NEW COMICS REVIEW: Two-Face in "Forever Evil" #1 and "Batman and Robin" #23.1 (2013)

[about_faces]

This week, Harvey Dent was featured in a one-shot story that not only set the stage for "The Big Burn" (his upcoming new storyline in Batman and Robin, which may or may include a new origin), but also served as a direct tie-in to DC's latest massive crossover event, Forever Evil, where the villains of the DCU take center stage. That's right, it's a

Comments

[mothy_van_cleer]

Wow, I... don't really know how to feel about this. Harvey's total apathy mirrors my own.

...I keep hoping that someday, someone will put Harvey in there. After all, they put Jason Todd as the Red Hood in there, and Harvey was one of Batman's very first allies. Besides, everyone knows that Two-Face is the Robins' wacky uncle.

You know who I'd really like to see join the Bat-Family, even though it would never happen in a million years? Mr. Freeze. He's not evil, just horribly isolated and lonely. I want to see him doing experiments and talking with Bruce in the Batcave.

Also, Bat-Head may just be the sensational character find of 2013. "Talk to the sword, French-Canadian bean soup! Soon, all of Gotham will suffer as I did at the hand of its Dark Knight. The electric yellow has got me by the brain banana!"

[lego_joker]

Heh. That actually ties into a fanfic idea I've been kicking around for a while now - an AU where all of Bruce's iconic foes (except for the Joker) took different paths in life or had different events impact them, and ultimately end up as law-abiding citizens who help Batman in his war on crime (Scarecrow helps him psychoanalyze, Ivy tutors him on chemicals & poisons, Freeze helps design some of his tech, etc.) - some even become costumed crimefighters themselves.

If I do get around to writing it, it may or may not also feature Bruce's usual cadre of sidekicks taking the opposite path as well, and becoming full-fledged villains.

[psychopathicus]

I've toyed with a similar idea, but not as an alternate universe, but an alternate future. Specifically, it would be an answer to the old 'why doesn't Batman kill the Joker' question - Bats could go on a trip to a future wherein Joker had been cured of his insanity and was now using his genius for good things as a way to try and find redemption for all the horror he'd caused. For instance, his laugh-yourself-to-death chemicals might prove to be an effective treatment for clinical depression if tweaked in just the right way, or he might reinterpret his old the-world-is-a-joke philosophy into a more benevolent one that would actually improve society - 'everyone has the potential to bring meaning into a formerly meaningless world', for instance. Batman would return to the present with a damn good reason for not killing the Joker - for not killing anybody - because that would be saying that they were beyond hope of redemption, and, as he'd just witnessed, even the most seemingly monstrous of individuals could be capable of great things

[about_faces]

Wow, I... don't really know how to feel about this. Harvey's total apathy mirrors my own.

Maybe it's all a great big meta trick by Tomasi to get readers to really understand what it's like to be Two-Face. Like, it makes you so full of apathy, confusion, and uncertainty that you just feel like you can't do anything but flip a coin and let it decide your mind for you! My god, it's brilliant! *flips coin* Tails. Okay, I don't like this issue.

You know who I'd really like to see join the Bat-Family, even though it would never happen in a million years? Mr. Freeze. He's not evil, just horribly isolated and lonely. I want to see him doing experiments and talking with Bruce in the Batcave.

Agreed. Really, I think that there are several of the big villains who could easily be sometime-allies or neutral characters, just like several villains in Dick Tracy reformed and became supporting cast members. Not everyone is best suited to be a pure evil threat anymore, and Freeze is a perfect example

[about_faces]

Well, Johns is capable of some great crossovers when he really applies himself. The Sinestro Corps War is still one of the best GL stories I've ever read, and Blackest Night became excellent after a very slow, very mediocre, overly violent and sensationalized first half. I'm hoping to see a similar scenario play out with FE, but I don't know if Johns still has that kind of storytelling in him anymore.

