New Comics Review: "Without Sin," by Mishkin and Mandrake, from LotDK #42-47 (2013)

[about_faces]

Note: As you start reading this review, you may get a sense of deja vu and asks yourself, "Wait, didn't I already read this post?" That's because I already reviewed the first part when it came out six weeks ago, with the original intention of trying to review each part every week, something I obviously didn't get around to doing. I held off for

Comments

[martin_l_gore]

I'm not sure if this will get through the spam filter, but I stumbled across this video when scouring Youtube for a Family Guy skit about movies acknowledging their own titles. Fairly amusing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecJGIQDsr-M

[about_faces]

Ha! The people who do those videos are great. I hadn't seen that one! And yeah, I thought there was a FG bit about that, but I couldn't remember for sure.

[psychopathicus]

There is, actually, a sort of rationale for Harvey's mad dog tendencies here, even before he loses the coin. See, he's trying to cure himself, right? He's trying to shuck off the mantle of Two-Face and become sane again. The method he's using to do this is the old 'finding God' routine, and so far as he's concerned, he's well on the road to recovery.
The thing is, he's wrong. Father Tenney may disagree, but then, he's a priest; it's kind of his job to believe stuff like that. The trips to the confessional may be helpful as an outlet for his tortured soul, but they're not giving Harvey anything more than a good therapist would. He may be on the right path, but he's nowhere near there yet, and by convincing himself that he is, he's arguably rendering himself still more dangerous than Two-Face ever was.
Why? Well, even at his most mad doggiest, Two-Face still is obsessed with making choices - if not between good or evil, then left or right, sunny or shady, whatever. Harvey, however, is convinced that he no longer needs to make such

[about_faces]

Sorry for the long delay in responding. Your comments always require me to be in my best thinky headspace, and when I finally sat down to write, some stuff asploded IRL over here, so that took all my energy.

I agree with the idea that it was making him worse even when he thought it was making him better, and I think that's pretty much what the narrative itself was suggesting. At least, that's certainly what I took from it. Your read of the coin-as-cigarettes metaphor is very apt, and I just wish it had been explored just a teeny bit more explicitly in this story. Well, perhaps that should be better saved for a story that draws on comparison's with Harvey's alcoholic father, so the themes of addiction and dependence could be better explored in a storyline that would serve them better.

[psychopathicus]

Thanks! Yeah, I was inspired by stuff I've heard about homicide cops and the like - naturally, it's an extremely stress-filled profession, so there are a lot of smokers amongst their number, and even those who manage to kick the habit often keep a pack around for when the really grisly, soul-shaking murders happen and they need to calm down. (Mind you, this is based entirely on novels and the like, but it doesn't sound beyond the limits of possibility.)
I'm not sure whether the coin-as-alcoholism metaphor would work, though. It may be a crutch of sorts for Harvey, but it itself is not bad for him; it's the only form of structure in his life, it's not what's making him crazy. Booze dependency, on the other hand, seriously wrecks a person; if dependence on the coin were like alcoholism, Harvey would be a raving, incoherent, flailing mess.

[abqreviews]

Well, I was thinking about reading this after it was finished (I don't read/download digital comics unless they're reprints of rare issues or something I don't want to pay for) but honestly this seems pretty disappointing. It IS nice though to see someone call Batman out on being an ass for once, and for a legitimate reason other than "You're a rich man blah blah blah privilege blah".

>“Whoa, Father! I thought what goes on in the confessional stays there! It's like Las Vegas!"

Please tell me that's an actual line.

BTW, it would make a really cool (if bizarre) themed anthology if all the stories involving the rogues being framed or impersonated were collected. Most of the collection would be Two-Face & Joker stories though.

[about_faces]

Please tell me that's an actual line.

Why tell when I can show? :)

[vw_tb0]

I love that line too.

[vadvaro7]

Awesome write up on this. Dead on with the analysis of so much Harvey build up, then only to make him a wild card in the stand off finale.

Thanks for referencing me (this is definitely one of the ideals I believe strongly about keeping Two-Face redeemable back into Harvey, not killing innocent people - if the coroners were in on the bribing that might have made me feel better...)

However, may I quote an earlier post (and Two-Face story) by you...though it was another multi part back up story in Streets of Gotham, the Long Way Down (which Tony Daniel at least valiantly tried to undo with the rushed Long Way Back at the end of Batman before the new 52) had postulated
"Look, it's actually been a theory of mine that Two-Face's coin isn't a crutch: it's the only thing that's holding the monster in check. He can't quell the evil side, but he can at least keep it in check and balance it out with the good in him thanks to the coin. So it's interesting to see another writer address this idea."
http://about-faces.livejournal.com/?skip=290

[about_faces]

Heh, I think you're the only person I know who picked up these issues. It's a shame that LotDK isn't getting more readership. But then, that can be said of pretty much any Batman comic that's not being written by a major name writer at any given point.

Awesome, you found it! Thank you! I knew that I'd written that at one point, but couldn't remember where!

[anonymous]

Thanks for this article - I'm very far behind in the online Batman comics, mostly because I still need a Comixology account. I must remind myself to get one someday. I understand that "Legends of the Dark Knight" isn't part of the reboot, but has its own timeline

[about_faces]

If/when you do, there are tons of 1st issues available for free. Here's a list of 525 free issues currently available, which you can get after you sign up for an account. If you're looking for Batman comics specifically, Henchgirl has compiled this great list of villain character primers with links to Comixology issues, where applicable.

If I remember correctly, Harvey is one of the few rogues to be permanently redeemed in any timeline.

You do indeed remember correctly, as those two examples are both ones where Harvey's redemption was permanent. Notably, they were both also closed storylines/universes, so there's no chance of Harvey's rehabilitation getting undone in the name of drama. Another example of Harvey getting redeemed might just be the DCAU, as a recent Batman Beyond digital tie-in comic (Justice League Beyond) mentioned that Harvey got rehabilitated! So that one might count too, insofar as any of the recent Beyond comics can tie into DCAU canon.

[anonymous]

That's a pretty good deal there! I'm certainly tempted to sign up now.

That's very interesting - I know that the possibility of rehabilitating Harvey was brought up a few times in the DCAU, such as in "Second Chance", but I'm intrigued that he was successfully reformed in that particular canon. I know it probably won't be elaborated on, but I'm curious.

I think I have another story involving the successful rehabilitation of a rogue besides Harvey - there was an Elseworlds comic in which Killer Croc was reformed. All I can really remember about it today is that Bruce Wayne was a doctor at Arkham and Jonathan Crane was a subordinate (and at one point took over Arkham and started abusing the patients). I remember it being an interesting sympathetic take on Croc's character.

- Crow's Talon

[about_faces]

Indeed, that Elseworlds was called The Batman of Arkham, one of the last major Bat-books by Alan Grant! His take on Croc there originated in one of his earliest issues of Batman back around 1990, where Croc became the protector of a group of homeless living in the sewers. It's a powerful issue that made both me and Henchgirl get choked up, and it's a shame that more people haven't read it. I would consider it the single most essential Croc story there is, the one that gives depth to a character defined by too many for supposedly being shallow and simplistic. If I ever do get around to writing about Croc here, that story is at the top of my priorities after his original storyline with Redhead!Jason's origin.