Review: "Heads or Tails," the Two-Face segment from Walt Simonson's "The Judas Coin" (2012)
Four months have passed since the release of Walt Simonson's excellent new graphic novel, The Judas Coin, so I think it's finally time for me to examine the story's Two-Face segment, Heads or Tails, in full, exhaustive, spoilery, scan-heavy detail.
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Comments 26
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Aw.
... but this was the best Two-Face story I've read in years.
Hooray!
... so it very well might have been just you.
Aw.
However, I like your take much better.
Hooray!
Judas Coin is the first I ever heard of Simonson...
Egad! His Thor run is worth checking out, as I understand it's one of the most celebrated runs in all of Marvel's history. I still need to read the whole thing, if I can ever get my hands on 'em. I'd love the get the massive, recolored (coloring was often such shit back then) hardcover omnibus, but sadly, I don't have $150 to throw around.
... but it has me wishing he'd write a Batman comic...
Oh, you and me both! The closest he's ever come to doing a full Batman comic is with his serialized Manhunter story, which ran as back-ups in Detective Comics during the 70's and featured Batman as co-star. It was a very popular story in its day, although I must confess, I don't remember much about it. I have no idea how it holds up. I thought I heard that it was ( ... )
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I'd say it holds up pretty darn well, myself. I have it collected in 'Manhunter: The Special Edition', with a shiny gold cover and the bonus story included. I got it years ago, back in the late '90's or so, so it's probably out of print, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was knocking around Amazon somewhere.
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Still, I would check out the other Thor volumes, but cash is much tighter than ever. My days of willy-nilly picking up comics that interest me are over for the time being. It's either my local library system (which has a decent selection, but sadly, no Simonson), or whatever else I can find online.
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Hello! I was thinking of you guys and decided to check in. I have been more into manga's than comics lately and that fluctuating interest was part of the reason why I haven't been on LJ all that much.
I don't think Bruce has quite given up on Harvey here. He is quite sympathetic with him even after Harvey shoots the man. What's interesting here is that unlike TAS version, this Harvey has lost all hope that the could be redeemed. With the TAS version, you always get that feeling that there is a part of him that wants to be redeemed and he needs a friends especially in that Batman & Robin issue penned by Paul Dini but here, Harvey is like 'fuck it, I'm hopeless'. He's already given up any inclination of being saved. I can understand why this version of Harvey went down the route of being a gangster.
Anyway, that's my two cents. It's nice to be able to post here again.
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I don't have anything else to offer to your own commentary for the time being, but I at least wanted to say hi, and that it's great to hear from you again! :)
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Yeah, it was nice getting away from the pessimism surrounding the Big Two these days. I still love comics and what the superhero concept represents but I probably won't be coming back until the management at the Big Two has had a big overhaul. Until then, I'll be collecting good older comics that represent superheroes at their finest aswell as keeping an eye out for the movies and cartoons. It's a sentiment that';s often heard in fandom these days.
I don't have anything else to offer to your own commentary for the time being, but I at least wanted to say hi, and that it's great to hear from you again! :)
Thank you! :) And it's great to talk with you guys again aswell.
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Well, yeah, what did you expect? It's one of six short stories from a hundred-or-so page graphic novel. If you ever get the chance to read it in full, go in expecting a Batman: Black and White story, that kinda thing.
As for the all-Joker cast, it could certainly work, and it would help give validity to the existence of such an adaptation, but I'm not sure who would be who. Except for Hamill, I can totally already hear him as the dwarfs. Or are they midgets? Eh, little people. Maybe Hamill should actually be Batman in this one, if he could pull it off! What better way to show how these characters are mirrored than by having the definitive Joker play Batman? As for Barbara and the wife, how about Arleen Sorkin, Tara Strong, and/or Hynden Walch? If you're gonna have this all play with the subtext of it being just in the Joker's head, then go all the way with the metaness!
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So does this mean you won't be covering the rest of the story? I mean, I can understand why you wouldn't; there's lots of it to cover, but I'm sure I haven't been alone in looking forward to your opinion on it. (On a related note, has the Batman Returns review been shelved for the nonce, or is it still somewhere on the horizon?)
Yaroslav Horak's work looks like he was either influenced by or was actually one of the artists on Modesty Blaise. These strips seem very reminiscent of it, especially the face of the woman - that's definitely a Modesty-style face ( ... )
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I've been bandying about the idea of maybe calling an outright hiatus, or limiting it to just a handful of posts a month, just so I can put this energy into places that need it more. Like, maybe writing something that I can actually get published or sell someplace. That would be good. Or maybe finally getting back to Dent. I've been thinking about that a lot lately, and I'd like to get to the second chapter before two years go by since my last update ( ... )
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So yeah, maybe a little recharge-the-batteries time is just what you need. For the moment, though, I have a suggestion, if I may. I used to be a member of a message board that started out as being devoted to V for Vendetta, but it rapidly turned into a 'just talking about whatever' sort of thing as we ran out of things to say about the subject at hand. At a couple of points, we tried coming up with collaborative stories - everyone who wanted to participate would come up with a character, someone would start a story using theirs, and then we'd all ( ... )
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I totally see the Modesty Blaise resemblance here. Should I read that strip? I never have, and I've got a few hundred copies of them reprinted in those issues of Comics Revue magazine where I got all of the Batman comic strips, so I could certainly catch up on one large chunk, if it's worthwhile.
I'm not sure if I agree about Harvey being so particularly attached to that one specific coin. While I can't point to any specific stories, I'm almost certain I've heard reference to Harvey either replacing his coin or using replacements that others have given him - the point is the link to fate and random chance that the coin gives him access to, not the coin itself. True, but it wasn't so much that ONE specific coin I meant as much as that he only uses two-headed coins that are scarred on one side. For all versions of the character, it's integral to how he identifies himself after the scarring as having two heads, one ruined/evil, and almost all subsequent versions of Harvey's origin have spun out ( ... )
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