Book Review: Batman: One Bad Day: Two-Face by M. Tamaki et al.

Batman: One Bad Day: Two-Face written by by Mariko Tamaki, art by Javier Fernandez, and colors by Jordie Bellaire

Harvey Dent/Two-Face is in one of his good phases. Gotham's mayor is willing to make him District Attorney as long as he behaves himself. Dent wants to be on the up-and-up but he has a hard time since he's made enemies on both sides of the law. This problem becomes more concrete when he receives a threat against his father. Dent Senior is turning 88 years old and retiring. He wants to have a big party. Dent enlists Batman to investigate the note, who in turn gets the rest of the Bat-family, including Batgirl and Batwoman, to help out. The investigation turns up nothing, leading the characters to beef up security at the party. Will some villain strike when the time comes?

I've always liked the conflicted nature of Harvey Dent/Two-Face and his strange, simplistic yet elegant use of his two-headed coin. The coin does not get much to do in this story. The focus is on the tension of the split-personality and how that divide may not be as even as it sounds. The "One Bad Day" series is based on The Killing Joke, where the Joker puts Jim Gordon through one bad day to test whether he will still do good even under the most stressful circumstances. That core idea is a bit lost when the "Bad Day" victim is a villain (which is what these modern takes on the classic Joker story focus on), since it is a lot more likely that a conflicted villain will give in to weakness or evil and make it a bad day for everyone else. This book is true to that formula and does not add any real interest or ideas to Harvey Dent/Two-Face as a character. I can see the potential here but not the actualization.

Not recommended--I really wanted to love this but it doesn't deliver anything above a less-than-average Two-Face story.