Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers for The BatmanThere are a lot of things thatBatmanvillains like. Causing chaos, actually beating up Batman (most recently played byRobert Pattinson), taking out their aggression on the under-privilegedGothamcitizens, and more are among their daily to-do list. But arguably their absolute favorite thing is gimmick henchmen. It makes a lot of sense in comics, you can’t just have Batman roll up into the evil headquarters and punch villainy in the face with his Fists of Justice right away. He needs some goons to beat up!
The Batmandoes an exemplary job of portraying much of the Batman Mythos in a grounded yet comic book accurate way. Unfortunately, this means that the more unrealistic and beloved Batman attributes are only in the film as Easter eggs. That is, with one of the few exceptions being the twins (Charlie CarverandMax Carver) guarding The Iceberg Lounge.
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At first these bouncers might seem nondescript, just big guys protecting The Penguin’s (Colin Farrell) and Carmine Falcone’s (John Turturro) criminal club. They’re the types of people to make sure only the right kind of disreputable hooligans enter their place of business. A Safe Haven for the corrupt politicians, mob bosses, and mad men throughout the city. But looking closer at the terrifying twins guarding The Penguin’s freaky funhouse reveals one of the most obscure references throughout the entire film.
InBatman: the Animated Series, all the main villains had goons themed to their own central gimmick. Like how the Joker’s henchmen are all dressed up as clowns. It’s not enough to follow these psycho’s war against The Batman, you got to dress like them too. Because, what’s the point of manifesting mayhem without everyone’s outfits being on brand end color coded.
For Harvey Dent’s Two-Face, goons got to follow his gimmick of outfits that split down the middle. And if you don’t have that outfit, you have to somehow fit Two-Face’s signature symbolism of seeing double.
That’s why Two-Face loves having Twins on his task force. The most notable of which are the red-headedMin and Max. This terrifying twosome were often around in a similar capacity as they are inThe Batmanmovie. In fact, most of the time their presence is much like it is in the film. They’re mostly there just to look intimidating and guard things. They very rarely get into actual scuffles, but when they do, they are more than capable of handling things themselves.
And funnily enough, as a bonus, according to the 2017 straight-to-DVD animated filmBatman and Harley Quinnthey’re also very capable singers. In that film, Harley Quinn goes undercover at one of the best kinds of comic book tropes, a dive bar made to serve all the villains and henchmen that fight our hero. In the bar of this movie, there’s a stage with a microphone there to presumably let their patrons relive their childhood dreams of being a rock star. Min and Max are no different, they stood up there and put their all into a duet ofHamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds'“Don’t Pull Your Love”.
But back toThe Batman, if Min and Max are Two-Face’s goons, then what are they doing guarding the Iceberg Lounge? That’s always Penguin’s domain. Well, by the end of the film Carmine Falcone is dead, and the Penguin is off to re-establish his own criminal empire. Not to mention that with Gotham City being absolutely flooded, it’s possible that Min and Max are now gainfully unemployed.
The fact is that The Riddler (Paul Dano) eliminated many of Gotham’s corrupt political underbelly. This leads to Bella Reál (Jayme Lawson) being elected Gotham’s new mayor. With much of the other leaders of Gotham now dead, there is a villainous vacuum to be filled. That leaves a wide open space for a new DA to step in. That’s not to say that this film is setting up Two-Face to be a villain in this film’s spin-offs and inevitable sequels, but the possibility is now open. With all the political upheaval and changing landscape of Gotham, It does leave the space open for much more of Batman’s Rogues gallery to make their presence known in the city streets.
With the rise of great villains also comes the rise of great henchmen. Whether it’s Two-Face or not, Min and Max here are destined to rear their red heads again in the future.
