Passion

Batman: Dark Victory #11
October 2000

Two-Face has finally been caught and charged with the Hang Man murders, but the trial doesn't go as planned.Eleven parts down, only two to go, and this maxi-series looks ever-increasingly likely to have a cop-out ending, like its predecessor, The Long Halloween. I hated the way the prior series left much unresolved, it was an obvious setup for this series, but hopefully I'm wrong and the last two issues will reveal all. Not so on the evidence of this one, pretty much filling in time, with the main investigation not progressing at all. Two-Face is in jail awaiting trial after unexpectedly surrendering at the end of last issue - we, the readers, know he's not the Hang Man, as it would be too obvious (unless the good side of Two-Face is forcing him to leave clues pointing the finger heavily in his direction), but he manipulates the District Attorney into having all the incriminating evidence against him, so when the inevitable break-out comes, he can take it all with him.Whilst waiting for the trial to begin, Batman and Dick Grayson (not yet Robin, but having been taken into Batman's confidence) track down the man responsible for the murder of Grayson's parents, and they kill him. Well, alright, they don't actually kill him, just chase him through the streets, hit him with a staff a couple of times, and he dies of a heart attack. That's manslaughter in my book, and slightly out of odds with Batman's character - at least Dick Grayson has the grace to look concerned at what they've done.The death of the month is almost a throwaway right at the end of the issue - with so many cops meeting their maker, you wouldn't have thought there were many left to follow-up the investigations!The final secret the series appears to be trying to hint at is the whereabouts of Gilda Dent, Two-Face's wife, who went missing at the end of The Long Halloween. Loeb appears to be heavy-handedly implying that she and D.A. Janice Porter are one and the same: again, maybe this is too obvious?