Jump to content

Two-Face

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 88.112.175.211 (talk) at 19:17, 12 November 2012 (→Film). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about the DC comics villain. For the Nigerian musician, see 2face Idibia. For the Brazilian soap opera, see Duas Caras. For craniofacial duplication, see Diprosopus.
Two-Face
File:Batmanannual14.png
Two-Face, as depicted on the cover of Batman Annual (vol. 1) #14 (1990).
Pencils by Neal Adams
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
First appearanceDetective Comics #66 (August 1942)
Created byBob Kane[1]
In-story information
Alter egoHarvey Dent
Team affiliationsInjustice League
Injustice Gang
Underground Society
Notable aliasesApollo, Janus, Mr. Duall, Count Enance

Two-Face is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain who appears in comic books published by DC Comics, and is an enemy of Batman. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #66 (August 1942), and was created by Bob Kane. Two-Face was once Harvey Dent, the clean-cut district attorney of Gotham City and an ally of Batman. However, Dent goes insane after mob boss Sal Maroni throws acid at him during a trial, hideously scarring the left side of his face. Dent adopts the "Two-Face" persona and becomes a criminal, choosing to bring about good or evil based upon the outcome of a coin flip. Originally, Two-Face was one of many gimmick-focused comic book villains, plotting crimes based around the number two, such as robbing Gotham Second National Bank at 2:00 on February 2.

In his autobiography, Batman creator Bob Kane claims to have been inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, specifically the 1931 film version which he saw as a boy. Some inspiration was also derived from the pulp magazine character the Black Bat, whose origin story included having acid splashed in his face.[2] In later years, writers have portrayed his obsession with duality and fate as the result of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and multiple personality disorder. He obsessively makes all important decisions by flipping a two-headed coin, one side scratched over with an X. The modern version is established as having once been a personal friend and ally of Commissioner James Gordon and Batman.

The character has appeared in multiple Batman media forms, including video games, animation, and the Batman film series. Billy Dee Williams portrayed Harvey Dent in Batman and Tommy Lee Jones portrayed Two-Face in Batman Forever, while Aaron Eckhart played both the district attorney and his villainous alter ego in The Dark Knight. Richard Moll voiced both Harvey Dent and Two-Face in Batman: The Animated Series. Two-Face was ranked #12 in IGN's list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time.[3]

Publication history

Two-Face first appears in Detective Comics #66 with the name Harvey Kent; later stories changed his name to "Harvey Dent" to avoid people thinking he is related to Clark Kent.[4][5]

The character only made three appearances in the 1940s, and appeared twice in the 1950s (not counting the impostors mentioned below). By this time, he was dropped in favor of more "kid friendly" villains, though he did appear in a 1968 issue (World's Finest Comics #173), in which Batman declared him to be the criminal he most fears. In 1971, writer Dennis O'Neil brought Two-Face back, and it was then that he became one of Batman's arch-enemies.

In the wake of Frank Miller's 1986 revision of Batman's origin (see Batman: Year One), Andrew Helfer rewrote Two-Face's history to match.[6] This origin, presented in Batman Annual (vol. 1) #14, served to emphasize Dent's status as a tragic character, with a back story that included an abusive, alcoholic father, and early struggles with bipolar disorder and paranoia. It was also established, in Batman: Year One, that pre-accident Harvey Dent was one of Batman's earliest allies. He had clear ties to both Batman and Commissioner Gordon, making him an unsettling and personal foe for both men.[7]

Other Two-Faces

Two-Face from Detective Comics #66

During Two-Face's third appearance in the 1940s, his face and sanity are restored. Although there was a demand to use him again, the writers did not want to retcon his last story, so they had other characters assume the role. The first impostor - Wilkins, Dent's butler - uses makeup to suggest that the reformed Dent had suffered a relapse and deformed his face to appear as before.

Paul Sloane becomes the second Two-Face. An actor who was set to star in a biography of Harvey Dent, Sloane is disfigured by an accident on the set in a manner similar to Harvey Dent. Sloane's mind snaps, and he begins to think he is Dent. Sloane recovers some of his own personality, but continues to remain as the criminal Two-Face. Sloane is reused in later Earth-Two specific stories as Two-Face II of Earth-Two where the original Earth-Two Two-Face remains healed (Superman Family #211). Sloane is revived in the current continuity as a successor Two-Face (Detective Comics #777), though not replacing Dent as done in the earlier Earth-Two specific storyline.

The third Two-Face is another impostor, a petty criminal named George Blake, who like Wilkins is not actually disfigured but is wearing make-up. Furthermore, his makeup is worn on the opposite side of his face to Dent/Sloane.

Also noteworthy is a 1968 story where Batman himself is temporarily turned into Two-Face via a potion (World's Finest Comics #173).

Aside from a 1962 reprint of the Sloane storyline, this was the character's only appearance in the 1960s.[8]

Another Two-Face appears in the Batman Sunday strips. Actor Harvey Apollo is scarred with acid when testifying against a mobster in court, and becomes a criminal. He only makes a few appearances before accidentally hanging himself after slipping on the silver dollar piece he uses as Two-Face.

As mentioned above, Harvey Dent does return as Two-Face in the 1970s. With the establishment of the multiverse, however, the Two-Face of Earth-Two (i.e., the character seen in the original Golden Age stories) is said to be Harvey Kent, who had not relapsed following his cure. The last appearance of this version of Two-Face was in Superman Family #211 (October 1981), depicting him as a guest at the marriage of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle (Catwoman). He meets Lois Lane and Clark Kent, and his shared name with the latter creates confusion.

After the Crisis on Infinite Earths event the Paul Sloane character, with a near identical history to the pre-crisis version, appears in Detective Comics #580 and #581. In Double Image Harvey Dent (as Two-Face) employs The Crime Doctor to re-disfigure Sloane. Dent does this out of jealous bitterness and the hope that Sloane would commit crimes based on the number two, thus confusing Batman. At the end of the story Sloane is once again healed, physically and mentally.

