This is
one of the few designs from the incredible Batman:
Arkham games series that I
am not crazy about.
My
problem stems mostly from the fact that Harvey apparently never saw
fit to change his clothes after he got blown up. It’s a little
ridiculous. This look would have been fine for his first appearance,
but in the forthcoming Arkham
Knights he is still wearing
this half-burned suit. I get that the game designers probably wanted
to lean more towards burned-up Aaron Eckhardt than blue-faced Richard
Moll, but I really do think Gotham’s former District Attorney might
have gotten some new duds by this point.
Regardless,
I am thoroughly entrenched in collecting this line, so I wasn’t
about to pass up the representation of one of my favorite Batman
villains.
FIRST
GLANCE
Here,
of course, is the bottom line of Arkham
game design – Two-Face does look cool. And that is of the utmost
importance in these games. I think he could still look cool if they
kept the white suit half and made the other some kind of tailored
fabric armor or something. Nothing ridiculous like the sort of
designs the New 52 or Injustice
offered us, but something stylized enough to fit into the Arkham
series.
PACKAGING
This,
sadly, is not one of those nifty new easy-to-open clamshells. It’s
the old school kind that requires scissors. I still like the shape of
the bubble on the front, though. I do wish DCC would go ahead and put
individual bios on the backs of these.
LOOKS
This
figure captures something that doesn’t always come across with
depictions of Two-Face – Harvey Dent is a big, imposing dude.
I
love the stance and posture of this figure. That raised left shoulder
is downright disturbing, because you just know that the burned flesh
is drawn up into that position permanently. It’s a creepy and
grotesque touch.
The
burned portions are almost exactly like the movie Two-Face’s look.
The sculpted detail is fantastic and is enhanced by an amazing number
of well-applied paint applications. That little circle of leftover
ear on his head is just horrifying. What’s really impressive is how
well the sculpt and colors of the head and arm match up. Even the
hinge at the elbow has some texture and great paint coverage.
The
burned half of the suit is kind of weird to examine because it has a
bunch of holes in it that I’m pretty sure are supposed to be
showing exposed skin (meaning we will almost certainly get a stupid
Japanese statue of a female version of this Two-Face smiling and
giving a peace sign), but the shape conforms to the shape of the
suit. So you have burned leg just under the surface of the suit, but
not far enough back to be where the leg should be. So it looks like
the left half of Two-Face’s body is suit-shaped. It’s a minor
quibble and something you only really notice upon closer inspection,
but it’s there and it’s a little weird.
Otherwise
the holes and ragged parts do look great. They have a very random,
natural look that doesn’t have the appearance of a planned sculpt
at all. The hang of the suit is also great – the lines agree with
the raised shoulder.
The
undamaged side of the figure is bright and clean, from the generic,
good-looking guy face to the crisp white suit. Harvey’s unburned
skin looks an awful lot like the skin on a NECA figure – it has
that almost translucent quality that makes it look so lifelike. The
painted details on the face are precise. This is something that DCC
is really
good at.
The
right hand is sculpted specifically to hold the included scarred
dollar coin and the left is sculpted to hold the pistol.
All
of the articulation is worked into the sculpt quite nicely
considering that most of this figure is just a guy in a suit. The
folds of the fabric were used to blend the joints where possible and
the swivel joint on the left arm is concealed by the torn, hanging
sleeve.
ACCESSORIES
Two-Face
comes with his scarred silver dollar and an automatic pistol.
The
silver dollar has about as much sculpted detail as you could expect
from such a tiny thing. It’s a shiny silver color that looks very
coin-like.
Side
Note: My silver dollar is somewhere on the floor of my office.
Rambunctious upstairs activity knocked a bunch of my Arkham figures
off of the shelves and naturally Two-Face was one of them. Everybody
in the family has taken turns looking for that stupid coin.
The
pistol actually looks a little weak. It’s a bit too rounded and
just has kind of a goofy shape. It sort of looks like one of those
rubber guns that you squeeze to shoot a foam plug out of the end. It
isn’t terrible, but I’m used to better from DCC.
Both
accessories fit perfectly into the corresponding hands.
FUN
As
good as Two-Face looks, he honestly isn’t a ton of fun. The
figure’s articulation is decent – there are swivels above the
knee and elbow joints – but the range isn’t great on a lot of the
points of articulation. I’m mostly okay with this as I really like
the aesthetics of the figure. And it certainly is a step above the
Arkham Origins Joker
and Black Mask.
OVERALL
Harvey
isn’t super-poseable, but he looks great. The balance between a
figure being aesthetically pleasing and being fun to play with is
often difficult to achieve. I think DCC did mostly okay with this
guy. I think he could have been a little
better, but I’m overall pretty happy with him. I’d call this one
of the best Two-Face figures I own, though I expect it will be
bettered by the forthcoming animated version.
If
you buy one, I recommend you put a dab of rubber cement or something
on the coin hand before you stick the coin in it.
4
out of 5
So
go to Amazon right now, buy one, and help out Needless Things!
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