By: Paul Dini, Ivan Brandon (writer), Ramon Bachs (pencils), John Lucas (inks), Nick Filardi (colors) & Travis Lanham (letters)
The Story: Two-Face and gang evade the cops while torturing a rat within their organization.
What’s Good: Considering that I’m a general fan of Batman’s world, some might find it surprising that I’ve never really cared for Two-Face as a villain. I get sick of all the coin flipping and the hokey two-tone clothing. He just looks like an ugly pimp to me. And, throughout it all, I never really feel like he’s any sort of legitimate threat because he’s just a crazy attorney.
So, when I found out that this month’s Streets of Gotham would be a continuation of Ivan Brandon’s back-up story from last issue, I had mixed emotions. On one hand, I think Brandon is a talented young writer and I was eager to see him get an opportunity to do this issue. On the other, I was wishing he could do another character.
However, Brandon really did a nice job with Two-Face. He does a great job of showing just how completely nuts Two-Face is. At times in this story, I almost thought he seemed more like the Joker than the Two-Face I’m used to. But, that’s okay because Brandon’s Two-Face isn’t anyone that I would want to be in a room with. I think part of the story-telling effectiveness comes from the relationship with Two-Face has with his two minions and it is very cool how they alternate between being scared shitless of him and being sick of his craziness which leads to a pretty shocking conclusion. I’m eager to see the next part of this story.
Another surprise is that Ramon Bachs’ art was quite good. Bachs is probably the artist I’ve bashed the most because I disliked his work on the first few issues of Red Robin and I thought his work on Azrael was just atrocious. But, all along I thought that there was a chance that his inker was just ruining his work and that could be the case because with John Lucas inking him here, the work is pretty darn good. There are a few panels that start to slip into that fuzziness that I don’t like to see from Bachs, but overall it works. DC should take note and keep this pair together.
What’s Not So Good: Even though I liked the story, it is still hard to get too excited about Streets since it doesn’t have any coherent theme. I know that is supposed to be part of the point of the series: telling stories about the non-Batman folks of Gotham. But it still be-bops around a little too much for my taste whenever Paul Dini isn’t writing it.
I’m also a little concerned about where this title will be with a few new Bat-titles coming out this fall. Eventually folks are going to start dropping a Bat-title and a disjointed, non-Batman Streets of Gotham title is probably going to be a victim.
Conclusion: I knew I’d enjoy Ivan Brandon’s work, but was surprised how much I enjoyed this tale of Two-Face with art by Bachs. Still, this isn’t must read material, by any stretch.
Grade: C+
– Dean Stell
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Conclusion