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.

Book Review: Batman vs. Two-Face by B. Finger et al.

Batman vs. Two-Face written by Bill Finger and others with art by Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson, George Roussos and others

This anthology presents ten Batman tales featuring my favorite from his rouges' gallery, Two-Face. The first story is his origin, when as handsome District Attorney Harvey Kent (later changed to Dent) prosecutes crime boss Moroni, who throws acid on Harvey's face during the trial. Half his face is hideously scarred. People, including is fiancee, are horrified at his appearance and Harvey has a mental breakdown. Moroni had a lucky two-headed silver dollar; Harvey scratches up one side of it so that the coin mirrors his own duality--handsome and hideous, good and evil, Jekyll and Hyde. Harvey adopts the name Two-Face and starts on a crime spree. The coin makes decisions for him--if he flips the clean side, he will do good with what he steals; if he flips the scarred side, he will do evil. His crimes often involve the number two or some sort of duality, like robbing the box office from a double feature or a person who has two faces, like an actor (his own and his character's). The most interesting stories involve his sense of justice and his history as district attorney, punishing criminals he couldn't prosecute because of lack of evidence.

He's a fascinating character as a villain. He has a moral split between good and evil that is resolved almost at random. He's a brilliant guy (he was a top district attorney) and extremely willful except he lets himself be governed by the coin. So he talks a lot about Fate for himself, his victims, and Batman. Sometimes he is cured or on the verge of being cured and he lets Fate (in the guise of the coin flip) take him down the wrong path--I found myself wishing at times he just wouldn't flip the coin. The dramatic pathos of his character is riveting to me. The writers don't always catch that (there's plenty of 2-centric capers that don't delve into his psychology) but when they do, it's storytelling gold.

Recommended, highly if you are a Two-Face fan like me.