BBH, with the expected TMI and NSFW in Book Six: Trying to Hold On 2019

Harvey Dent, Harvey Two Face, Harvey “Apollo” Dent, etc. was first introduced in Detective Comics #66 (August 1942) and was created, as most of the truly great Batman characters were, by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. However… those aliases weren’t exactly how he debuted. In Detective Comics 66, the character has the name Harvey “Apollo” Kent. Of course, the consonant changed from a K to a D when the Batman Universe and Superman Universe simply became the DC Universe to avoid any mistaken association to Superman or Clark’s family.

It may surprise people to know how little Two Face appeared in the early days. He only had three appearances in the 1940s and only 2 appearances in the 1950s. Well, true appearances. There may or may not have been some flubs and/or retconning that happened. Another brilliant turn, however, happened in 1971 due to Dennis “Denny” O’Neil. Denny is considered one of the great professionals in comics. There is always argument over who should be considered a true titan in the industry but there are names that should just be… auto-included. Stan Lee, duh. Jack Kirby, duh. Bob Kane, duh. Bill Finger, duh. But then you get into the “modern names” Denny O’Neil. Chris Claremont. Brian Michael Bendis. Jim Lee. Todd Mcfarlane. Rob Liefeld. These names may be arguable… but they are certainly well known and respected! In 1971, Denny O’Neil brought Two Face back and officially made him part of Batman’s recurring Rogue’s Gallery.

In 1986, after signing a contract that required a “Batman Year One” story, Frank Miller was convinced by Denny O’Neil to make the “Batman Year One” not simply another Graphic Novel (like The Dark Knight Returns) but a serialized part of A New History for Batman, due to lagging sales of the comic. After the release of Batman Year One in the early spring of 1987, Andrew Helfer rewrote Two Face’s history. This was detailed in Batman Annual (vol 1.) #14 (March 1990) which had Harvey Two Face’s image as the prominent art on the cover. The new origin emphasized both Dent’s status as a tragic character as well as his prior friendship to both Batman and Commissioner Gordon; which raised the emotional stakes of the interactions considerably. Harvey Dent’s new personal background included an abusive, alcoholic father, and early struggles with bipolar disorder and paranoia.

Other writers would play with the history and biography of Harvey Dent and Two Face. Jeph Loeb used a great deal of the Year One characterizations for his Long Halloween/Dark Victory Graphic Novels. Of course, Bruce Timm and the animated series had their crack at the character. As did James Robinson, of course. The comic book writers have played with Harvey and his past a lot, especially in recent years. But so to have other forms of Media. Video Games, Television Series, and of course: Movies.

Considering my personal tastes, it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise that I prefer the Frank Miller/Jeph Loeb story for Two Face most of all. The District Attorney working closely with Batman and Jim Gordon. The abusive and complicated relationship with his father. The pre-existing psychological history. And the cinematic way that Dent was essentially driven into becoming Two Face. As his passion and frustration collide in trying to stop the Crime Families… the Crime Family Murders, The Holiday Killer‘s spree… looks more and more like Harvey Dent’s handiwork. As he becomes a suspect, he loses the support of his friends Batman and Jim Gordon. He’s looked at less and less like “one of the good guys” and put under the microscope of suspicion. Then suddenly, thanks to a betrayal in his own office, he’s attacked. During trial, a Mafia Witness throws acid at Harvey and burns away half of his face. The father… the psychological history… the emotional trauma… the physical trauma… it’s enough to make Mr. Dent snap. But not, as it seems, so significantly as someone like The Joker. Harvey simply turns his attentions to criminally going after criminals. Murder and theft of Mafia-backed businesses and individuals. Of course… Batman is an enemy for various reasons. But the first major crimes are against the same people that Harvey would have prosecuted. Thus, actually, why The Joker hates Two Face. I’ll approximate the statement from memory, but in Dark Victory The Joker says something along the lines of “What a waste. He had the opportunity to entirely re-invent himself and all he wanted to do was kill some gangsters? He didn’t change at all!”

Of course… many years later in the Jeph Loeb penned Hush arc, Thomas Elliot is able to fix Harvey’s face. Harvey Dent reemerges. Two Face is no more. To the point where Batman trusts Harvey again and even asks him to watch Gotham as Batman had to “disappear” for a year (One Year Later Arc). When Batman comes back? Same old issues. Harvey is the prime suspect in the murder of 4 supervillains. Batman doesn’t accept that Harvey is the killer and investigates… but doesn’t reassure Harvey. Harvey sees his life spiraling out of control again… again the Prime Suspect for murders he didn’t commit… again betrayed by Batman and The Law… again all the same signs of chaos and chance and torment. And Harvey… pours acid on his own face. Harvey damages himself to complete the renewal and resurrection of Two Face. Of course, it was all bullshit. The supervillains had been murdered under the direction of Warren White, AKA Great White Shark. But it was too late.

