Two-Face Tuesday: NIGHTWING: THE GREAT LEAP... Harvey's side(s) of the story

[thehefner]

NIGHTWING: THE GREAT LEAP is beloved story by pretty much everyone. And I can understand why, if you're a Nightwing fan. Me, I like Grayson all right, but obviously, my focus on THE GREAT LEAP was Two-Face and only Two-Face. And appropriately enough, I am very torn on how Tomasi used Harvey in this story.

This was Harvey's first major appearance since he was so clumsily rescarred and recrazied in FACE THE FACE, which was itself his first major in-canon appearance since HUSH four years earlier (I sure as hell ignore the beautifully-drawn crapfest that was BATMAN: JEKYLL AND HYDE). His appearance in NIGHTWING served as a tie-in to THE DARK KNIGHT, and aspects of the Aaron Eckhart Two-Face are used throughout THE GREAT LEAP.

And for the most part, it's a pretty excellent take on Two-Face. At several points, it's one of the most refreshing and exciting depictions of Harvey Dent. So why would I have any problem with THE GREAT LEAP, if it's a generally-solid tale?

To answer the question, I present my edit of this story, focusing almost entirely on Harvey's arc, with pretty much all of the Nightwing stuff cut out. The original story as presented is Nightwing vs. Harvey "Crazypants" Dent. But that's not how I read the story. To me, it was "Harvey Dent vs. Harvey Dent (with Nightwing and a Rachel Dawes substitute in the mix.)"

Ultimately, it's a matter of perspective.






















Ugh, what's up with the floppy lips and sad saggy eyelid? He looks like a deranged bloodhound.

Wow, so Nightwing never even knew that Harvey was left in charge of Gotham during the 52 year? That's kind of a big loop to be left out of, isn't it? Man, Harvey kinda did get shafted from that deal, not even getting recognition for his good work (and being upstaged by Batwoman in 52 to boot).





So yeah, as you can tell, Carol Bermingham is essentially a stand-in for Rachel (aka "RAY-CHULL!!!") Dawes. Far as I can tell, this major retcon to Harvey's past is expressly included to tie this Two-Face story into THE DARK KNIGHT. I accept it for this story's purposes, but I'll reserve my thought on this specific matter until the very end.

I apologize for the wonky quality of some scans. It's tricky trying to scan from the trade paperback.




Okay, first things right off the bat (a double-pun! Hurr!): I love Harvey's outfit here. After a year's consideration, I think this might well be my favorite Two-Face costume ever, edging out even the elegant B&W animated series suit.

Long coats are always a good idea, and the midnight blue/gray color works because it speaks to his moral ambiguity. Furthermore, the costume is reminiscent of the blues and grays of Batman himself (right down to him having his own "cape"), and it's an outfit that can easily be used for whatever role Harvey's playing at any given point: mobster, supervillain, antivillain, antihero.

On the downside, I hate how FACE THE FACE made it canon that Harvey's scars are split evenly down the middle. For all the grace and subtle suggestion his new outfit has, doing the scars so evenly puts him right back into comic book gimmick campiness. It's too neat a division for a character whose psyche is anything but a clean break between good and evil.



So over the next issue and a half, Nightwing saves Carol, but ends up getting shot by a mysterious sniper who totally isn't exactly who you think it's gonna be. Seriously, I wasn't the only one who saw this twist coming a mile away, was I? Maybe I just saw the B:TAS episode "Second Chance" two too many times.

Bleeding to death, Dick gets Carol to a safehouse, then makes it back to the Batcave, where Alfred patches him up. I'm purposely glossing over the pain Dick endures and the powerful moments with Alfred (both of whom are freshly coming to terms with the events of BATMAN R.I.P.).

The art here is by Rags Morales, a wonderful artist done great disservice by the inker:





Carol's already kind of a vapid non-character, little more than a standard damsel-in-distress who is supposedly a brilliant criminal lawyer and yet isn't smart enough to not answer her damn cell phone when she's being hunted by a professional killer.

