Continuing its tradition of poking fun at the origins of many of Batman’s most notorious rogues, Bruno Heller’s Gotham will debut this week with the character of Harvey Dent, played by Nicholas D’Augusto. As many comic book fans should note (not to mention those who watched 2008’s The Dark Knight), Gotham’s idealistic district attorney Dent (starts as an assistant here), is physically disfigured by the mob and transformed into two faces. , one of the most psychotic and famous batman villains.
First introduced during the golden age of comics, dent/two-face has become a part of some of the biggest and most celebrated batman stories. In anticipation/celebration of his small-screen debut this week, here are five essential Dents/Two-Face stories.
1. “The Eye of the Beholder” (Batman Annual #14)
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Interestingly, despite first being introduced in 1942 Detective Comics #66, Harvey Dent never received a proper and detailed origin story until this 1990 issue by Andrew Helfer and Chris Sprouse. The comic focuses almost exclusively on Dent and tells the story of how the man goes from an idealistic district attorney collaborating with Batman and Jim Gordon to stamp out all crime in Gotham, into the disfigured Two-Face sociopath. Helfer’s story explores some of the early childhood traumas that negatively affected Dent’s psyche, rationalizing the inevitability of his transformation into Two-Face. and of course there’s the classic scene where a bottle of acid is thrown in his face, physically deforming him.
Virtually every other two-face or future dent story that explores elements of the character’s past has been heavily inspired by what helfer and sprouse created in “the eye of the beholder” which certainly makes the comic be essential reading for anyone trying to learn more about the character.
2. The Long Halloween
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Considered one of the best Batman stories by fans and critics alike, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s maxi-series is a definitive story of early Batman, one that has inspired how Batman, Gotham’s underworld, and Harvey Dent are portrayed in other media. , most notably Christopher Nolan’s Batman film trilogy. The story follows a series of crime family murders perpetrated by the mysterious vacation thief. Similar to “Eye of the Beholder,” Batman, Dent, and Jim Gordon work together to try and get ahead of the holidays before he commits his next murder the following month. In addition to the tension of the story, Holiday’s play is escalating the blood feud between Gotham’s two main crime families, the Falcons and the Maronis.
As the story unfolds, the dent begins to crack with the pressure of trying to crack this case. And then his psyche is completely shattered when Sal Maroni throws a bottle of acid at Dent’s face, disfiguring him. Eventually, Batman and Gordon became the Vacation Killer, reasoning that he committed the murders as part of his war on crime. but a unique twist at the end calls those claims into question. Unfortunately, Dent has already morphed into the two-faced criminal by that point, so his role in the vacation murders is essentially moot.
3. “Half a Life” (Gotham Central #6-10)
While Gotham may just be a loose adaptation of the early-to-mid-2000s police procedural series Gotham Central (by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka), it’s possible that elements of this award-winning story come into play on the small screen. “Half Life” is primarily a story about Gotham Major Crimes Unit Detective Renee Montoya, one of the department’s top cops whose life is shattered when she is framed for murder and publicly outed as a lesbian. .
It turns out that the entire conspiracy against Montoya has been perpetrated by Dent, who has a very unhealthy romantic obsession with her. Batman ends up saving the day and Montoya from dent.
will dent’s interpretation of gotham pay homage to this story, which received an eisner (best serialized story) and harvey (best single issue or story) award in 2004? At least, hopefully, Montoya and Dent have some level of interaction to at least plant the seed that there is some story in there.
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4. “Half an Evil” (Batman #234)
In 1971, Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams reintroduced Two-Face for the Silver Age (although at the time, the world of comics was transitioning into the more gritty Bronze Age). Regardless, the iconic creators of Batman provide Two Faces with a slightly darker twist, maintaining his obsession with pairs and pairs, but also upping the drama with the villain’s signature coin toss by establishing himself as a tool of fate to make a dent. .
The actual plot of the comic is a bit silly: it involves dent trying to steal treasure from an old pirate ship. But again, O’Neil and Adams add a layer of gravitas to the Batman universe in the way the story unfolds. And when an innocent bystander is injured in a trap Dent sets for Batman (as dictated by a coin toss), Dent’s twisted but simultaneously rational sense of morality leads to an interesting twist. /p>
5. “Faces” (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #28-30)
While not “essential” reading in that it’s a historical comic or a valuable piece of dent’s backstory, “faces,” from grendel creator and mage matt wagner, is an incredibly deep look to what makes two faces as a villain and a person.
The general purpose of the story, which played out in the underrated Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight series, is that Dent is trying to buy an island under Bruce Wayne to use as a haven for all the other “monsters”. “Which he considers his brothers. But “Faces” is ultimately more complex and nuanced than standard comics fare. On a deeper level, the comic discusses Dent’s obsession with duality, but applies it differently. broader way to examine all the various masks worn by each different character in this story draw parallels between dent, whose two-faced personality is public and well known, and wayne, who hides behind a cape and cowl like batman, too takes an insightful look at what constitutes a “monster.” As one character tells the sociopath, “I may be a freak, but at least I’m not a monster.”
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