A rambling, sleep-deprived look at Harvey from BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES
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?
District Attorney Harvey Dent appeared in two episodes (On Leather Wings and Pretty Poison) before finally receiving the royal origin treatment.
After that, the other story will be the Batgirl origin episode, Shadow of the Bat, which featured Harvey in a far more shallow, boring capacity.
As embedding on these videos are disabled, here are the links to all four parts of SotB: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.
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.
Let me start by looking at what made Animated!Two-Face such an effective take on the character.
I think the key to his story is that the show's creators made it a point of have Harvey Dent--District Attorney and best friend of Bruce Wayne--as a supporting character, even if he only made a couple of appearances before he finally became Two-Face*. They actually made that choice a point, as you can see from the show's writer's bible:
This is a marked difference from comics canon, where Harvey had no interaction with Bruce, only Batman. In the show, however, Harvey never actually meets Batman until after the former becomes Two-Face (well, not counting the TAS comics)! The emotional conflict on Harvey's downfall isn't tied up in Harvey being the White Knight fallen from grace, but a personal loss for Bruce, who has and keeps very few relationships in his life.
In many ways, it's a deeper failure: one that not only makes Bruce's guilt and never-ending hope for Harvey all the more understandable, but it makes their few scenes as friends all the more poignant.
I wish we could have actually seen more of this friendship before it all fell apart, or at least learned of its origins. Are they childhood friends? School buddies? Did they meet and bond as adults? If so, how and where? Perhaps a society mixer or maybe a charity fundraiser? Clearly, they both had their eyes set on being philantropic partners and public do-gooders.
I'm in no position to criticize my perceived shortcomings for this exploration of Harvey's character, since he usually gets far, far less. All the same, I do wish there had also been more foreshadowing for Harvey's instability, rather than springing it on viewers at the very start of Two-Face.
Which brings us to the episode itself, as well as the novelization, Dual to the Death. Both start the same way, going from Harvey's nightmare to the raid. But the book adds a couple new characters into the mix, watching as Batman makes short work of Thorne's goons:
So already, we're laying the groundwork for Shadow of the Bat, introducing not just Barbara Gordon (and seriously, Babs, there's gunfire around! This is no time for a social call!) but also Deputy Commissioner Gil "Dickhole" Mason: the corrupt cop who will eventually try to disgrace Jim Gordon at the behest of Two-Face. It's logical and clever to bring him into the raid scene, providing nice foreshadowing for later, and establishing relationships.
With Gil and Babs departing, the storyline continues as planned, with Harvey snapping into a rage after the raid, and then again later at his own rally. After we learn that Harvey is seeing a psychiatrist, we get to see a second nightmare sequence which wasn't in the actual episode (it's nothing essential: he discovers that the figure in shadows is himself, surprise shock horror), we get the scene between him and Dr. Crest, which plays out exactly the same...
... except for some added lines between Dr. Crest and "Big Bad Harv" (a cutesy nickname which has always made me wince):
I'm no expert in the actual psychology of abused children, but I've noticed that several stories have played with the ideas of abused characters having other personalities which are manifestations of festering childhood rage. J.M. DeMatteis played with this not just in his own Two-Face story, Crime and Punishment, but also with his original character Vermin in the pages of Captain America and Spectacular Spider-Man.
So the idea that "Big Bad Harv" is just a kid fits that pattern, and furthermore hints that the "bully" explanation isn't the true cause for Harvey's mental anguish. Thankfully, Ty Templeton eventually explored that idea himself several years later in the DCAU Batman comics, while still changing it up a bit from the mainstream DCU version.
But even before that, Dual to the Death author Geary Gravel wrote a brand-new interaction between Batman and Dr. Crest--set after the destruction of Harvey and the rampage of Two-Face--which actually explores the psychology of TAS Two-Face:
Considering that Big Bad Harv had the exact same voice that Harvey had when he became Two-Face, it's easy to think that Two-Face is just the BBH having taken over the body. But with this scene, Gravel supposes differently, explicitly showing that Two-Face here is actually both personalities at the same time.
In keeping with the original Golden Age idea of the character by way of Post-Modern psychological insight, this Two-Face is Jekyll and Hyde existing simultaneously. The only other story to actually try this with Two-Face was, you guessed it, Eye of the Beholder. Needless to say, it makes me love TAS Two-Face even more.
Furthermore, YAY for comparisons between Harvey and Bruce's psychology! I should mention that this scene takes place shortly after Bruce's nightmare about failing Harvey (and his parents), which Gravel neatly wrote to directly mirror Harvey's own nightmares. That's just what Harvey should do to Batman: torment him for his failure, while existing as a dark mirror for Bruce's own trauma and dark secondary persona.
Gravel throws in another original scene, one which adds nothing to the plot but is still neat nonetheless: Batman in Arkham, talking about Harvey with Poison Ivy.
I'm not sure Pam's entirely in character here, as she seems almost wistful and sad for Harvey, the man she tried to kill for being a "murderer" back in Pretty Poison. But then, who really knows what Pammy feels for anybody? Sure, she wanted him to pay with his life, but snapping and going insane the way he did... well, as an Arkham inmate, perhaps she has pity for that kind of fate.
