Here’s the Deal: Cosplaying as Two Face

Art done by http://chadrocco.deviantart.com/

My high school theater teacher always told me that acting starts by wearing the shoes of your character.

For me though, when I was cosplaying as Two Face, it was the suit.

The suit is one of the most important parts of cosplaying as Two Face.  It doesn’t matter what variety you go for, either black and white, ripped and non-ripped, or slick and tacky, wearing Two Face’s suit gets you in the mood.

And that is the best part about cosplaying as Batman villains.  They’re recognizable not just by their attitudes but by their attire.  Anyone can look at a person and immediately identify what villain they’re playing solely on their costume.  Poison Ivy’s leaves, Joker’s purple suit, Riddler’s bowler hat.  They are all so iconic.

When I put on Two Face’s suit, I change.  Immediately I feel gruffer, hard, and unforgiving.  But it’s not enough.

Unlike other Batman villains, the suit is not enough, you need the coin.  The coin is the only thing that tops Two Face’s suit.  You just got to have it.  It’s what all Two Faces must have for it is Two Face’s God.

Once I hold the double headed coin in my hand, it becomes only natural to start flipping it.  Once you start flipping it, you can now confront decisions that perplex Two Face.

Now as a cosplayer, you can go two routes.  Either as a person who poses as his character or a person who embraces his character.  I normally go for the latter.

But as such, how does a Two Face cosplayer accurately portray Two Face’s duality in a comic convention?  Well, I was able to accomplish it when I was at San Diego Comic Con 2012.

If your cosplay is good enough, people will ask to photograph you.  That’s only polite after all.  As such, when people asked me if they can photograph me, I hold out my coin unscarred side forward and say

“Here’s the deal.  Good side up, you get your photograph…”

I flip the coin revealing the scarred face side

“Bad side up, no dice.”

The photographer then groans with anticipation but with a shaky smile.

The coin is flipped and it soars in the air, spinning many times.

Catching it with my scarred hand and slapping it on my untainted hand, I reveal their fate.

That was super fun as the people who got the good side were delighted and the people who didn’t were disappointed but amused that such event had occurred.

The second, and more hilarious, event was the blood donation.

At Comic Con, there was a blood donation booth where you can sign up and go over to a building next door to donate blood.

I swaggered up to the booth attendants and held up my coin and said, “Here’s the deal: Good side up I donate blood, bad side up, no dice.”

Now, I should stress here that I have a certain aversion to needles.  So making a commitment like this has some stake for me.

I flip the coin and it landed good side up.  Later that day, a nurse dressed as Poison Ivy was putting a needle in my arm and taking my blood.

It was a lot of fun cosplaying as Two Face for Comic Con.  It was hard getting the hair dye and gel out of my hair but it was totally worth it.

The best part out of the whole thing was when a little boy, maybe six years old, came up to me and said with beaming eyes, “Can I have your photograph Two Face??”

For once, I had disregard the coin, a sacrilegious act but excusable.

I said sure and had my photograph with him.

As he was running away he shouted “I hope you beat Batman!”

“I will one day kid,” I said quietly, “I will.”

Unfortunately, the big problem for my outfit was the blackness in the suit but I was in a rush trying to get the other costumes ready that the suit suffered. If and when I do Two Face again, I’m going to clean up the suit. Anyway, this was also one of the best things to happen that day. I didn’t even have to ask! A friend of mine at the convention went into the bathroom and saw one of the cosplayers there. She asked her if she could pose with me to which she responded if he asked my friend to tell her this. My friend said no and wanted it to be a surprise. So while I was getting my photograph taken, they came up to me and said they wanted to pose with me. Sure I said as I tried my damnedest not to be giddy about it. We pose and it was awesome. No regrets.

The Unapologetic Nerd will be on hiatus next week