It’s no secret: the inhabitants of Arkham Asylum are some of my favorite characters in fiction. I genuinely, genuinely love all of the Gotham rogues so much and have really enjoyed all the attention they’ve been getting the last few years. Catwoman, Harley, Joker, Ivy, and Penguin have all had books in the last few years, and it’s all been a really interesting expansion on Gotham. And now we get to one of my favorite Bat-villains: Two-Face.
The criminals of Gotham have come together and decided that they need to enforce their rules beyond the honor system. No more random killings, no more framing each other. That’s how you get unwanted attention. And what better way to enforce these rules than a cracked-mirror version of the court system? And what better lawyer for the criminal court than Harvey Dent? This series is a court room drama meets crime thriller. “How to Get Away with Murder” meets Batman.
The first part of this six issue mini series is a really, really great step for this book. It tells a complete story while setting up a larger one, introduces just enough to leave you on the edge of your seat for more, and is full of great character moments for Harvey, Two-Face, and a few surprise guests. It’s filled to the brim with new ideas and wonderful visuals, and I can’t wait to see where this team takes both sides of Harv.
Christian Ward, hot off of his work with Harvey in Batman: City of Madness, writes this new story featuring his favorite Batman villain and you can feel the love flying off the page. Fabio Veras is an artist who’s new to me, but his work is absolutely perfect for this story and a great balance between the gritty and abstract that this book flips between. Colorist Ivan Plascencia nails the balance between real and imagined, perfectly connecting those really imaginative pages with the really grounded ones. Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou’s letters are of huge importance to the storytelling of this book and a great example of the art, you can tell they’re having fun and it’s infectious.
Two-Face is a character that seems really easy to mess up, but Christian Ward finds a really great voice for both Two-Face and Harvey and a story deserving of its own space. Ward writes Harvey and Two-Face as a kind of old married couple, bickering back and forth in a way that feels really natural while being really fun. I cannot wait to see more of those two, and the implications of some spoilery stuff from the issue. Again: this book is overflowing with ideas.
There’s a moment with Zsasz, one of my favorite Gothamites, in this issue that was so great that I was mad at myself for having never thought of it. There are a lot of really wonderful visuals at play in this story and there isn’t a page that takes the easy way out in storytelling; every panel is bursting with ideas, but they all stay tightly bound enough that the story is told effectively.
This is one of those weird All In titles I think is just worth giving a shot, it doesn’t feel like anything else being published right now. Maybe you’ll love it, maybe you’ll hate it... it’s all at the flip of a coin. It’s up two you, though. I wouldn’t want to get on your bad side, and I won’t say it’s black and white: but I thought it was a burning splash and I’m excited to see the final verdict.
As reward for surviving my rapid-fire Two-Face puns I offer a preview of issue one, on sale now for $3.99:
https://aiptcomics.com/2024/11/27/dc-preview-two-face-1/
I really think you should just give the first issue a try. Whatever you think it’s going to be isn’t quite right, it has such a unique vibe and I think a lot of people that would love this book will never read it. Don’t be one of them! This is a super inviting story that’ll also be rewarding for long-time fans, and it has my stamp of approval as an overly-protective fan of Gotham’s worst.
Thanks for reading!
-2kas
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