Two-Face Tuesday! The closest thing to the Judge in regular DCU! Plus: Alfred's dark secret!

[thehefner]

While I think BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES is pretty much the definitive Batman, and its Two-Face to be near-perfect in spirit, I hate the episode "Judgment Day." Y'know, the one with "The Judge."

It's so close to being something brilliant, but I won't spoil why for those who haven't seen the episode (although really, is there anyone here who hasn't? Most everyone here's seen and loved BTAS, right?). I'll go into details behind the cut, as we delve into this story from 1997's BATMAN: SHADOW OF THE BAT #62 and #63, which introduced a new vigilante who specifically targeted Two-Face's men.














After catching readers up on Harvey's origin and methodology, Dr. Jeremiah Arkham posits that the dream represents a deterioration in Harvey's condition, a breakdown between the struggle of his sides. As Arkham ups Harvey's medication, Harvey collapses from a heart attack.

It was faked, of course, but the thing is that Harvey may not have realized he was faking. When his goons bust him out from the ambulance en route to the hospital, Harvey shows no recollection of ever arranging for his own escape.

In the Batcave, Bruce comes up with a theory that strikes me as flimsy at best, considering how much of a difference in weight we're talking about here:





That's the first sign of the Alfred subplot. He's acting suspicious, seeming more exerted than usual lately, and gets rather touchy whenever Batman or Robin ask where he's been.














Of course, Grant is forcing all these hints that Alfred is Janus, which even the next-issue-blurb in the back seems to regard as silly: "Will Two-Face go all the way? Does anyone believe that Alfred is Janus?"

So for no good reason whatsoever, Harvey flips the coin to decide whether to destroy or save half of the city. It comes up good side for "save."

"But save it from whom? From me, of course. And if I have to save half, it means I have to destroy half as well!" *cue evil laughter... no, really*

While Alan Grant would not be the first writer to make the hack creative choice to have Two-Face playing a rigged game between two equally evil choices (thereby instantly reducing the character to a one-note villain with a cheap gimmick), the story makes it a point to have Batman and Commissioner Gordon remark on how Harvey's Bond-villain plan of holding the city for ransom seems out-of-character.

Batman: "Not Two-Face's usual style. He's a gang-boss."

Gordon: "But why threaten to kill half the city? And how? Two-Face is a guns-and-fists man!"

Which is exactly what someone should have reminded Peter Tomasi of before he wrote Harvey's ridiculous death-blimp acid-rain plan in NIGHTWING: THE GREAT LEAP.

Batman tracks Two-Face to a nuclear-armed Destroyer in Gotham Harbor, which Two-Face has hijacked. Arriving on the ship and taking care of the henchmen, Batman discovers the bodies of the ship's crew.

















GASP! Whattatweest!

But wait! If Harvey was Janus, then what has Alfred been hiding this whole time?









I never liked this story, since it relied on a bunch of half-baked ideas and loose characterization built around Grant's usual pop psychology (even when he writes Jeremiah Arkham as a figure of satire, I get the impression that he's often a mouthpiece for Grant, much like Anarky was).

But looking at it now, I can appreciate it for at least having more character integrity and potential than "Judgment Day," which revealed that the Judge--a new Gotham vigilante targeting the Penguin, Croc, and Two-Face--was Harvey himself. Which would have been an awesome twist if it weren't a third personality.

Because that just misses the whole point of Harvey's duality. It muddles the whole character, especially when he already has a ready-made and under-utilized good side ready to cast as the vigilante who's thwarting himself! We all know that Two-Face is Harvey's worst enemy, so what why shouldn't Harvey be Two-Face's? With Janus, Harvey could become a street-level Eclipso/Bruce Gordon character, hero and villain in one man, constantly working to thwart himself. Alas, no one's done anything with the concept.

Those closest we've come is from the great Ty Templeton, who wrote the follow-up to "Judgment Day" in an issue of BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES, which I shall probably post next week. That little gem rates up there with last week's "Lucky Day," for one of my favorite Two-Face stories ever.

Comments

[From: icon_uk]

Yeah, never a fan of a rigged game Two-Face, well, not rigged like that,

And sorry to go off at a tangent, but I can't for one moment believe that Tim Drake would A) ever accuse someone who can dance of being a sissy and B) would ever actually use the term sissy at all, least of all to Alfred.

[From: thehefner]

As a Robin fan, what do you make of Chuck Dixon's Two-Face who appears in PRODIGAL and ROBIN YEAR ONE? I'm working on a massive PRODIGAL two-part post for down the line, and there I plan to specifically discuss my distaste for how Grant, Moench, and Dixon write Two-Face, mainly because he is all about playing a rigged game.

I know, right? Totally out of character for Tim. I could see street-punk Jason saying that, sure, but not Tim. Besides, it's ballroom dancing, not ballet (which is not meant as a slight against the skill required for ballet, but it has a stronger public misconception as being for "sissies" than ballroom dancing).

[From: freddylloyd]

True about ballet in pop culture, but Tim spends too much time in tights to badmouth that art.

[From: omgwtflolbbqbye.livejournal.com]

I hope he was taking those lessons with Leslie and not another prostitute.