Paul Sloane is introduced into post-Zero Hour continuity as a criminal called "The Charlatan" in Detective Comics #777 (February 2003). In this incarnation, Sloan (Now spelled without a silent e at the end.) had been hired by Gotham's costumed criminals to take Two-Face's place in a scheme to kill Batman, Dent's coin having come up unscarred. When the real Two-Face learns about this, he captures Sloan and disfigures his face. The Scarecrow then experiments on him with fear toxins. Driven insane, The Charlatan becomes obsessed with both getting revenge on the criminals who hired him and completing his mission to kill Batman.

Although Two-Face has traditionally been shown as fully aware of the actions committed as Harvey Dent and his villainous alter ego, the events of The Great Leap — shown in the Nightwing regular series — added a new twist to the character: Two-Face and Harvey Dent now appear as a stereotypical case of split personality, two different men cohabitating a shared body, as evidenced when he asks Nightwing to protect an old acquaintance of his, a witness in a mob trial, from a hired gun revealed to be Two-Face himself.

In Batman #700, which establishes Terry McGinnis as part of the DC Universe canon, it is revealed that Two-Face-Two kidnapped the infant Terry, along with an 80-year-old Carter Nichols, and tried to disfigure them in the style of the Joker. His plans were foiled by Damian Wayne, the fifth Robin and Batman's biological son. Unlike the original Two-Face, this version of the character was born deformed with a second face, rather than being scarred by acid or fire, and flips two coins instead of one. He is then killed when a machine falls on him.

Character biography

File:Batman - The Long Halloween 11 pg15.jpg
Harvey Dent gets half a faceful of acid in Batman: The Long Halloween.

At 26, Dent is the youngest district attorney ever to serve Gotham City, and is nicknamed "Apollo" for his clean-cut image. He is elected about six months before Batman begins his war on crime.[6]

Dent, Captain James Gordon, and Batman forge an alliance to rid Gotham of crime boss Sal Maroni,[9] who is murdered by Carmine Falcone's son Alberto. Falcone hires the corrupt Assistant District Attorney Fields to disfigure Dent with sulfuric acid. Two-Face gets his trademark coin from his abusive father, who would employ the coin in a perverse nightly "game" that would always end with a beating. This would instill in Dent his lifelong struggle with free will and his eventual inability to make choices on his own, relying on the coin to make all of his decisions. Eventually, the scarred Dent takes his revenge on Fields and Carmine Falcone, leading to his incarceration in Arkham Asylum.[10]

During a much later period, Two-Face is revealed to have murdered Jason Todd's father, who had been one of his henchmen.[11]

Eventually, in Arkham, the doctors in the asylum attempt to wean him off the coin by replacing it with a die and eventually a tarot deck, giving him 78 options. The treatment fails due to Dent being unable to make even the smallest of decisions - such as going to the bathroom. Batman returns the coin, telling him to use it to decide whether to kill him. He tells Batman that the coin landed scar face down, and Batman leaves safely, but the next scene shows the scar face up, meaning that he chose to let Batman live.[12][13]

After the Gotham earthquake, Two-Face carves out a portion of the ruined city for himself and takes up residence in Gotham City Hall, maintaining a sophisticated lifestyle. His empire is brought down by Bane (employed by Lex Luthor) who destroys Two-Face's gang during his destruction of the city's Hall of Records. Two-Face kidnaps Commissioner Gordon and puts him on trial for his activities after Gotham City was declared a No Man's Land, with Two-Face as both judge and prosecutor. Gordon plays upon Two-Face's split psyche to demand Harvey Dent as his defense attorney. Dent cross-examines Two-Face and wins an acquittal for Gordon, determining that Two-Face has effectively blackmailed Gordon by implying that he had committed murders to aid the Commissioner.[14]

During all this, Two-Face meets detective Renee Montoya. Montoya reaches the Dent persona in Two-Face, and is kind to him. He falls in love with her, though the romance is one-sided.[14] and eventually, in the Gotham Central series, he outs her as a lesbian and frames her for murder, hoping that if he takes everything from her, she will be left with no choice but to be with him. She is furious, and the two fight for control of his gun until Batman intervenes, putting Two-Face back in Arkham.[15]

In the Two-Face: Crime and Punishment one-shot book, Two-Face leads a crusade against Gotham City, culminating in the capturing of his own father to humiliate and kill on live television for the years of abuse he suffered. This story reveals that, despite his apparent hatred for his father, Dent still supports him, paying for an expensive home rather than allowing him to live in a slum. At the end of the book, Harvey and Two-Face argue in thought, Two-Face calling Harvey "spineless." Dent proves Two-Face wrong, however, choosing to jump off a building and commit suicide just to put a stop to his alter ego's crime spree. Two-Face is surprised when the coin flip comes up scarred, but abides by the decision and jumps. Batman catches him, but the shock of the fall seems to (at least temporarily) destroy the Two-Face side of his psyche.

In Two-Face Strikes Twice, Two-Face is at odds with his ex-wife Gilda, as he believes their marriage failed because he was unable to give her children. She later marries Paul Janus, a reference to the Roman god of doors who had two faces, one facing forward, the other backward. Two-Face attempts to frame Janus as a criminal by kidnapping him and replacing him with a stand-in, whom Two-Face "disfigures" with makeup to make it look as if Janus has gone insane just as Two-Face had. Batman eventually catches Two-Face and puts him away, and Gilda and Janus reunite. Years later, Gilda gives birth to twins, prompting Two-Face to escape once more and take the twins hostage, as he erroneously believes them to be conceived by Janus using an experimental fertility drug. The end of the book reveals a surprise twist; Batman learns from Gilda that Janus is not the father of Gilda's twins—Two-Face is. Some of his sperm had been frozen after a death threat had been made against him, and she used some of it to get pregnant. Batman uses this information to convince Two-Face to free the twins and turn himself in.

In the Batman: Hush storyline, his face is repaired once more via plastic surgery. This time around, only the Harvey Dent persona exists. However, he takes the law into his own hands twice: once by using his ability to manipulate the legal system to free the Joker, and then again by shooting the serial killer Hush. He manipulates the courts into setting him free, as Gotham's prosecutors wouldn't attempt to charge him without a body.

