Batman and Robin #28 Comic Review

The comic:

The Review:

"I shall despair. There is no creature loves me;
And if I die, no soul shall pity me.
Nay, wherefore should they? since that I myself
Find in myself no pity to myself. . . . "

 Y'all know some Shakespeare right? Richard III? This book was a great callback to that for me.  The title of this arc was "The Big Burn" and it was kind of a silly title, until this issue.  Two-Face, Harvey Dent, has fallen a long way from his status as a white knight of Gotham.  This being the final chapter in his arc, they definitely sent him out with a bang. I hadn't been that invested in this series since the beautiful silent requiem issue 18 right after Damian died.  The stages of loss viewed through Batman's interactions with his family and allies were sometimes tired and other times quite silly.  I could feel more for Bruce from Injustice 6 than I could for all of these grief books and different flavor of the week mash ups.  

And then there was Two-Face. . .

We received a small tease of his intro into the story right before villain's month, and then his solo introduction for the aforementioned month long event was a tightly constructed one-shot amid a sea of simplistic revisionist origin stories.  Then Batman and Robin became Batman and Two-Face and I couldn't do it.  I just couldn't find a way to let it interest me.  The New 52 had already done so much tinkering with classic villain origins that I was crying out for something to hold onto, something steady from the past, and here they were again, shaking the rainbow colored "Dan's Hopes and Dreams" cart.  They introduced the criminally Irish McKillen twins into the mix, primarily Erin, who were now the ones responsible for not only scarring Harvey Dent, but also killing his wife, Gilda.  Throw in the fact that those two families along with the Waynes had all been chummy high society pals prior to their parting of the ways and you get what I think they were hoping would be Gotham's Game of Thrones.  However with frequent back peddling to explain all this to the reader in bursts of ADHD: "OH YEAHZ, AND THE TWINS WENT TO SKOOL WITH BRUCE AN' HARVEY!!!111" we get jerked back and for the most of the last few issues.

But then there came this week. . .(STOP READING IF YOU DON'T WANT IT SPOILED!)

For all the digging up and re-molding of the past this arc had done there were some truly wonderful moments.  First of all, kudos to the team on the book for their explosive and potentially final (though not really, as it is a comic and things have to come back) events.  We finally get to see the confrontation between Erin, Two-Face and Batman, and boy does it look great! The name "The Big Burn: Inferno" come to full blaze (LOL!) when the flamethrowers come out.  Then comes the moment that turned this arc from a forgettable Two-Face rehash to an awesome and new standard for the character.  In a brief eye of the storm moment, we see a poignant conversation between Batman and Two-Face and then Harvey and Bruce, because Two-Face KNOWS who Batman is! It is a great revelation, and the stunning monologue of a man struggling with his inner demons follows immediately.  A conscious and fully unrepentant Harvey Dent confesses he has known Batman's identity and his own struggle with duality and chance in his life.  How he tries every day not to want to kill or go hunt down Bruce and expose him.  Batman explains the faulty logic of his coin, that the third side, the edge binds the two, and that is what makes him, what can make him a better man. Harvey rallies against this and escapes justice.  Next he faces Gordon and though the dialogue is quite familiar to a certain blockbuster movie, the scene holds much stronger sway in the wake of his confession to Bats and their talk.   Then something different happens.  Instead of him losing the coin, it getting taking or getting distracted, it plummets straight into the mud, standing on it's third side, the edge.  There is a disquieting moment where Harvey considers what he should do, presses the gun against Gordon's temple, but then looks back at the coin and is so deeply distraught.  Then Batman shows up and he takes a different action.

And then the bad guy went away.    

We are left with Two-Face (or is it Harvey?) talking to a picture of his dead wife Gilda, he says something to the effect of "Maybe today is my lucky day?"  Then he flips the coin with a smile on his face and raises his pistol to his head, all while wearing a smile, the coin is settling on an unknown edge and we get a gunshot and blood on her portrait.  If ever there was an ending to Harvey Dent, this would be it for me.  It's beautiful and it shows a man who isn't fully clear of his good side and not truly ruled, as much as he appears to be, by fate.  Good does exist, but also shades of grey.   

I wasn't sold on this but it really is a big burn, albeit a slow one, to get to this stunning point in the series.  Give it a go, but if you are wary of the long build up with the other issues, just pick up this one and enjoy it for it's execution of a very three dimensional take on a classically one dimensional villain in the closing pages.    

8.5/10     

                                                                                       Written By Dan Stong