In Batman #700 (August 2010) by Grant Morrison, Tony Daniel, David Finch, Andy Kubert, Frank Quitely, and Scott Colins, we catch a glimpse of the possible near future of the DC Universe and one of the most unusual legacy supervillains ever: Two-Face-Two, an adonis with a bizarre Kuato-like entity growing out of the left side of his head:
"Quaid...Quaid...start the reactor...free Mars..."
Now, while a lot of people might just dismiss this as the latest manifestation of Grant Morrison’s insanity, what really ups the ante in the crazy department is the fact that this character was mentioned in passing by the 853rd century Batman way back in DC One Million #3 (November 1998):
Grant Morrison is so hardcore he set this story up 12 years ago...BEFORE HE KNEW HE WAS GOING TO WRITE IT.
There’s admittedly a slight inconsistency here: it’s stated that the Batman in this near future is Bruce Wayne’s son Damian Wayne, which would make him the third bearer of that title, not the second. This leaves us with three possible explanations:
- The 853rd century Batman needs to brush up on his history lessons (assuming, of course, that accurate records from the 21st century about the Bat-Line of Succession survived until then and that sketchy recordkeeping isn’t responsible for this misconception).
- Dick Grayson’s tenure as the Caped Crusader won’t count (much like Stephanie Brown’s stint as Robin, if the Powers That Be at DC are to be believed) and Damian Wayne will eventually succeed in rehabilitating Two-Face-Two on his own as the “official” second Batman.
- Dick Grayson’s time wearing the cape and cowl counted (meaning that he does go down in history as the second Batman), he’s still alive when the mantle of the Dark Knight is passed on to Damian Wayne, and he will be responsible for eventually curing Two-Face-Two, regardless of the superhero identity he’s going by at the time (if any). He may even eventually (temporarily) reclaim the mantle from Damian to do so for all we know.
Regardless of the actual reason, it’s amusing to discover that someone at DC plans ahead. Way ahead.
Too bad that person just doesn’t happen to be Dan DiDio.
The Raging Fanboy 