The rest is pulled from the Wikipedia article as I still need to finish collecting The New 52 and start on my Rebirth collection:

In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC’s continuity. In this new timeline, Two Face’s origin is revised significantly. Harvey Dent is a successful defense attorney whose clientele includes twin sisters from the McKillen crime family, Shannon and Erin. The sisters coerce Dent to become their family’s legal retainer for life. They then place a contract on James Gordon and his entire family, despite Dent’s protestations. The Gordons survive the attempt on their lives, but Dent, trapped by attorney-client confidentiality, is unable to dissuade the McKillens from continuing their lethal vendetta. The violent attempt on the Gordons’ lives prompts Bruce Wayne to use his resources to initiate and fund Dent’s campaign for district attorney. Dent becomes D.A. and has the McKillen sisters prosecuted and sentenced to life in prison. After Shannon commits suicide, Erin escapes by switching places with her sister’s corpse. Blaming Dent for her sister’s death, Erin breaks into Dent’s house, kills Gilda in front of him, and pours acid on his face, transforming him into Two-Face.

Several panels of Batman and Robin #28 imply that Two-Face committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.

In DC Rebirth rebooted universe, it does not appear that Two Face’s history has been significantly altered. It is not stated whether Rebirth Two Face has the New 52 Timeline History (sans suicide) or the Pre 52 Timeline History.

I bet some of you may be wondering right now: What the hell? lol
On the drive to work today, the wind and the rain whipping through the farm fields, the sky as dark as night… I just felt a little… Two Facey. A little… darker… personally. And I was considering Big Bad Harvey (a reference from the Bruce Timm animated series) and the various versions of Two Face that have existed. And so… I wrote that! And when my memory or references couldn’t be relied upon… I double checked DC’s publication history. At least until the Wikipedia portion… because the last New 52 “Villain Origin” I had seen was Riddler and then my collection stopped due to financial reasons and law school demands.

I have a car appointment because my car needs work this afternoon. Which means I’ll be working from home after lunch. Honestly, I’m kind of looking forward to it. Working from Home basically means I have my computer open and connected to the Remote Server so that any e-mails can be responded to quickly and efficiently. It also means that instead of driving 30 minutes home, immediately changing into workout gear and driving 5 minutes to the gym… I can just go to the gym when work is over. Get that taken care of early so instead of finally “coming home” around 7, maybe Wife and I can hit the gym at 5 and be home before 7!!

Social Media Responses

(1) I find it funny that Trumpist Cousin is dedicating his social media space today to why he is passionately against taxes. Like… if I felt he would understand the joke, I’d be laughing riotously right now. This is the same kid that was shrieking “BUILD THE WALL!” Does he… does he not know where funds for that wall come from? This is the same kid that says, “Thank God we finally have a president that cares about the troops again!” Does he… does he not know where the paychecks, health care, and equipment for those troops comes from? He talks up Trump like the doofus was a personal friend but… does he not know that the Tax Cuts for the Rich significantly increased the deficit? It’s like… woooow. I knew that a lot of people that still support Trump have no concept of how government is supposed to work but… woooooooooow.

(2) HA! A good friend accidentally touched one of my Hot Buttons. They were quoting Lane Moore who said “there’s no such thing as nonconsensual sex. if someone doesn’t consent, it’s not sex, it’s rape. calling it ‘nonconsensual sex’ is like calling robbing a bank a ‘nonconsensual loan.’ stop it.”

Why is this one of my Hot Buttons? Well, aside from it being about rape (a personal and professional concern) this also goes directly to Comic Books and the discussion of whether a man can ever be raped by a woman. Nightwing #93-95, female Comic Book writer Devin Grayson writes the following scene:
Nightwing is badly beaten, lying in the street. He is immobile and his student, Tarantula, is there. Instead of helping her mentor get to safety… she rapes him in the street. Nightwing even specifically says, “Don’t… touch me, I’m…” to which Tarantula simply says, “Everything’s all right, baby. It’s all okay.” Before raping him.

During an interview about this scene, Grayson was asked about the controversial topic of “male rape”. Her response? “I never used the word ‘rape,’ I just said it was nonconsensual.”

RAGE INDUCING. Especially coming from a female writer! NOT “especially coming from a female writer because it was a male being raped.” The truth is men have been writing rape scenes about female victims and I’m not going to sit here and pretend only Men can write Men rape and Women can write Women rape. BUT seeing as how men are raised to think “rape isn’t that big a thing” and women are raised “rape happens, protect yourself” it seems downright calloused to quibble “nonconsensual” from a female writer!