Just one reason why I can't buy that Harvey is so in love with her. It would have been nice to have actually seen young Harvey and Carol interacting, since Harvey's feelings here are one of the the main driving forces of the story.








Of course, Carol shouldn't be entirely to blame for foolishly answering her phone and thereby possibly giving away her GPS location. Even after doing that, Dick still takes that chance and leaves her right there. Well done, Mr. Bodyguard!

Sure enough, Dick finds out that the safehouse has been breached at the same time that Alfred informs him that the bullets he was shot with were spiked with Scarecrow's fear toxin. So Nightwing arrives at the safehouse to find ALL of Batman's rogues waiting for him! Of course, they all (save for one) turn out to be hallucinations, and he ends up fighting a bunch of henchmen for... who else?




"Outa, zoota, zut"?

Seriously? Harvey Dent's quoting Bugs Bunny cartoons? Oh, and by the way, Mr. Tomasi, it's actually "Roota, voota, zut!" ;p

Sorry, back to the totally shocking confrontation already in progress:






While Nightwing is distracted by the throes of the fear toxin, Two-Face attends to Rachel Carol:























Oh Harvey, you so bugfuck insane.

At this point, I have say, Don Kramer is a fine artist for bodies and storytelling generally, but I hate his faces. Everyone looks dead-eyed and stiff all the time. To make matters worse, he repeats poses and facial expressions. See how Harvey's drawn in the "He was supposed to protect her... from me... from him..." panel? Just look how he reuses the same thing in the next couple pages.

If I hadn't reached the scan limit, I could easily devote an entire separate post to Kramer reusing poses and faces.









God, I love those pages. There are those who think that Harvey actually having multiple personalities is stupid and gimmicky, but the above is a perfect example of how it can be used to wonderful effect.

First off, you have the tragic struggle of Harvey's genuinely good side against his sneering darker side (and please keep that in mind, as that's key to the point of this whole post). But usually we see that struggle from inside Harvey's head, between two distinct voices. Tomasi, however, brilliantly gives us an outsider's view of Harvey's two sides fighting.

In those two pages, we both get a sympathetic insight into Harvey's struggle, while at the same time getting a sober, objective "Holy crap, this guy is fucking nuts" perspective.

Unfortunately, it's about this time that the story jumps the shark. I know the phrase "jumps the shark" is a cliche, but honestly, I can't think of any other way to describe the lameness of what comes next.





Okay, admittedly, Harvey looks awesome in the trenchcoat in that panel, but still...





So in keeping with THE DARK KNIGHT, here we have a Two-Face who wants to punish those he blames for failing to save his loved one. I have my problems with that sudden shift in character motivation, but that's another rant.

So Harvey wants to punish Nightwing for failing to save Carol from Two-Face. Okay, fair enough. And how does the out-of-control train of fury known as Two-Face accomplish this? By destroying the city Nightwing holds dear through a supremely complicated plan that involves multiple hijacked blimps, a rain of deadly acid, and death pennies from above. All over the course of four days? That's pretty impressive doing all on the fly.





The problem that I have with this master plan of Harvey's is that it seems strangely overblown for the kind of story it was up until this point. This is a criticism from a storytelling perspective, mind you.

One of the main points of THE GREAT LEAP is that it ends with Dick's girlfriend Deb getting scarred by the acid and leaving Dick and New York behind. If that was going to happen anyway, I'd have found it more satisfying if Harvey somehow found out that Deb was his girlfriend and specificially targeted her, which would much more fittingly "balance the scales" for Harvey's twisted sense of justice.

But going after half of the entire city with acid rain and death blimps? Seriously? That's frankly overblown, pure campy supervillain fare. And I know Two-Face is capable of such an act, but it doesn't fit the story that THE GREAT LEAP was up to this point. Targeting Deb and only Deb would have worked so much better, and accomplished exactly the same thing. As it is... well, again, this is where the story jumped the shark.

