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Batman: Jekyll and Hyde # 6 Review posted: 02 Oct 2005 Writer: Paul Jenkins Artist: Sean Phillips Letters: Rob Leigh Colors: June Chung Publisher: DC Comics  3.50 out of 5 Stars Reviewed by Matt Yocum

Sometimes I’ve wondered if we could truly learn anything new about well-worn characters. For instance, Two-Face. The guy’s been around a long time, so surely there were no new depths to plumb. Paul Jenkins showed me how wrong I was. Jenkins managed to add a whole new layer to Two-Face, doing it in this gritty, hard-hitting Batman six-issue miniseries titled Jekyll & Hyde.

This series may have been overlooked by many because of the promotion and hype of DC Comics’ Infinite Crisis.

This series may have been overlooked by many because of the promotion and hype of DC Comics’ Infinite Crisis miniseries out right now: Day of Vengeance, The OMAC Project, Rann-Thanagar War, and Villains United. While not part of the momentum of DC stories building toward Crisis, this series managed to tell an isolated tale that, in my mind, far exceeded what’s currently coming out in Batman’s regular series books.

Spoiler alert: Don’t eat the ice cream. Two-Face tainted it with a drug that will turn you insane. Batman has to stop Two-Face before it spreads to the entire population of Gotham. This issue finds the final confrontation between Batman and Two-Face, while Two-Face is doing his own internal confrontation between his two halves.

Paul Jenkins has been hit or miss for me. “Miss” for his current Revelations from Dark Horse (see my recent review). “Hit” for his Marvel miniseries Inhumans. “Miss” for his work on Marvel’s Spectacular Spider-Man. And now here, another hit. And this hit was out of the park. There were simply so many moments in this issue that gripped me. What Harvey Dent does in the end to himself, or rather to his alter-ego self, Two-Face, will stun you. Let’s just say the two of them, according to a doctor, have a fifty-fifty chance to survive.

Something else that worked well in this book was letterer Rob Leigh’s different style of lettering to show when Harvey is speaking and when his other half speaks. Even the color of the letters shows green when Two-Face speaks, to match his green, scarred face.

What did not work for me was the art. Half of it, anyway. The first three issues of this series were illustrated by Jae Lee, and the art and darkness were perfect for Jenkins’ story. The second half art came courtesy of Sean Phillips, and it simply did not work. No one’s art reminds you that our heroes and villains are merely lines on paper like Sean Phillips. You can’t simply stick a few lines together, call it Batman, and sell it for $2.99. His wooden figures in stiff poses don’t work. There was only one image in this issue that did work for me: a dark silhouette of Commissioner Gordon smoking a cigarette. Other than that I say give me Jae Lee.

At the end I was torn on what rating to give this series. As Batman said in this issue, “All men are two men, Harvey, whether you like it or not.” One of me said three stars; the other said 3.5 stars. Paul Jenkins’ writing was solid, if not inspired, throughout. But I loved Jae Lee’s work and did not like Sean Phillips the slightest bit. So I took a cue from the story and flipped a coin. 3.5 stars.

Comments about my comments? Feel free to email me at myocum@comiccritique.com.