BATMAN '89 #1 Cover Gives Us A First Look At Billy Dee Williams' Harvey Dent As Two-Face

BATMAN '89 #1 Cover Gives Us A First Look At Billy Dee Williams' Harvey Dent As Two-Face

Billy Dee Williams (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker) played Harvey Dent in Tim Burton's Batman, and the variant cover for Batman '89 #1 finally transforms his take on Gotham's DA into Two-Face...

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By MarkCassidy - May 27, 2021 03:05 AM EST
Filed Under: Batman

Billy Dee Williams (The Empire Strikes Back, The Rise of Skywalker) only appeared in a couple of brief scenes as Gotham District Attorney Harvey Dent in Tim Burton's Batman, but the original plan was for him to return as Two-Face down the line. Of course, that never happened and Burton went in a different direction for the sequel, but fans will finally get to see Williams' take on Dent transform into his villainous alter-ego in the pages of Batman '89.

Issue #1 of the DC Comics series is set to hit shelves this August, and a first look at Jerry Ordway’s variant cover is now online (via 13th Dimension). As you can see, the artwork depicts Michael Keaton's incarnation of the Caped Crusader (in a blue and grey costume) swinging through the city as Two-Face's sinister visage looms in the background.

Check out the cover below along with Joe Quinones' main version, and let us know if you plan on picking up a copy.

BATMAN ’89 #1

Story by SAM HAMM

Pencils by JOE QUINONES

Inks by JOE QUINONES

Cover by JOE QUINONES

ON SALE 8/10/21 Price: US $3.99 | 32 pages | FC | DC CARD STOCK OPEN ORDER

Variant by JERRY ORDWAY. Price: US $4.99

1:25 Design Variant by JOE QUINONES. Price: US $4.99

TEAM VARIANT by KEN TAYLOR/TAURIN CLARKE. Price: US $4.99

Step back into the Gotham of Tim Burton’s seminal classic Batman movies! Batman ’89 brings in screenwriter Sam Hamm (Batman, Batman Returns) and artist Joe Quinones (Dial H for Hero) to pull on a number of threads left dangling by the prolific director. Gotham becomes torn in two as citizens dressed as Batman and The Joker duke it out in the streets. As D.A. Harvey Dent tries to keep the city together, he targets the one problem tearing it apart: BATMAN! And he’ll get Bruce Wayne’s help in taking down the Dark Knight!
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CorndogBurglar
CorndogBurglar - 5/27/2021, 3:39 AM
That 2nd cover is great. The first one? Not so much. That art just doesn't capture the '89 feel, and Batman looks really bad.
bobevanz
bobevanz - 5/27/2021, 3:49 AM
I haven't bought a comic in years, this is a great reason to do so. His Novelization of the first movie was amazing
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 5/27/2021, 3:53 AM
Would be cool if they brought back BDW for The Flash movie, or acknowledge he eventually became Two-Face (because if I'm honest, Forever felt more like a reboot anyway).
Repian
Repian - 5/27/2021, 4:17 AM
@bkmeijer - I wouldn't be against seeing Dee Williams as TDKR's Two Face. Something similar.
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 5/27/2021, 4:26 AM
@Repian - that would be pretty cool. Just gotta ask though, what comic is this from?
Repian
Repian - 5/27/2021, 4:40 AM
@bkmeijer - It's a cover of DKIII: The Master Race.
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 5/27/2021, 5:14 AM
@Repian - oh yeah that explains it, never got around to that one. That cover is very Apocalypse Now though
OmegaBlack13
OmegaBlack13 - 5/27/2021, 8:17 AM
@Repian - This could be cool, but I notice people always cast the Burton era actors for TDKR but in that story Batman, and likely his rogues, are supposed to be like 55 haha.
Mugens
Mugens - 5/27/2021, 3:53 AM
I have always liked to remind people who yell and cry about race-swapping of characters, primarily when the race had been changed to a Black character, why they never said a damn thing about Billy D's turn as Harvey dent in Burton's "Batman". Either they claim ignorance, or actually didn't know. Bottom line, changes have been made a lot longer than people realize or want to admit and with the exception of a few characters, and there are always exceptions, it really should be a non-issue.
Shasvre
Shasvre - 5/27/2021, 4:56 AM
@Mugens - A couple of simple reasons, most likely. He only had a few minutes of screentime and most people here were not old enough (or even born) to comment on casting decisions back in 1989. Few people rage about old movies like they do about new decisions.
Mugens
Mugens - 5/27/2021, 5:11 AM
@Shasvre - Why do I get the feeling I have just been called old? Which I am actually, well at least older.
Origame
Origame - 5/27/2021, 5:32 AM
@Mugens - 1) as said before, this was a very minor role in one movie.

