We Believe in Harvey Dent

Honestly, I could devote a whole separate fanblog just for the Harvey Dent from the various DC Animated Universe properties*, from B:TAS all the way to today, as that version of the character still manages to endure in fandom.

At first, I thought about doing like I did with the Who's Who posts and just writing about EVERYTHING there is about Harvey over fourteen daily posts in an event which I was going to call Two Weeks of Two-Face in the DCAU. Of course, I soon realized that such a project would not only be overload for everyone involved (especially me!), but it also wouldn't do the character justice. And if anyone deserves justice, it's Harvey Dent. /I see what I did there!

For a whole generation, the DCAU Two-Face was the definitive version of the character. Sure, the Nolanverse owns the current generation, but B:TAS seems to still have a healthy following nonetheless. At the very least, I'm certain that the DCAU Two-Face will continue to be more popular and influential than, well, any version from the comics. I dare say that'd be true even if we lived in a better world where comics would be as popular and well-known as cartoons and movie (*weary sigh*). But even as a fan, I never gave much thought about just WHY this Two-Face was so great, much less the work that went into making him that way, until I discovered the actual B:TAS writer's bible on World's Finest Online, the single greatest resource for all things DCAU and beyond.

Reading that writer's bible, you can see that so much of what made B:TAS in general so brilliant was no accident. It wasn't just that a handful of smart writers tried their damnedest to tell great Batman stories. These people had a vision, and set themselves with high standards right from the outset. Even though many of those plans in the bible were changed or scrapped before the first episodes even made it to air, the importance of that foundation cannot be understated, and you may be surprised just well the greatness of that show was planned from the outset.

Which, naturally, brings us back to Harvey. Before we look at any of the DCAU episodes, comics, toys, merch, Happy Meal boxes, and so on, let's look at the roots of Two-Face in the DCAU--the design, the groundwork, the plots, the voice, and more--as we examine what was planned... and what was changed.

( Behind the scenes, behind the cut! )



Next time: Harvey's very first (and very brief) appearance in On Leather Wings, followed by a major role in The Batman Adventures comics, which I consider to be the very best appearance of pre-insanity Harvey in the DCAU.







*Honestly, I could write a couple hundred posts just about the DCAU villains in general. I'd love to look at all the Mister Freeze stories, since the DCAU comics fill in the gaps between episodes and Sub-Zero that, combined with his finale in Batman Beyond, make for a powerful tragedy in epic scope. I mean, even more powerful than the one people already know if they've just seen the episodes. The comics, as I was reiterate throughout these posts, are THAT good.

**The fact that Harvey, Thomas Wayne, and the Bat-Computer all have the same voice raises a few questions about Bruce. Did he pattern the Bat-Computer to sound like his father or Harvey? Is he friends with Harvey because the latter sounds like his father? INQUIRING MINDS THAT READ TOO MUCH INTO THINGS WANT TO KNOWWWWWWWW.

Note: save for the book excerpts, all images taken from www.worldsfinestonline.com, your one-stop shop for everything DCAU.






Where the hell do I begin talking about Harvey/Two-Face from Batman: The Animated Series? I'm assuming you've all seen the show. Seriously, is there anyone here who *hasn't* seen TAS, or at least the Two-Face episodes?

( If not (or if you want a refresher), I've managed to find a couple sneaky YouTube videos of the episodes which will be pertinent to discussion )

So everyone's at least seen both parts of Two-Face and Shadow of the Bat, right?

Of course, I love the former. Even with the lesser second half, it's still one of the greatest takes on the character. There are many details I wouldn't choose, but they work within the story's context so well, that it's still one of the best takes on the character in spirit. But in the latter, he's reduced to just being a standard villain, since the focus is entirely on Barbara's origin as Batgirl. In terms of Two-Face episodes, I'd written it off as one of the least essential.

Then I read this:




As said before, it's a YA novelization which frankensteins both two-part episodes into a single narrative, with some new scenes and surprise guest stars thrown in. So if you're up for it, let's take a look at some of the ways the book reconciles the two stories into one, how it works, how it doesn't, and what improvements are made along the way.


