seriousfic | (no subject)

Three comics stories come to mind, and they're all related, each with varying degrees of success and failure in realistically depicting the after-effects of child abuse. At least, within the parameters of superhero fantasy. So realistic to a point, although maybe not as realistic as you'd prefer. And not to be totally predictable, but yes, two of them are Two-Face stories. But this very topic helps touch upon just why he's such a personally relevant character to me.

First up: Eye of the Beholder, by Andrew Helfer and Chris Sprouce, from Batman Annual #14. This is the story from which Jeph Loeb took many aspects for The Long Halloween, and thus which led directly into The Dark Knight, but it's by far the best take on Harvey's origin. The big reason for its superiority is its original idea that Harvey was physically and psychologically abused by his alcoholic father.

Full disclosure: my own father was an abusive alcoholic. I can't speak to all kinds of abuse and its effects (I was never physically abused, for one thing), so my views on this or any other story being accurate representations of the after-effects of abuse are far from universal. That said, abuse at the hands of alcoholic parents is a widespread but specific kind of abuse that--like all abuse, I imagine--cannot be understood by those who didn't live through it. It simply can't be understood. That's why we have support groups right alongside the AA meetings.

As such, speaking personally, I find the handling of abuse in Eye of the Beholder to be a chillingly accurate. It's rooted in psychological manipulation from how the father uses "the game" to dole out beatings under the guise as punishment for Harvey's "wrongs," and what's more, the "game" is never actually fair. What creates the divide between Harvey and his dark side is that his one side loves and trusts his father, while the other always knew the game was rigged and festered with resentment and rage. The irreconcilability of these sides are what lead to Two-Face, and why he has to use the (now scarred and, thus, fair) coin.

That said, this is a very specific take on abuse, not necessarily anything that would help you for what you're looking for. It also dubiously tries to tie a mismatching kind of schizophrenia into the mix, and it just doesn't work. However, it's the very best and most powerfully-accurate take on the "supervillain who was abused as a child" cliche, and it makes me frustrated that nobody references it when writing Harvey. But then again, I shudder to imagine what a lesser writer would do with it. Actually, wait, we already saw someone try: Paul Jenkins in Batman: Jekyll & Hyde. The less said about that, the better.

Continued...

>the other always knew the game was rigged and festered with resentment and rage. The irreconcilability of these sides are what lead to Two-Face, and why he has to use the (now scarred and, thus, fair) coin.

Someone worked out that such a coin would be a bit off balance, and as such it would come up scarred more often. This was not intended by the writers, but it kinda works in the Nolanverse context, where Dent will "cheat" if he doesn't get what he wants the first time. ("Your driver.")

Yeah, I believe the first person to come up with the off-balance idea was Alan Grant in a silly Shadow of the Bat story from the late 90's. It's an interesting idea, but one that went entirely unexplored, and is thus meaningless. Considering how Harvey is fixated on duality and fairness, I'd really like to know how he's react to discovering that his own coin isn't fair. Depending on which version of Two-Face is being written, he can either see it as a perfect excuse to keep being evil, or it'll send him into a complete psychological and existential crisis.

And ugh, I can't begin to describe how much I hate a cheating Two-Face. Especially in TDK. It renders his newfound, inexplicable obsession with fairness moot, making him an instant hypocrite, and turning the coin into even more of a meaningless gimmick. I hate that Anton Chigurh's coin-flipping in No Country for Old Men was more fair and chilling than Harvey frickin' Dent's.

>It renders his newfound, inexplicable obsession with fairness moot, making him an instant hypocrite, and turning the coin into even more of a meaningless gimmick.

Remember, the Joker claims to represent chaos, but has no problem setting up complex plots to achieve that goal (which is one heck of a subtle joke). Dent probably honestly thinks he' still being "fair"; and he's just rationalizing it. After all, even if he shot Sal's driver, that doesn't necessarily mean Sal is going to die, right? He'll take his chances, just like everyone else.

The very best of the three recommendations is, ironically for me, the one that isn't a Two-Face story: The Child Within from DeMatteis' run on Spectacular Spider-Man. This is a better, more general look at the after-effects of abuse as displayed through the character of Vermin. Similar to Eye of the Beholder, it explores how the love for the abuser coupled with self-loathing and rage can split a person apart into adulthood. DeMatteis explores this through both Vermin and Harry Osborn (this is the story that directly led to Harry's eventual death), and while neither are not realistic characters, DeMatteis' treatment of abuse can only be described as "raw." It's a gut-wrenching read, and the best look at abuse that I've ever seen in any medium. But then, I like my realism expressed through the fantastic.

To bring this all full circle, the last recommendation is Two-Face: Crime and Punishment, also written by DeMatteis. He draws upon the same themes he used for Vermin and Harry, as well as building upon Eye of the Beholder, while getting rid of the "game" aspect, which I don't like but helps make it more understandable and less specific. The result is a story which is weaker than both previous stories, but is still a powerful and noteworthy metaphor for the long-lasting scars left by abuse.

Was the kid in the sewer actually real, or was it just Vermin's hallucination of himself as a child?

Just a hallucination. I couldn't include more scans of that, sadly. And even then, in the context of the story, JMD never makes a big reveal about it either way. You're just supposed to figure it out on your own. I kinda like that. By the time you realize that the child is a hallucination of himself, the story's already progressed so far that the "twist" is moot.

My Henchgirl is also a child of abuse, but hers was more... well, like a lot of abuse, it's something which people can't entirely bring themselves to believe is something which actually happens. Her mother was Carrie White's mother, by way of Mother Gothel in Tangled, both of which were triggering to her but are not, perhaps, triggering to most anyone else. Tangled, especially, is a film she has no interest in ever revisiting. It was far too accurate in many painful ways.

Also, while she hated Lost, she also thinks it's worth mentioning the Ben Linus origin episode, "The Man Behind the Curtain," from Season 3. It's one of the rare examples of casual day-to-day abuse rather than any big dramatic beatings or anything like that. But of course, it's debatable how any of that realistically helped shape Ben as an adult.

I hope that these were of some help. I wish I could think of something that wasn't from fantastical fiction, but frankly, I've never seen it handled well anywhere else. At least, not in any way that resonated with me.

Honestly, Zuko's character arc in Avatar: The Last Airbender is the most accurate portrayal I've seen of my own experiences. Not what the abuse was like, necessarily, but the long term effects and recovery. A lot of Zuko's story is his growing understanding that his father doesn't love him, his father is incapable of loving him, and that means there's something wrong with his father, not him. That's a hard lesson to learn and a hard one for a lot of people to understand needing to learn.

Not to mention Azula, who knows she's messed up, knows her family isn't anything close to healthy, but is unwilling or incapable of doing anything about it.