For the next few months, Batman is going to have some really bad days. Tom King and Mitch Gerads kicked off the one-shot series with Riddler, and this week Mariko Tamaki and Javier Fernandez get to tackle Two-Face. Though the tone was set, will this one-shot feature Two-Face in a more brutal light, or will it deliver a story unique but more in line with DC Comics’ regular titles?
The answer is, Batman: One Bad Day – Two-Face is more the latter. It’s tough not to compare this to the Riddler one-shot since readers will be trying to connect the dots to understand what this line of one-shots is going for. This story is far less brutal, uncompromising, and raw, to say the least. That doesn’t mean it’s bad by any means, but it’s hard to pin down what this line of one-shots is going for, given the tone of this issue is far more in line with a regular in-canon caper.
This is a good one-shot, opening with a good recap of who Two-Face is and what he’s all about. That leads to a scene taking place years ago with Two-Face holding an innocent boy over a ledge. The cops are called in, and Batman is on the scene. Tamaki has commissioner Gordan recall “No Man’s Land” and how Harvey Dent is still inside the villain, so he’s worth saving. That seems to motivate much of this story when it cuts back to the present. Batman trusts Two-Face because he wants to, though he should know better.
Whoa, Two-Face is incredibly strong to be able to hold him like that!
Credit: DC Comics
The main plot revolves around Two-Face coming to Batman with the news that someone wants to kill his father. Somewhat successful, he’s throwing a party, and a death threat has been sent. Too stubborn to move the date, Two-Face wants Batman to figure out who sent the note to prevent his father from being hurt or killed.
This leads to detective work, but before it gets underway, Batgirl questions Batman for helping him. It’s a fair point, and Tamaki will convince you Batman isn’t thinking clearly or at least not looking at the big picture. He trusts his friend Two-Face is good now–he’s an upstanding citizen again and isn’t in jail or anything–but she doubts him. There’s an interesting idea at work here about whether we can truly trust someone, and in one pivotal scene, she says, “I hate it when villains aren’t just villains.” Fair point.
The plotting of this issue is a little slow, especially at the start. It takes 18 pages to get over the flashback, for instance, and Batman’s detective work takes up a chunk of somewhat uninteresting scenes.
One might have expected a deeper probing of Two-Face, or his father for that matter, but both are surface-level depictions. There’s a message here about who the killer is all along, for sure, but it’s too little and makes the overall message seem light. Two-Face is bad and always will be bad, but that’s rather surface-level and uninteresting. It’s also unfortunate the father character isn’t explored very deeply, and he comes off as an angry dad trope.
Batman’s thoughts on Two-Face are also rather uninteresting. Yes, he’s like a brother to him as we’ve seen in the past, but the opening flashback isn’t really about that. We have to to go on what we know about Batman and Two-Face to gather that element. If you were going in completely blind, that aspect of the story might be lost on readers. Tamaki is never very clear about Batman’s feelings for Two-Face with himself or others. The effect of him losing a friend, in the end, isn’t there because of that.
The conclusion plays out about how you’d expect, although it features a tense and exciting sequence by Fernandez. There are some excellent visual references, like gold balloons and great framing, that make certain shots feel cinematic. It’s edge-of-your-seat entertainment. Fernadez draws Two-Face in exciting ways, too, making the Harvey side almost angelic and purely good and the scarred side demonic and unruly. Batman, in general, looks great and is a force.
Colors by Jordie Bellaire add a lot to any given scene. Warm oranges or cool blues on any given panel creates an unmistakable atmosphere. The grit and grime by Fernadez seem to lift up thanks to the colors.
If you’re looking for a good one-shot featuring Batman’s complicated relationship with Two-Face, you’ll enjoy Batman: One Bad Day – Two-Face. It doesn’t probe Two-Face very profoundly, though, and ends up feeling like it only skims the surface when it has the opportunity to say something about the character. Batman: One Bad Day – Two-Face is entertaining, but lower your expectations after the deeply unsettling Riddler issue.
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