About_Faces!

Two-Face #2 (January 2025) cover by Baldemar Rivas

Harvey and Babs in Zero Hour 30th Anniversary Special by Dan Jurgens and Ron Marz, art by Kelley Jones

DC house ad for Harvey’s second appearance (and first cover appearance), from Batman #13 (1942)

—Tom Reilly

I know that Ram V’s “Gotham Nocturne” isn’t for everyone, nor is it without flaws, but I still didn’t know how to deal with this criticism of the latest issue:

Putting aside how he apparently doesn’t understand the actual plot from the fact that he thinks it’s just about “Gotham vs werewolves” for some reason, I can’t get over this idea that Batman can’t or wouldn’t ever work with the likes of Mr Freeze and ESPECIALLY Harvey. Every other interaction between Batman and these two has Batman pleading “LET ME HELP YOU!” He CARES for them, and having them on his side even for a little while is a small triumph for Bruce and his hope for these men to turn their lives around!

And also, “Batman is ok working with murderers now?” JASON TODD, DUDE. Not to mention that in the pages of this very run of Detective Comics, Batman has worked alongside Harvey Dent TWICE, first in James Robinson’s “Deface the Face” and then in Peter Tomasi’s “Ugly Heart!” This isn’t a random, out-of-character choice for Batman, you just don’t read the comics!

And like, even if the story WAS just “Batman teams up with the rogues to fight werewolves,” why would anyone find that “dumb”?! That’s AWESOME! What kind of weirdo wouldn’t want to read that?!

It’s like, okay, I know this storyline isn’t going to be for all tastes. It’s an arthouse film epic of Gotham City as a whole, not the usual fan-friendly samey stuff about Batman and the Joker that’s tying into DC’s latest overblown event. It’s weird and different and definitely not for all tastes, plus its sprawling nature and ambitious themes can come off as incomprehensible and pretentious to anyone who’s not engaging with the story. I get all that.

But if you can’t get on board because it has Batman teaming up with two of his best tragic, tormented rogues, leading to Harvey fighting one (1) werewolf, I fundamentally just do not get you.

I really wish more people had followed the narrative arc of Harvey Dent and Renee Montoya’s strange, poignant dynamic that Rucka had established in Batman: No Man’s Land (both the comics and especially his novelization) and in his run of Detective Comics. When it comes to the two of them, I suspect most people only ever think about Gotham Central: Half a Life, which—however unintentionally on Rucka’s part—threw that delicate dynamic under the bus in the name of making Harvey a creepy, obsessive stalker who ruined her life.

It bothers me so much to this day, because like… yeah, I guess it all fits with the arc that Rucka had set up, especially if you don’t count his novelization. But I think about the issue where Harvey risks a beating from Arkham guards just to get Bruce to anonymously send flowers to Renee on her birthday, and how Renee—despite her discomfort with Harvey’s soft spot for her—still decides to visit him in Arkham and bring him a cupcake. All so he can have a little moment of peace.

I hate how Half a Life trashed all that. I hate the message that being kind to the tormented and mentally ill just invites pain and suffering. That she should never have reached out to him all those times, because he’s too crazy and evil and dangerous. That kindness only makes things worse, and some people aren’t worth the effort. I hate how Harvey is defined by many as just the monster in Renee’s life, not the damaged, tortured man to whom she showed kindness.

And I hate how that disregards the arc Rucka himself was telling over fifteen years, where Renee had to go through a shit-ton of personal growth to be able to once again reach out to Harvey, despite what he did, to try and give him peace again. Because she’ll never love him, but she can still care about him. That’s such an important message. Especially for those of us who feel too damaged to be worthy of being cared about.

Renee’s birthday.

From “Happy Birthday Two You…” from Detective Comics #747 (August 2000), written by Greg Rucka, art by William Rosado and Steve Mitchell, letters by Todd Klein.

These excerpts omit glimpses into Renee’s life while she was still in the closet, and the heavy weight she carries in both her personal and professional lives, which makes her moment of happiness at the end even more satisfying. Read the whole issue if you can find it.

Jim Lee’s cover for the Joker’s 80th Anniversary Special, celebrating the Bronze Age (late 60’s to early 80’s) designs of the Batman rogues gallery.

