Searching for the five Two-Faces of the Golden Age

Wanted: scans of BATMAN # 50 and particularly # 68. They're not reprinted anywhere, not even in any of the hardcover archive editions! Heck with it, I may just do a request post at scans_daily.

I very much want to do an epic essay about the five different Two-Faces in the Golden Age, with a special focus on the three different takes on the character of Paul Sloane. And heck, I'm interested to actually read the original Sloane story, as well as the Wilkins the Butler. Yes, Harvey even has a butler who dresses up as him to commit crimes. I love the Golden Age!

jlroberson was awesome enough to post the BATMAN newspaper strip version of Two-Face # 2. In this version, he's not Harvey Dent, District Attorney, but rather Harvey Apollo, ham actor.

I kind of love this version. I imagine him sounding like Calculon.



DRAMA!!!

On that scans_daily post, psychopathicus_rex responded to my discussion of the five Two-Faces by saying, "I kind of like the concept of Two-Face as the ultimate legacy villain, an identity assumed by countless people obsessed by the horrific original. It's even plausible - after all, all you would need to become Two-Face is to have half of your face scarred or disfigured somehow, and there are hundreds of ways that that could happen. Acid, fire, car accidents, a stroke - or, of course, something deliberate and removable like makeup. He could be like the Dr. Mabuse of Batman's rogues."

I think it'd actually be fascinating to see what happens with that in the modern continuity. It'd certainly allow poor Harvey to grow free from his Sisyphean lot in life and explore themes of duality in other ways.

Me, I quixotically hoped that Harvey would stay healed and sane (ish) as a vigilante antihero post-ONE YEAR LATER and that the mantle of Two-Face would have been taken up by Alexander Luthor, having survived the Joker's gunshot. I would have loved to have seen that, even if the risk was we'd get more of the wanky, petulant Luthor we say in INFINITE CRISIS. But hey, if Superboy-Prime can be made interesting, anything's possible!

Another reason I love scans_daily:

I can actually find someone to have an epic discussion about adapting THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV with Batman characters, starting with the Robins onward.

I originally came up with the idea for THE BROTHERS ROBIN with surrealname back in college, even though he'd never actually read the book. Since then, I've been dying to find a Bat-fan who has! I just thank god I don't have the energy to actually write the fanfic, because let me tell you, it's now more tempting than ever!

Photos: Vegas, pallies (Day 3, Part 1: Atomic Liquors)

I put off the final (and most eventful!) part of my Vegas adventure--and thus derailed my entire "Road Trippin'" series--because of two reasons.

1.) I wanted to actually do a vlog for one of the stories, but every attempt was just too messy and tense. I really needed someone else there to whom I could actually be telling the story, but that never happened.

And 2.) because what happened was still too emotionally raw. It still is, a bit.

That's not to scare any of you off. Trust me, this was a day of extremes, and the highlights were definitely special indeed. In fact, I'm gonna split it off into those two parts. So finally, after about ten months of procrastination, here's part one of my final day in Vegas:



( More story than photos, but it's a good'un! )

In Part 2, I encounter the best Thai food outside of Thailand (not kidding), witness a Rat Pack tribute concert, and receive some devastating news that literally changes the course of my entire return home.