File:Detective Comics 818 2nd print coverart.jpg
Cover art for the second printing of Detective Comics #818 (April 2006), by Simone Bianchi

In the Batman story arc Batman: Face the Face, that started in Detective Comics #817, and was part of DC's One Year Later storyline, it is revealed that, at Batman's request and with his training, Dent becomes a vigilante protector of Gotham City in most of Batman's absence of nearly a year. He is reluctant to take the job, but Batman assures him it would serve as atonement for his past crimes. After a month of training, they fight Firebug and Mr. Freeze, before Batman leaves for a year. Dent enjoys his new role, but his methods are seemingly more extreme and less refined than Batman's. Upon Batman's return, Dent begins to feel unnecessary and unappreciated, which prompts the return of the "Two-Face" persona (seen and heard by Dent through hallucinations). In Face the Face, his frustration is compounded by a series of mysterious murders that seem to have been committed by Two-Face; the villains KGBeast, Magpie, The Ventriloquist, and Orca are all shot twice in the head with a double-barreled pistol. When Batman confronts Dent about these deaths, asking him to confirm that he was not responsible, Dent refuses to give a definite answer. He then detonates a bomb in his apartment and leaves Batman dazed as he flees.

Despite escaping the explosion physically unscathed to a motel, Dent suffers a crisis of conscience and a mental battle with his "Two-Face" personality. Although evidence is later uncovered by Batman that exonerates Dent for the murders, it is too late to save him. Prompted by resentment and a paranoid reaction to Batman's questioning, Dent scars half his face with nitric acid and a scalpel, becoming Two-Face once again.[16] Blaming Batman for his return, Two-Face immediately goes on a rampage, threatening to destroy the Gotham Zoo (having retained two of every animal - including two humans) before escaping to fight Batman another day.[17]

On the cover of Justice League of America vol. 2 #23, Two-Face is shown as a member of the new Injustice League. He can be seen in Salvation Run. He appears in Battle for the Cowl: The Underground, which shows the effects of Batman's death on his enemies. In Judd Winick's Long Shadow arc, Two-Face realizes that there's another person under the cowl.[18] He hires a teleporter and manages to infiltrate the Batcave. When the new Batman investigates the cave, he is ambushed by Two-Face with tranquilizer darts, and in a hallucination he sees Dent in a red and black Two-Face themed Batman costume.[19] However, Alfred Pennyworth saved the hero from Two-Face's torture after he subdues his accomplice, and with his help Batman convinces Two-Face that he is the real, original Dark Knight Detective, informing Dent that his problem is that he cannot imagine Batman changing because he himself is incapable of seeing the world in anything other than black and white.[20] In Streets of Gotham, Two-Face has been at odds with Gotham's latest district attorney, Kate Spencer, also known as the vigilante Manhunter. Two-Face has recently been driven out of Gotham City by Jeremiah Arkham.

Family

This section details various members of Harvey Dent's family across various interpretations of the Batman mythos.

  • Gilda Dent - Gilda is Harvey's wife in most comic-book incarnations.[21] Gilda wanted to have children with Harvey but his busy schedule precluded this. This led Gilda to become the serial killer known as Holiday, who killed several key members of Carmine Falcone's criminal empire. Gilda fled after Two-Face's first arrest and disappeared. Two-Face constantly denies the chance for plastic surgery and a life with Gilda again but has stated that Harvey Dent is a married man.[22]
  • Duela Dent - Duela is the daughter of Two-Face. Creator Bob Rozakis stated, "It didn't take too long to decide whose daughter she would turn out to be. After all, the only married villain was Two-Face. I convinced Julie (and associate editor E. Nelson Bridwell, the acknowledged keeper of DC's historical consistency) that Harvey and Gilda Dent had a daughter, that Harvey had been disappointed because she wasn't a twin, and that they'd named her Duela."[23] Later works make her father an Earth-3 version of the Joker instead.
  • Poison Ivy - Batman: The Animated Series present Poison Ivy as Dent's first fiancée. Dent and Pamela Isley have dated in "Pretty Poison" before Ivy poisons the D.A. as revenge for killing the endangered flowers to make way for Stonegate Penitentiary. The two later meet again in "Almost Got 'Im". Two-Face remarks that half of him wants to strangle Ivy as revenge for poisoning him. When Ivy flirtatiously asks what the other half wants, he replies, "To hit you with a truck." In this version it's the only thing both sides agree on.

In the two-part episode "Two-Face", Gilda becomes Grace (although this name-change draws from several of Gilda's comic appearances — including Batman Annual (vol. 1) #14 and Secret Origins Special #1 — which identify her by this alternate name). Dent is about to announce their wedding date as part of his reelection speech, but is interrupted by a late night meeting with crime boss Rupert Thorne, which results in his disfigurement. In the animated series' tie-in comic book, The Batman Adventures, Two-Face tries to kill her after the Joker manipulates him into believing that she is having an affair with Bruce Wayne; after Batman apprehends him, Grace realizes that Two-Face will never be cured, and leaves him.

The novelization to The Dark Knight gave the names of his parents as Harry and Lucy Dent. The novelization explains that Harry, a respected police officer, was an alcoholic who abused his wife and son, and used his connections with the Gotham City Police Department to avoid prosecution for domestic violence. Harry gave his son a misprinted silver dollar coin, with two face, or head, sides, which Harvey considers his good luck charm; after he is disfigured (and one side of the coin is burned), he uses it to decide whether his victims will live or die.

In Batman: Two-Face - Crime and Punishment, Christopher Dent, the father of Harvey Dent, was a mentally ill alcoholic who frequently abused his son. Harvey represses this trauma for years, fueling the inner torment that eventually turns him into Two-Face.

Batman: Jekyll & Hyde reveals that when he was a kid, Harvey had an older brother, Murray Dent, who died as a result of arson because his brother was too scared to save him. The comics explain that Murray is Harvey's second personality, and the death of his brother explains the alcoholism and violence of his father.

