Time for a little crime.
Creative Staff:
Story: Frank Tieri, Mark Russell
Art: Scot Eaton, Christopher Mooneyham, Wayne Faucher
Colors: Hi-Fi, David Baron
Letterer: Troy Peteri
What They Say:
Story 1 – Locked up in Arkham Asylum, Two-Face dreams of a better life—one with a white picket fence far away from Gotham City and Batman. He’s got the perfect plan, and it’s all within his grasp…as long as his coin flip turns up heads. Story 2 – There’s a story that’s made its way around Gotham City’s comedy scene for years, the legend of a struggling young comic who finally snapped under the pressure of making it big. But who can say what really happened? No one knows for sure…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
This installment of the series that takes from the DC Giants goes in its own direction as it focuses on the criminal element and very little on Batman. Mark Russell’s written a lot for the DC Giants and he has a pretty fun little Joker story here, though it is a bit of a mixed bag. But with Christopher Mooneyham illustration it, it looks really strong and wonderfully colored. We also get a Two-Face story from Frank Tieri who knows exactly how to play with this character and for Scot Eaton and Wayne Faucher to give him a great look, whether it’s as the master criminal or as someone trying to reclaim a normal life.
The opening tale is one that I definitely like as we get Tieri and Eaton together telling the tale of Two-Face where Batman is barely in it. Two-Face and his use of the coin for all his choices is something that can play well intellectually and in the space of a few pages we see how he’s intent on getting out of Gotham and away from it all as he’s fallen for a prison guard that’s fallen for him as well. Watching him talk about how the coin hasn’t helped him at all over the years is interesting as he makes the realization but we also see the addictive nature of it. Yet what draws you into it is watching the way he thinks of what he could make of a normal life, getting his faced fixed, having kids, and being a part of the real world again. Of course, nothing goes as he wants, such is the bane of Two-Face, but it unfolds well with a good sense of style and detail about it.
The second tale from Russell and Mooneyham gives us some time with the Joker as we get a skewed origin story as passed down through the comedy clubs of Gotham. It has Joker showing up at a club and looking to do a show of his own for old time’s sake and we get that mixed in with some stand-up and drama from 1987 with a kid that’s believed to become the joker as the urban legend goes. That it plays up the idea of how one man is driven to anger and violence when multiple things go wrong is a familiar one and tying it to Joker like this is a no-brainer, but it’s not exactly captivating. I liked the time in the present with Joker and the club owner more than the flashback because it has a better sense of self about it whereas the flashback side just reads like it’s going for too many easy cliches stapled to the Joker.
In Summary:
The split story nature is always going to be a bit of a mixed bag, especially with completely mixed creative, but each offers something good here. The big plus is the lack of Batman overall because there’s lots to explore with Gotham in general. I liked getting a good Two-Face story that has him questioning his choices and trying to break free of his addiction. And I liked seeing Joker revisiting someplace from his past, imagined or not, and messing around with it. Both stories move well and handle the page count in a really good way but I think it’s the artists that stole the show here and really made this as strong as it is and worth reading.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology and Amazon Kindle
Release Date: June 16th, 2020
MSRP: $0.99