From this point on, Dual to the Death shifts almost exclusively to retelling Shadow of the Bat, putting the focus on Babs vs. Gil. The transitions from one episode's storyline to the other aren't always handled gracefully, and the stitches often show.
Several scenes end up with dialogue between characters essentially following this formula: "(Line of dialogue from Two-Face pt. 2), but let's worry about that later. In the meantime, we have to focus on (plot point from Shadow of the Bat pt. 1)!" Case in point, Rupert Thorne raging about Two-Face robbing his fronts, then shrugging it off to focus on the illegal shipment which ends up getting him arrested at the start of SotB at the hands of Jim Gordon and Gil Mason.
Suddenly, Two-Face being Mason's secret informant makes a lot more sense. Harvey finally gets his revenge on Thorne (until he ends up back in power for unexplained reasons in later episodes), even while he helps foster the mutually-beneficial relationship he has with a corrupt cop who may become a corrupt Commissioner, or even corrupt Mayor someday.
But one thing always bugged me about SotB: the fact that Two-Face is so ready to destroy Jim Gordon's life and career. Yes, Two-Face is a character capable of such cold, ruthless actions, but it's unsatisfying to see Harvey try to destroy his former ally so callouslly without personal motivation. It should always be at least a little personal with Harvey, especially when the coin is there to make things ostensibly impersonal.
Thankfully, at the very end of Dual (after Gil's defeat, Grace's reunion with Harvey, Thorne's attack, Two-Face's meltdown, and the arrest of everyone), Gravel actually comes up with an ironic motivation for Harvey, told in a chapter of exposition which nicely ties together both T-F and SotB.
Again, the two storylines weren't seamlessly integrated, but they work well enough that you could come up with a great feature-length epic after another draft or two. It'd make a fantastic spiritual sequel of Mask of the Phantasm, where Bruce fails one friend but saves another, gains an enemy but also a new partner, all while scum like Gil Mason and Rupert Thorne vie for power.
But even in its original format as a two-part Two-Face origin, I feel like I've only scratched the surface when it comes to commentary and analysis. Hell, I haven't even mentioned Harvey's relationship with Grace! I guess that's a post for another time, probably when I look at Grace Lamont's appearances in Batman & Robin Adventures.
For now, I'll just leave you with Gravel's own epilogue for Harvey. It's not especially clever or anything, but hey, after all he's been through, the least we can give Harvey Dent is the last word:
*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.
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?
District Attorney Harvey Dent appeared in two episodes (On Leather Wings and Pretty Poison) before finally receiving the royal origin treatment.
Click to view After that, the other story will be the Batgirl origin episode, Shadow of the Bat, which featured Harvey in a far more shallow, boring capacity.
As embedding on these videos are disabled, here are the links to all four parts of SotB: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.
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.
Let me start by looking at what made Animated!Two-Face such an effective take on the character.
I think the key to his story is that the show's creators made it a point of have Harvey Dent--District Attorney and best friend of Bruce Wayne--as a supporting character, even if he only made a couple of appearances before he finally became Two-Face*. They actually made that choice a point, as you can see from the show's writer's bible:
This is a marked difference from comics canon, where Harvey had no interaction with Bruce, only Batman. In the show, however, Harvey never actually meets Batman until after the former becomes Two-Face (well, not counting the TAS comics)! The emotional conflict on Harvey's downfall isn't tied up in Harvey being the White Knight fallen from grace, but a personal loss for Bruce, who has and keeps very few relationships in his life.
In many ways, it's a deeper failure: one that not only makes Bruce's guilt and never-ending hope for Harvey all the more understandable, but it makes their few scenes as friends all the more poignant.
I wish we could have actually seen more of this friendship before it all fell apart, or at least learned of its origins. Are they childhood friends? School buddies? Did they meet and bond as adults? If so, how and where? Perhaps a society mixer or maybe a charity fundraiser? Clearly, they both had their eyes set on being philantropic partners and public do-gooders.
I'm in no position to criticize my perceived shortcomings for this exploration of Harvey's character, since he usually gets far, far less. All the same, I do wish there had also been more foreshadowing for Harvey's instability, rather than springing it on viewers at the very start of Two-Face.
Which brings us to the episode itself, as well as the novelization, Dual to the Death. Both start the same way, going from Harvey's nightmare to the raid. But the book adds a couple new characters into the mix, watching as Batman makes short work of Thorne's goons:
So already, we're laying the groundwork for Shadow of the Bat, introducing not just Barbara Gordon (and seriously, Babs, there's gunfire around! This is no time for a social call!) but also Deputy Commissioner Gil "Dickhole" Mason: the corrupt cop who will eventually try to disgrace Jim Gordon at the behest of Two-Face. It's logical and clever to bring him into the raid scene, providing nice foreshadowing for later, and establishing relationships.
