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about_facesOr "REVIEW ALL THE EPISODES!" I was originally going to include his larger supporting roles in here as well, but I'll save those for later.
So: with Harvey's origin as Two-Face out of the way, he went from being a little-seen heroic supporting character to joining the villain ensemble right alongside the guy who tried to kill him on live TV and his poisonous ex-almost-fiancée. It's not exactly the sort of company you'll expect to see Harvey enjoy no matter the mental state. But then, one has to imagine that it initially wasn't his choice, given that he was sent to Arkham Asylum. We first see Harvey at his new locale in the episode, Fear of Victory, as Batman goes to Arkham to find Scarecrow and has to pass a gauntlet of his biggest enemies at this point in the series:
Source: afiveseven
He just sits there, heedless of Batman, staring at nothing and flipping his coin. Is he just passing the time? Is he thinking, brooding, and/or scheming? I sometimes like to think that both sides are arguing, and the coin is the arbiter between them, but this isn't apparent to any outsider observers.
This scene has a personal bit of "Cool story, bro" significance for me, since this was the first time that I saw Harvey as Two-Face. Either I missed the two-part origin episode when it first aired (which is bloody unlikely even for me at ten years old, since I watched this show religiously), or more likely, Fox did what Fox always does and aired the episodes out of order. I mean, it's just a kids show, who the hell's gonna notice, amirite?
As such, this scene from Fear of Victory was the very first time I saw Harvey—good ol’ Harvey, the idealistic lawman, romantic idiot, and best friend—fully transformed into Two-Face. Even as a kid with limited comics knowledge, I knew what Harvey was going to become, but the shock of suddenly seeing him already there (along with the show’s unique design of that black-and-white suit and that strikingly sickly blue scarring) is forever burned into my memory. It gave watching the actual origin episode another layer of tragic inevitability.
But was that the only cameo? No sirree! In fact, the others echo this one in their own ways, the next of which is decidedly disturbing:
The cameo montage of Arkham was echoed Dreams in Darkness, another Scarecrow episode and, IMO, the best of the lot. The plotline of "Batman is an Arkham inmate!" may have been inspired by Len Wein's issue or Alan Grant's The Last Arkham, and furthermore, I strongly suspect that the Scarecrow's plan to Gotham's water supply from within Arkham may have itself inspired Batman Begins.
In this episode, Batman has a fear-toxin-induced nightmare that is truly disturbing for a kids' show, with he finds himself being tormented by friends and enemies alike. Harvey's included in the latter grouping, but his introduction is particularly WTF. As Batman is fighting a huge nightmare version of the Penguin, who, notably, is not an Arkham inmate, but is important enough to Bruce to warrant inclusion in his nightmare. Nightmare!Pengers raises his arm, lets out an inhuman scream, and then his head fucking EXPLODES, revealing Harvey in a fat suit, surrounded by the popped balloon of Penguin's flesh.
Man, thank god for Tumblr users like DCAU who are willing to devote time and energy to making gifs like this. Because this is just hypnotic. "Harvey" then proceeds to flip his coin, which he turns into a giant buzzsaw of doom and flings it Batman's way all before melting, and the goo that was Harvey turns into Poison Ivy.
What kind of dream subtext is going on here in Bruce's head is beyond me, but it's plenty screwed up. I will note that Harvey's placement in this nightmare pretty firmly puts him in the "villains" camp in Bruce's head, at least according to episode writers Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens (co-authors of the famous/infamous "Shatnerverse" series of Star Trek novels). Another writer might have made it a point to better depict Bruce's uniquely conflicted feelings about Harvey, something in the manner of the nightmare in Two-Face, Part 2, but many others just prefer to have him just be one of the rogues and little else to Bruce. Meh.
That said, we do get a rare example of seeing what Harvey could mean to somebody else in the episode Fire from Olympus, even if that person is Maxie Zeus. While the depictions of mental illness amongst most of the rogues is often questionable, Maxie is one of the most genuinely insane, and for that reason I find this episode to be severely under-appreciated. While Maxie achieves a very brief moment of clarity, he's ultimately lost to his own delusions, and is sent to Arkham Asylum at the end. But in a perfectly twisted "happy ending," Maxie is delighted by his new home, as he sees it as Olympus, populated by fellow "gods" such as Poison Ivy ("There's beautiful Demeter, goddess of the harvest!"), the Joker ("And merry Hermes, the trickster of the gods!"), and Harvey, whose own god-identity should be rather obvious:
"And double-faced Janus, lord of beginnings and endings!" Also doors, Maxie, don't forget doors! Harvey doesn't show much reaction beyond a simple look, and while it's one of my favorite single images of Two-Face in the whole series, it doesn't really convey much other than perhaps a dry "... huh. Well, that just happened."