2) this was at a time when superhero movies weren't taken all that seriously. More people were concerned about Mr mom being batman.

3) race swapping characters wasn't a known trend done for clout. They hired Billy dee Williams because he was a popular actor. Sure it's arguably a problem in and of itself to cast based on popularity, but it's not the same as casting for the sake of making the race different.

4) its a really old film anyway. Personally I was born when this movie was released, and a lot of the fans are around my age or younger. So yeah you can critique that, but it's a matter of done and done anyway. Especially considering they recast him with Tommy Lee Jones anyway.
Mugens
Mugens - 5/27/2021, 6:59 AM
@Origame - Oh you youngsters. Yeah I understand what you and others have tried to convey on this but I do have a tad bit of contention. Up until recently, say the last 10 to 15 years or so, something that can be quibbled about I admit, race swapping was done often because studios didn't give a damn about anyone else except white males and they figured audiences wouldn't except anyone but them in certain roles. As for Billy D's role being a minor one, yeah but it has always stuck out like a sore thumb, in the best way, to me at the time of its release and even now, especially when I hear people making the race-swapping complaints, usually when it involves a Black actor. I still wonder why no one made the complaints about the OG BattleStar Gallactica's characters of Col. Tighe and Boomer who were originally Black, race-swapped to a White guy and Asian woman in the reboot. I did hear people initially go crazy about Starbuck being changed to a woman, but not the original Black characters. Things have changed for the better now where its the actor or actress that is important and will either enhance the character or screw it up as it should be. As I indicated before, some characters should not ever be touched for race or gender reasons from the source material. But its nice to see that the studios have pretty much accepted this reality of some-what color/gender blindness. Just wish a lot of the fans did as well. Lastly, you know you sound like Tom Holland playing Spiderman when you say, "its a really old film anyway." Just reading that makes my knees and other joints start to make noises I had never heard before.:)
Origame
Origame - 5/27/2021, 8:06 AM
@Mugens - no they're definitely not color blind nowadays. We have a superman movie without any details besides some writers and producers with the whole concept revolving around this being a black superman. We have a captain marvel movie where the marketing was almost entirely centered around the main character being a woman.

They didn't do that here. No one in the marketing for batman went "look at how black our Harvey dent is". They just went "look, Billy dee Williams is in this". Now THAT is color blind. Skin doesn't matter. What matters is what sells tickets.

And don't get me wrong. There has been a long history of lack of representation. But as an industry it wasn't because of racism. It was market analysis. Most of the united states population is white, so it makes sense to appeal to that group with main characters that are white for them to relate to. This clearly wasn't the rule, since studios have been bending over backwards to get will Smith in their films. Not to mention all the incredibly popular actors who have been cast repeatedly in Hollywood like Billy dee, Bruce Lee, and Jackie Chan. Heck, Wesley snipes was able to be a successful movie star despite being notoriously hard to work with.

Finally, that movie is over 30 years old. Again, I'm the same age as the movie, and I'm old enough to have a college degree, have kids in middle school (I don't but old classmates of mine do), and have been told by my doctor to start incorporating stretch exercises into my routine because arthritis is a potential concern for me. You can say I sound young, but if anything you sound old.
OmegaBlack13
OmegaBlack13 - 5/27/2021, 8:24 AM
@Origame - Why do people always go to the “for the sake of making race different” argument? Like, maybe the actors they choose are just the best for the role, has nobody ever considered how weird it is that you don’t assume that? Sure, it’s also done sometimes because somebody looks at a story and goes “wow, literally all these characters are white by default. We really don’t have to do that.” but if Two-Face were black today nobody would assume the black actor was just the best/most popular choice.

The black Superman thing I get how you can say is for “clout” (really odd use of the term) but I think it also fundamentally changes the story in a way that can actually be creative and interesting.
Origame
Origame - 5/27/2021, 9:09 AM
@OmegaBlack13 - the problem is more often than not they say that reason for changing the race, and it's almost always just for the sake of giving a different race. Sometimes it's because of the actor, I can admit. For example it's pretty clear Johnny storm was made black because Josh trank wanted to work with Michael b Jordan again, or in wild wild west the main character was made black because will Smith was the most bankable star at the time. But just look at little orphan Annie. Or the Ghostbusters reboot.