In Batman Gotham Adventures #2: Lucky Day, Two-Face plans to rob a game-show contestant of 2.2 million dollars on live TV while seeking revenge against his father (this version named Lester), who has just won it big on the show, to get revenge on the abuse he suffered as a child before Lester left his wife when Harvey was 13. At the conclusion of the storyline, Two-Face destroys the prize money when Batman interrupts his attempt to shoot his father, confidently informing Lester that the insurance company won't cover the lost money, and with Lester being unable to cash in on his "lucky streak" after cheating death, as the remaining money must be bagged as evidence.

Abilities and weapons

Before his transformation into Two-Face, Harvey Dent was one of the best attorneys in Gotham City, proficient in nearly all matters pertaining to criminal law.

Following his disfigurement, he developed multiple personality disorder, and became obsessed with duality, from staging crimes around the number two - such as robbing buildings with '2' in the address or staging events so that he will take action at 10:22 p.m. (22:22 in military time) - to carrying and using dual firearms (such as .22 semiautomatics or a double barreled shotgun). Two-Face does things according to chance and therefore leaves all the decisions he makes to fate at the flip of his two-headed coin in an almost obsessive-compulsive desire, to the point that the Bat-family have been able to exploit his 'need' for the coin to their advantages more than once by depriving him of the coin mid-toss to delay his ability to make decisions; on other occasions Two-Face has even helped them when a coin-toss turns out in their favour, such as providing Batman with the antidote to a poison even after he, Joker and Penguin had been the ones to poison the Dark Knight.

During the Batman: Face to Face story arc, it is revealed that Batman has trained Dent extensively in hand-to-hand combat and detective work, enhancing his already proficient talent in both. He also tends to carry with him a large assortment of conventional weaponry, including guns, knives, rocket launchers, and poison gases, along with being an expert marksman.

Other versions

As one of Batman's most recognizable and popular opponents, Two-Face appears in numerous comics which are not considered part of the regular DC continuity, including:

The Dark Knight Returns

In the alternate future setting of The Dark Knight Returns, plastic surgery returns Dent's face to normal, but at the unforeseen cost of permanently destroying the good-hearted Harvey Dent personality, leaving the monstrous Two-Face in control forever - to the extent that one of his henchmen now refers to him only as 'Face'. He attempts to blow up the Gotham Twin Towers with his face swathed in bandages. As he puts it when Batman captures him, "At least both sides match." Later in the series, his psychiatrist (who is characterized as completely inept) describes Dent's condition as "recovering nicely".

Batman Black and White

Two-Face has a brief short story in the first issue of Batman Black and White, in the comic titled "Two of a Kind" featuring him receiving plastic surgery to regain his original identity as Harvey Dent, only to suffer a relapse when his fiance — his former psychiatrist — is revealed to have a psychotic twin sister, who kills her sister and forces him to become Two-Face again in order to take his revenge.

Elseworlds

In the Elseworld story Batman: In Darkest Knight, Harvey Dent is the Gotham District Attorney and distrusts Green Lantern (who in this reality is Bruce Wayne) because of his vigilante tactics, made even worse due to Commissioner Gordon's distrust of Lantern due to his sheer power. Sinestro, after becoming deranged from absorbing Joe Chill's mind, then scars Dent's face and gives him powers similar to those of the main continuity's Eclipso. He calls himself Binary Star and works with Star Sapphire (who in this reality is Selina Kyle).

Two-Face also appears in the Elseworlds Batman/Daredevil crossover book, partnered with Marvel villain Mr. Hyde for the purpose of using Hyde as an "incubator" to grow an organic microchip, giving Hyde drugs to speed up this process (regardless of the fact that this would kill him). It is also revealed in this book that Harvey Dent had once been friends with Matt Murdock, who is secretly Daredevil. Prior to his disfigurement, Dent believed in giving criminals a chance at rehabilitation, while Murdock believed in final justice; having reversed his outlook to what Dent had once believed, Murdock talks Two-Face out of killing Hyde without Two-Face using his coin. Two-Face, however, insists that act is merely "the last of Harvey Dent."

In the Elseworlds comic Batman: Masque, a pastiche of The Phantom of the Opera, Harvey Dent takes the role of the Phantom.

In the Elseworlds book Batman: Crimson Mist, the third part of the trilogy that began with Batman & Dracula: Red Rain, where Batman become a vampire, Two-Face—accompanied by Killer Croc as his muscle—forms an alliance with Commissioner Gordon and Alfred Pennyworth to stop Batman when his insane thirst for blood drives him to kill his old enemies. After Batman is believed killed in the old Batcave, Two-Face turns on the two men, forcing Alfred to flee and rescue Batman while Gordon kills Two-Face's men. As he confronts Gordon, however, Two-Face is interrupted by the restored Batman, who drives two crossbow bolts into each side of Two-Face's head, citing it as "One for each face".[24]

In the Elseworlds tale Batman: Claws of the Catwoman, explorer and adventurer Finnegan Dent is revealed to be stealing the sacred artifacts of an African Tribe in the lost city of Mnemnom. During an encounter with Batman and Tarzan- Tarzan had been visiting Gotham to attend to business when Batman learned about Dent's true agenda, teaming up with the Dark Knight to help him stop Dent raiding the city-, half of Dent's face is mauled by a lion, prompting him to decide to remain in Mnemnom and establish himself as its ruler on the grounds that society would have no place for a man with half a face. He is last seen being sealed away in a tomb of the rulers of Mnemnom after he triggers an explosion in a fight with Tarzan and Batman, Tarzan informing Dent as he takes the unconscious Batman to safety that taking Dent back to Gotham to face trial is Batman's idea of justice rather than his; he later tells Batman that Dent died when the falling rubble that knocked Batman unconscious crushed him.

In the Elseworlds series Catwoman: Guardian of Gotham, model Darcy Dent has half her face scarred when a rival model hires a hitman to lace her facial cream with acid. Unlike the regular Two-Face, Darcy does not rely on a coin toss to make her decisions, nor does she suffer from any type of personality disorder. Her motive is simply revenge based against those responsible for her disfigurement, and her motif is mutilating her victims faces and wearing a half business suit with a spiked metal bikini.