Last night, I was once again struggling to actually write smut for a Harvey/Bruce/Gilda fic, when I noticed a very timely new guest comment on my Gilda fic, Bust. It was the first truly critical response I’ve gotten so far, and while that sort of thing would normally send me into a depressive tizzy, I actually found it really interesting!

So instead of actually writing the ship, as I should have been, I wanted to take this opportunity to think about just why the heck I shipped them in the first place.

Here’s how I responded, with added scans to hopefully better illustrate my point, plus some additions that occurred to me upon drafting this post:

I’m actually glad you raised this point, because I would have felt the exact same as you just a few years ago!

I’m gray-asexual, and I used to be a bit bothered by the rise of Bruce/Harvey shippers, because it was their canonical platonic FRIENDSHIP that mattered so much to me. I gradually warmed up to the shippers, because 1.) I realized I was ace and they probably weren’t, and 2.) they at least understood the importance of Bruce and Harvey’s bond, which is more than I can say for LOTS of official DC media.

Still, something bugged me about the ship, and I realized what it was: the lack of Gilda from the equation. She’s always been deeply important to me, especially her scant older appearances, and erasing her for a Bruce/Harvey ship (even one I’d come to appreciate) didn’t sit right with me.

But like you said, it’s not canon, and I’ve always been deeply invested in canon, even the stuff that’s frustrating and contradictory. So yeah, the throuple would have bugged me too.

Except! It all depends on WHICH canon you’re talking about!

So over the past 15 years, I’ve been obsessed with tracking down the entirety of the obscure, forgotten Batman newspaper comic strip from 1989-1991. I’ve posted the entire thing at @batman-daily, and I strongly encourage you to check it out. A couple years ago, I reread it and noticed something really interesting: the remarkable relationship between Bruce, Harvey, and the latter’s wife, Alice, who is Gilda in every way but name. They are all mutual friends, with Alice even going to visit Bruce alone to help/bully him to take care of himself.

It all reads like a perfect long-game setup for a love triangle, or for Harvey—having become Two-Face—to go after his loved ones in a jealous rage, like he did in Paul Dini’s “Two-Timer,” a story which notably showed that Grace had feelings for Bruce.

With that in mind, consider the final story arc of the newspaper strip, wherein Bruce acknowledges his OWN feelings for Alice and PASSIONATELY KISSES HER, all in a hilariously roundabout way to save her marriage to Harvey! It makes sense in context and is frankly hilarious.

And it works! Because Harvey isn’t jealous! The love triangle conflict you expect NEVER HAPPENS! Because they all love one another! And that love saves Harvey in the very end!

Was it explicitly a throuple? No, but nor have Bruce and Harvey ever canonically touched dicks. And yet the love between Bruce and Harvey in canon is true and real enough that shippers who want to make it sexual are perfectly allowed to do so, because it’s the love that matters. At least, for those of us who aren’t afraid to acknowledge the love between men, platonic or otherwise. And that love is rooted in canon.

So consider this: the mutual three-way-love between Bruce, Harvey, and Alice/Gilda is ALSO canon. That comic strip has been officially accepted as DC multiverse canon in the “Crisis on Infinite Earths: Absolute Edition,” which designated it as Earth-1289.

Furthermore, there’s something else you need to consider: the fact that Harvey HAS been used in love triangles against Bruce in several stories in recent decades. I already mentioned “Two-Timer,” but there’s also Nolan’s “The Dark Knight,” the animated “Gotham By Gaslight” film, and the Telltale game. In various ways, these stories serve to throw a wedge in the friendship between Bruce (the protagonist, whose story serves him) and Harvey (the guy who is going to lose it all, the woman included). I hate that shit. I hate the contrived drama that’s meant to stir up needless added conflict between two men who love each other.

And then, on the other hand, you have Mariko Tamaki’s Gilda story from “Batman: Black and White.” Tamaki depicted Harvey and Gilda being in a distant, loveless marriage, where even on their wedding day, he was constantly ignoring her in favor of work. The only person who could actually get his attention was Bruce.

At the time, this felt an awful lot like that problem I was talking about with the Bruce/Harvey shippers: raising up the gay ship while throwing the woman under the bus. In this case, for the purpose of doing an avenging girlboss take on Gilda. I hated that too, especially when Tamaki didn’t even follow through with the gay subtext in her next, miserable Two-Face comic.

