












These images can't quite give the same effect as seeing it in person, but you get the idea. It's pretty damn cool all-around, and by far the most detailed lenticular effect that I've ever seen. I wish I knew who drew it so I could them proper credit, but information about these cards is scarce enough as it is. And that's a damn shame. Maybe it's just my nostalgia talking, but I love these cards, every last one: good, bad, and ugly alike.

Just like Who's Who, they were a wonderful sampler platter for the world of comics, and sometimes, the way I ended up imagining the characters and stories turned out to be better than the comics themselves! I do miss when everything was new and awesome, when possibilities felt limitless, and there was a wealth of stories out there for me to discover. At least with back issues, I know the last part is still true when it comes to superhero comics. Maybe someday I'll be able to feel that way about new comics again too.