Batman’s
famous rogues’ gallery was noticeably absent from the pages of his comics for
the first year or so of the Bronze Age. The reasons for this are outlined in Batman #217 (1969); essentially, Bruce
felt that he needed to focus his attention on the criminals behind the scenes,
viz. the corrupt businessmen and politicians whose indiscretions and greed had
profound effects on the lives of innocent people, more so than the crimes of
supervillains.
In
a real-world sense, though, I think it was an editorial decision. The campy
Batman of the Silver Age, the offspring of avarice and the embarrassing
zeitgeist of the 1960s (you heard me), needed to be put to rest forever, and by
temporarily ignoring the “bad guys” associated with him, the creators gave the
readers (and hopefully the public at large) an opportunity to see the character
in a new light.
It
also provided an opportunity for the members of the rogues’ gallery to be
reinterpreted, which was a beneficial thing, indeed.
The
first of Batman’s classic foes to be introduced into the Bronze Age was
Two-Face.
Believe
it or not, he had not appeared in either of Batman’s titles since 1953, which
could be the reason he was chosen to be the flagship villain. (You may have
noticed that he never showed up in the television series.) He had been retired
because the Comics Code, enacted around that time, had forced publishers to
make comic stories more innocuous (in other words, boring), and Harvey Dent’s
alter-ego was one of the most terrifying and dangerous enemies the Dark Knight
had ever faced. By 1971, most readers were unfamiliar with him, giving writer
Denny O’Neil and artist Neal Adams a clean slate.
Batman #234’s lead story, “Half an Evil,” opens with a peculiar crime:
someone in a helicopter’s stealing a parade balloon. What possible use could
such a thing be? Commissioner Gordon, recognizing the strangeness of it,
contacts Batman, for whom the unusual is a stock in trade. As the two men
discuss the crime, an officer informs Gordon that a robbery is taking place at
the Nautical Museum.
Batman
rushes to the scene and swings through an open window, confronting the
perpetrators. He manages to dispatch one, but the other escapes, thanks to a
smokescreen. When the Dark Knight questions his captive, he discovers that the
hood’s employer is Two-Face and that his partner absconded with the diary of
one “Captain Bye.”
Batman
returns to his penthouse to discuss the matter with Alfred. After revisiting
Two-Face’s origin for the benefit of readers, he consults his copy of the Marine Encyclopedia (of course he’d have
one), learns that Bye’s ship is docked at a nearby marina, and knows he will
find his foe there. He arrives to find the boat already cut free of its
moorings and floating down the river. He takes out two of the criminal’s
henchmen who are guarding the pier just in time to see the schooner explode and
sink.
Remembering
the earlier crime, Batman consults the tide charts and determines where an
object partially sunk close to the pier would surface. He makes his way there
and, sure enough, the ship rises from the river, thanks to the balloon. The
Dark Knight climbs aboard and finds that an unfortunate hobo in an inner tube
has gotten snagged in the mast. As he climbs up to rescue him, Two-Face emerges
from the cargo hold and knocks Batman out. Lashing him to the mast, the villain
punctures the balloon and breaks open a hidden vault in the wall of the
forecastle, unleashing a fortune in gold coins.
As
the ship begins to sink again and the madman climbs into the lifeboat to escape
with the treasure, Batman reminds him of the hobo and urges him to flip his
coin to determine the innocent victim’s fate, as is his wont. Two-Face
initially ignores him, but his compulsion gets the better of him. The resulting
coin-flip comes up on the unscarred side, evoking the “good” half of his
nature. He returns to the schooner only to find that Batman, having tensed his
muscles prior to being bound (an old Houdini trick), has freed himself.
Batman
then proceeds to clean Two-Face’s clock and carries him and the unconscious
hobo into the lifeboat.
This
story effectively sets the stage for the direction in which writers and
illustrators of the Bronze Age are going to take Batman’s villains within the
framework of the Caped Crusader’s return to his dark roots. Comic books, of
course, do not have to reflect the way things work in the real world (and,
indeed, the Comics Code, though it had relaxed some of its standards by this
point, still would not allow some things to be shown), but it’s
counterintuitive, even absurd, to believe that hardened criminals are not
willing to kill people in order to achieve their goals.
During
the Silver Age, villains were frequently depicted as having limits. They didn’t
necessarily want to commit evil acts; they just wanted to reap the benefits,
and if a superhero chose to interfere with their plans, they’d usually try to
eliminate him in some manner other than outright murder. While Two-Face does
not allow Batman and the hobo to die, he would have been perfectly willing to
do so had the coin’s scarred side turned up. As a result of his disfigurement,
Harvey Dent is truly insane, and while there is a method to his madness (he
likes things that involve duality), he has no compunction about wiping out those
who oppose him.