You know that meme of a bride, groom, and best man all kissing one another, while the bride flips off the cameraman in the end? @whipbogard redrew the Tamaki wedding scene as that meme, right around the time I reread the comic strip. And suddenly, everything clicked into place for me.

After a lifetime of never, ever having any serious fandom ships, I fell in love with the idea of Bruce/Harvey/Gilda. Take what the comic strip did and bring it into the mainstream canon I love to spite the canon I hate.

In those great old Gilda stories, she saw through Harvey’s bullshit and knew how to reach him, however temporarily. She could do the same with Bruce. She’d be a valuable third voice for the ongoing toxic relationship between Bruce and Harvey, the one who could love them both while also getting to be frustrated with how fucking stupid and fucked-up both these men are.

Before she was reduced to a ride-or-die killer housewife in "The Long Halloween" (which, I'll grant you, has its own appeal), classic Gilda would actually stand up to Harvey and tell him to cut out his shit or else. I love the idea that she can also see right through Bruce, understanding how very alike he and Harvey are, even if they don't want to admit it.

Writing Gilda this way speaks to me as a longtime fan of both men, while also wanting to try to develop her place, as a woman stuck in the middle of their decades' worth of conflict and angst. She sees these men at their best, worst, and most pathetic/ridiculous, and while she's got the nerve to stand up for herself and call them out as needed, she still loves them nonetheless. For me, Gilda has become the voice for fans just like me, who are helpless to stop Batman and Two-Face from continuing the cycle of violent, toxic friendship, but still loving them nonetheless, and always hoping for the best.

So, at this point, let’s say I’ve at least managed to make you grudgingly accept my reasoning for the relationship. Even if that’s true, I’m gonna guess that the mention of a threesome felt like it came out of left field. I can’t argue with that. I wanted to actually write that as its own smutfic but, being ace, I struggle with that. But I really liked the idea, and as I was writing this, it just really wanted to be mentioned, so I included it.

The response has been positive (until now), which indicated to me that I had been successful in introducing Gilda as a viable third into a slice of fandom which had only shipped Bruce and Harvey. This is fanfic, after all, such things are expected, even encouraged, so I leaned into it.

Now, if I were ever (un?)fortunate enough to write for DC, officially? I doubt I’d have the nerve to go that far. But I’d still want to at least embrace the polycule-coded relationship between those three that we saw in the newspaper comic strip. I think it adds a whole new, refreshing spin on their ongoing dynamics, while being rooted in relationships that were established all the way back in 1942 by Bill Finger.

Finger’s story, at its heart, was all about how love can save a life. How love is the only way to defeat the villain. For Harvey Kent’s part, Gilda’s love was every bit as important as Batman’s unwillingness to give up on his friend. So I’m just taking it one step further within the freedom allowed me by fanfic.

Sorry for the length of the reply, but as you can see, I only came to this shit after several decades of thinking about 80+ years of official material. I hope I have at least been able to lessen your feelings of being jarred out of a story you otherwise seemed to appreciate. For my part, I hope to further develop the potential of this fucked-up polycule in future stories, and maybe—just maybe—I’ll be able to get you on board too. Hope to see you then!

(art by ofossart)

Harvey by Stefano Raffale, from the preview for Detective Comics #1086

It’s been common, especially recently, for stories to depict Harvey Dent as primarily a politician, particularly one with greater ambitions like becoming Mayor or Governor. Whenever I see that, I always want to show those writers “Eye of the Beholder,” where Harvey is depicted as having already achieved his highest career ambitions. He just wants to do his job, because it’s the one thing that’s holding him together.

I far prefer this take on Harvey over him being a grandstanding political figure focused on career advancement. The Law is what matters to him, the thing he clings to more than anything else to give him a sense of order and structure.

He’s not in it for the money or the prestige or his future. He needs this job for his own sanity, something to which he’s been drawn “all my life.” What kind of child decides to become D.A., and that kind of person holds to that dream without ever growing past it or changing their mind?

All that is so much more interesting to me than him just being a politician, even when he’s not depicted as corrupt. But it requires approaching him with a level of complexity, care, and insight that most writers don’t want to do, especially when they just want him as a tragic figure and/or an antagonist.

--@Cl0v3r0

--@No_oo29