DC, of course, didn’t learn DICK from this fiasco. There is argument to be had here, but I say they revisit this same bullshit in the unacceptable prologue of the animated The Killing Joke. The prologue is fucking awful for every reason that exists but a primary change is that Barbara Gordon doesn’t become Batgirl out of concern for her father or concern for her city or any of those reasons. She becomes Batgirl to get Batman’s attention as she is romantically and sexually fixated on Batman. Then during this prologue, she verbally and physically attacks Batman, subdues him, kisses him, and has sex with him. The argument is over whether she “forced herself on him” but since he’s against the idea of getting close to her for the entire film? And the actions that led to that sex were verbal and physical attacks by her? Yeah, I’m gonna go ahead and say that was RAPEY.

And this just continues and perpetuates that terrifying and horrible bullshit narrative that “men aren’t raped, they are rapists. men can’t be raped.” Uhm… not fucking true!!

It was at this time that I stopped writing and read Prosebox Bookmarks. lol

I’m getting too in my head again. In some ways. I can tell when I ramble on and on here in my space but find myself incapable of articulately commenting or intelligently engaging others. It means that the eye is being a bit too inward and I’m having trouble looking through other people’s lenses.

Though, that being said? I’m really glad to read people here for LOTS of different reasons. Allow me to attempt to articulate some of that.

You may have read about my weekend and my Monday.
Last night, I made a conscious choice not to play video games. To just… spend time with the Wife. We went to bed after TV time and it was just… a regular evening. I woke up at around 5 because Wife was moving around in bed a bit. Maybe a bad dream, maybe body discomfort, something. Shoot, I should mention something here. My wife is NOT a cuddler. She is NOT a spooner. Pretty much, the last woman that I had “fall asleep in my arms” was Thompson the year before my pain was diagnosed! SOoooo.... yeah. Much like receiving or giving oral sex… it has been 15 years since I’ve been involved with a woman who liked “being in my arms asleep.” But this morning, Wife had rolled onto her side, facing away from me, and I was awake. I stole my chance. Yes, I stole cuddles from my wife. I sidled over and pressed my naked chest into her naked back, placed my hand on top of the covers covering her thigh, and breathed in a contented sigh; laying there, spooning my wife for a few minutes. As has been true for our entire marriage, something about skin to skin contact with her calms me and centers me. I rolled back over to my side of the bed and tried to sleep again. I didn’t. Wife kept moving, facing me, her breasts exposed. Then moves again… now in her Alligator Phase where the covers spin around her and mummify her below her neck. I got up and started reading Chyoo (Chose Your Own Adventure Erotic Story site) and masturbated to a combination of Erotic Story and POV/Dirty Talk videos.

And for just a brief moment, my mind was flooded with a number of thoughts related to that activity.

(1) I certainly would prefer to orgasm every day. However, and this is true from experience, sex releases a greater orgasm than masturbation. I can’t say personally, but I do think I wouldn’t feel such a desire to orgasm every day if it were a sex-induced orgasm. Then I do believe I could be quite satisfied with once a week!

(2) Either way, I’m certainly happy to read from women that prefer sex! Frankly, my experiences being almost exclusively Aku and Wife… I’ve no decent basis for what is and is not considered excessive. So reading PB writers who are women and desire sex every month, or every week, or every day… at least makes me feel like, perhaps, my desires aren’t “uncontrolled lust” and might simply be “acceptable personal preferences.”

(3) Whenever I find myself in a position like this, I tend to worry Am I attracted to Wife or am I just hard up? Which is stupid because that isn’t ME saying that; that’s Wife! Wife constantly defers and deflects when I tell her how pretty her eyes are, or if her face looks good, or if her body is looking good. Any “wow, you look good today” is immediately blocked with, “You’re just hard up.” And when, like now, it has been 2 months and could be “until who knows when”… that deflection crawls up into my brain and starts asking itself. Would you still be attracted to your wife if you were having sex regularly? Best I can say? It depends. And it depends on what many would consider the most base, vulgar, and crass concept. Let’s say I consider my wife a 7 most of the time. As I get “hard up” (as she says) that number rises to an 8. Now, asking the question again.... would you still be attracted to your wife if you were having sex regularly? That depends on the person I’d be having sex regularly with. If that sex was still with my wife? Than yes, of course. If that sex was with someone that I would consider a 4 or 5? Yes of course. If that sex was with someone that I would consider an 8 or 9? I’m willing to say probably not.

