Batman and Two-Face #27

Does everybody else also pronounce different fonts with different voices?

Last issue, Batman was trapped in a grave under a marble statue. That's it for the wrap up! Time to feel sort of confused and not that entertained by this Two-Face and Erin McKillaman story. I suppose I don't really care about Two-Face and Erin's drama. Bringing Batman into the middle of it only makes it mildly more interesting. This is not an objective review of this story. It very well might be an entertaining and well written piece. But I lost interest in it way back when I saw "Two-Face" where "Robin" used to be.

So this happens:

This is the part of the comic where Batman stops hanging from the cliff from last issue.

Batman has a moment where he remembers all of the other issues that he's been in lately that also did not star Robin. Thanks a lot, Grant Morrison. Way to ruin a comic book title that I was really enjoying by killing one of the main characters. Jerko. Now I'm stuck reading five issues worth of Two-Face and Erin McKillertime constantly whining about the past. Is Batman in the middle of this so he can learn that living in the past is boring and makes for tedious stories? Is he finally going to get over Robin's death because he doesn't want to end up pouting and kicking the dirt and blaming others for all of his mistakes like these two jerks are doing?

Probably not because Batman's probably going to hunt down Ra's al Ghul and his Robin Factory soon.

Batman loses Harvey to more thugs but manages to save Erin McMckill. It's at that point that everybody is ready for another flashback.

I was going to scan something from the flashback but let me just summarize it because the fucking last couple of pages of this comic book are the best pages of The New 52 so far. So back at the beginning of all of the flashbacks that have been happening, Harvey Dent was the Family Attorney for the McKillen Clan. But Erin and Shannon tried to have Gordon assassinated right in front of his family but Gordon kills the assassins. Dent flips the fuck out and tells them he won't be a party to that kind of bullshit. They laugh at him because they know he's trapped in the job what with attorney/client privilege and all that jazz. But when Bruce Wayne talks to him about becoming the District Attorney, Harvey Dent agrees. In that position, he's able to help put the sisters behind bars which is why Erin blames him for Shannon's death. He was supposed to be on their side and he betrayed them.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's get on with a few scans of some awesome shit. First, let me say that the first off, I'm fairly certain that Bueno Excellente appeared in Issue #3 of Batman, Inc. as one of Matches Malone's henchmen. Here's the brief appearance:

"The Living Death." I think that's a euphemism for male anal rape.

So at the end of this issue, Batman and Erin come up out of the sewers in an old bootlegging tunnel which happens to open up inside a familiar old bar in The Cauldron.

The guy with the fake hand is Hacken, one of the only survivors of the Hitman series. He cut off his own hand when it was bitten by a zombie seal. I think it was a seal. It was definitely a zombie.

"Closing Time" was, I believe, the name of the last story arc in Hitman as well. Fitting, of course, and I'm sure Tomasi is paying tribute to that with Hacken's words. The name Ryan doesn't mean anything to me but it's probably a call back to something I've forgotten.

As Batman is about to leave, Two-Face appears tied up on the television with a voice-over stating that he will be the first of Gotham's evils to be eradicated. And that's where the issue ends. But that's not the most important part of the final page. This is:

The picture in the lower corner is Natt the Hat, Hacken, and Tommy Monoghan, aka Hitman. The round, partial picture to the right of the television is Baytor, the Bartender from Hell. Next to that is Section 8 with Sixpack, Dog-Welder, The Defenestrator, Bueno Excellente, Friendly Fire, and the guy that spit all the time. I can't remember his name. And beneath that is Sean Noonan himself, original owner of the bar. And the tape inside the machine with "LOBO" scrawled on it is footage of Bueno Excellente in a wedding dress teaching Lobo the meaning of the term "The Living Death."

The sad part about all of this is that it means Hitman has had his time in The New 52 and it ran out years ago. It's possible Ringo Chen could appear at some point, maybe becoming The New 52 Hitman since he was just as good and possibly better at killing than even Tommy himself. I'm happy to see Tomasi acknowledge one of the most fun (if a bit gruesome at times, and deadly serious at others) comic book series of the Preboot Years. And I like to think that Hacken watches the shit out of Lobo and Bueno's wedding night.

Batman and Two-Face #27 Rating: No change. As I said before, I'm not super interested in this story. But fuck if I can't thank Tomasi enough for that bit of Hitman Nostalgia he infused into this comic book. It's nice to know that Noonan's Sleazy Bar and Hacken are still out their in a little section of Gotham called The Cauldron.