As for the superman movie, him being black if anything overcomplicates his story. He's always been a figure who needed to prove himself to earn the trust of the people due to his alien origin and ridiculous powers. And he's always been ostracized because of those things. Adding in him being black will either belittle his struggles as an alien or just make the metaphor of being isolated due to differences more obvious, and specific to race. And no, I'm not considering the possibility they're just making a typical superman movie that just has a black lead, namely because of the writer.
Mugens
Mugens - 5/27/2021, 10:26 AM
@Origame - Hey youngster, I am old. I still get what you are saying but I have a slight quibble with your analysis on the marketing front. The studios didn't include people of color back in the day (outside of Sidney Poitier) because basically they didn't care or didn't think enough of them to market the movie toward that demographic. You know what really made them change their tune? The introduction of a movie called "Shaft". OMG those people will go see movies too the studios thought. Thus the introduction of all the Blaxploitation films, C+ quality at their best usually, but at least they gave a lot of actors and people behind the cameras jobs who couldn't get them before. Martial Arts films were the same after "Enter the Dragon" was released. But the death of Bruce Lee hindered what could have and should have been in that genre. Like I said before there are some legacy characters that should never be race or gender swapped. But with the introduction of these multiverses, parallel worlds or what have you, there are instances where another version of a character can be changed/adjusted, and I'm ok with that as long as they leave the OG character alone and pretty much stick with what the comics themselves have presented.
Origame
Origame - 5/27/2021, 4:11 PM
@Mugens - Sydney Poitier? Come on that was so long ago.
Mugens
Mugens - 5/27/2021, 5:25 PM
@Origame - Ain't that the truth...
OmegaBlack13
OmegaBlack13 - 5/28/2021, 11:12 AM
@Origame - Quvenzhané Wallis was coming off Beasts of No Name at the time, so maybe they made Annie black to capitalize off her. But also, why not make her black? Like, does it affect the story in a negative way? Does it make it harder to believe? Why is “making change for the sake of change” so bad when 1) race isn’t intrinsically tied to a character and 2) we know for a fact most of these things were made when certain groups of people had less visibility and less of a say in the stories being told. Why not make a thing like Annie something that everyone can more easily see themselves in? She’s been white in the past because when she was created she literally wouldn’t have been allowed to be anything else. Why keep that tradition going?

I agree that making Superman black makes the story harder, assimilation is a big part, but I think that’s entirely what they’re going for. You can say you think the metaphor becomes too obvious but I think that’s just personal taste. You hire Coates because you want a story connecting the sci-fi “other” with the real world “other” so I think they’ve got a good chance of accomplishing the goal, whether or not I think it makes sense for Superman specifically.
Origame
Origame - 5/28/2021, 12:33 PM
@OmegaBlack13 - because the character isn't black. Pure and simple. It's part of the overall iconography. Not only that but in the case of Annie, she's a well known ginger icon, a demographic that's been slowly phased out of pop culture because of decisions like this.
ChrisRed
ChrisRed - 5/27/2021, 4:03 AM
Definitely gonna check this out. It just has so much potential.
If the comics are good maybe they can adapt them into an animated movie with Keaton, Williams, Pfeiffer, Basinger etc reprising their roles.
whatevtrev
whatevtrev - 5/27/2021, 4:35 AM
The variant cover is pretty terrible. I'll probably get both though. Excited for this!
TheDpool
TheDpool - 5/27/2021, 5:24 AM
Definetely looks like something from the 90s, been waiting forever to hear more on this.
IcePyke
IcePyke - 5/27/2021, 6:05 AM
SanFranLand
SanFranLand - 5/27/2021, 7:07 AM
It’s a cool enough Two-Face design. Kind of wish Burton designed it in his wacky way but that bat suit just gets me in all the right ways
THEDARKKNIGHT1939
THEDARKKNIGHT1939 - 5/27/2021, 8:17 AM
Oh man I can't wait.
OmegaBlack13
OmegaBlack13 - 5/27/2021, 8:25 AM
Keaton in a blue suit would’ve been dope.
Stinkor1
Stinkor1 - 5/27/2021, 8:50 AM
I’d like to see more takes on the ‘89 suit but in blue and gray. That’s always been my favorite combo
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