Two Face #1
Chad Burdette
Recap
After years of internal conflict, both halves of Harvey Dent have reached an uneasy peace. In DC's new Two-Face series, Harvey uses his skills as an attorney to resolve the conflicts of Gotham's weirdest and most dangerous criminals, starting with Victor Zsasz. When Zsasz is accused of murdering a fellow member of Gotham's underworld contingent, who better to prove a criminal's innocence than someone who's been on both sides of the law?
Review
Two-Face #1, the new limited series by Christian Ward and Fabio Veras, finds Harvey Dent trying to put his past and his not so better half behind and get back into the Gotham justice system business by dealing with the bad guys in their own world of justice. The idea that the criminal elememt have thier own way of trying to peacefully settle disputes is interesting and has storytelling potential outside of this limited series.
Ward and Veras give a quick and concise retelling of Two-Face’s well known origin and playing it straight, not trying to add some new twist or angle to it before jumping into the main story which finds Mr. Zsasz accused of killing a ranking member of the Falcone family. In eventually proving Zsasz’s innocence, Dent shows that there is some ritual and method to his madness, something that feels like it hasn’t been explored in previous stories involving the marked-murderer. This part and the leadin explaining the White Chapel and the process of the Criminal’s Court is a bit long winded in the exposition, since it sets up and frames both the issue and the larger story to be told.
The issue has some interesting cameos such as The Reaper as the judge and other well-known rouges in attendance such as Killer Croc. The final pages teases that this series will be a deconstruction of Harvey’s Two-Face conflict and the attempt by the Two-Face side of his personality to finally free itself from Harvey Dent.
The art and color work work well with the story being told. The pages that explore Zsasz’s method and madness stand out as some of the issues best sequences and add to the character’s underutilized mythos.
Final Thoughts
Two Face #1 is a strong and interesting start to this series in which the two sides of Harvey Dent's personality will be struggling for dominance. While this is not a new direction per say for the chatacter, it will be interesting to see how it stacks up next to similar stories such as the post-Infinite Crisis "Face The Face" arc in Dectective Comics
Two Face #1
- Writing - 9/109/10
- Storyline - 8.6/108.6/10
- Art - 9/109/10
- Color - 10/1010/10
- Cover Art - 10/1010/10
