One of my
favourite things about the Batman universe is its malleability. As has been
demonstrated by the Silver Age comics, the 1960s Adam West TV series and the
recent Christopher Nolan movies, Gotham City and its denizens can be modified
to suit any particular tone and theme, all the while maintaining the core
traits of the setting and characters. Bob Haney’s excitable 1970s globetrotter
is as true to the character as Frank Miller’s hardened libertarian crime
fighter. Likewise, the Joker maintains his glee and twisted sense of humour
whether he is harmless (Cesar Romero) or malicious (Heath Ledger).
But there’s no
better example of this thematic pliability than Harvey “Two-Face” Dent, Gotham’s
physically—and psychologically—scarred former district attorney and one of
Batman’s most iconic villains. Two-Face has been depicted in nearly every media
adaptation of Batman, most recently Nolan’s The
Dark Knight, and in each one of those instances the character’s origin and
personality has been changed to fit the themes at play. The following are three
of the best, in chronological order:
Batman: The Animated Series
– “Two-Face,” parts 1 & 2 (1992)
WB’s Batman: The Animated Series was a
defining part of my childhood, it being my first introduction to all things Caped
Crusader. It could also be surprisingly dark and complex for a show aimed at
kids, but then again, all of the best are. A fine instance of this occurs in
the first season’s “Two-Face,” quite fittingly a two-part episode, which
details the animated series continuity’s origin for Batman’s signature deformed
villain. Rather than being scarred by acid, the cartoon Dent is mutilated by a
chemical explosion while chasing after a crime boss.
The seeds for
Dent’s later decisions are sown early in his life, when guilt brought on by
acting on his angry impulses leads him to repress his more negative feelings.
This inadvertently causes a second personality, “Big Bad Harv,” to manifest
when pressured or overly-irritated. Mobster Rupert Thorne acquires Dent’s
psychological profile on election night and demands that the DA ease up on his
investigations or else have his skeletons exposed to the public. Big Bad Harv
explodes on Thorne and his men, ultimately resulting in the explosion that
disfigures him. In the aftermath, the Big Bad Harv personality takes over for
good, “Harvey” only acting out through flips of the coin.
The two-parter
came out just a couple years after an issue of Batman Annual that explored Two-Face’s origin in greater detail—and
one that our next example, The Long
Halloween, took elements from. Though the episodes decided not to follow
that issue’s lead and depict child abuse in Dent’s past, that facet can still
be felt in cartoon Dent’s childhood problems. “Two-Face” also depicted tolerant
and supportive attitudes toward mental illness and the treatment thereof
through Bruce Wayne’s sympathy for Dent, and keeps with the series’ trend
toward providing sympathetic back stories for its villains (being responsible
for the Emmy award-winning “Heart of Ice,” which rebooted Mr. Freeze as a
tragic monster).
Batman: The Long Halloween (1996-7)
Jeph Loeb and
Tim Sale’s The Long Halloween is one
of the great Batman stories, and tied
with Year One and R.I.P. as my personal favourite. I could
go on and on about how excellent it is, but that’s too long a tangent for this
article and the comic deserves an essay of its own. But one of the miniseries’
strongest points concerns itself with the downward spiral of Harvey Dent, who
is one of the central characters along with Batman and mob boss Carmine “The
Roman” Falcone.
While most variations
on Two-Face’s origin are fairly compact—this article’s two bookending examples
take place over a period of days—the fall of Harvey Dent plays out over The Long Halloween’s year-long duration.
As with TAS’ “Two-Face,” Harvey’s story-arc touches on childhood trauma,
specifically hinting at an abusive father, but here the DA’s fall from grace
can be attributed more to a kind of moral corrosion brought about during his
crusade against the mob. It’s glimpsed here and there during the earlier
chapters—a snarky comment about a mafioso’s
murder, a risky ploy that essentially uses another as bait—and takes more and
more control as Dent encounters roadblocks, tragedy and treachery. The pillars
of the legal system he used to praise start to look more like obstructions;
this friction eats away at his resolve, much as the acid does to the left side
of his face months down the line. And when Salvatore “The Boss” Maroni finally
does hurl the bottle of acid during a tense cross-examination, it is merely the
straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Again, it’s a
slow-burn, but one that feels more conventionally tragic than like a
supervillain origin. And it fits with the transitory nature of The Long Halloween, a story that is essentially
about change and how it affects people for better or for worse: Batman goes
from outlaw vigilante to a proper crime fighter; the mob falls, the freaks take
charge, etc. It’s a gradual, bloody revolution illustrated in Sale’s
idiosyncratic twisted noire fashion, and Dent is caught in the crossfire. He
emerges on the other side alive, but has been morally and physically contorted
to fit the new paradigm.
The Dark Knight
(2008)
While Heath
Ledger’s Joker is (deservedly) the most memorable performance in the second
part of Christopher Nolan’s epic Batman trilogy, Aaron Eckhart’s Dent and his
turbulent character arc can easily go toe-to-toe with it. Back before the
movie’s release, I was initially apprehensive upon learning Dent would
gallivant about as Two-Face in The Dark
Knight rather than saving the villain for another movie, but ultimately the
decision worked for the best and in a manner befitting the film’s themes.
TDK’s
characterization of Dent draws substantially from The Long Halloween, as do many of the film’s plot elements. You
have an incorruptible district attorney going up against the mob, betrayal
within the department, vengeance against a crime boss, all that. But, keeping
his story arc consistent with the film’s themes, some significant attributes of
Harvey’s downfall are lifted from Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s 1988
Joker-centric story, The Killing Joke—attributes
which, in that volume, applied to Commissioner Jim Gordon.
In The Killing Joke, the Joker abducts
Gordon and, over the course of one traumatic night, subjects him to a veritable
choreographed dance sequence of torment: stripping him nude, beating him
senseless, and forcing him to look at lewd photographs of his wounded daughter,
Barbara. The Joker’s intent is to send the commissioner over the edge, proving
that all that separates the Clown Prince of Crime from the rest of humanity is
“one bad day.” Gordon proves himself to be the stronger man in the end, not
only enduring his night of physical and psychological torture but commanding
that Batman should take the Joker in on their terms, rather than crossing the
line and beating him into submission.
A similar
scenario plays out in the latter half of The
Dark Knight, with the Joker forcing Dent to go through one bad day of his
own. Dent is betrayed by a corrupt police officer, abducted and, in spite of
Batman’s intervention, mutilated; to boot, his fiancée is killed. As if his
optimism hasn’t been shattered enough, the Joker enters his hospital room and
psychologically manipulates him even further, turning him against the system
he’s championed during the entirety of his career. Unlike Gordon, Dent doesn’t stand
firm but gives in to his baser natures, arming himself with a handgun and
chance and embarking on a bitter rampage that supplies the film’s tragic
climax. Rather than being for the sake of adaptation—“Two-Face does this in the
comics so he should do this in the movie.”—Dent’s downfall jives perfectly with
Batman and the Joker’s “battle for Gotham’s soul.”
So there we are:
the same character, undergoing similar trials and tribulations and making the
same moral decision and employing the same methods, but each time for a
different reason that serves the larger themes of the relevant story. All three
instances exemplify adaptation at its best and are virtual textbooks on the
subject. Storytellers pay heed.
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