Two-Face

And now, an artifact from an alternate timeline. Harvey Dent has led a deeply conflicted life. Possessing a split personality that veers between two extremes - good and evil - Dent goes by the name of Two-Face. It is an apt description of his physical appearance. Scarred by acid into outwardly becoming the monster he once hid away from the world, Two-Face has become a tragic figure and one of Batman's most unpredictable and dangerous opponents. That's a rather generic bio, isn't it? It could really apply to any version of Two-Face, not just this one. Of course, it's not like there was a "real" Batman '66 Two-Face for them to write about: there was a script featuring him written for the show back then (by Harlan Ellison, of all people!), but it was never shot; DC adapted it into a comic in 2014, so we at least have an idea of what his story might have been. With no real actor behind the character, McFarlane Toys didn't have to worry about getting a likeness right. Or getting any likeness rights. There was the Batman and Robin Meet Two-Face movie in 2016, but that was animated. And while William Shatner was a brilliant bit of casting for that, there was no way Batman was going to get him to actually play Harvey Dent in the mid-60s: Batman and Star Trek shot close together, so actors from one show would often drop by the set of the other, but it was only incidental folks who appeared in both, not the main stars (the most famous would probably be Frank Gorshin, who was also Star Trek's black-and-white race allegory guy). There's a persistent rumor that Clint Eastwood was up for the role, which isn't necessarily outside the realm of possibility: the Dollars trilogy wasn't released in the US until 1967, so he wasn't a major star yet, and he hadn't yet been so frightened by the failure of Paint Your Wagon that he began jealously guarding his career. But there's no obvious source for this claim - it's mentioned in Marc Eliot's 2009 book American Rebel: the Life of Clint Eastwood, but it was already appearing as an unsourced trivia fact online before that, so we can't count on the book being accurate. In 2007 you can find message board discussions about how Eastwood would have been a good choice, but no indication he actually was. It seems sometime around 2008, fan-casting got confused with real casting, and it's just rolled on from there. A lot of fans maintain (with even less basis than the Clint Eastwood rumor) that the TV show planned to change the origin to that of a TV newsreader who was disfigured when a studio light blew up in his face, aka Paul Sloane's (revised) origin. In Ellison's script, however, Two-Face's story was the one we're used to: District Attorney Harvey Dent was scarred by acid during the trial of mobster "Lucky" Morony. Yes, that's how he spelled it, not Maroni. The scarred side of this figure is mint green with white hair, and the skin almost appears scaly rather than dissolved. It's not hard to imagine this being too intense for the 1966 viewing audience, even without going to Tim Sale or Christopher Nolan levels. There have been Batman 66 villains wearing suits before, but this is a new sculpt - McToys didn't just divide Two-Face's clothes with paint, they gave the "ruined" side of his costume its own texture, as well. You have to get up close to spot it, since the halves of the suit are just solid colors; you have to wonder, had Harvey appeared on the TV show and become a recurring villain, would he always have been wearing the same thing, like Joker or Penguin did, or would they maybe have changed half his suit every time? Plaid, polka dots, tiger stripes, Jackson Pollock... they could have done anything, as long as it was half-and-half. This one is black on one side and pink on the other, providing plenty of contrast even before you consider the rough surface. He may be 100% made-up, but Two-Face doesn't get any less movement than the other figures, with swivel/hinge knees, a T-crotch, swivel waist, swivel/hinged elbows, swivel/​hinge shoulders, and a barbell head. It's not a lot, but it's consistent. Would you really want Todd to suddenly up the articulation at this point? Is your enjoyment of Two-Face really going to be vastly improved if he can do the splits, when not even Batman or Robin can? Yes, obviously we wish Mattel had done a better job when they started this line, and that Todd was copying that, but it's not like this is bad, just mediocre. Thankfully McFarlane seems to have moved past those clip-on sound effects at this point, but Harv still doesn't get any actual accessories. The figure includes a version of his famous double-sided coin, but it's sized for humans, not toys. It's much thicker than actual currency would be, but the diameter is comparable. Amusingly, the figure's hand is posed as though he's meant to be holding it himself - given how many times TV villains were trying to steal big silly props, you could easily pretend this was a real, scarred, giant coin being wielded by a real actor. The comic is a good read, and definitely captures the style of the old show perfectly; the movie manages to be even campier, with its own distinct - yet suitable - origin for Harvey (and [a] Catwoman, oddly enough). Both takes on the character are worth checking out, and it's nice that McToys has given us a figure. We hope they do more, like a Ted "Lurch" Cassidy Solomon Grundy, El Santo Bane, or even Christopher Lee Ra's al Ghul. -- 09/13/23