Batman: Two Faces

Batman One-Shots

by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Anthony Williams (Illustrator)

Bruce Wayne uses a serum to make himself strong in order to catch Two-Face, but doesn't realize that the serum has also unleashed his dark side

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Batman

54 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1998

Reviews

[Ill D · Rating 2 out of 5]

As others have duly noted, The Elseworlds meta-series of comics is generally a grab-bag of mind-numbing awfulness. By grafting the past (or the hypothetical future) onto the existing strands of established worlds and their characters, generally both fields find themselves degraded in quality and enjoyability. Detracting from an otherwise singular field of vision, Elseworlds usually end up as gunky messes that almost seem to revel in their Frankenstein-like awfulness. With their structural stitches bursting at the seams, it’s a miracle most any of these retain an iota of cohesion, with or without their dual bands of influence.

With yet another foray into this meta-series of sequentially illustrated awfulness, I braced myself for something puke-inducing. While I didn’t have to use my barf-bag on this one, Two Faces, while certainly an overall failure, has some thought provoking gems a la a (mangled) yet semi-creative plot-twist that buries itself halfway through the series. If at least 20 IQ points could have been added to the author/illustrator team, Two Faces could have actually developed into something deserving of a 4-star rating.

But it didn’t, and as characteristic of comics since time immemorial, we’re entrapped within the comic book muck of BIFF! BANG! POW! and the stupid dialogue that rejoinders every other word bubble. Unable to break from it’s puerile structures, Two Faces, and the World(s) of Capes is just another comic book for children (seemingly made by children).

There’s definitely some good here and there. And the twist of a twist makes for a thought-provoking take on an otherwise simplistic dualistic approach toward morality (ends up being more Dualism x2). But overall, there’s nothing particularly memorable or amazing to cling to a neuron or two for a (not-so-randomly) accessible memory.

Keep Alka-Seltzer on hand.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's very daring in how it elseworlds The Batman's "mythos"- shocking even, with such a twist nobody would expect! Alfred's role is excellent but his elseworlds Catwoman is bunk- even though there's a big surprise there too.

I didn't like the art but it's not bad by any means.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicely balanced combination of Dr Jekyll and Batman.

[Tvrtko Balić · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book promises to be a combination of Batman and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde where the Joker takes the role of Mr Hyde, but like so many bad Elseworld comics of this kind it is less than the sum of its parts and moves into its own direction which reduces the premise to nothing more than a pitch. There's also wasted potential here. Love them or hate them, there have been stories presenting Batman and Joker as two sides of the same coin and it could be interesting to turn the outer conflict into an inner one. I had hopes for this book that it quickly destroyed.
The book starts with presenting Bruce Wayne as a criminologist which I thought was unusual, but lets go with it. In comes a gun slinging Two-Face coming to steal what is set up as the ingredient for the potion causing the transformation necessary for the premise. Now up to that point I was still hopeful. The book doesn't necessarily need a villain, but it could be useful to not make it just a retelling of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, to introduce more Batman elements, it is interesting to see a steampunk Two-Face and it is a good choice of a villain because then the villain reflects the hero. The problems start after that. Apparently Bruce Wayne wasn't Batman at this point. He develops a potion to help him develop superhuman abilities, becoming Batman in order to stop Two-Face. This is a complete betrayal of both original works this book draws from. Batman is supposed to be a person who has trained to become who and what he is, showing the complete human potential. He is turned into a super powered hero similar to Captain America and for no reason. It is also a betrayal of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde as in that work Hyde is an expression of Jekyll's primal desires while Jekyll stays the same person but finds a seductive liberation in becoming Hyde. Drinking the potion and becoming a virtuous hero is the complete opposite of that. And it's not like that was the only way to combine the stories. A preexisting Batman could have made the potion as a reference to Venom, or to understand Two-Face better by causing a division of duality within himself or maybe to cross some boundaries he forced on himself... But instead we're stuck with a super soldier serum that has a side effect that is revealed as a twist and that completely ruins brilliant themes of prior works to produce something of inferior quality. Anyway, a lot of nonsense happens, it's a bad story and by the end Batman dies while Two-Face is somehow cured of his psychosis and takes on his role. Don't ask me why.
In short, it is an awful book that I wouldn't recommend to anyone except to be read out of morbid curiosity.