Thrillkiller

In the Thrillkiller universe, there are two versions of Two-Face. One is Detective Duell, a corrupt officer on the Gotham City Police Department, whose face is scarred in a manner similar to Dent's. Duell is shown as being arrested at the end of Thrillkiller: Batgirl and Robin. In the sequel, Batgirl and Batman: Thrillkiller '62, Harvey Dent is shown as the new District Attorney. He appears at the end as the new mayor of Gotham.

Earth-Three

The new Earth-Three features a heroic female counterpart to Two-Face: Evelyn "Eve" Dent—"Three-Face"—the mother of Duela Dent. Her original affiliation is to the heroic Riddler Family (like the similar Batman Family); it included herself, Quizmaster, Jokester, and Riddler's/Joker's Daughter (her daughter Duela). They were later part of Alexander Luthor's Justice Underground, opposing Ultraman's Crime Syndicate.

Evelyn has three personalities (Irrational, Practical, and Hedonistic). To portray this, she wears a costume that is divided in three parts. Her right side favors loud fabrics like polka-dots, stripes, or plaids; her left side favors animal prints like tiger or leopard; and the center is a wide stripe of green. Over her leotard she wears a leather jacket that is a brown bomber jacket on the right and a black biker jacket on the left. Her face is not scarred but is instead usually painted all white with a vertical green center stripe and dark green or black lipstick; sometimes she is shown with her face parted into light green on the right, white in the middle, and mauve on the left. Her black hair is divided into cropped short on the right (sometimes dyed pink or red), worn shoulder-length on the left, and a mohawk in the center. She carries a revolver in a holster slung on her right hip.

She later has a cybernetic left arm, after Superwoman mutilates her and leaves her for dead.

Gotham By Gaslight

The Earth-19 version of Two-Face is a serial killer called "The Double Man", as mentioned in Countdown: Arena.

Tangent Comics

On the Tangent Earth, Harvey Dent is an African-American man with psionic powers and is that world's Superman, although he has no other similarities to the Two-Face character.

Flashpoint

In the alternate timeline of the Flashpoint event, Harvey Dent did not become Two-Face. Instead, he is now a judge and has a wife and twin children. When the Joker kidnaps Dent's children, Harvey asks Thomas Wayne for help in their search, agreeing to do anything he asks of him. When Harvey asks Thomas for his help, he warns Wayne that he will shut down everything he owns, including Wayne Casinos unless his children are saved.[25] Chief James Gordon locates the Joker in Wayne Manor, and he goes in without any backup. Gordon is tricked into shooting Dent's daughter, as she has been taped to a chair and had her mouth taped shut with a smile on the tape, so she is disguised as the Joker. The Joker then appears and kills Gordon before Batman arrives.[26] Batman rushes in and manages to save Dent's daughter by resuscitating her. Batman then moves them away from the Joker.[27]

The Batman Adventures

In The Batman Adventures, which is set in the continuity of Batman: The Animated Series, Two-Face is on the verge of being cured when the Joker convinces him that his fiancee, Grace, is cheating on him with Bruce Wayne. Enraged, his evil personality takes hold once again, and he kidnaps Grace. Batman and Robin foil his plan and send him back to Arkham; Grace, meanwhile, realizes that Harvey Dent is truly gone forever, and leaves him.

Batman: Earth One

In the graphic novel, Batman: Earth One, in this continuity, Dent has a twin sister named Jessica, who was a friend of Bruce Wayne from high school. Harvey Dent occasionally would bully Bruce, due to his maternal family's reputation (who are Arkhams instead of Kanes) of eventually would become insane, leading at one point, that the two boys had a fight. After the twins reach adulthood, Harvey becomes Gotham City's District Attorney, and Jessica as the mayor of the city following the death of her predecessor, Oswald Cobblepot, after his confrontation with Batman.[28]

