Late last year and running through the beginning of 2024, Christian Ward delivered an all-time take on Harvey Dent, aka Two-Face, in the Black Label series Batman: City of Madness. So how does he top that? With the new DC Comics book Two-Face #1, which, based on the first issue, has the promise of doing with Two-Face what Jeff Lemire did for Moon Knight at Marvel.
In the issue, Harvey is working as a criminal lawyer (shout out to Jimmy McGill) in a corrupt Gotham underground court. He’s defending the worst of the worst, too, in Victor Zsasz, the Batman villain who likes to kill people and then mark his skin for every murder. That’s the short version of the story, but what Ward is most interested in exploring is a new take on the Dent/Two-Face dichotomy I won’t spoil here.
However, Ward does that swimmingly while also setting up a new, intriguing status quo for Gotham City crime, a new supporting cast for Two-Face, and even throwing some extremely dark humor into the mix at the same time. It’s an expert outing and reminiscent of what G. Willow Wilson and Marcio Takara did for Poison Ivy in that series… Digging into the core of what makes the character work, and then expanding on that to make them work as a solo, title character devoid of Batman.
The not-so-secret weapon here, though, is artist Fábio Veras and colorist Ivan Plascencia, who manage to channel Ward’s dreamlike art style without aping it specifically. The framing constantly emphasizes the dichotomy of Harvey Dent and Two-Face, portraying them as two characters even though they inhabit the same body. And a wild ending points to the Moon Knight comparisons I made earlier. Again, no spoilers here. But it’s a thrilling final page that could indicate some exciting things to come.
Look, there’s always a lot of talk about Batman villains going solo, and whether they work without the Dark Knight. Definitively, this works. Batman could show up, and that would be fine. But over the decades Two-Face has proven himself an able supporting character in other books. Ward gives him the spotlight here, and if there’s any justice (even the crooked kind), this will run longer than the planned limited series.
Two-Face #1 Rating:
Two-Face #1 Official Synopsis:
HARVEY DENT’S GREATEST TRIAL BEGINS! 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?
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