With Gil and Babs departing, the storyline continues as planned, with Harvey snapping into a rage after the raid, and then again later at his own rally. After we learn that Harvey is seeing a psychiatrist, we get to see a second nightmare sequence which wasn't in the actual episode (it's nothing essential: he discovers that the figure in shadows is himself, surprise shock horror), we get the scene between him and Dr. Crest, which plays out exactly the same...
... except for some added lines between Dr. Crest and "Big Bad Harv" (a cutesy nickname which has always made me wince):
I'm no expert in the actual psychology of abused children, but I've noticed that several stories have played with the ideas of abused characters having other personalities which are manifestations of festering childhood rage. J.M. DeMatteis played with this not just in his own Two-Face story, Crime and Punishment, but also with his original character Vermin in the pages of Captain America and Spectacular Spider-Man.
So the idea that "Big Bad Harv" is just a kid fits that pattern, and furthermore hints that the "bully" explanation isn't the true cause for Harvey's mental anguish. Thankfully, Ty Templeton eventually explored that idea himself several years later in the DCAU Batman comics, while still changing it up a bit from the mainstream DCU version.
But even before that, Dual to the Death author Geary Gravel wrote a brand-new interaction between Batman and Dr. Crest--set after the destruction of Harvey and the rampage of Two-Face--which actually explores the psychology of TAS Two-Face:
Considering that Big Bad Harv had the exact same voice that Harvey had when he became Two-Face, it's easy to think that Two-Face is just the BBH having taken over the body. But with this scene, Gravel supposes differently, explicitly showing that Two-Face here is actually both personalities at the same time.
In keeping with the original Golden Age idea of the character by way of Post-Modern psychological insight, this Two-Face is Jekyll and Hyde existing simultaneously. The only other story to actually try this with Two-Face was, you guessed it, Eye of the Beholder. Needless to say, it makes me love TAS Two-Face even more.
Furthermore, YAY for comparisons between Harvey and Bruce's psychology! I should mention that this scene takes place shortly after Bruce's nightmare about failing Harvey (and his parents), which Gravel neatly wrote to directly mirror Harvey's own nightmares. That's just what Harvey should do to Batman: torment him for his failure, while existing as a dark mirror for Bruce's own trauma and dark secondary persona.
Gravel throws in another original scene, one which adds nothing to the plot but is still neat nonetheless: Batman in Arkham, talking about Harvey with Poison Ivy.
I'm not sure Pam's entirely in character here, as she seems almost wistful and sad for Harvey, the man she tried to kill for being a "murderer" back in Pretty Poison. But then, who really knows what Pammy feels for anybody? Sure, she wanted him to pay with his life, but snapping and going insane the way he did... well, as an Arkham inmate, perhaps she has pity for that kind of fate.
From this point on, Dual to the Death shifts almost exclusively to retelling Shadow of the Bat, putting the focus on Babs vs. Gil. The transitions from one episode's storyline to the other aren't always handled gracefully, and the stitches often show.
Several scenes end up with dialogue between characters essentially following this formula: "(Line of dialogue from Two-Face pt. 2), but let's worry about that later. In the meantime, we have to focus on (plot point from Shadow of the Bat pt. 1)!" Case in point, Rupert Thorne raging about Two-Face robbing his fronts, then shrugging it off to focus on the illegal shipment which ends up getting him arrested at the start of SotB at the hands of Jim Gordon and Gil Mason.
Suddenly, Two-Face being Mason's secret informant makes a lot more sense. Harvey finally gets his revenge on Thorne (until he ends up back in power for unexplained reasons in later episodes), even while he helps foster the mutually-beneficial relationship he has with a corrupt cop who may become a corrupt Commissioner, or even corrupt Mayor someday.
But one thing always bugged me about SotB: the fact that Two-Face is so ready to destroy Jim Gordon's life and career. Yes, Two-Face is a character capable of such cold, ruthless actions, but it's unsatisfying to see Harvey try to destroy his former ally so callouslly without personal motivation. It should always be at least a little personal with Harvey, especially when the coin is there to make things ostensibly impersonal.
Thankfully, at the very end of Dual (after Gil's defeat, Grace's reunion with Harvey, Thorne's attack, Two-Face's meltdown, and the arrest of everyone), Gravel actually comes up with an ironic motivation for Harvey, told in a chapter of exposition which nicely ties together both T-F and SotB.
Again, the two storylines weren't seamlessly integrated, but they work well enough that you could come up with a great feature-length epic after another draft or two. It'd make a fantastic spiritual sequel of Mask of the Phantasm, where Bruce fails one friend but saves another, gains an enemy but also a new partner, all while scum like Gil Mason and Rupert Thorne vie for power.
But even in its original format as a two-part Two-Face origin, I feel like I've only scratched the surface when it comes to commentary and analysis. Hell, I haven't even mentioned Harvey's relationship with Grace! I guess that's a post for another time, probably when I look at Grace Lamont's appearances in Batman & Robin Adventures.
For now, I'll just leave you with Gravel's own epilogue for Harvey. It's not especially clever or anything, but hey, after all he's been through, the least we can give Harvey Dent is the last word:
*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.