In other media

Television

  • Although Clint Eastwood was discussed for the role of Two-Face in the 1960s Batman television series, reimagined as a news anchor who was disfigured when a television set exploded in his face,[29] he did not appear, as the character was labeled "too gruesome and too violent" for the "kid-friendly" attitude that surrounded the show (comics and cartoon strips were subject to strict censorship at this time).
File:The Animated Two-Face.jpg
Two-Face as he appeared in Batman: The Animated Series.
  • Two-Face appears in Batman: The Animated Series (voiced by Richard Moll). District attorney Harvey Dent suffers from deep-seated psychological trauma, resulting from years of repressing anger after he hit a bully. As a child, Dent developed another personality, "Big Bad Harv", who is as evil as the "Dent" personality is noble. This alter ego shows itself whenever Dent loses his temper, prompting him to seek therapy. He has a fiancée named Grace. Mob boss Rupert Thorne gets a hold of his psychiatric file and plans to blackmail him. At this provocation, Dent loses his temper, leaving "Big Bad Harv" in control, and he physically lashes out at Thorne and his men, chasing Thorne through a chemical plant. Stray gunfire when Batman stops a thug shooting Dent results in an electrical fire and an explosion that hideously scars the left half of Dent's body. After the accident, Dent is driven to insanity after discovering half of his face now hideously damaged and becomes a gangster known as "Two-Face" and soon begins his own crusade to bring Thorne down. However, he still feels love for Grace, who tries to help him. In subsequent episodes, he becomes a crime boss and supervillain in his own right, although he is constantly locked in a battle of wits against the Dent personality, demonstrated in the episode "Second Chance", where he apparently kidnaps himself before he can undergo an operation that will restore his face and eradicate his evil personality once and for all. In the episode "Pretty Poison", set before his disfigurement, he dates Pamela Isley, who is actually Poison Ivy; she attempts to seduce and kill Dent in retaliation for his unintentional extermination of the last of a rare flower species to green-light the construction of Stonegate Penitentiary. While Ivy nearly succeeds in killing the DA with a poisonous kiss, Batman subdues Ivy and cures Dent. His relationship with Ivy is acknowledged in the later episode "Almost Got 'Im", when Two-Face says that half of him wants to strangle her while the other half wants to hit her with a truck. (Ivy's response: "We used to date.") In the episode "Trial", he acts as "prosecutor" when Batman's rogues gallery hold him prisoner in Arkham Asylum and try him in a kangaroo court. He also makes an appearance in the first episode, "On Leather Wings", prior to his disfigurement. Unlike other versions of Dent, he appears to be perfectly willing to prosecute Batman as a vigilante (although on that specific occasion, Batman had been framed by Man-Bat).
  • In The New Batman Adventures episode "Sins of the Father", Two-Face (again voiced by Richard Moll) is most notable for his connection to the origins of the new Robin (Tim Drake) whose father had once worked for Two-Face but betrayed him after learning that Two-Face planned to hold Gotham ransom with a deadly gas. Although Two-Face acquires the chemicals and almost unleashes the plague, Batman, Batgirl and Robin subdue him in time and send him back to Arkham. In the series' final episode, Two-Face's psyche fragments a second time, creating a third personality called "The Judge" (voiced by Malachi Throne), a violent court-themed vigilante who attempts to eliminate all of Gotham's criminals. Two-Face, looking to eradicate this new threat to him, has no idea that he himself is the Judge. At the end of the episode, he is sent back to Arkham where his Judge persona holds a trial against the Two-Face persona asking how Two-Face pleads. Two-Face pleads "guilty."
  • An android of Two-Face appears in the Batman Beyond episode, "Terry's Friend Dates a Robot", battling the future Batman (Terry McGinnis) in a simulation. In the unedited version of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, it is shown that Bruce Wayne has wax replicas of some of his old foes including Two-Face. Bruce decapitates the Two-Face statue with a batarang while testing his aim.
  • Two-Face is featured in Batman: The Brave and the Bold voiced by James Remar and briefly reprised by Richard Moll in "Chill of the Night.]" Two-Face first appears in "Legends of the Dark Mite!" as part of Bat-Mite's fantasy. His first speaking role is in the teaser of "The Fate of Equinox" where Two-Face readies his henchmen to kill Batman when he arrives. After his coin flip lands on good heads, Two-Face ends up teaming up with Batman against the henchmen. Before he can flip again, he is knocked out by Batman. He also makes a cameo in "Mayhem of the Music Meister!" singing with the other villains in Arkham Asylum. In "Sidekicks Assemble", he is one of the multiple villains Robin, Speedy, and Aqualad face-off against in a simulation in the Batcave. In the episode "Chill of the Night", Two-Face appears again among other villains in a bidding for a supersonic weapon held by arms dealer Joe Chill. He joins the villains in attacking Joe Chill when they learn that Joe was partially responsible for the creation of Batman. Two-Face, alongside the other villains, are defeated by Batman, but manage to escape when the warehouse collapses. He also appears in "The Mask of Matches Malone!", where he is pursued by Black Canary, Huntress, and Catwoman. Meanwhile, Batman becomes Matches Malone and The Birds of Prey go into a bar where he also went. They sing the number "Birds of Prey" as Malone captures them and Two-Face (disguised as Batman) saves them.

Film

File:Two-faceJones.jpg
Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face in Batman Forever
  • In Batman Forever (1995), Tommy Lee Jones portrays Two-Face as one of two main antagonists of the film. The origin of his criminal personality is exactly the same as it was in the original Golden Age comics: District attorney Harvey Dent is disfigured when Sal Maroni throws acid at him that scars the left side of his face which drove him insane. Blaming Batman for failing to save him when this incident happenss, Two-Face teams up with the Riddler on the promise he will be told Batman's secret identity. This version, unlike others, does not have an eye bulge and exposed teeth on the deformed side. At the movie's climax, Batman prompts Two-Face to flip his coin to make a decision and then throws a handful of coins into the air, Two-Face scrambles to find his coin but looses his footing and fall to the bottom of a pit to his death. This version of Two-Face, as well as the film itself, was met with a mixed response among critics and audiences alike. Scott Beatty, in particular, noted that he felt that the Batman Forever version of Two-Face was more of a Joker knock-off than the multifaceted character in the original comics.[31] However, Jones was nominated for "Best Villain" at the MTV Awards for his performance.
Aaron Eckhart as Two-Face in The Dark Knight
  • Aaron Eckhart portrays Two-Face as the secondary antagonist in The Dark Knight (2008), the second movie in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. In this film, Dent is portrayed as a tragic hero, lacking the gimmickry and dissociated personalities commonly associated with the character. Harvey Dent is the new district attorney of Gotham. Planning to take down the Mafia, Dent forms a tenuous alliance with Batman (Christian Bale) and James Gordon (Gary Oldman). Corrupt police officers working with the Mafia kidnap Dent and his fiancée, Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), and hold them prisoner in two abandoned buildings set to explode with oil drums. Dent tries to free himself, but the chair he is strapped to falls over and knocks over one of barrels spilling oil over the floor and soaking half of Dent's body. Batman saves Dent just as the building explodes, but the sparks from the explosion ignite the petrol on Dent's face horrifically scarred on the left side of his face and Rachel is killed in the other explosion. The Joker (Heath Ledger) takes advantage of Dent's trauma, prompting him to exact revenge. As the newly-dubbed "Two-Face", a contemptuous nickname that Dent was called by cops when he was working in Internal Affairs, he hunts down those he sees as responsible for Rachel's death; seeing random chance as the only fair thing left, he decides his victims' fates with his "father's lucky coin" (a two-headed coin with one side scarred by the explosion). Eventually, Two-Face takes Gordon's family to the warehouse where Rachel died. Batman arrives and challenges Two-Face to judge the three who pressured the Mafia to turn to the Joker for assistance: himself, Batman, and Gordon. Two-Face flips the coin for Batman, whom he shoots, and himself, whom he spares; instead of flipping for Gordon, however, the former D.A. opts to flip for Gordon's son, intending to inflict upon him the pain of losing a loved one. As the coin flies through the air Batman tackles Two-Face, who falls off a ledge to his death. In order to cover up Dent's crimes, Batman takes the blame for Two-Face's murders in order for Dent to be remembered as a hero.
  • Although he doesn't make a physical appearance, Harvey Dent is mentioned in the 2010 straight-to-video animated film Batman: Under the Red Hood. In it, ther former companion of Batman, the resurrected Jason Todd, questions Batman's inability to bring himself to kill the Joker, while stating: "I'm not talking about killing Penguin or Scarecrow or Dent" while holding a gun to the Joker's temple.
  • Harvey Dent was mentioned in The Dark Knight Rises, the third and final installment in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, which takes place eight years after the events of The Dark Knight.[32] In the movie, a portrait of him is seen in his memorial service and several flashbacks are shown. In the film, it is revealed that Gotham has established a "Harvey Dent Day" celebration during the 8 years since his death. An act was also introduced in his name, which succeeded in wiping out organized crime in Gotham. Commissioner Gordon, however, remains in guilt over covering up Dent's killing spree, because Dent's attack on the Gordon family has caused the commissioner's divorce, thus he had succeeded of inflicting agony upon Gordon. Bane later steals Gordon's confession paper and reveals Dent's villainous actions and Gordon's cover-up with Batman as part of a plan to destabilize Gotham, tarnishing his reputation and releasing thousands of inmates from Blackgate who were imprisoned under the Dent Act, sending Gotham into total chaos. Archive footage of Two-Face holding Gordon's family hostage is also shown in flashbacks.

