Besides from Superman, Batman is one of DC Comics’ most famous and best characters. Created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger in 1939, the hero has lived on in comics, animation, films, television and much more. As he is one of the most recognizable superheroes in the world (next to Superman, Spider man, Wonder Woman, Iron Man etc), it seems that everybody wants their go at writing their own adventures of The Dark Knight. Some writers have written the character so much and for a long period of time. For instance, writer and editor Dennis O Neil has been writing for the character since the very early seventies and with Batman’s eightieth birthday next month (in March, 2019), he will be returning to write a story. However, sometimes the stories that are most interesting are done by those who don’t write the character all of the time. This leads nicely into the writer, James Robinson, who is mainly known for writing the DC Elseworld’s miniseries The Golden Age and the popular ongoing series, Starman (vol 2), which went for close to 100 issues (including specials and annuals). In 2006, after he had finished his run on Starman, he wrote the story of today’s review, Batman: Face the face. A story focusing on one of Batman’s main villains, Two Face, it is a very old-fashioned detective story, reflecting what the old days of Batman was like back in the golden age.
This review of Batman: Face the Face will consist of the eight issues of the story which
are Batman (vol 1) 651-654 and Detective Comics (vol 1) 817-820, published from May to August in 2006. The story line is written by James Robinson with art by Don Kramer, Leonard Kirk, Andy Clarke, Wayne Faucher, Keith Campagne and Michael Bair. I am reading this in the Batman: Face the Face trade paperback, released in 2006. However, nowadays, it can be bought through the more recent deluxe hardcover edition of the story.
THE PLOT
(NOTE: THIS STORY IS PART OF THE ONE YEAR LATER EVENT WHICH TAKES PLACE BETWEEN INFINITE CRISIS AND FINAL CRISIS. HOWEVER, THIS ISN’T CRUCIAL TO THE STORY IN ANY DRAMATIC WAY)
Batman and his team have been away from Gotham City for one year. James Gordon has become Commissioner of the police again and a new addition to the police force is policewomen Jamie Harper. Meanwhile a mysterious vigilante kills Russian villain KGBeast. The police find his body and see that his death was caused by two gunshot wounds in the head. The killer is revealed to be Harvey Dent, who Batman has put in charge of the city since he was away. Batman warns both Gordon and Dent of his return to the city. At just that time, Poison Ivy takes over the Vanguard building in the city to protest against the company’s “egological wrong-doing”. As Batman and Robin are superheroes, they both go after Ivy.
As Poison Ivy has taken control over the building using incredibly large plants (as usual), Batman and Robin stop her by putting a chemical in the sprinkler system to destroy Ivy’s creations. However, this has been a side track of the main plot and during the time that the two heroes have been fighting Ivy, obscure (and very dated) villain Magpie is found murdered. The character first appeared in Superman miniseries, The Man of Steel by John Byrne and Dick Giordano in the same issue that Batman makes an appearance. Since then, she has had barely any other appearances.
The Dark Knight detective figures out that both the KGBeast and Magpie were killed in the same way and the same weapon. Batman already has suspicions that Harvey Dent is the killer and that he is back to his old tricks again. Dent studies both Batman and Robin (Tim Drake) and wonders if he still has a part to play in Gotham. His reflection of Two Face tells him it does. Then at that point, in an unknown location, The Ventriloquist (Arnold Wesker) and his dummy Scarface are in hiding away from the law, however, the door is kicked in and both of them are killed by gunfire.
The Dark Knight and Robin go to the scene where Wesker was killed and discover that Wesker left a final message on the ground, conveying a location of sorts. The duo go to the location of Norvick Way and discover a video recording from surveillance of the four villains (including the dummy) meet with Harvey Dent, reinforcing Batman’s theory that Dent committed the murders. But, there is another person there with them. Batman digs further and discovers that the other villain is Orca, a mediocre villain who first appeared in Batman 579 in 2000. She is the only one of the enemies to not have been killed by Dent yet. Batman then gets the prints for the murder weapon that Dent used and shows them to him. In horror and shock. Dent uses a hidden bomb and blows up the penthouse to in order to conduct his escape.
Realizing now that Orca must be found before Dent kills her, Batman and Robin go through the sewers to find her, but only find Killer Croc, lurking and ready to eat them. The two manage to get past him, but all they find are the bloody remains of Orca, killed in the same way as the others, but partly eaten by Croc. At that point, Dent’s alter ego, Two Face is becoming more and more prominent. To get more aid in his mission, Batman hires the detective, Jason Bard (who was a character that appeared in the 1960’s Batgirl backups in Detective Comics) to work for him in the day. Bard speaks to the husband of Orca and discusses her murder with him to see if there are any connections. However, Orca’s husband is then shot in the head by a new character named the Tally Man, who fires his weapon to kill Bard. This is the second Tally Man that Batman has faced as the first one appeared in Batman: Shadow of the Bat 19 by Alan Grant.
Switching back over to Harvey Dent, he is still talking to himself about his times as
Two Face, as if he is speaking to his former self like he is there with him, trying to convince him to turn evil again. Dent then talks to Two Face about how Batman hired him to take on crime once the Dark Knight left. Dent was trained by Batman for a time before he left and he became very attached to fighting crime and when Batman returned, he thought he had it taken away from him by force. Dent then decides to go into his bathroom and finds some nitric acid (because we all have that lying around somewhere) and pours it onto his face. Obviously, he is now Two Face once again.
