Direct Course #7

Batman #234

(Aug 1971)

 “That is for the coin to decide!" -Two-Face

Half an Evil 

by Denny O’Neil story, Neal Adams & Dick Giordano artists, Julius Schwartz editor. Cover by Neal Adams & Dick Giordano.
                         
At the Gotham City Merchants’ annual parade, a group of criminals dressed up as clowns stick up the people on a hot dog float. This goes unseen by the audience, from the commotion of the parade. The clown do not want money, as they hold a woman at gunpoint on the float, another clown severs the tethers with a knife to a massive hot dog balloon, that advertises “Janus Hot Dogs Doubly Delicious.” With the balloon drifting up, a helicopter stands by to take it. The crowd mostly assumes this is all part of the parade.

That night, the Bat-Signal goes up to summon Batman. Another public servant named Mr. Reeves, questions why Commissioner Gordon would summon Batman. The man says that if he shows up, he’ll fight him for meddling in city affairs. It is just then that Batman overhears this while sneaking in through a window. He waits for the man to turn around as he punches the air, leans over him to give him a “Boo!” and the man runs off, leaving Batman grinning and Gordon trying to sustain his laughter.

Gordon tells Batman about the odd robbery of the hot dog balloon. Batman was summoned because it seemed like such an odd crime. He only vaguely has some idea of who could have perpetrated it, when a cop barges in to tell Gordon that the alarm at the Nautical Museum has just gone off. Batman takes off through a window, following the police cars on their way there. Leaping through a window of the museum, Batman goes in search of the criminals.

Inside the Nautical Museum, Batman rounds a corner to find the criminals in their clown costumes. They look to be the same two men from the parade robbery. Seeing Batman, the one of them shoots at him, but he misses. Batman kicks the gun  out of his hand, when the other clown prepares a smoke grenade for him. Seeing this, Batman holds him back from throwing it, until the smoke overtakes the clown himself. Making it through the smoke, Batman chases after the other clown, who obtains a metallic rod to club him with. Batman fights him off, and manages to unmask the clown.

Once the clown is unmasked, Batman threatens to harm him if he doesn’t tell him who he is working for. The criminal replies, “I dunno... I swear I don’t! He’s a weirdo... Face hidden all’a time...” Batman then asks the crook what they were stealing, he reveals was a book of “The Diaries of Captain Bye.” This information makes Batman realize who it is that’s behind these crimes.

At the Gotham City Docks, a man in shadow flips a coin as he’s talking to the criminal who fled the museum with the diary. He explains that he needs the diary to locate a lost treasure he learned of when he was imprisoned. The coin he flips will decide which side of his nature will prevail, the whole side, or the scarred side meaning his evil nature will rule out. He flips the coin, it lands scarred side up, so he will commit to taking this treasure for himself. He is none other than Two-Face.

On the balcony of his penthouse, Bruce Wayne reminisces with his butler, Alfred. By this time, he has figured out that it is Two-Face behind these crimes. It was his obsession with dualism that gave him away, stealing the hot dog float named after Janus, with the slogan “Doubly Delicious.” Bruce goes on to tell Alfred of Two-Face’s origin. He was a district attorney named Harvey Dent, during testimony of a particular gangster, the gangster threw a vial of acid in his face, scarring it on one side. The injury drove Harvey mad, and gave him this obsession with dualism. At one point plastic surgery managed to revert him back, but after an explosion he was scarred unrepairable yet again. Looking through a marine encyclopedia, Bruce discovers that there is a two-masted schooner across the river, that once belonged to Bye. He surmises that is where Two-Face will head next, and races after him in the Batmobile.

As Batman arrives at the marina, some guards start firing at him. He manages to take them all out, before approaching the dock. When Batman sees the schooner slightly in the distance, it suddenly explodes, sinking the vessel to Batman’s astonishment. Batman is completely baffled as to why Two-Face would blow up the vessel. After gaining some composure, he steels himself to figure it out.

After the explosion, we see a man asleep called Billy the Tramp floating in the water right on top of where the boat sank. The boat rises back up out of the river, with the man still comfortable perched, asleep, in the crow’s nest. Batman climbs into the schooner as it rises, he has figured out that based on the tide-charts, if something was sunk, but not entirely, near the pier that he was at, it would drift over to this location. Swinging to hide in the sails, Batman has also figured out that Two-Face needed that hot dog balloon to put in the ship’s hull so that he could raise the boat back up.

As Batman finally notices Billy asleep in the rigging, Two-Face climbs aboard behind him. When he prepares to rescue the man, Batman is clobbered from behind by Two-Face. Two-Face binds his wrists back around the mast of the boat, but Batman keeps his muscles expanded so he doesn’t get tied too tightly. Revealing that the hot dog balloon is still full of gas which he suddenly releases to sink the schooner with Batman on it, he cracks open a moulding which contains the treasure, gold doubloons.

While Two-Face escapes, Batman calls out to him about the man asleep in the rigging “Are you going to let him drown-- an innocent, old man?" Two-Face replies that it is no concern of his. Batman continues to goad him to do the right thing, and as he leaves Two-Face flips the coin. It lands whole side up.

Two-Face rows back to the schooner, and climbs the rigging to save the old man. When he climbs back down, he sees that Batman has freed himself. Two-Face attempts to attack Batman, but this the Batman, and he knocks Two-Face right out. Batman carries both Two-Face and the old man off of the sinking ship, and onto the row boat.

Bearings

• This is the first time Two-Face has appeared in nearly two decades in Batman comics. His last appearance which Bruce mentions, is back in Batman #81 in 1953. I'm guessing the Wertham stuff may have had something to with that? Maybe? Being a criminal who sometimes does good things.

