Greg Rucka on Harvey Dent and Two-Face
Sep. 27th, 2004 10:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thehefnerAwhile back, I posted a list by a writer summing up my own personal reasons for why I love Green Lantern. Now novelist and comic writer Greg Rucka, author of perhaps the best book DC is putting out currently, Gotham Central (Imagine CSI in Gotham City, a very human book with occasional super-human elements), has expressed perfectly reasons why Two-Face and Harvey Dent is/are my OTHER all-time favorite character(s). From the CHUD.com interview:
Sean: Congrats on the Eisner by the way for the “Gotham Central” story “Half a Life.”
Greg: Thank you very much.
Sean: This story deals with the relationship between Detective Renee Montoya and Harvey Dent, Two-Face. What is it that fascinates you about Renee? About Harvey Dent? About their relationship with each other?
Greg: You know, the very first story I wrote for DC was a Harvey Dent, Renee Montoya story. I knew from the start that Harvey was going to keep flipping positive for Renee…now, back track, they totally screwed up Two-Face in the movies. They made the coin flip mean – “Should I be this kind of evil or that kind of evil?” What the coin is, is it’s an abdication of morality. Harvey can’t decide if he’s going to do the right thing or the wrong thing. It’s not, “Do I shoot the baby or stab the mother?” It’s flip, “Do I shoot the baby or do I give the baby back to the mother and get them to the hospital?” That’s what the flip is about. Am I good or am I evil?
I knew that Renee was going to keep him flipping positive. Every time he had to flip for her it was always going to come up positive. Until it didn’t. The law of averages would demand that it go the other way, and when it did it would get ugly. I also knew that Harvey would fall in love with her. I also knew from the start that Renee was queer. She always seemed queer to me. Some characters you read and say, “Yeah, they’re gay.” This one I read and thought, yeah she’s gay. Of course she’s gay! It’s nothing to be ashamed of. She’s gay. But why wasn’t she “out” yet? That led to a whole bunch of other questions.
All of that stuff I knew when I was writing the very first story. But it took six years to get to “Half a Life,” which is the story about what happens when Harvey starts flipping wrong. When the coin finally doesn’t come up in her favor, and it all breaks down. The only coin flip you see him do in the course of “Half a Life” is “Kill Renee?” and it comes up… against her. His only resolution is that he’s going to kill the woman that he’s in love with.
Sean: I’m curious then what you thought of “Arkham Asylum.” Batman’s life is on the line, the inmates are about to tear him to pieces, and Harvey steps in and says the coin will decide. Only Harvey and the reader see the outcome – which is against Batman – but he lets him go. He lets him live.
Greg: (smiling) Yeah. Worked brilliantly, and I can accept it. Not what I would have written. But I thought Arkham Asylum was fantastic. I’ve got no complaints with anything that happened there.
I don’t like the Joker as a villain. I love Harvey because Harvey has pathos. Harvey was Bruce Wayne’s friend. Harvey was a crusading attorney that wanted to clean up the city, and then Harvey snapped. Now, he knows what right is, he knows what wrong is. But he can’t decide which he is. So he’s gotta flip a coin to do it? That’s heartbreaking. There’s literally a split personality in there. There’s Harvey Dent and there’s Two-Face, and they hate each other. They’re always at war. But the one thing they could agree on was Renee. They always agreed that we liked her. She was kind to us.
***
It is one of my life goals to write Harvey. He is the most compelling character in comics, to me. I don't know if I'd ever want to write Hal in a Green Lantern book, but a Two-Face book, absolutely. I'd want to see him less as a villain and more of a totally unpredictible wild card.
I don't wanna be doomed to fanfic! I want to do actual comics! How many people out there read Batman fanfic? Seriously?
Sean: Congrats on the Eisner by the way for the “Gotham Central” story “Half a Life.”
Greg: Thank you very much.
Sean: This story deals with the relationship between Detective Renee Montoya and Harvey Dent, Two-Face. What is it that fascinates you about Renee? About Harvey Dent? About their relationship with each other?
Greg: You know, the very first story I wrote for DC was a Harvey Dent, Renee Montoya story. I knew from the start that Harvey was going to keep flipping positive for Renee…now, back track, they totally screwed up Two-Face in the movies. They made the coin flip mean – “Should I be this kind of evil or that kind of evil?” What the coin is, is it’s an abdication of morality. Harvey can’t decide if he’s going to do the right thing or the wrong thing. It’s not, “Do I shoot the baby or stab the mother?” It’s flip, “Do I shoot the baby or do I give the baby back to the mother and get them to the hospital?” That’s what the flip is about. Am I good or am I evil?
I knew that Renee was going to keep him flipping positive. Every time he had to flip for her it was always going to come up positive. Until it didn’t. The law of averages would demand that it go the other way, and when it did it would get ugly. I also knew that Harvey would fall in love with her. I also knew from the start that Renee was queer. She always seemed queer to me. Some characters you read and say, “Yeah, they’re gay.” This one I read and thought, yeah she’s gay. Of course she’s gay! It’s nothing to be ashamed of. She’s gay. But why wasn’t she “out” yet? That led to a whole bunch of other questions.
All of that stuff I knew when I was writing the very first story. But it took six years to get to “Half a Life,” which is the story about what happens when Harvey starts flipping wrong. When the coin finally doesn’t come up in her favor, and it all breaks down. The only coin flip you see him do in the course of “Half a Life” is “Kill Renee?” and it comes up… against her. His only resolution is that he’s going to kill the woman that he’s in love with.
Sean: I’m curious then what you thought of “Arkham Asylum.” Batman’s life is on the line, the inmates are about to tear him to pieces, and Harvey steps in and says the coin will decide. Only Harvey and the reader see the outcome – which is against Batman – but he lets him go. He lets him live.
Greg: (smiling) Yeah. Worked brilliantly, and I can accept it. Not what I would have written. But I thought Arkham Asylum was fantastic. I’ve got no complaints with anything that happened there.
I don’t like the Joker as a villain. I love Harvey because Harvey has pathos. Harvey was Bruce Wayne’s friend. Harvey was a crusading attorney that wanted to clean up the city, and then Harvey snapped. Now, he knows what right is, he knows what wrong is. But he can’t decide which he is. So he’s gotta flip a coin to do it? That’s heartbreaking. There’s literally a split personality in there. There’s Harvey Dent and there’s Two-Face, and they hate each other. They’re always at war. But the one thing they could agree on was Renee. They always agreed that we liked her. She was kind to us.
***
It is one of my life goals to write Harvey. He is the most compelling character in comics, to me. I don't know if I'd ever want to write Hal in a Green Lantern book, but a Two-Face book, absolutely. I'd want to see him less as a villain and more of a totally unpredictible wild card.
I don't wanna be doomed to fanfic! I want to do actual comics! How many people out there read Batman fanfic? Seriously?
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Date: 2004-09-27 10:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-27 10:53 pm (UTC)But no, Two-Face isn't a sneering, giggling thug. Under Joker, he's Batman's greatest enemy. If the Joker is to Batman as Green Goblin is to Spider-Man, that makes Two-Face Bats' Doc Ock. His dark mirror. Ach, don't get me going, I could keep that this for hours.
Shit, maybe fanfic is the only way to go.