“What, she said she wanted to go swimming.”
Batman Black And White: Two Of A Kind
DC Comics (posted to comiXology June, 2010)
WRITER/ARTIST: Bruce Timm
LETTERER: Todd Klein
A plastic surgeon finds a way to fix Harvey Dent’s damaged face, allowing him to finally be cured of being Two Face. The two also fall in love, but trouble starts when he meets her twin sister, as twisted as Harvey’s fiance is sweet. The evil sister plays on that Two Face part of his personality and seduces him but he eventually calls it off for the woman he loves. The evil sister kills her good twin so Harvey undoes the surgery and goes back to being Two Face to get his revenge, then tells his story to Batman.
Finally we have a story with a definite ending, which already makes this my favorite of the series I’ve reviewed thus far. (This is also the last one I currently have in my comiXology library.) The story focuses on Harvey and does a nice twist on his dual nature with the twins, one good and one evil. The “surgeon fixes Harvey’s face” idea has been done before but it’s the emotion involved in the story as Harvey fights his other self for the sake of the woman he loves only to give in to get revenge on the woman who forced him to give in by killing her. It’s a fresh enough take that I really enjoyed the story. Bruce Timm knows the Batman’s world and plays with it well, and his art style (which was responsible for the character models in the DCAU–though this is set in the regular DC universe) really works for the story.
If you’re only going to read one of these, this is the one I would most recommend, though Good Evening, Midnight is also a good one for a secondary recommendation. The rest either didn’t interest me personally or had some odd art choices that didn’t click with me. I don’t know if I’ll get to review one of these stories again, but that’s my recommendation.
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