( And as we do, I hope you'll indulge my tangents to rant, rave, and ramble about all manner of TAS!Harvey stuff in general... )










*That said, the TAS writers didn't come up with this idea. The Batman newspaper strip first came up with the idea of Harvey as a supporting character at length and best friend of Bruce Wayne back in 1990, around the same time as Eye of the Beholder's publication. I bet that Dini, Timm, and company were fans of that strip, which I'll be posting here soon enough.

First things first: I hate motion comics. They're an ill-conceived bastardization of comics and animation, forcing the former medium to act like more the latter and ruining both in the process. Granted, I base this opinion on the couple episodes of the WATCHMEN motion comic I've seen, and I seriously do not want to see what they've done with MAD LOVE, which I understand is a similar failure.

Secondly, I'm not wild about man-god Bruce Timm's "Two of a Kind," perhaps the most famous of the BATMAN BLACK & WHITE short stories. By Timm's own admittance, it's pretty silly. It's a by-the-numbers noir story with a Two-Face twist, and the cliches and conventions of both are spelled out from the start. You could tell this story with a checklist.

But it's also perhaps the most famous and beloved of the BATMAN BLACK & WHITE stories. I can only guess it's because of Timm's orgasm-worthy artwork. If I've learned anything from SIN CITY and THE LONG HALLOWEEN, it's that people will happily accept a weak mystery/thriller plot if the art is stellar. But it was what it was, and it knew what it was, so I liked it for that, even though I never loved it. In terms of the Great Two-Face Stories, it always struck me as one of the neater oddities, and little more.

So I was doubly predisposed to disliking a motion comic of "Two of a Kind." But I went ahead and watched it anyway. Here, it's only about six minutes, watch it yourself:


(YouTube version posted for the convenience of my international readers. Here is the slightly crisper official version, available only to those in the US)






That... wasn't bad! Not bad at all! Actually, dare I say it, that all really, kinda, actually worked.

If that sounds like faint praise, I'm just still trying to analyze it objectively on several levels, to see how it works as a piece unto itself, as an adaptation, as a motion comic, and as a Two-Face story. Honestly, for the most part, I think it actually improves Timm's original comic. A certain amount of life and soul is breathed into what was a really pretty piece of noir fluff.

It's the little extra touches, like the warping in his voice when he says "TOO late" and the background blurring as he starts to go nuts. Most motion comics don't really justify their existence this way, because they don't bring anything new to the table other than weak, pointless "animation" that backfires by making it feel even more two-dimensional.

Ultimately, though, it's very much helped by the fact that it's driven by first-person narration with limited actual dialogue. I'm remembering how the WATCHMEN motion comic felt like a very awkward book on tape, with a single male narrator doing all the voices, from Laurie to Rorschach. Oh, it so didn't work. But not only does "Two of a Kind" lend itself better to the bastardized medium, they wisely got voice actors for the fleeting other roles, and generally found a great balance throughout.

There are a couple curious edits from the original story. Cutting out the shadow panel of Harvey screwing her over his desk, yeah, I understand that (but they do keep the sexy image of her as he thinks about how good she'll be in bed later, that's cool? Huh.), and the details of how Madeline tried to kill Marilyn are probably not important, but I still noticed their absence. Otherwise, it's the whole story, yeah.

Y'know, one thing I never noticed till now? This is one of those rare Two-Face stories where he never flips the coin. Hell, we never even see the coin. It's immaterial to this story, although one could argue how it might be impossible to tell a Two-Face story without the coin. But eh, I don't particularly care. I might if it were in canon, but it's a stand-alone out-of-continuity tale, a professional fanfic, so I think it works as is.

Yeah, I really, really dig this. It feels like a mix between BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES and SIN CITY. I'm still not sure if it's good, nor how I feel about it as a Two-Face story, but I'm certainly feeling more appreciative of it now than before.

I know some of you have read the original comic, while others like 1mercystreet (for whose benefit I particularly posted this) wanted to but hadn't. What do you guys make of this?