(4) Another unusual and unfortunate thing pops to mind when my brain is like this. The ever haunting question of cheating. Am I capable of it? Yes, actually. I don’t like saying that but I’m also the guy that thinks all people are capable of all things if the circumstances align perfectly. So I start by accepting that. Because circumstances DO exist where I would cheat no question… even if those circumstances are insanely improbable. If my Wife and I hadn’t had sex in years, my Wife was jilling herself off and actively being withholding, and Emma Watson came over to offer me a shag? Yeah. Obviously. BUT the more important question… it is humorous to know one’s ceiling… the impossible scenario that would be “circumstances aligning” but… what are the more real circumstances? What would it honestly be to get me to cheat? That’s something that I don’t like thinking about… but I know I should think about it. Because I’m an attorney, and I’m the kind of person that needs to think about scenarios and consider responses on the off chance that such a scenario would ever present itself. And the tragedy is… I’m not as strong or as honorable as I wish I was.

Two scenarios spring to mind where the answer would be a quick and hasty yes.
(a) I get a text message from Raven saying that she’s missed me. She’s in the Ramada Tropics Resort in Des Moines and wants to see me. Then yes. I’d tell Wife that I had to go to Des Moines for work, meet Raven at the Resort, and see what happened.
(b) I get a phone call from Aoife. She’s left her firm in Minnesota and is staying with her dad in Des Moines. She wants to see me to catch up and try to figure out what she wants to do with her career. I tell Wife that I have a friend who needs me and race to Des Moines. And if things led to a more adult nature… yes.

I hate knowing that about myself. But what I hate even more is knowing that I don’t feel as bad as I should knowing that about myself. And that is a perfect example of who I am as a person. My aunt often says:
Chris is a worrier. He even worries about worry. You’ll be able to see him and a look of concern crosses his face and that’s the moment. He realized he wasn’t worried about something, so now he’s worried about why he wasn’t worried and he’s worried that by not worrying he is forgetting something that he should be worried about!

I’m like that with this. I feel bad that I can articulate two specific scenarios where I would cheat on my wife. I feel really bad about that knowledge. But that knowledge and that bad feeling aren’t enough to change that knowledge. I feel bad knowing this, but that bad feeling doesn’t guilt me into taking it back. So I feel even worse because I don’t feel as bad as I should.

I’ll finish this out with a twist on the photo spread. AFTER each photo, I’ll mention why I’m putting it here.

This is definitely one of those fun “Younger generations will never know” kind of pictures. Like… our parents were all, “We had to walk to school in the snow! Five miles, uphill, both ways!!” Whereas we’re have, “We had to use the phone to use the internet. Nobody could get phone calls because there were no cell phones. And if someone picked up the phone, you would be disconnected from the internet!”

Perhaps I shouldn’t say anything as I am not dressing any children myself but… observational evidence? Shit yeah. I see kids that are looking more fashionable than their parents! And I’m thinking… kids… that would never have been in my day. Parents get the fashion funding because they work. I wear hand-me downs and shit clothing because I’m going to grow out of my shit either this year or next year. My parents would never have spent “a few hundred” on an outfit unless it was going to stay with me for decades!

I was and am still shit with my CDs in my car. And I don’t have an iPod or anything like that for my car. I’m still using CDs. And I’m still shit with them.

This is the exact CD Case I’m still using. This… is also why and how I’m shit with my Car CDs.

Oh hell, this is another thing that I still definitely do. I mean… I’ll have a laptop open if I’m looking for hard to find locations… but codes and anything like that… piece of paper. Still.

Oh GOSH! I had forgotten all about this until I saw this picture!! I REMEMBER!

I actually genuinely struggled with whether to include this. Because it honestly sincerely deeply bothers me that we can’t see her face!! Like… irks me. But I shared because… against my better judgment… those denim shorts still do it for me.

I don’t know if I’m weird or not but… I really like the thigh pictured here and I do genuinely like this outfit. It makes me think Beach Vacation.

Honestly… just shared because I like how stark the contrast is to make it look like two separate photos.

I love this and want this. That would be “the perfect cutting board set up”

This is quality work!

Honestly? Go her! I love when a disability doesn’t prevent someone from doing what they want to do!

Almost didn’t share this. Instead, I’m sharing it to make a statement. When I say, “I wish my Wife would do more than just take her underwear off and say ‘okay, we can sex’… I’m talking about this. Like… it isn’t a whole mess of something. But… intentionally doing or wearing something sexy? I feel like I’ll be judged for saying this but… that doesn’t seem like too much to ask.

Because sometimes… timing makes all the difference!

Has nothing to do with the women and everything to do with… wanting to be there just soaking in the sound of the ocean

This is an example of the thoughts in my head. Everything about this picture says to me “This is exactly the kind of woman I would date.” But then as I look closer? I just… something in the eyes makes me think… danger… and I can’t articulate it, but it makes me uncomfortable.

Love the hair, love the outfit

And… because this shit needs to be heard: