BATMAN #234 & #235

"HALF AN EVIL"
Story by: Denny O'Neil | Art by: Neal Adams & Dick Giordano | Edited by: Julie Schwartz

Note: Screenshots below come from BATMAN ILLUSTRATED BY NEAL ADAMS VOLUME 2 and are not representative of these stories' original colors (the covers are presented as published, however).

At some point in the late sixties, a decision was made to "retire" Batman's classic rogues' gallery for a time. This effort began prior to the first story we read, "One Bullet Too Many", and has been in place since then. In that time, both in the stories we've read and the issues we skipped, Batman has fought common criminals and new super-villains -- but there's been no sign of the classics such as Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, and so forth.

My understanding is that the villains were written out due to concerns of overexposure thanks to the Adam West TV series, plus the fact that the comics were going "back to basics" with more (relatively) grounded stories. But whatever the reason, the fact remains that until this issue, it had been some time since Batman had taken on any of his more recognizable enemies -- and even here, the first classic villain brought back is one who did not feature in the TV show.

But Two-Face is definitely a classic foe, having been created by Batman's co-creators themselves, Bob Kane and Bill Finger, in the forties. According to Wikipedia, he was mostly dropped following that decade, appearing only a small handful of times in the fifties and sixties -- I would assume due to his gruesome appearance conflicting with the values of the Comics Code Authority. But now, thanks to the creative duo of O'Neil and Adams, he's back.

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"It is hushed here... the only sounds are the muffled murmurings of swamp beasts and the gentle lap of water against grassy banks... and the only sights are the gaunt shape of an ancient vessel and the awesome figure of the dread--Batman.

But be not deceived by the serenity! There is danger in this peaceful place, mystery, and the shadow of death... for here lurks... Half an Evil.

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"Half an Evil" follows the standard Two-Face story formula -- some crimes are committed based on the number two, Batman strokes his lantern jaw for a few minutes, then decides Two-Face is the culprit. In this case, the disfigured villain is after some gold dubloons aboard an antique schooner on display in Gotham Bay. He sinks it, lets it drift to a nearby swamp, then raises it from the water and pillages the craft. He even gets the drop on Batman, who has arrived in advance (having deduced Two-Face's intention). But, in that classic Two-Face twist, Batman convinces the villain to flip his coin to decide on a course of action, and the result of that toss gives Batman the opportunity to defeat his foe.

As usual, the story is good, and elevated by Adams' artwork. Also, O'Neil actually uses the word "Batmobile" for the first time in any of these issues we've examined. Previously, it was referred to as a car, an auto, and so forth. This story also features our first look at Arthur Reeves, a recurring character created by O'Neil several months earlier in DETECTIVE COMICS #399. Reeves is an anti-Batman city councilman utilized by O'Neil, and occasionally by other writers, throughout the seventies -- frequently for comic relief. The character even appeared in the animated movie, BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM, though his dark-haired appearance there bore little similarity to the bespectacled redhead of the comics.

"SWAMP SINISTER"
Story by: Denny O'Neil | Art by: Irv Novick & Dick Giordano | Edited by: Julie Schwartz

The next issue of BATMAN sees O'Neil add a new chapter to the saga of Ra's al Ghul. This time, instead of Bob Brown, who drew the first three parts, or Neal Adams, who drew al Ghul's actual first appearance, O'Neil teams up with Irv Novick, who we haven't seen since this review series began with BATMAN 217 -- but Novick has been involved in Batman's adventures consistently since that issue, just in stories we haven't examined. But now that he's back, I feel I should note that, in my opinion, Novick is second -- a very close second -- only to Neal Adams as the definitive Batman artist of this era in the character's history.

We'll see more polished pencilers later on, such as Jim Aparo and Marshall Rogers, but Novick has something those two lack -- something I can't quite describe. His interpretations of Batman, Alfred, Ra's al Ghul, and others are perfectly in line with Adams' tone-setting work, but Novick brings his own harsh, angular style to the work. I'm sure the assistance of Dick Giordano on inks helps a lot, but whatever it is about Novick, I really like him. In particular, I feel his Bruce Wayne is definitive, even moreso than Adams'

Anyway -- This story actually sees Batman team up with Ra's al Ghul. A corpse is shipped to Bruce Wayne's penthouse, and al Ghul arrives soon after to reveal the deceased is one of his scientists, who was killed by his own artificial plague when some of al Ghul's rivals raided his lab. The Demon's Head tells Bruce that Talia believed him killed as well, and set out to wreak vengeance on her father's murderers -- but she's unaware of the plague in their possession, and al Ghul needs Batman to stop her before she accidentally looses it on the world.

So Batman heads out, does some detecting, finds Talia in a hidden swamp laboratory (did O'Neil realize he wrote two swamp-centric stories two months in a row?), and stops her from making a terrible mistake. The story ends and the relationships between Batman, Talia, and Ra's al Ghul remain pretty much exactly where they were when last we saw them. Notably, there's no mention anywhere in this story to how their previous encounter ended -- we still don't know whatever happened after Batman learned that A) Talia loves him and B) Ra's wants him to take over the family business. That story was only published three months prior to this one, so it's not like readers would've forgotten the threads. It's really bizarre that O'Neil pays no lip service to them here, other than having Talia kiss our hero and refer to him as "my dear Batman" on the final page.

Lastly, it's quite evident at this point that Talia was lying and play-acting in her first appearance, "Into the Den of the Death Dealers" -- as noted then, she said she was a medical student and she was presented as a damsel in distress, horrified when she was forced to kill Doctor Darrk. But here she struts around with a machine gun under one arm, ordering her father's paid killers about like a seasoned commander, even to the shock of Batman himself. I still don't know if O'Neil is ret-conning himself here or if he truly intended deceit on Talia's part in the prior story, but in either case the end result is the same: the Daughter of the Demon has been more than she claimed to be since the very beginning (and she's much more interesting now as a result).