Of course, many people can just look at this and go, "Well, of course it seems like an overblown response! Harvey's crazy!" I hate when people play the Crazy Card as an all-purpose excuse for a poor storytelling choice. It's thoughtless and dismissive.



Then we have this moment, which also raises eyebrows in terms of Harvey's pop culture knowledge. But hey, it's funny, so it works. Maybe Harvey and Deadpool can team up and kill idiots who don't know their classic sci-fi.




I notice Harvey didn't even flip the coin to decide whether or not to kill the henchman. That could be out of character in a scene that's already pushing it, but hell, we can just pretend that both sides of Harvey wanted that idiot dead.


Fast-forward past the rain of acid to Dick and Harvey's climactic battle in the sky:












The thing I love about this fight is the sheer hatred these two have for each other. That's the thing about Dick I've noticed, between this and the fight with Ra's in the next story: he has none of the respect for the villains that Batman does. I feel like he sees nothing in them worth respecting, not even their threat levels. They're bad guys, and he's cocky because he knows he's gonna be able to take them down, no problem.

Combine the fact that Harvey beat him nearly to death as a kid, and it's understandable why Harvey would have absolutely zero sympathy for the one villain on whom Batman himself absolutely refuses to give up hope.

So yeah, I get that. And yet... well, read on...














And here we start to come upon the real issue, here: "No, Harvey! YOU let him win!"

Did he, though? Did Harvey really allow his dark side to triumph?

I mean, first of all, what does Dick expect Harvey to have done instead? Harvey is seriously mentally ill here. Is he really blaming Harvey for failing to be sane and actually control his madness?

Even if he is, no one's going to blame Dick for that line. After all, Harvey may be crazy and not totally responsible for his actions, but he also put Dick through a hell of a lot between the shooting, the drugging, the people he killed and scarred, and the whole killing-Carol thing. Not to mention the time he beat Robin up with a Louisville Slugger.

So the reader would be on Dick's side no matter what. Harvey may be suffering, but in the end, he's a mad dog who has to be put down, sympathy be damned. And Dick especially has none.

Case in point, the epilogue at Arkham (drawn by Doug Mahnke):

















OH MY GOD, HARVEY, YAP YAP YAP YAP YAP YAP. Seriously, why do we need six pages devoted to this? What does this interaction actually accomplish that couldn't been done in a third of the pages?





There's no trace of the Harvey that approached Dick in the first place, nor the tortured side who argued with his darker self at Carol's grave. We see nothing but the same cruel, sadistic, monologuing villain who beat a boy senseless with a baseball bat all those years ago. This entire interaction--the last we see of Harvey in THE GREAT LEAP--does absolutely nothing to refute Dick's assessment of Harvey.

So based on what we've seen here, what do you think? Do you think Dick's right, that there's nothing good left to salvage in Harvey? That there's nothing "except evil in that black soul" of his?

Before you answer, I should mention that I skipped one more part. It has no Two-Face in it, you see, so neither side of Harvey is even aware of what happened here.

But Dick knows. And so does Carol.





And with this revelation, here's the most troubling part of this whole story for me, as a Two-Face fan. Carol's alive, and why? Because Nightwing kept her alive after Two-Face shot her, thus saving her from Harvey?

Yes, but consider this: Nightwing never even knew who Carol was until Harvey contacted Dick and asked to intervene. If Harvey never did that, Carol would have almost certainly been killed, if not by Two-Face then by the other contract killers hired by the mob (like the ones who posed as her bodyguards in the first issue, who were about to kill her when Nightwing saved her).

Consider that this all started because Two-Face was hired to kill her, and yet Harvey took it upon himself to alert Nightwing. That alone was an usual act of pure defiance against his own bad side. Usually, Harvey is the helpless victim to Two-Face's control and cruelty, but here, Harvey made an active effort to thwart Two-Face, even though it meant appealing to Nightwing, a person who has every reason to hate him.

