Two Face Year One #1 (OF 2)

I actually surprised myself in buying this issue because a long time ago, I swore off prestige format books.  Nine times out of ten they disappoint me and I'll be damned if I don't feel like I wasted $5.99.  But with my absolute devotion to anything related to The Dark Knight (I have the soundtrack, a desktop, and a Xbox360 theme plus multiple viewings of the film...yeah, I need help), I was totally down for reading a Two-Face book.  Call it great timing or excellent planning by DC, but they got my $5.99.  But the question remains, did I waste it?

I actually really enjoyed this comic and had a lot of fun reading it.  What I found interesting is that it seems as if Mark Sable took all of his favorite elements about Harvey Dent and congealed them into one story.  There's pieces from The Long Halloween, Batman: The Animated Series, and other old Batman tales laced into it, and I found this mix to be very pleasing.  The story is told both in real time and with some flashbacks, and they work really nicely together to paint a great picture of Harvey Dent.  He's a deep character in this book, and we see his evolution to Two-Face come naturally and organically.  What's interesting to me is that they ended the book with him becoming Two-Face, so I'm curious to see where the second part takes us.

The art by Jesus Saiz is excellent and really played well to my tastes.  It's not hype realistic, but it's grounded in reality and nothing is drawn in an over the top manner.  If you enjoyed him on Checkmate, you'll like him here.  Jeremy Haun did an excellent job with the flashbacks, and his style meshed very well with Saiz's.

Overall, I'm really excited for the second half of this story, and so long as they don't botch it up, it may restore my faith in prestige format books.  Also, if they do this right, they may just be able to create one of the definitive Two-Face stories.