The misbegotten history of Duela Dent, and the one time she confronted Two-Face, her father (?)

[about_faces]

Comments

[surrealname]

why does duela have a haircut like she belongs in the ronnettes?

also, you have NO CONCEPT of how unspeakably enraged i was by dc killing off an idea as good as the jokester in 2 issues. just... oh man. oh man. FLAMES COMING OUT THE SIDE OF MY HEAD! HEAVING BREATHES!

[about_faces]

Because it was what unhip DC writers and artists thought was cool with the kids at the time?

Seriously! Way to kneecap the only thing worth reading about in that waste of a series.

[surrealname]

not only was the Jokester the only thing worth reading in that series, but he was the best Idea that DC had during the entirity of the 2000s other than putting a green lantern ring back on guy gardner. I was fascinated by the Jokester. To finally see this mirror image of the Joker who went the oppposite path. Who took the pain and the hurt and the crazy, and put it towards fighting for what is right. It was something I didn't even realize I'd been waiting for all my life. I mean, I am sure that somewhere out there are a bunch of other attempts at a heroic joker, but the don't immmediately come to mind (other than that genius use of the red hood in batman the brave and the bold, and the brief gilmpse of a hero joker in the earth 2 animated film) and... i mean. I dunno. It was like having a joker that i could feel all the things that i feel about the joker for with out having to remind myself that i was personally identifying with an unrepentant murder. I think finding out that the jokester was gonna get killed off so quickly was the

[psychopathicus]

Personally, I've always been kind of intrigued by Duella and her ambiguous nature. I mean, she works well enough as a straight-ahead character, but her subsequent incarnations as a crazy crazy cupcake who changes fathers at the drop of a hat were, well, interesting. There have been many characters in comics that people didn't know what to make of, but few officially acknowledged in-universe as such. In any case, I've always had a bit of soft spot for crimefighting clowns, so, yeah. I like her. I kinda wish Wolfman hadn't dissed her so throughly there - she might have had more of a career otherwise

[about_faces]

Were there any stories that really used her well? Ambiguity is great to a point--where all the possibilities can blossom in the reader's mind--but too much ambiguity comes off more like shoddy storytelling riddled with plotholes, dropped aspects, and rampant bullshit. Lost is a good example of that, which I say as a fan.

Yeah, I'm glad that I'm not the only one put off by her rictus grin. With her mouth open in that grin, she looks like a freaky mannequin, or a dummy in a carnival. Somehow, it was even more off-putting in the actual issue, after seeing her like that in virtually every panel, no matter the situation.

That cover is a nice piece - he looks genuinely anguished on both sides of his face; you can tell he's really battling with himself.

Totally! I hadn't considered that, but you're right, and it's a way that he really should be depicted more often. Even when--as in the preview for Snyder/Capullo's upcoming Batman #1--Harvey is said to be "at war with himself," that doesn't come through too often in the artwork itself.

[psychopathicus]

I admit, I haven't really read many stories with her. It's more that, as in a previously discussed character whose name escapes me at the moment, I like the IDEA of her. She's something like a proto-Harley Quinn, only without the Joker obsession. If she'd been used like that (and for all I know she was, since, like I said, I haven't caught much of her), she would have been something to see.
Is it even possible to maintain two different expressions at once like that? I tried it out in the mirror, and it did not work - I just looked like I was having a seizure. I mean, I guess it's possible that the acid may have done weird things to Harvey's facial muscles or something, but... yeah.
Oh, I know at that point it was pretty much 'acid AARRGGH TWO-FACE!' I'm just saying that, if you wanted to use a modern treatment of the character to explain away a teenage daughter, you could do so fairly easily.

[abqreviews]

I only have (appropriately)two things to say about that "Daddy" panel:

1) Why is Two-Face being played by Steve Ditko's Peter Parker?

2) On IMDb's DARK KNIGHT RISES board, there's a minor meme called "Harvey Dent is Dad", which came about after someone misspelled "dead" in a debate about whether Two-Face would be coming back. That panel is so ironic now.

[ext_262094]

It is later revealed that the Earth-Three hero Jokester is her biological father and Three-Face, Evelyn Dent, is her mother. Since Evelyn disappeared from Duela's father while she was still pregnant, he was not aware of Duela's existence until her teen years. As a result, Duela's stepfather, Riddler helped Evelyn raise her. Ironically this means she is the Joker's daughter, just not the normal one.

[jaredmith]

Duella is literally the orignla Harley Quinn, and for a Harlequin inspired costume I like that one far more then the uninspired original BTAS Quinn costume everyone is so irrationally Nostalgic for. Also the abandoned Batman Unchained script was really using Duella even though they called her Harley Quinn. I'm a Teen Titans nerd so even the most obscure Titans fascinate me.