Getting Red in the Two-Face

[lbd_nytetrayn]

So, doing my nightly reading, and I just finished Cyberghostface's post of Two-Face #5 here: https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/11276879.html

From there, I moved on to my last one for the night, Iamrman's Tim Drake: Origins - Part 5 post, here: https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/11275826.html

And I was reminded that Two-Face's scarred side wasn't always red -- it used to be green. And it got me to wondering what prompted the change. Was it because of how he looked in Batman Forever? Seems kind of strange to me that movie, of all things (much as I love it) would be such an influence-- especially on the comics.

That brought to mind another question: When did it change in the comics? And was there an in-universe reason? This isn't like a Robin getting older or Batman updating his gear, this is part of the guy's flesh.

And finally, do we know why it was green before? That look even carried over into the Timmiverse, albeit maybe a little bluer there. My guess would be the Comics Code Authority thought it looked too gory if it was red, but that's just a theory.

Comments

[cyberghostface]

According to the wiki it was changed to red/purple after Batman Forever. Don’t think there’s an in-universe reason but he’s had his face fixed and then scarred again on a number of occasions.

Although in Eye of the Beholder he starts off with a green face due to the acid.



Then after he gets surgery he ends up ripping off half his face with his hands and it’s purplish.

[jkcarrier]

Two-Face's scarred side was green in his first appearance in Detective #66, which was before the Code. But even then, Batman comics didn't tend to be overly bloody or gory, so green was probably chosen as being startling and dramatic, without being too gross.

It wasn't always consistent -- some of the 1940s stories color him purple instead.

Interestingly, in his first "modern" appearance, Batman #234, the scarred side is basically normal flesh color, with a little extra shading.

But after that, he was pretty consistently green, up till "Batman Forever".

[cainofdreaming]

I'm wondering if there's also some "purple pants" syndrome going on, in the beginning, with the coloring machinery not being that good at the time.

[lego_joker]

It's very interesting you ask this... and please forgive me, because I can't quite be bothered to relearn Dreamwidth's image-linking code RN ^^;

The early '90s were a fascinating transitional period for this. As Cyberghostface linked up there, "The Eye of the Beholder" (1990) was the last major story to do green scars outside of deliberate Silver Age pastiches, and it even ends with a more "realistic" color when he's scarred again. After that, '90s stories usually went all purple, all the time...

*Except* during Knightfall. Two-Face's part in it is shoved off to a weird little side-alley (Showcase '93 #7-8, IIRC), but Klaus Janson uses a red-green mix for the scarring and it looks *magnificently* creepy. Like his flesh isn't just burned but actively rotting.

[zylly]

And the Animated Series went with a kind of blue color!

It’s also often been a bit inconsistent as to how much of his body is scarred.