Johns isn't exactly a nuanced writer who goes deep into characters' psyches. He just writes big, sweeping, interchangeable storylines with action movie dialogue and calls it a day.Agreed. So what's ironic (for lack of a better word) about this situation is that, when it came to the Green Lantern books a few years back, I thought that Tomasi's run of GLC did a much better job when it came to smaller, character-driven stories that implemented Johns' world-building mythos and events much better than Johns himself did! For a year or two, Johns and Tomasi were a perfect team for the GL books, turning both into a single, wonderful whole. In

[about_faces]

Even speaking as someone who loved Tomasi's GLC run, I hear you. That pretty much sums up my feelings on his Guy Gardner spin-off series, Emerald Warriors. I kinda liked every issue he wrote, and I never had any complaints, but everything he did there was utterly forgettable. I could read an issue, and five minutes later, I wouldn't be able to tell you what it was about, not even if my life were on the line.

I understand that the Ivy issue removes Woodrue entirely and thus also gives her more agency, although it's at the expense of giving her an abusive parent in her origin, which apparently now everybody has. Except maybe Harvey, but we'll see what new origin Tomasi's going to write in a few months.

... aside from giving her past ties to Bruce Wayne

Ughhhhhhh. Damn it, DC writers, not everything has to be connected!

[anonymous]

Off topic, but I was wondering your thoughts on the 'draw Harly Quinn naked and dying' art contest that is making the rounds?

On topic, yeah, good ideas but that's all. At this point I'll stick to fanfiction.
-Nobody

[about_faces]

I think what's really sad is that the script scene that was posted was the most in-character that Harley's been in YEARS, not counting her story in the new Batman Black and White (which everyone should read).

[mothy_van_cleer]

I weighed in on it briefly over at Tumblr:

"Really, what’s amazing to me about this whole... fiasco isn’t that it was a complete and utter cock-up on both fronts. That was to be expected; in fact, it’s par for the course these days whenever DC makes a big announcement.

What’s amazing to me is that the editorial staff - Harras, Didio, Johns et. al. - have so badly mangled any sense of credibility the company once had, that everybody took the proposed script at complete face value. Nobody thought that such a gaggle of self-serious pricks would ever deign to humorously reference their shortcomings (victimizing women, overly skimpy outfits, excessive violence).

This is how low you have set consumer confidence. This is why we’re angry at you. And this is why a little “tee-hee” poke in the ribs isn’t going to get us back on your side."

[napoleoncheese]

It figures they'd revert to human skinned Ivy right when I was coming to prefer her having light greenish skin. I don't know, visually, it made her more distinctive, and not like the skin color affects her personality, actually.

Hey, I have been wondering for a while, since you could use a breather from THE GRIM AND GRITTYYYYYYYYYYY, and Two-Face plays a (sadly diminutive) role in it, have you ever considered writing a review for the LEGO Batman movie? Nice silly thing, in my opinion. A few of the gags are actually quite funny (like Robin's Butt Monkey running status).

[about_faces]

It made her distinctive, yes, but I always rather liked how alluringly unassuming she looked with human skin. I much prefer an Ivy who can seduce and manipulate without purely relying on superpowers, which the green-skinned, inhuman look just reinforces. I find her far more interesting when she just looks like a normal (though beautiful) woman. It makes her seem so much more dangerous that way.

And no, I haven't seen the LEGO Batman movie yet. As I understand that it's pretty much just the cut-scenes from the second game, I think I'd rather just play the game sometime and watch it there.

[napoleoncheese]

Having played the game, I'd suggest watching the cutscenes. I spent more time fighting the camera than any of the henchs and somehow got stuck on one level. I don't mean I wasn't able to beat it, I mean it was like the game stopped after one level. The disk may have been bad, but overall I was left annoyed.
-Nobody

[superfan1]

Very nice review!

[about_faces]

Thankya kindly! And again, thank you for posting a few more of the pages from this issue for anyone else who wants a better look! :D