Video games

Two-Face appears in several Batman-related video games:

  • Two-Face is mentioned at the end of Batman: Arkham Asylum. In one cutscene, the Joker talks to Batman over a computer screen and asks "You were expecting Two-Face?" After finally defeating the Joker, a call comes in over the police radio that Two-Face is robbing the Second National Bank. Batman then cuts his conversation with Commissioner Gordon short in order to pursue the criminal. His cell is also seen in the Penitentiary with a poster advertising a "Vote Dent" campaign as an answer to one of the Riddler's riddles. He is also one of the villains whose name is on the Joker's Party List, listed as Harvey Dent. Interestingly, Two-Face is said to have been cured on the Arkham Asylum website.
  • Two-Face is the first boss in the Wii version of Batman: The Brave and the Bold – The Videogame, with James Remar reprising the role. He appears in the teaser to the first episode and has kidnapped Mayor George Hill. In the fight, he has tied Mayor Hill to a giant penny and flips him to decide whether to send henchmen to fight Batman and Robin or to leave himself open to attack. After he is defeated, Batman states that there is still hope for Two-Face to reform, and Two-Face responds by declaring that he will escape from Arkham.
  • Two-Face appears in DC Universe Online voiced by Edwin Neal. If the player uses a Hero character, Two-Face will contact him or her when the player reaches level 30, apparently with Harvey Dent being in control. Two-Face/Harvey will ask the player to help him uncover Penguin´s smuggling operations in the Old Gotham Subway, and will guide the player through the instance. However, when the player defeats Penguin, Two-Face shows up, his evil side being in control. Two-Face mocks the Penguin and announces he is taking over the Penguin´s business. As it turns out, the Hero character has accidentally helped Two-Face take out his rival. The same process will follow if the player is using a Villain character, however, Two-Face will always be in control in this case. Two-Face will also be one of the two bosses to defeat in the duo instance Gotham Mercy Hospital, available only for Villains (the other boss being Mr. Freeze). Players can also use Two-Face as one of many playable characters in PVP Legends matches.
  • Two-Face appears in Batman: Arkham City voiced by Troy Baker. Harvey Dent was sent to Arkham city after a dispute with Catwoman . In the introductory sequence of the game, he manages to thwart Catwoman's plans to pilfer some of her ill-gotten gains from a safe in his hideout. The character later goes on to put her on trial before a kangaroo court in an abandoned Solomon Wayne Courthouse, secretly planning to gain prestige among other Arkham inmates through her execution. Batman, having overheard an Arkham City security report indicating Catwoman's plight, goes into the courthouse her for the sake of their past relationship. Two-Face begins the trail upon his coin landing on the unscarred side until Batman crashes the trial. Batman takes down some of Two-Face's men before he ends up shot by Two-Face. When Two-Face asks Catwoman "heads or tails," Catwoman asks which side will get her free. Two-Face flips the coin and it landed on the scarred side as he quotes "not this one." However, Catwoman gets free and slashes Two-Face in his face. Two-Face is promptly left strung up by his feet over a vat of acid, but swears revenge. Late in the game's storyline, Two-Face returns and makes a new bid for influence by taking over the Penguin's turf in Arkham City. Catwoman goes there after her apartment has been bombed and the stuff she had stolen was stolen from her by Two-Face's men. Catwoman manages to defeat Two-Face. In Hugo Strange's interview tapes, it was mentioned by Two-Face in the interview that half his face was scarred when he was prosecuting the Maroni family. Also in the tapes, it was revealed that Hugo Strange was the one who tipped off Two-Face to Catwoman's break-in on his turf.

