Character Profile: WHO'S WHO, 1991
Jul. 17th, 2010 01:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
about_facesFirst off, have all of you already read "Eye of the Beholder" from BATMAN ANNUAL #14, the definitive Harvey Dent story that also directly "influenced" THE LONG HALLOWEN and THE DARK KNIGHT?
You've read that, right? If not, click on that link. Surely there must be one or two of you who haven't read it.
It's okay. Go on. I'll wait.
...
Back? Then you're ready for Harvey's profile update in the 1991 edition of WHO'S WHO.
As you can see, Mark Waid (back when he was still more of an editor and resident DC comic knowledge brainiac) has devoted the whole of Harvey's bio here to essentially retelling "Eye of the Beholder" and nothing more. Combined with the brand new art by "Eye" artist Chris Sprouce, I take this to mean that DC was well aware of how great a story "Eye" was, and were rightly keen to push everything about it as being THE Two-Face story.
If that was the case, what happened? Why has "Eye" fallen out of favor? My best guess is because THE LONG HALLOWEEN took several of its core concepts--the iconic rooftop meeting, Adrian Fields, Harvey's abusive father, the tragic super-team of Gordon, Batman, and Dent--but got a whole lot more press and attention, thereby overshadowing "Eye" to this day. It hasn't been reprinted anywhere since the mid-90's, and even that volume is long out of print. Ah, but I can and have ranted about the lamentable mistreatment of this story at length.
I feel a twinge of dissatisfaction reading this bio after the two WHO'S WHO that preceded it, particularly for how it focuses solely on one story and ignores any other events from the character's long and winding history. And yet, looking back on those two other profiles--both of which include storylines that have long since been forgotten or retconned or ignored or just weren't very good to begin with--maybe Waid's take here is the best.
Instead, Waid strips away the event filler of "then this happened in Issue Number Such-And-Such" and focuses purely on the origin story, which actually makes for a pretty ripping yarn even in profile format. It makes the story of Two-Face more timeless, more iconic, more enduring. Because no matter what the character has done or been beyond this point, it all goes back to this solid, powerful origin that continues to influence BATMAN comics, whether writers and readers know this or not.
Man, this post just turned into a whole love-fest for "Eye of the Beholder," didn't it? Sorry about that. Well, not really, who am I kidding? I love that story, and wish more people knew it even existed. If DC really knew what they had at the time, then it's all the more disappointing that they eventually forgot.
You've read that, right? If not, click on that link. Surely there must be one or two of you who haven't read it.
It's okay. Go on. I'll wait.
...
Back? Then you're ready for Harvey's profile update in the 1991 edition of WHO'S WHO.
As you can see, Mark Waid (back when he was still more of an editor and resident DC comic knowledge brainiac) has devoted the whole of Harvey's bio here to essentially retelling "Eye of the Beholder" and nothing more. Combined with the brand new art by "Eye" artist Chris Sprouce, I take this to mean that DC was well aware of how great a story "Eye" was, and were rightly keen to push everything about it as being THE Two-Face story.
If that was the case, what happened? Why has "Eye" fallen out of favor? My best guess is because THE LONG HALLOWEEN took several of its core concepts--the iconic rooftop meeting, Adrian Fields, Harvey's abusive father, the tragic super-team of Gordon, Batman, and Dent--but got a whole lot more press and attention, thereby overshadowing "Eye" to this day. It hasn't been reprinted anywhere since the mid-90's, and even that volume is long out of print. Ah, but I can and have ranted about the lamentable mistreatment of this story at length.
I feel a twinge of dissatisfaction reading this bio after the two WHO'S WHO that preceded it, particularly for how it focuses solely on one story and ignores any other events from the character's long and winding history. And yet, looking back on those two other profiles--both of which include storylines that have long since been forgotten or retconned or ignored or just weren't very good to begin with--maybe Waid's take here is the best.
Instead, Waid strips away the event filler of "then this happened in Issue Number Such-And-Such" and focuses purely on the origin story, which actually makes for a pretty ripping yarn even in profile format. It makes the story of Two-Face more timeless, more iconic, more enduring. Because no matter what the character has done or been beyond this point, it all goes back to this solid, powerful origin that continues to influence BATMAN comics, whether writers and readers know this or not.
Man, this post just turned into a whole love-fest for "Eye of the Beholder," didn't it? Sorry about that. Well, not really, who am I kidding? I love that story, and wish more people knew it even existed. If DC really knew what they had at the time, then it's all the more disappointing that they eventually forgot.
