Two Harveys, one courtroom in Two-Face #4

In the depths of his mind, Harvey Dent stands trial for his crimes against his other self, in a trial that seemingly will decide which personality controls their body. Two-Face #4 is written by Christian Ward, drawn by Fabio Veras, colored by Ivan Plascencia and lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.

Will Nevin: I know we reacted on the show, but the good people won’t hear that for another few weeks, so how about we do it again here: Matt Fraction on Batman #1, huh? How about that?

Matt Lazorwitz: So, Fraction was not on my bingo card for who I expected to be the next Batman writer, but based on his history with Hawkeye and Iron Fist, I think this is a writer who can balance superheroics and crime. And keeping Jorge Jimenez on the book gives us a visual continuity tying this to the previous runs.

Will: I’m cautiously optimistic for something a bit more grounded (although I don’t know how it could possibly be ***more*** untethered than what we’ve gotten over the last year or so), and I have absolutely no idea how editorial is going to handle the various bumps in the road we’ve got coming up. But I reckon we’ll all find out together, won’t we?

Matt: Same Bat time, same Bat channel, my friend.

The Trial of Harvey Dent

Matt: This issue still works within the framework of this series being about Harvey Dent, the lawyer, but it definitely takes a turn for the metaphysical, as Harvey is trying a case against himself. What does that say about that old maxim of the lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client?

Will: Oh, it’s way more complicated than that ol’ chestnut, since we learned in the previous issue that the man controlling the Shadow Hand — the skulking organization with designs on taking down the civilized brutality of the White Church — is none other than (Bad) Harvey himself. I’d say Harvey has an exceptionally beset-upon client. Or something. I think I’ve lost the thread on the analogy.

Matt: Before we get into this particular issue any deeper, have you ever seen the New Batman Adventures episode “Judgment Day”?

Will: That’s a negative, Ghost Rider.

Matt: This episode contains a clear visual nod to that episode. In it, Harvey develops a third personality, one that seeks to do serious vigilante violence on criminals and villains. Seems the judge in this story is meant to reflect that design. Another indication how, even 30+ years after its debut, Batman: The Animated Series and its successors still affect the comics, huh?

Will: Well, you know, Brother Matt, we’re moving from an era in which B:TAS creators directly influenced and worked on comics to one in which series fans (and indeed, even wee lads and lassies when they first watched the episodes) are now creators. Time marches on as we all slide a bit closer to the grave.

Matt: But with this story, we go back to Harvey’s origin and answer a question that has rarely been answered: What was going on with Harvey’s mother? We know all about Harvey’s relationship with his dad, but his mother has generally been absent from those origins, and here we get an answer.

Will: And it’s sort of what you might figure? Dad was abusive, while Mom was a comforter — and now Harv has a projection of her in his head as another ally. It’s an interesting concept — like so much else in this book — but there was something delightfully silly with Harvey Dent as the star of an underground mob courtroom. And as we get deeper and deeper into his head, I can’t help but think we’ve overtaken the plumbing a bit with this book.

Matt: It really has. I guess with this being only six issues (I thought it was 12, like Penguin was), we’ve reached the end of the second act, so we’re at the point where things would go off the rails for Harvey. But I enjoyed the initial conceit of this book so much, I had hoped for more whacky cases.

Will: You know the rule, Matt: Tom King gets as many issues as he wants (unless it’s Batman).

Matt: We had seen the guardian was presenting in a female form in the previous issue, and I had assumed it was going to be Gilda, so I was pleasantly surprised that it was Harvey’s mother instead. Gilda is a character who hasn’t popped up often in modern times outside of The Long Halloween stories (that abortive pre-New 52 Batman run was starting to use her, but was then unceremoniously ended by the reboot, and a short story or two are all that jump to mind), and so going in another direction doesn’t feel like this is a missed opportunity.

Will: Say what you will about the direction of the book (and we have!), but there’s no denying Ward’s creativity and ability to pivot. I think the selling point for the book (for people not into goofy courtroom drama) was always going to be the visuals, and they don’t disappoint here.

Matt: Ward chose a good collaborator in Fabio Veras. Veras isn’t a clone of Ward’s style but has a similar flair and creates some very dynamic pages. I would be very curious to see Ward’s scripts to see how much direction he gives. Are they hyper-detailed, since he started as an artist, or is he just giving general layouts and letting Veras play?

Will: That’s the inside stuff I’m really curious about. In my younger days, I loved doing process pieces with artists — it was like talking to a molecular biologist or an astrophysicist, just getting into the granular details of a field that blows my tiny little word-laden brain.

Matt: Back to the story, this is one of the first times I have ever been into the two-personality Two-Face, versus the fractured single personality. Giving this origin from the point of view of Bad Harvey, seeing exactly how he was created and how he felt when Harvey locked him away, gave that character more depth than we usually see. I would have liked a little more of him talking about slipping out in between when he was locked up and when he was fully freed when Maroni hit Harvey with the acid, but there are only so many pages in a single issue.

Will: And narratively, as we’ve always said, it works better when Harvey Dent is just a little not right before the acid. As someone once said, all you need is a little push, and then everything goes to hell. I liked the little Scarvy foreshadowing when Harvey got a boo boo on his face — that was a nice touch without going too far into “beating you about the head” territory.

Matt: It’s so easy to make Scarvy/Bad Harvey a one-note, cackling monster (looking at you, Tommy Lee Jones), but by making him not the embodiment of Harvey’s rage but the friend a lonely kid had who he could share that rage with, and then who spent decades bottled up with the rage that Harvey kept pushing down, it makes him almost sympathetic. Almost in that he is still an unrepentant killer. Kind of hard to feel entirely bad for the guy.

Will: And that was the interesting twist here, right? Instead of being a monster from the beginning, Bad Harvey was created in essence as an invisible friend/comfort blanket. But that relationship soured (according to Bad Harvey, which I think is the definition of an unreliable narrator) when he was used exclusively as an emotional (and sometimes physical) whipping boy. The interesting bad guys are always the heroes of their own stories.

Matt: Good Harvey seems to win at the end of the issue, until the mental construct of his mother frees Bad Harvey, saying she won’t leave him alone again. I am really curious to see where this goes at the end. Can there be some kind of detente built for the Harveys if “mom” is involved? Or are we going to have them at war? The status usually must remain quo in superhero comics, as we have often said, but I feel like there is potential for something that will have serious ramifications.

Will: And where does the real White Church stand on how Harvey (willingly or unwillingly) has been working against it? Some interesting things to consider in the next two issues.

Bat-miscellany

On this week’s BatChat podcast, we read three stories where Bat family members team up with the JSA’s resident brawler, Wildcat, as well as a fourth story to balance the big board as we remove a story written by Neil Gaiman, a creator who we feel we can no longer support after recent allegations.

Buy Two-Face #4 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)

Matthew Lazorwitz

Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of 5. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the podcasts BatChat with Matt & Will and The ComicsXF Interview Podcast.