Miscellaneous

  • During the Batman Sunday comic strips that ran from 1943–1946, he is an actor (Harvey Apollo) who is testifying at the trial of criminal Lucky Sheldon. He is killed at the end of the story arc. Also, his origin is again altered in the Batman daily strips published from 1989 to 1991. In this version, Harvey Dent is scarred by a vial of acid thrown by an unnamed bystander, and intended for the Joker.
  • Two-Face appears in the comic-book one-shot "Two of a Kind" in Batman Black and White #1, written and drawn by Bruce Timm (this vintage vignette, like the rest of the Black and White miniseries, isn't considered canon). Harvey Dent has been reconstructed, rehabilitated, and released from Arkham, but along the way he and his plastic surgeon Dr. Marilyn Crane fall in love and plan to marry. A chance meeting with Marilyn's twin sister Madeline ignites his obsession with duality and his new life begins to crumble as she seduces the Two-Face personality out of hiding. Dent calls off the affair to save his sanity, but Madeline kills Marilyn and a distraught Dent brings Two-Face back to avenge his fiancee's murder by burning one side of his face and shooting Madeline. After the murder, Two-Face waits for Batman to take him back to Arkham.
  • In a musical production entitled, "Holy Musical B@man," by Starkid Productions (Team Starkid), Two-Face is portrayed by Chris Allen.
  • A bobblehead was released for Two-Face based on the film, but the manufacturer was unknown. it was never sold in stores but collectiblegiveaways.com. it was later out of stock due to the popularity of The Dark Knight.
  • In the final season of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, in the episode "The Strike", Jerry dates a woman whom George nicknames "Two-Face" after Jerry comments that she appears attractive in some settings and ugly in others. Jerry asks George: "Like the Batman villain?" An annoyed George responds: "If that helps you."[35]
  • Two-Face appears in the Robot Chicken episode "The Ramblings of Maurice" voiced by Neil Patrick Harris. When Batman confronts Two-Face in a hot chocolate factory, Two-Face flips his coin to determine if he should kill Batman or not. The coin lands on the scarred side and he fights Batman until he ends up going face first into the side of a hot chocolate vat. When Batman visits Two-Face in the hospital, Two-Face now calls himself Three-Face due to the damage to his scarred side. Three-Face uses his three-sided dice where landing on one has Three-Face killing Batman, landing on two has Two-Face not killing Batman, and landing on three has both of them drinking hot chocolate together. The three-sided dice lands on one and he fights Batman until he trips and falls face first into a container of bleach. When Batman visits Three-Face later, Three-Face now calls himself Four-Face due to the bleach stains on his unscarred side. Four-Face has Batman draw one of his four straws where the shortest straw will have Four-Face killing him, the longest straw will have Four-Face not killing Batman, and the other two straws would determine if Four-Face should throw bleach on Batman's costume or they drink hot chocolate together. Batman draws one of the other two straws and it cuts to them having hot chocolate together. When Four-Face wants to try Batman's soup, an accident causes Four-Face's face to be harmed by soup. In the Robot Chicken DC Universe Special, a segment has Two-Face (voiced again by Neil Patrick Harris) in the bathroom where he uses his coin to determine his bathroom choices. In the final segment where the superheroes and supervillains battle it out at Aquaman's surprise birthday party, Two-Face flips a coin and it lands on the unscarred side where he knocks himself out.
  • In Bat Thumb, the character is renamed "No Face", because he has no face. His plan was to disappear everyone's face in Gaaathumb City and marry Vicki Nail all to himself.

See also

References

  1. ^ Daniels, Les, Batman: The Complete History, Chronicle Books, 1999, p. 45. "Nearly everyone seems to agree that Two-Face was Kane's brainchild exclusively".
  2. ^ Bob Kane, Batman and Me (Foestfille, CA: Eclipse Books 1989), pg 108-110
  3. ^ "Two-Face is Number 12". Comics.ign.com. Retrieved 2010-12-29.
  4. ^ "Comic Book DB - Two Face". Comic Book Database. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
  5. ^ Ellsworth, Whitney, Weisinger, Mort (w), Robinson, Jerry, Roussos, George (a). "The Crimes Of Two-Face" Detective Comics, no. 66, p. 68 (August 1942). DC Comics.
  6. ^ a b Miller, Frank (w), Mazzucchelli, David (p). Batman: Year One, no. 4 (March - June 1987). DC Comics, 0930289331.
  7. ^ H (2003-12-23). "The Comic Treadmill: Batman 454, 456, Annual 14 (1990)". Comic Tread Mill. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
  8. ^ "Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics". Dcindexes.com. 2004-04-18. Retrieved 2010-12-29.
  9. ^ Batman Annual (vol. 1) #14 (1990)
  10. ^ Loeb, Joseph, Sale, Tim (w), Sale, Tim (a). Batman: The Long Halloween, p. 368 (1996-1997). DC Comics, 1563894696.
  11. ^ Ref needed
  12. ^ Morrison, Grant (w), McKean, Dave (p), McKean, Dave (i). Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth (Hardcover edition for April Fool's reference), p. 128 (1989). DC Comics.
  13. ^ Johnson, Craig (2005-02-23). "Arkham Asylum 15th Anniversary HC Review". Comics Bulletin. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
  14. ^ a b "No Man's Land (comics)". Comic Vine. Archived from the original on 2008-04-11. Retrieved 2008-05-09.
  15. ^ Gotham Central TPB vol 2 or HC 1
  16. ^ Batman (vol. 1) #653 (July 2006)
  17. ^ Batman (vol. 1) #654 (August 2006)
  18. ^ Batman (vol. 1) #689 (August 2009)
  19. ^ Batman (vol. 1) #690 (September 2009)
  20. ^ Batman (vol. 1) #691 (October 2009)
  21. ^ "Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics". Dcindexes.com. Retrieved 2010-12-30.
  22. ^ Batman: Dark Victory #11 (September 2000)
  23. ^ "Duela Dent". Titans Tower. Retrieved 2010-12-29.
  24. ^ Batman: Crimson Mist (December 1998)
  25. ^ Flashpoint: Batman – Knight of Vengeance #1 (June 2011)
  26. ^ Flashpoint: Batman – Knight of Vengeance #2 (July 2011)
  27. ^ Flashpoint: Batman – Knight of Vengeance #3 (August 2011)
  28. ^ Batman: Earth One
  29. ^ "Clint Eastwood Biography". Tvguide.com. 1930-05-31. Retrieved 2010-12-29.
  30. ^ "Aaron Eckhart on creating the new face of Two Face". Blogs.coventrytelegraph.net. 2008-08-11. Retrieved 2010-12-29.
  31. ^ Ramey, Bill (2005-11-28). "BOF Interview: Scott Beatty". Batman-on-Film. Retrieved 2008-08-16.
  32. ^ "Gary Oldman: the 'Harvey Dent Act' cleans up Gotham in 'The Dark Knight Rises". Batman-News.com. December 6, 2011. Retrieved 2011-12-06. {{cite web}}: |first= missing |last= (help).
  33. ^ The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 animated movie trailer, www.comicsalliance.com, 31 July 2012
  34. ^ Game Informer features a two-page gallery of the many heroes and villains who appear in the game with a picture for each character and a descriptive paragraph. See "LEGO Batman: Character Gallery," Game Informer 186 (October 2008): 93.
  35. ^ The Strike Seinfeldscripts.com. Retrieved March 7, 2010.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Two-Face.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Two-Face&oldid=522681129"