Love and appreciation post for Two-Face on "Batman: The Brave and the Bold"
greedyslayer just reminded me about how much I frelling ADORE Batman: The Brave and the Bold's take on Two-Face:
Here's the thing: for those who don't know, the opening "teasers" to each episode of TB&TB always features Batman teaming up with a guest hero to fight a guest villain. In this, Harvey gets to be both, which is AWESOME.
Then there's the vocal performance by 80's character heavy James Remar. If he were just doing the scratchy evil voice, I'd accuse him of being a poor man's Richard Moll (just as I think about whoever's voicing Two-Face in Arkham City, as I understand it's sadly not going to be Moll), but instead, he's the first Two-Face actor to actually balance between both the good and evil voices. And I love the good voice. He sounds calm, reasonable, understanding, and not without empathy.
greedyslayer made some great observations as well:I feel like there's a lot of subtle interesting things going on too. Like Harv and Batman are apparently speaking in a familiar code only they know with Harv's "Final requests, Bats?" and how Batman trusts him then (and makes wonder if in Brave and the Bold-verse they teamed up before--like, even before Two-Face, when he was unscarred DA and there was some crisis they had to work together). I totally agree, there's a real sense of history there, and I don't think I'm just projecting what I already know as a comic fan. That sense of trust further strengthens the idea that this Two-Face genuinely *is* half-good, which we so rarely see in comics of ANY era, even the ones to which TB&TB pay tribute.
Greedyslayer also added, Even in Brave and the Bold's usually lighter tone, I still got a small sense of Harvey's tragedy--like, it just seemed particularly sad to me to see the unconscious, unscarred half of Harvey's face, especially after his "You cheated" sounding genuinely hurt. A lot of unspoken implication of the ex-DA's sad history IMO was present in the opening. Yeah. :) You get the idea that Batman just betrayed that little bit of trust they had because... well, Harvey may be half-good, but you get to a point where you quite literally don't want to take any chances.
And then there's the Two-Face level from the B:TB&TB game for the Nintendo Wii. I've been wanting to get this game for months now (especially if I can get my DS-owning friend to come down and play Bat-Mite!), but that feels less urgent knowing that the actual level I want to see most is online. Don't be put off by the fact that it's gameplay. This video is surprisingly cinematic, almost like a mini-story:
SO. MUCH. LOVE.
That is easily the best use of Two-Face in a video game, not that there's much competition. I love how the level actually plays with heads and tails, and how Harvey is actually quite reasonable about leaving himself wide open to attack. Batman gets such wonderfully cheesy one-liners, but I love the Adam West earnestness with which he delivers them, especially the ones about how he's hopeful for Harvey's rehabilitation. Also, that's right, Dick, you'll take your lack of recognition and you'll like it.
Harvey's only made one other major appearance on the actual B:TB&TB show, in the episode "The Mask of Matches Malone!" written by Gail Simone. You may have heard of it, as it features a rather risque musical number by the Birds of Prey (and Catwoman why not), so risque in fact that the episode didn't actually air in the US! Nope, they're going to censor it, which many people are crying foul about, but not me. Penis jokes in my kid-friendly Batman? No thanks. That said, I did rather like the Two-Face appearance in the episode. Erm, I mean, the episode which I clearly haven't seen, why no, that would be impossible since it only aired outside the US, so how could I have seen it, cough cough.
Click to viewHere's the thing: for those who don't know, the opening "teasers" to each episode of TB&TB always features Batman teaming up with a guest hero to fight a guest villain. In this, Harvey gets to be both, which is AWESOME.
Then there's the vocal performance by 80's character heavy James Remar. If he were just doing the scratchy evil voice, I'd accuse him of being a poor man's Richard Moll (just as I think about whoever's voicing Two-Face in Arkham City, as I understand it's sadly not going to be Moll), but instead, he's the first Two-Face actor to actually balance between both the good and evil voices. And I love the good voice. He sounds calm, reasonable, understanding, and not without empathy.
greedyslayer made some great observations as well:I feel like there's a lot of subtle interesting things going on too. Like Harv and Batman are apparently speaking in a familiar code only they know with Harv's "Final requests, Bats?" and how Batman trusts him then (and makes wonder if in Brave and the Bold-verse they teamed up before--like, even before Two-Face, when he was unscarred DA and there was some crisis they had to work together). I totally agree, there's a real sense of history there, and I don't think I'm just projecting what I already know as a comic fan. That sense of trust further strengthens the idea that this Two-Face genuinely *is* half-good, which we so rarely see in comics of ANY era, even the ones to which TB&TB pay tribute.
Greedyslayer also added, Even in Brave and the Bold's usually lighter tone, I still got a small sense of Harvey's tragedy--like, it just seemed particularly sad to me to see the unconscious, unscarred half of Harvey's face, especially after his "You cheated" sounding genuinely hurt. A lot of unspoken implication of the ex-DA's sad history IMO was present in the opening. Yeah. :) You get the idea that Batman just betrayed that little bit of trust they had because... well, Harvey may be half-good, but you get to a point where you quite literally don't want to take any chances.
And then there's the Two-Face level from the B:TB&TB game for the Nintendo Wii. I've been wanting to get this game for months now (especially if I can get my DS-owning friend to come down and play Bat-Mite!), but that feels less urgent knowing that the actual level I want to see most is online. Don't be put off by the fact that it's gameplay. This video is surprisingly cinematic, almost like a mini-story:
SO. MUCH. LOVE.
That is easily the best use of Two-Face in a video game, not that there's much competition. I love how the level actually plays with heads and tails, and how Harvey is actually quite reasonable about leaving himself wide open to attack. Batman gets such wonderfully cheesy one-liners, but I love the Adam West earnestness with which he delivers them, especially the ones about how he's hopeful for Harvey's rehabilitation. Also, that's right, Dick, you'll take your lack of recognition and you'll like it.
Harvey's only made one other major appearance on the actual B:TB&TB show, in the episode "The Mask of Matches Malone!" written by Gail Simone. You may have heard of it, as it features a rather risque musical number by the Birds of Prey (and Catwoman why not), so risque in fact that the episode didn't actually air in the US! Nope, they're going to censor it, which many people are crying foul about, but not me. Penis jokes in my kid-friendly Batman? No thanks. That said, I did rather like the Two-Face appearance in the episode. Erm, I mean, the episode which I clearly haven't seen, why no, that would be impossible since it only aired outside the US, so how could I have seen it, cough cough.