Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Gotham, Part XIV: Batman: Two-Face and Scarecrow: Year One

Comic trade paperback, 200 pages
Published 2009 (contents: 2005-07)
Borrowed from the library
Read January 2015

Batman: Two-Face and Scarecrow: Year One

Writers: Bruce Jones, Mark Sable
Pencillers: Sean Murphy, Jesus Saiz, Jeremy Haun
Inkers: Sean Murphy, Jimmy Palmiotti, Chris Chuckry, Jeremy Haun
Colorists: Lee Loughridge, Chris Chuckry

Letterer: Sal Cipriano

Year One, December - Year Two, November
The first half of this book is actually not in continuity; it's another origin for the Scarecrow, but Robin's there, and Batman met Scarecrow a few years before Robin. Don't let this fool you, though-- it's very good. Bruce Jones writes a good story, with plenty of creepy turns, and the interplay between Batman and Robin is very fun without being corny. The real star of the story, though, is Mark Sable's angular artwork, which perfectly suits the story, and is well complemented by Lee Loughridge's inimitable colors. A really good Batman tale on the whole.

Two-Face: Year One, on the other hand, contorts to fit into continuity, and is the worse for it. Chapter one tries to stay consistent with the events of The Long Halloween (it's like a prologue, about the beginning of Harvey's descent), but misses the point in the characterization. The second chapter is just dumb... Two-Face runs for office, and I don't really get why or how, it's just implausibly goofy. Two-Face is a tricky villain that I've almost never seen done right: given his reasons for turning "bad," why would he just become another gangster? The whole point of him was that he hated and was scarred by organized crime!

Next Week: Batman learns to hate Halloween almost as much as I do after experiencing three different Haunted Knights!