Two-Face tried to kill Carol. But he failed solely because Harvey defied his dark side and went to Nightwing. In the bigger picture, I'd argue that Harvey is the real hero of this story. Even if he was also the villain.

And the biggest tragedy of all is that he must never know. He must never know that, for a brief moment, he actually succeeded in beating Two-Face. Instead, he's doomed to think--as Dick's condemning "YOU let him win!" further makes me think--that he's failed all over again, that his bad side will always win, and that the heroes will never do anything to help him, and he gets to be eaten up by the guilt that he killed someone he loved.

Which would be an incredibly powerful tragic ending if Tomasi's story gave any indication that's how this is meant to be read. No, read as a whole, I get absolutely no hint of acknowledgment that Harvey was instrumental to saving Carol's life. Nightwing struts off, smugly secure in the thought that Harvey is an evil soulless monster who only thinks he succeeded in beating Nightwing and killing Carol.

So yeah, that's why I find NIGHTWING: THE GREAT LEAP to be an incredibly troubling story, all the more so because I loved so much of it. In the end, it's still a matter of taste and perspective. I can't blame anyone for not sympathizing with Harvey, because in the end, it's Nightwing's book and he's the hero.

I guess it's all in how you look at it. What about you guys? What do you see?




Honestly, if I'd call bullshit on anything, it'd be the retconned inclusion of Carol into Harvey's past, and the emotional affair they had. Hell no. Vow or not, I reject the thought that Harvey loved anyone more than Gilda, his sole lifeline relationship to humanity.

So for me, I see no more fitting note to end on than a reminder of that love, which I (relevantly enough!) commissioned from Rags Morales at New York Comic Con last February:





Now that's the only person who can break up the one-man OTP that is Harvey Dent.

Comments

[gnort.livejournal.com]

I work in an animal hospital and today this dog came in whose face was split down the middle, half white and half black. His name was Harvey Dent. IMMD


My roommate came across this on itmademyday.com. I thought you would get a kick out of it.

[harper-knight.livejournal.com]

I.. I dunno, man. I mean, on the one hand, I agree with you, but on the other..

I mean, its Nightwing! I've always loved the guy. He's kickass.

[kitewithfish.livejournal.com]

I saw the first issue of this back when it came out, and I have to say I think that I like the first part on its own far better than the cheesey turn that the story takes. (Evil blimps? That's so strategically foolish it makes me wonder if Harv was trying to undercut himself again. A bazooka could take one of those things out, and Harv's gotta know that Batman's got a plane.)

Ya know, I like your interpretation better, actually.
Tho I kind of understand why they had to introduce a new character- Gilda would not work for this storyline, Harvey would never have been able to take the hit on her when offered since she knocks him out of coin-flip-mode and back into his husband role- but I think Tomasi should have kept it friendly, rather than romantic.

I think that Carol's parting line about sending her regards to Harvey actually shows a hint of the recognition of Harvey's efforts that Nightwing fails to demonstrate. Nightwing's just got too much bad history with Two-Face to see when Harv's trying to work around himself- Carol wouldn't be able to talk about it with him, and to be sure she's probably got some rage at Harv for, ya know, shooting her, but there is still a tinge of something in that last bit.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

hahaha, you're the third person to send this one my way! I really should make that one its own post. Especially since they gave the "best comment" to some fool who said that Michael Jackson would have been better. Which has more cred, I ask you?!

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

You can still love Nightwing! It's just... well... it's Harvey! *flappity flappity*

[kingrockwell]

Knowing that Harvey succeeded in saving Carol but doesn't know it somewhat changes the scene at Arkham, like the perceived win by his evil side's left him demoralized and frothing, perhaps.

And gonna be honest, I usually dislike Rags' art a lot, so the inks there don't seem to do a disservice as actually mitigate some of the regular weirdness he's got. The commission is great, though.