[From: icon_uk]

Unless it was Rhonda, she and Alfred would get on famously!

[From: retro_nouveau]

There was potential, I think. We see once in a while where Harvey gets better and the bad side is gone, this is the first I've seen where the reverse is true.

Kind of like this art, but I detest when Alfred has a combover (or threatens to knock teeth out). Not Alfred's style. Those are some gorgeous angels. The demons -- skeletons with noses -- not so cool. Skeletons with horns and a coccyx stretched out into a four-foot long tail, maybe.

I have to call BS on the effect of the scarred side being lighter than the clean side. If the coin is spinning in the air, the weight only determines when it's going to hit the ground, not which side is going to show. If he set it on a table top and spun it around, it might fall on the heavier side a minute fraction more often, but not worth mentioning.

Motto, no third side for Harvey. Might as well put a gun in Bruce's hand.

A mask with two faces? Suddenly, Clark's eyeglasses have competition for worst disguise ever.

[From: kingrockwell]

Janus was a (Roman?) god of beginnings and endings. He was depicted with two faces, as that mask shows. It was that quality that tailor-made him for Two-Face. I'd read something somewhere about his temple have a door at each end, one for entering, one for exiting, each with a face on it.

Janus is also where we get January, being the beginning of the year.

[From: jelly_ace]

The Alfred as Janus plot seems a tad thin. The thing is, duality is Two-Face's schtick. If he knew this Janus guy he would probably be dead at the start of the arc. I assume no character has been introduced, so all fingers point to Two-Face.

But yeah, considering Harvey Dent was a district attorney willing to take on mobsters for the side of justice, he has the strength to thwart Big Ole' Harv.

And is it just me, or is Alfred acting a little too defensive?

[From: iondan]

Sometimes I wonder why we don't see two-face do robin hood Esq crimes anymore. I assume it's because its still doing a crime something Harvey really didn't do (depending on who's writing him) before the incident.

[From: thehefner]

LOLing at your icon.

That still shouldn't stop Harvey from doing Robin Hood style donations. Even his good side has pretty well lost all faith in the law and justice system, so he entrusts the coin to be the impartial arbiter, which can just as easily yield good results as well as evil, and everything inbetween.

[From: kingrockwell]

Finally read one of these on time and I have nothing really to add. It falls a little flat, but there are definitely ideas behind this worth exploring.
The symbolism of Janus is very fitting.

[From: thehefner]

Especially--it occurs to me--in regards to the difference in how Harvey's two personalities co-exist. As Janus, it's more classically multiple personality, rather than the sorta-schizophrenia that he usually has, with both personalities existing simultaneously and with complete awareness of each other.

Really, if the split continued, I could easily imagine neither side needing to use the coin anymore. There would be no ties to break.

[From: thandrak]

I still have been waiting for Morrison to do an Outsider arc. Remember that? Animated living Batmobile and all?

[From: thehefner]

Didn't the Outsider appear in one of the panels in that two-part thing bridging BATMAN R.I.P. and FINAL CRISIS where they're trying to suck out Batman's angst for a weapon or something?

Either way, yeah, I'm totally waiting to see Morrison dig out that forgotten character twist to Alfred. Hell, I'm amazed we've never seen scans of it here, best to my recollection!

[From: starwolf_oakley]

Someone smarter than me once said "Two-Face isn't Harvey's problem; he's Harvey's solution." That works better when Two-Face is more like the Punisher with a coin fetish. Which is what Two-Face was like for "The Dark Knight" until the whole "Kidnap Gordon's family for no reason" part.

(My other problem with TDK? Ledger's Joker sounded like he was saying "You know what I like most about chaos? It's fear" rather than "It's fair.")

[From: thehefner]

Exactly! Well, and unlike the Punisher, he's not dead inside (in that respect, I see a certain kindship between the Punisher and Mr. Freeze, in his best appearances).

I really hoped THE DARK KNIGHT would have popularized the idea of Harvey being more of an antihero/antivillain (like an even angrier Red Hood) instead of just being a mobster. Alas, pretty much all the writers just carried on as before. Sigh.

[From: psychopathicus_rex]

An interesting touch here - I don't know if you noticed - is that, in all the scenes on the boat, where Two-Face is ranting about having evicted Harvey, his unscarred eye is closed, and the unscarred side of his mouth is tight-lipped. It's only when the subject of Janus comes up that his face becomes fully animate again. It's a nice twist - Two-Face is almost literally denying Harvey's existence, and since the only side that is 'fully' him is the scarred side, the unscarred side must be effectively frozen from the neck up. Also, it means that he must be talking out of one side of his mouth, like an old-time gangster, which would give him a distinctive manner of speaking that would fit the character very well.
Also, as always, Alfred is the man.

[From: yaseen101]

I really love the art here and that's the ideal Bat-suit for me. The costume looked utterly ridiculous in the Burton movies but it really works in the comic book, I like the cape with the darker shade, the texture on the suit and the yellow oval symbol and the yellow belt does a really good job of complimenting the black.

[From: yaseen101]

Also this reminds me, they casted Bruce Greenwood as Batman for the 'Under the Hood' movie. I have to say, that was a spot on casting choice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANDHR6F-bXs