Notes/Observations/Thoughts

• This is a tremendous issue, reintroducing Two-Face for the more modern (of early 1970‘s) audience. There’s a reason Two-Face has such a presence that persists after his appearance here. Although he isn’t always used as well (hello, Batman Forever), he still makes a lasting impression on the audience. He has such a tragic origin, and when he’s written well, he always seems like he could be on the brink of reform. Unlike the Joker, or Croc, or The Mad-Hatter whose lives are steeped in madness, Two-Face seems like he could be made good again (and has occasionally) which makes him so compelling an opponent for Batman. The two of them have similar backgrounds, who seem forced into the roles that they play now, based on their personal tragedies. Bruce Wayne can’t give up being Batman, because he needs to show himself through the world, that crime is not safe. Harvey Dent can’t give up being Two-Face, because he needs to show himself through Batman, that two sides are better than one.

• I think a villain like Two-Face was bound to exist in the universe. Everywhere you look there is some kind of duality. You have the hero versus the villain. Superman and Batman. Green and yellow. Order and chaos. Hawk and Dove. A defined good and evil. Earth-1 and Earth-2 (there are more earths, but these are the two earths that primarily interact with one another) Creators and readers. Two-Face has given up his decision making, in order to fully embrace the duality. Which is why he worships his coin, and follows it when it tells him which of his nature should be at work.

• There are still some tiny signs of the silver age lingering here. I’m with Batman for the most part, but the way he figures out what happened with the sinking schooner seems pretty quick and convoluted. There’s no sense of time between it’s sinking and when Batman finds it resurfacing, which leaves me a little confused.

• Despite all of the fun Two-Face and Batman sleuthing, my favorite bit in the entire issue is when Batman scares off the guy in Jim Gordon’s office. I think Batman should have a sense of humor, than just be the grim dark knight all of the time. He can still be that, but enjoy a chuckle every now and then. I think despite all the death and destruction that comes with it usually, Batman secretly appreciates Joker’s sick humor, and that Joker knows this. Which is why he’s such a great archenemy for Batman. As seen at the end of The Killing Joke.

Quotes

“Ugly, you’ll die... Ugly as the accident that made me a freak!" -Two-Face

____________________________________________________________________

"I've also been trained as a detective!" -Robin

Vengeance for a Cop 

by Mike Friedrich writer, Irv Novick pencils, Dick Giordano inks

A policeman, named Robert Beeker, introduces himself to the audience while he’s on patrol around a college campus, when as suddenly as he’s introduced, he is shot down. An ambulance quickly responds, loading the injured officer into their vehicle as Robin looks on. Robin overhears a witness talking to a cop, that he saw a tall, long-haired, young man fleeing the scene of the shooting afterwards.

Days later, after Robert has been discharged from the hospital, Robin pays him a visit. Robert tells him that he was lucky, and the bullets went clean through him, so there wasn’t too much damage. Robin wonders if there is some way he can help him. The wounded officer tells him that he would like for Robin to get in contact with his daughter, Nanci. Nanci ran away to a commune, and he misses her, not understanding why she’d leave.

Later at the commune, Robin has managed to track Nanci down using the letters she sent to her father. Robin tells Nanci the he’s there to bring her home to her father. but she refuses. Nanci tells Robin that she refuses to return to “that violent, repressive society that her father defends.”

Getting nowhere, Robin prepares to leave, when he recognizes someone. It’s a girl named Terri Bergstrom, who Robin suspects has some kind of psychic power, and she is there searching for someone too. She also happens to have a note for Robin from Batman “New evidence suggests suspect in Beeker case fled to Van Winkle commune! Be on alert!”

It is then that a man named Pat Whalon shows up, Nanci points out that he is her boyfriend, and her father doesn’t know anything about him. The tall, long-haired man offers Robin and Terri to join him in the commune. As Terri and Robin follow Pat and Nanci, another tall, long-haired man blocks their way on a bridge over a small stream. Pat calls out to him as Jonathan, who says he’ll only let Robin pass is he duels him using staves.

Jonathan and Robin battle over the stream. Robin thinks he’s starting to feel like Robin Hood facing Little John. After a few dodges, Jonathan finally knocks Robin over into the stream. Jonathan helps the boy wonder back up out of the water. He tells Robin that even though he won, he still passes their test, and will allow him to join their commune. While they were fighting, Robin has deduced who the shooter was back on the campus. Robin points his finger, but the other members of the commune tells him he can’t take anyone off of the commune, unless they agree. And they don’t. The reader is left wondering who Robin pointed to.

Notes/Observations/Thoughts

• I didn’t really like this story. Mike Friedrich has done a lot better than this, this just felt too small and all over the place. The allusion to Robin Hood and Little John really doesn’t work when it’s blatantly pointed out this way. The mystery doesn’t get resolved until next issue, even though Robin already knows who did it. The hippies have really annoying dialogue, Robin doesn’t have much of a personality in here, other than being concerned. It really feels like it’s trying to be a PSA to runaways, and treating the police force with more respect, that Robin just happens to be the conduit for. It’s very disappointing compared to the main Batman story.

• I also don't buy Robin being beaten by this hippy guy. Robin has trained for years with Batman, and I've seen him overtake enemies using a staff before this.

• The art is pretty good though. The fight over the bridge looks pretty.

• The final story in this issue is a reprint of a story in Detective Comics #335 called “The Trail of Talking Mask” but I’d rather cover it fully if we come to the issue it was originally in, than in a reprint form.

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