We never see Maxie again, leading me to wonder if he was ever rehabilitated, or else if they just kept him locked in solitary, away from mingling with the other rogues. Really, interaction with the Joker would be the worst thing for his mental health, as Harvey himself will sadly be able to attest in time. Perhaps it's just as well that we never see Maxie again, as he seems happy by the end. Unfortunately, not all newcomers to Arkham are quite so content and docile, nor are the asylum regulars pleased by the new arrival.
Riddler's Reform is my favorite of the three Riddler episodes, although they are all enjoyable--if imperfect--episodes. Paul Dini himself admitted in the pages of Batman Animated that the Riddler always gave the writers a headache, and I can understand why. It's hard enough to come up with riddles smart enough to challenge Batman himself, but it's even harder trying to build an action-packed episode around games of intellect. While the Riddler of the DCAU comics was far superior to his animated counterpart, Riddler's Reform showed DCAU Eddie at his most delightful.
Of course, it didn't hurt at all that he was voiced by John Glover, whose vocal cords really got a workout by the end, when Batman escapes the Riddler's deathtrap but refuses to explain how he did it. Unable to crack the puzzle, Eddie just plain cracks, and closes the episode screaming and raving in Arkham, much to the displeasure of his fellow inmates:
Yeah, that's it for the last Harvey cameo. Kind of an anticlimactic ending, ain't it? Well, that's the hand I'm dealt, as there are no more cameos after this. Well, no more that take place in Arkham, anyway. There's one more major cameo in Batgirl Returns, but I'll save that for the Shadow of the Bat review.
To make up for that, here, have an encore presentation of the best gif in the world right now, just for the benefit of those who aren't going to read past the cut:
It's hypnotic. Like a lava lamp.
So: with Harvey's origin as Two-Face out of the way, he went from being a little-seen heroic supporting character to joining the villain ensemble right alongside the guy who tried to kill him on live TV and his poisonous ex-almost-fiancée. It's not exactly the sort of company you'll expect to see Harvey enjoy no matter the mental state. But then, one has to imagine that it initially wasn't his choice, given that he was sent to Arkham Asylum. We first see Harvey at his new locale in the episode, Fear of Victory, as Batman goes to Arkham to find Scarecrow and has to pass a gauntlet of his biggest enemies at this point in the series:
Source: afiveseven
He just sits there, heedless of Batman, staring at nothing and flipping his coin. Is he just passing the time? Is he thinking, brooding, and/or scheming? I sometimes like to think that both sides are arguing, and the coin is the arbiter between them, but this isn't apparent to any outsider observers.
This scene has a personal bit of "Cool story, bro" significance for me, since this was the first time that I saw Harvey as Two-Face. Either I missed the two-part origin episode when it first aired (which is bloody unlikely even for me at ten years old, since I watched this show religiously), or more likely, Fox did what Fox always does and aired the episodes out of order. I mean, it's just a kids show, who the hell's gonna notice, amirite?
As such, this scene from Fear of Victory was the very first time I saw Harvey—good ol’ Harvey, the idealistic lawman, romantic idiot, and best friend—fully transformed into Two-Face. Even as a kid with limited comics knowledge, I knew what Harvey was going to become, but the shock of suddenly seeing him already there (along with the show’s unique design of that black-and-white suit and that strikingly sickly blue scarring) is forever burned into my memory. It gave watching the actual origin episode another layer of tragic inevitability.
But was that the only cameo? No sirree! In fact, the others echo this one in their own ways, the next of which is decidedly disturbing:
The cameo montage of Arkham was echoed Dreams in Darkness, another Scarecrow episode and, IMO, the best of the lot. The plotline of "Batman is an Arkham inmate!" may have been inspired by Len Wein's issue or Alan Grant's The Last Arkham, and furthermore, I strongly suspect that the Scarecrow's plan to Gotham's water supply from within Arkham may have itself inspired Batman Begins.