And Kramer's floppy lip, yeesh.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Even before this issue, you had BATMAN: FACES, where Harvey steals a blimp, and then there's the Two-Face level of the Sega Genesis video game:




At some point, someone just decided that Harvey loves blimps.

Yeah, I'm glad they kept Gilda out of this. I live in fear of the day someone tries to bring her back, because they'll either kill her off, have Harvey do something so horrible that the relationship is doomed forever, and/or tie it back to Gilda from THE LONG HALLOWEEN, a depiction I hate.

And yeah, it should have just been friendship toward Carol, a close bond between colleagues. I mean really, you never get any sense at the history between these two, only Harvey's vengeful rage. Doesn't count.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Totally. After this, Harvey has less reason than ever to try and fight his illness, because what's the point? He's just going to lose again, and heroes like Nightwing sure as hell aren't gonna be pulling for him to get better.

Man, the whole story behind getting that commission was a heck of a thing too. But it all paid off. Of all the commissioned drawings I've ever gotten, that's the only one I have that I'd consider art.

A lot of people love Kramer's artwork! I dunno, he's great in so many ways, but his faces are just so stiff and dead. Especially the eyes. Like, the Dini Christmas Joker issue is one of my favorite Joker stories, but man, I don't care for how the Joker himself is drawn.

[gnort.livejournal.com]

What? Michael Jackson? No. I kinda get what that joke was going for, but it doesn't work, a face with two distinct colors and split down the middle? That's gotta be Harvey.

[kingrockwell]

I remember you posting the story on s_d1.0, but hell knows I couldn't repeat the details. Wasn't there some trouble in finally getting it (i do recall you had like a long list of what you wanted in it)?

'Tec #826 was actually my first exposure to Kramer, and I liked him well enough there, but I hadn't read another story of his (aside from some occasional Nightwing or JSA stories on the comm) until JSA vs Kobra, and his worst habits got a lot clearer.
But even with his troublesome expressions, he doesn't usually make as insane a design oversight as the floppy lip, though maybe I just haven't seen enough of his work.

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

I think that Nightwing is right about big bad harv. I think he is wrong about Dent.

Then again, I love the idea that Harvey has traumatized poor little Dicky with his baseball bat beating and chooses to mock him for it because, well, I fucking hate the robins. So, yeah.

Really this feels like an example of the writer having split personalities. One of which is really good, and the other just wants to throw around old comic book tropes. Every issue, they tossed the coin, and well, we got this.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm starting to discover that I don't particularly care for the Robins either, at least not with Batman and his rogues.

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I tend to find those interactions rather grating.

[the-mithril-man.livejournal.com]

Not really sure I can chalk Carol's survival up to Harvey on this. He probably made that call the way he makes all others. 50/50 chance. In a sense it's why I've always found Two Face a better villain than most. Yeah Joker is crazy but at the end of the day he's making the calls. Two face? He flips a coin and does what it tells him to. That is terrifying, 10 times what a guy in clown white is. As for Nightwing working over Batman's villains. Well Dick keeps trying to build his own rouges gallery but DC keeps killing them all.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

True enough, except for one major difference; Harvey's "good" choices on the coin toss are rarely ever in defiance of his own dark side's actions. Harvey may not choose which course of action he finally takes, but to an extent, he DOES choose the two options he'll choose between. This time, he chose to directly try and thwart himself, even though he knows his bad side will make him suffer for that. Which is very heroic, in a twisted way.

[the-mithril-man.livejournal.com]

Oh I get that, it's just to me that twist is what makes me reluctant/unable to place any real heroism on it. It's what makes him such a wonderfully tragic figure. Even when he tries to do something right, he himself will try to crap all over it. It will fail because not only does it suck to be Harvey Dent, not only does the Universe hate Harvey Dent... Harvey Dent really doesn't like himself all that much either. Why I like reading about him. I keep hoping a good writer will toss him and Bane together in a team-up. Neither one has any time for "shades of gray" they are both very extreme figures.