Batman and Robin are then seen fighting the Scarecrow, using his fear gas to give hallucinations. For example, Batman is facing his dad as Batman from an old 1950s issue, while Robin is fighting the original Earth 2 Robin who then becomes Superboy Prime, a reference to the recent events of Infinite Crisis. The team then manage to defeat the Scarecrow. Batman then works out that Two Face is the murder, not Dent and just at that time, on the news it is confirmed that Two Face is back. We then go back to Bard who manages to take out the frankly disappointing Tally Man. He tells Batman that the Tally Man has really been behind the murders.
Two Face takes over Gotham Zoo to get Batman’s attention. Batman and Robin fight Two Face, but he ultimately escapes. Now with the knowledge that Dent didn’t kill the villains, Batman visits the true mastermind… The Great White Shark… yeah. He has got full control of the city, even trapped in Arkham Asylum and used The Tally Man to frame Dent to also kill Great White Shark’s own enemies. Batman has no proof of the villains actions, but swears that he will come back for him.
MY THOUGHTS
Very much in contrast with much of the other works of Robinson, Batman Face the Face isn’t a particularly long read but still has the same amount of detail and plot as his Starman stories for example. The story itself, can be complex but it is incredibly gripping and thrilling. It is a trait of this particular writer to use such obscure characters such as Magpie, Orca, The Great White Shark and even a reference to the Guardian character from the 1940s, created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon for the
Newsboy Legion. The death of Wesker as the Ventriloquist is excellent because he is such a good idea for a villain and his death is so sudden and unexpected, as oppose to Magpie, how is a character that dates badly. The main highlight for the story has to be Two Face. As a fan of the villain that has starred in such classics such as The Long Halloween, Dark Victory and Batman Annual 14 (The Eye of the Beholder), this story is no exception (unlike Batman: Faces (Legends of the Dark Knight (vol 1) 28-30) By Matt Wagner which I personally don’t like). Robinson has displayed a detailed analysis into a character that he clearly loves and breaks him down in a different way to which writers like Jeph Loeb do. That’s not to say I dislike Loeb’s version of Two Face as Long Halloween is brilliant. The idea of the mirror in which his alter ego speaks to him is clever and is a massive part of what I think is my favourite part of the story, part six. In this part, Dent is being manipulated by Two Face and although the ending is ultimately expected with him being Two Face again, it is an aspect of the character which hasn’t been explored to that degree. Another highlight is Robin, who at this point was Tim Drake, the third Robin. Poor old Tim has been through hell and back. His mother was killed, his dad became temporarily paralyzed and then after a few years found out his son was fighting crime. His dad was then murdered by Captain Boomerang (in Brad Meltzer’s miniseries Identity Crisis) and his best friend, Connor Kent (Superboy) was killed by Superboy Prime in Infinite Crisis. Yep, still, could be worse. The emotional connection between Batman and Robin is great. Batman wants to give Tim a better life and make him feel welcome into the Wayne family more and the ending is a great display of a father-son moment, with Alfred looking down at Bruce as if he is proud to be his father figure. Other characters like Harvey Bullock also shine here, showing how much more of a respected member of the police force he has become since his origins in the 1970's with Detective Comics (vol 1) 441. Yes, I am going on a bit with the positives, but the thing is, the positives are such great positives and make the story so much better.
However, this story isn’t completely perfect. To start with, the segments with Poison Ivy and Killer Moth (for Robin) are pretty pointless in the great scheme of things. The Ivy part especially, because it is used as an excuse for Batman not hearing about the death of KGBeast which could have been done without the use of Poison Ivy. This is the very opposite of the Scarecrow segment which is great to see the hallucinations of old foes but the Earth 2 Robin one doesn’t even make sense as Tim Drake wasn’t even created until about 10-20 years afterwards. Also, I think that Harvey Dent’s transition back to Two Face was too clean and simple. When somebody pours acid on their face, logically, it would hurt like hell. I imagine there would be a lot of screaming in pain, but no, he just does it and he feels great. Whilst I have grown to like the twist ending more and more, I think it would have been much better to have it be another villain. The reason for this is because lets face it, Great White Shark is pretty bad. It could have easily have been any mob leader type, such as The Penguin, Black Mask or even Carmine Falcone. Plus, it isn’t even concluded in a later story, it is just forgotten about by the other writers.
In terms of the artwork, this story has some of the best art I’ve seen from a modern comic book. Whilst it isn’t as good as artists like Jim Lee or Andy Kubert, it is absolutely stunning. The amount of detailed and lighting effects in the book add to the tone and story so well. I must also give a lot of credit to the colourist, John Kaliisz, who gives the story a realistic approach in colouring and makes it look fantastic. That said, there are some times where the colouring is so dark on one page that it is very difficult to see what is going on. I am talking specifically about the parts before they go into the sewer because there are no light sources. But overall, the story shows a lot of great artwork.
VERDICT
Overall, Batman: Face the Face is a very good story. Yes it has its flaws, but in the grand scheme of things, only one of them is a real problem, which is the Great White Shark. It just would have been so much better if it was a different, bigger character and if it continued because it would have had a greater impact on future stories. Apart from that, the plot is great with characters such as Two Face and Robin standing out. Robinson has recently completed a sequel to this story named Batman: Deface the Face (Detective Comics (vol 1) 988-993 and is that a great Two Face story, but most importantly, does it live up to the original? The collected edition will be released in April, so stay tuned for it.
Story: 8/10
Art: 9/10
Highlighted Character: Two Face (Harvey Dent)
Next Review – JLA: Rock of Ages (JLA 10-15) By Grant Morrison, Howard Porter, John Dell, Gary Frank, Greg Land and Bob McLeod.
Expected to be published on 10/02/2019
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