"Face the Face" supplement: a brief look at Harvey's vigilante career, feat. Croc and Cass
In my huge Batman: Face the Face dissection post, I lamented the lack of continuity between the maxi-series 52 and the One Year Later books which took place immediately after the events of 52 were to end, both of which were released at the same time. I understand why it couldn't all work out. 52 alone was such a massive undertaking, and it's still amazing that those four very different writers managed to pull off something that cohesive, much less great. And yet, I'm still very sad that 52 didn't include even a mention of Harvey as Gotham's Protector, focusing instead on the new Batwoman (whose role was, I believe, rather pumped-up due to media attention), but it was far from the only OYL development to not get any mention in 52.
Thus, near the end of 52, DC published a tie-in mini-series called World War III, which served no other purpose but to fill all the gaps between 52 and OYL that the former left unaddressed. Amongst these gaps included addressing how Aquaman was turned into a tentacle-bearded amnesiac sorcerer, why J'onn J'onzz decided to trade his silly classic costume for a stupid new one, and why the hell Cassandra Cain inexplicably became an evil "Dragon Lady" stereotype League of Assassins leader, as zechs80 has been chronicling over at scans_daily in the wake of my B:FTF post. Jesus, Beechen. And here I thought your Batman Beyond series was bad.
Tangent: I mean, really, Beechen... you seriously want me to believe that Batman sees Tommy Elliot as a threat on the level of Joker or Ra's? Like to have Bruce talk about Tommy in exactly those words? HAHAHA no. Okay, tangent over.
So World War III addressed Cassandra's seduction to the dark side in a scene which also, finally, gave us a brief look at Harvey's vigilante career. Which isn't to say it's a GREAT look, but it's better than nothing. ... Right?
Scans are from World War III #2, and taken with permission from Zechs80 in this post here.
Can someone please tell me why, for the love of god, some people try to write Harvey as if he were Ben Grimm? He's neither a thug, a mobster, a scrappy barroom brawler, nor Jack Kirby. Sheesh. Toss that one on my list of pet peeves, right alongside perfectly-split scarring and the coin being gold.
And ughhhh, god how I hate Croc still looking like this. I hate seeing him reduced to a roving monster who comes out from the sewers to eat people, as I believe that's what he was trying to do to that random woman when Harvey interrupted them. I'm gradually working on a whole post dedicated to Croc and why it's vital that he go back to his previous, more humanoid look. Okay, okay, back to the fight...
As underwhelming as the rest of this scene was, the idea of Harvey taking down Croc? Pretty cool. So we know for sure that Harvey single-handedly took down Croc, Brutale, Mr. Zsasz, and Poison Ivy. Not bad, not bad. Still, I would have liked to have actually seen those stories, as long as they were written a bit better than this. But then, this is a fill-in mini-series, not meant to be an actual story, so what should I expect? Oh, that's right, I mentioned that this involved Cass, didn't I?
It's amazing how angry Cass fans are at what's been done to the character, as evidenced by the ongoing rage-inducing series at scans_daily. Hey, I definitely understand the feeling, even though I've never had any major interest in the character, nor have I closely followed what happened in her series, and the extent to which Beechen perverted her character in OYL. So maybe I'm forgetting what actual reason Bruce would have had to not put Cass in charge of protecting Gotham, so that when Harvey SUGGESTED Cass instead of him, Batman dismissed that notion by preferring "not to talk about" her. It still doesn't justify Bruce putting Harvey in charge, which I'd still like to see properly addressed now that Bruce is back. But we almost certainly won't, because just like Cassandra's heel turn and the developments with Aquaman and Martian Manhunter, and many of the other OYL details, Harvey's brief heroic career has been ignored, retconned, or plain forgotten.
If you'd like to read the whole WWIII mini, it's been collected here, but it seems to be out of print. Honestly, considering how many of the OYL changes have been retconned or forgotten, you're better off just reading 52 on its own. I'm still surprised at how good that turned out to be, especially considering how cynical and ugly it was at the start.
Thus, near the end of 52, DC published a tie-in mini-series called World War III, which served no other purpose but to fill all the gaps between 52 and OYL that the former left unaddressed. Amongst these gaps included addressing how Aquaman was turned into a tentacle-bearded amnesiac sorcerer, why J'onn J'onzz decided to trade his silly classic costume for a stupid new one, and why the hell Cassandra Cain inexplicably became an evil "Dragon Lady" stereotype League of Assassins leader, as zechs80 has been chronicling over at scans_daily in the wake of my B:FTF post. Jesus, Beechen. And here I thought your Batman Beyond series was bad.
Tangent: I mean, really, Beechen... you seriously want me to believe that Batman sees Tommy Elliot as a threat on the level of Joker or Ra's? Like to have Bruce talk about Tommy in exactly those words? HAHAHA no. Okay, tangent over.
So World War III addressed Cassandra's seduction to the dark side in a scene which also, finally, gave us a brief look at Harvey's vigilante career. Which isn't to say it's a GREAT look, but it's better than nothing. ... Right?
Scans are from World War III #2, and taken with permission from Zechs80 in this post here.
Can someone please tell me why, for the love of god, some people try to write Harvey as if he were Ben Grimm? He's neither a thug, a mobster, a scrappy barroom brawler, nor Jack Kirby. Sheesh. Toss that one on my list of pet peeves, right alongside perfectly-split scarring and the coin being gold.
And ughhhh, god how I hate Croc still looking like this. I hate seeing him reduced to a roving monster who comes out from the sewers to eat people, as I believe that's what he was trying to do to that random woman when Harvey interrupted them. I'm gradually working on a whole post dedicated to Croc and why it's vital that he go back to his previous, more humanoid look. Okay, okay, back to the fight...
As underwhelming as the rest of this scene was, the idea of Harvey taking down Croc? Pretty cool. So we know for sure that Harvey single-handedly took down Croc, Brutale, Mr. Zsasz, and Poison Ivy. Not bad, not bad. Still, I would have liked to have actually seen those stories, as long as they were written a bit better than this. But then, this is a fill-in mini-series, not meant to be an actual story, so what should I expect? Oh, that's right, I mentioned that this involved Cass, didn't I?
It's amazing how angry Cass fans are at what's been done to the character, as evidenced by the ongoing rage-inducing series at scans_daily. Hey, I definitely understand the feeling, even though I've never had any major interest in the character, nor have I closely followed what happened in her series, and the extent to which Beechen perverted her character in OYL. So maybe I'm forgetting what actual reason Bruce would have had to not put Cass in charge of protecting Gotham, so that when Harvey SUGGESTED Cass instead of him, Batman dismissed that notion by preferring "not to talk about" her. It still doesn't justify Bruce putting Harvey in charge, which I'd still like to see properly addressed now that Bruce is back. But we almost certainly won't, because just like Cassandra's heel turn and the developments with Aquaman and Martian Manhunter, and many of the other OYL details, Harvey's brief heroic career has been ignored, retconned, or plain forgotten.
If you'd like to read the whole WWIII mini, it's been collected here, but it seems to be out of print. Honestly, considering how many of the OYL changes have been retconned or forgotten, you're better off just reading 52 on its own. I'm still surprised at how good that turned out to be, especially considering how cynical and ugly it was at the start.