This is another one I had at some point, and recently pulled from the dollar bins at least twice, so by rule...From 1989,
Batman Annual #13, "Faces" Written by James (Priest) Owsley, pencils by Michael Bair, inks by Gray Morrow.
So over on
Progressive Ruin, there was a recent discussion about whether or not Commissioner Gordon knows Bruce Wayne is Batman. The consensus is, probably? But he pretends not to know, out of respect for his friend, and doubtless for liability reasons, to protect the department. I'd like that more, if Jim still hung out with Bruce; especially after an issue like this one, where Alfred would be serving brandy and Bruce would have to sit there and nod politely while getting read the riot act secondhand: "Batman absolutely screwed the pooch on this one, Bruce. Completely dropped the ball. The nerve of that guy, who does he think he is...?" Probably a solid 45 minutes of that.
This issue begins with a prologue to (arguably) cheerier times, although it's maybe a brief window, when Jason Todd was Robin and Batgirl was still occasionally active. A cop is killed in a bombing, and Batman tells Gordon it was planted by Freddie Richards, an associate of Two-Face. Both Freddie and Two-Face are captured; and Gordon briefly confronts Batgirl, saying he thought Barbara had hung up the cape: I didn't think he knew that!
Years later, Freddie was going to get the chair for killing a cop, but Bruce watches a tape of a Jack Ryder news special, interviewing members of Two-Face's gang hiding out in Santa Prisca, and one admits he killed the cop Freddie was going to fry for. Batman goes to Gordon to request custody of Two-Face for 72 hours; but doesn't pick the best time: asking him at his wife's grave, with the now-wheelchair bound Barbara. Gordon flatly tells him no; Batman proceeds anyway, disguising himself as a doctor and busting Two-Face out of Gotham. (I wonder if Bats uses his Batman-voice so Harvey knows him, but Two-Face claims he knew immediately.) Batman feels like he helped finger Freddie--ugh, phrasing--and refuses to let him die for a crime he didn't commit, regardless of what he would have to do. Starting with, keeping Two-Face in a cage in the Batcave, while Bruce Wayne plays dumb with Gordon during a Wayne Mansion fundraiser.
Batman and Two-Face hitch a ride on a cargo transport dropping medical supplies for Santa Prisca, and Two-Face is more than a little irritated that his crew has forgotten their place. Batman is more mad, since in the background of the Ryder interview, was the cop that had allegedly been murdered in the first place! He'd been on the take; which doesn't quite line up: Barbara had been a friend of his, she probably would have recognized him and could've backed up Batman's side of this story. Batman suggests Two-Face let the coin decide, but his goons show up first, and his 'coin' is cracked open, revealing some kind of gyroscope: Batman had slipped him a fake! Two-Face is livid, sure, but also disappointed: Bats had cheated, which seemed unworthy of him. He leaves Batman in a death trap, that he of course escapes from; and Batman realizes a crooked cop might find work in a crooked country as a crooked cop again.
While he manages to get both the crooked cop and Two-Face to the airplane, they both take off running, leaving Batman with a perverse
Sophie's Choice: he only has time to catch one of them. Batman chooses the cop, and manages to get a stay of execution for Freddie Richards, but Gordon gives him an earful. There had been a body in the bombing, who's to say Freddie didn't kill whoever that had been? He hadn't been an innocent by any account. And what crimes would Two-Face commit while on the loose? Batman knows, he kind of broke his trust with Two-Face, and he could be worse going forward. Let's see if we can run that down: this came out
April 1989, and I think Two-Face would next appear shortly in
"A Lonely Place of Dying," but that was a crossover with Titans and introduced Tim Drake, right? I don't know if this issue was mentioned. And Priest would get to
write some Batman again, but it would be a while.
Also this issue: "Waiting in the Wings," by Kevin Dooley and Malcolm Jones III. Mid-
Year One, Alfred tells Bruce he's quitting, to pursue his acting career. (Spoiler alert: he doesn't!) There's also several updated
Who's Who style pages, including one for Vicki Vale, who had virtually been written out of the book by then.
I’d like to think he knows, but pretends not to for the reasons you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteI think the answer to all of those questions is ‘sorta’.
ReplyDeleteI think Gordon doesn’t know for sure but he’s got strong suspicions that have never been disproven. Also, I think this (or at least the prologue) was still in that nebulous time where nobody was sure what still counted post-Crisis. Barbara had revealed her identity to him sometime in the late 70’s/early 80’s, shortly before she mostly gave up being Batgirl.
A Lonely Place of Dying was Tim’s proper introduction but he cameoed in Year Three, which was right before that one. I feel like Two-Face appeared in something between this one and that but I forget what- definitely didn’t reference this incident though.
Priest wrote the Batman story that was out the same month as this but that one was probably written after this one (I think annual stories are usually written before the monthlies because they take longer to get ready). And Vicki Vale got written back in less than a year after this, during the second half of Alan Grant’s Detective run.
Pretty sure Matt Wagner also did a Two-Face story called “Faces” as well, but that was in ‘92
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