In this episode, Batman has a fear-toxin-induced nightmare that is truly disturbing for a kids' show, with he finds himself being tormented by friends and enemies alike. Harvey's included in the latter grouping, but his introduction is particularly WTF. As Batman is fighting a huge nightmare version of the Penguin, who, notably, is not an Arkham inmate, but is important enough to Bruce to warrant inclusion in his nightmare. Nightmare!Pengers raises his arm, lets out an inhuman scream, and then his head fucking EXPLODES, revealing Harvey in a fat suit, surrounded by the popped balloon of Penguin's flesh.
Man, thank god for Tumblr users like DCAU who are willing to devote time and energy to making gifs like this. Because this is just hypnotic. "Harvey" then proceeds to flip his coin, which he turns into a giant buzzsaw of doom and flings it Batman's way all before melting, and the goo that was Harvey turns into Poison Ivy.
What kind of dream subtext is going on here in Bruce's head is beyond me, but it's plenty screwed up. I will note that Harvey's placement in this nightmare pretty firmly puts him in the "villains" camp in Bruce's head, at least according to episode writers Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens (co-authors of the famous/infamous "Shatnerverse" series of Star Trek novels). Another writer might have made it a point to better depict Bruce's uniquely conflicted feelings about Harvey, something in the manner of the nightmare in Two-Face, Part 2, but many others just prefer to have him just be one of the rogues and little else to Bruce. Meh.
That said, we do get a rare example of seeing what Harvey could mean to somebody else in the episode Fire from Olympus, even if that person is Maxie Zeus. While the depictions of mental illness amongst most of the rogues is often questionable, Maxie is one of the most genuinely insane, and for that reason I find this episode to be severely under-appreciated. While Maxie achieves a very brief moment of clarity, he's ultimately lost to his own delusions, and is sent to Arkham Asylum at the end. But in a perfectly twisted "happy ending," Maxie is delighted by his new home, as he sees it as Olympus, populated by fellow "gods" such as Poison Ivy ("There's beautiful Demeter, goddess of the harvest!"), the Joker ("And merry Hermes, the trickster of the gods!"), and Harvey, whose own god-identity should be rather obvious:
"And double-faced Janus, lord of beginnings and endings!" Also doors, Maxie, don't forget doors! Harvey doesn't show much reaction beyond a simple look, and while it's one of my favorite single images of Two-Face in the whole series, it doesn't really convey much other than perhaps a dry "... huh. Well, that just happened."
We never see Maxie again, leading me to wonder if he was ever rehabilitated, or else if they just kept him locked in solitary, away from mingling with the other rogues. Really, interaction with the Joker would be the worst thing for his mental health, as Harvey himself will sadly be able to attest in time. Perhaps it's just as well that we never see Maxie again, as he seems happy by the end. Unfortunately, not all newcomers to Arkham are quite so content and docile, nor are the asylum regulars pleased by the new arrival.
Riddler's Reform is my favorite of the three Riddler episodes, although they are all enjoyable--if imperfect--episodes. Paul Dini himself admitted in the pages of Batman Animated that the Riddler always gave the writers a headache, and I can understand why. It's hard enough to come up with riddles smart enough to challenge Batman himself, but it's even harder trying to build an action-packed episode around games of intellect. While the Riddler of the DCAU comics was far superior to his animated counterpart, Riddler's Reform showed DCAU Eddie at his most delightful.
Of course, it didn't hurt at all that he was voiced by John Glover, whose vocal cords really got a workout by the end, when Batman escapes the Riddler's deathtrap but refuses to explain how he did it. Unable to crack the puzzle, Eddie just plain cracks, and closes the episode screaming and raving in Arkham, much to the displeasure of his fellow inmates:
Yeah, that's it for the last Harvey cameo. Kind of an anticlimactic ending, ain't it? Well, that's the hand I'm dealt, as there are no more cameos after this. Well, no more that take place in Arkham, anyway. There's one more major cameo in Batgirl Returns, but I'll save that for the Shadow of the Bat review.
To make up for that, here, have an encore presentation of the best gif in the world right now, just for the benefit of those who aren't going to read past the cut:
It's hypnotic. Like a lava lamp.
