The Grace of Gilda, Pt. 2: Her First Post-Crisis Years

[about_faces]

Note: This is the second part of my retrospective of Gilda, a complete history of the oft-overlooked woman who loved and lost Harvey Dent. You can read Part 1 here, and subsequent installments will be released weekly.

Comments

[ext_5799348]

Given how much modern comics seem to love tragic romances, it is kind of surprising that they haven't focused on Harvey and Grace/Gilda a bit more. What makes it even more surprising is that it would be really easy to tie it into Two-Face's duality obsession, at least for a story of two. Give him a moll - let's call her 'Penny' - a nasty, treacherous gangland skank who's either an obvious gold digger ('Rob that jewelry store for me, Two-Face honey!'), or, perhaps more interestingly, actually does love him, but for the opposite reasons Gilda does - she loves Two-Face, the forceful, flamboyant mobster, as opposed to Harvey, the good, kind man of the law. It would almost be like an inverse Harley Quinn, with a normal one in Gilda - Harley loves Joker (theoretically, anyway) because she's convinced that there's a good man beneath the crazy; Penny would be in love with the crazy and not want the good man to come out. There's a 'Batman: Black and White' story - 'Two of a Kind' - which delves into roughly that territory, offering him a

[lego_joker]

I believe Harvey's been given a handful of henchgirls in that mold (Sugar and Spice from Forever probably being the most famous), though they usually don't appear in any story where Gilda does. Could we maayyybe count Janice Porter from Dark Victory as well?

But yeah, it's really weird no story apart from "Two of a Kind" (which IIRC Hefner once described as unimpeachable art over a noir cliché-storm) has used the good-girl-bad-girl dynamic, especially when I hear it's been a staple of every Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde retelling since the 1920s. Not that I trust most writers would be able to pull it off well, but it's odd so few have even tried.

[about_faces]

While I already expressed my dislike for Harvey being unfaithful in the comment below, I would love to see someone try making Sugar and Spice work in the comics.

[about_faces]

Between "Two of the Kind" and "Nightwing: The Great Leap," which gave him an obvious Rachel Dawes stand-in, I'm not keen on a Harvey being unfaithful to Gilda. Besides, we've already got that exact kind of anti-Harley character with Punchline for the Joker, and I'm not digging that in the least

[royaltowns]

good

[about_faces]

Brief but to the point! Thank you!

[akselavshalom]

[about_faces]

The way you cropped out the corner of that word balloon made me think that you'd edited one of Batman's long-ass ears, making it look like it'd snapped like a twig and was leaning to one side.

[akselavshalom]

You know what, that talk-show bit reminded me of something I don't think I've seen that much of across the various comics I've picked up and read over the years. Year One (and TDKR) went into it, but that Secret Origins-thing was perhaps one of the only times I've seen mentioned how news media represent the happenings of that world in detail on that kind of thing. What DOES make for a "cute sound bite between fried chicken commercials" in the DC Universe, I wonder? There's probably oodles of comics where common media makes for a mention, but I am curious as to what kind of ethical AND unethical journalism would be when examined, like Miller did as the presentation of what was happening played a massive role in both of those. If a comic was to delve into the state of US news media and that being the story, what would it be like

[about_faces]

I'm not sure, but I think the comic that really started playing with TV (both news and ads) in a way that was both satirical and expository was Howard Chaykin's "American Flagg!" Which I really must reread one of these days. I suspect any discussion about the way comics use the TV news should take that into account

[akselavshalom]

I picked it up recently, and having momentarily forgotten that I saw scans of it on Tumblr some time before, I was absolutely shocked to see the date of the comics actual release. This being Rucka and all, it just seemed to me as being a collection of something he wrote back in the olden days before... 2010.

oh my god time goes fast and i'm scared

Anyway, I ended up loving it in many, many ways, but to pin it down as being about any one thing, I'd have the hardest of time trying to find out what it is, even in that regard. It touches on the subject on unethical journalism ever so briefly (at least directly) while showing a lot of Lois' process during the whole thing, probably to show in some form what that occupation actually IS about, which is hardly a shocker as the events within the comic are purposefully chosen to be VERY topical; detainment camps at the Mexican border; government bodies trying to hide transparent corruption by vilifying Lois; as well as a colleague of hers from Russia who writes something someone upstairs

[ext_5799348]

It's the art that really makes it, though. That kind of playful look on Supes' face. If it weren't for the specific expressions here, those last two panels could easily read as him being a know-it-all, followed by Lois being annoyed by same - instead, it's more like a 'you know you won't get mad at me, 'cause I'm adorable' husband-and-wife moment.