Two-face
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Two-face (a. k. a. Harvey Dent) is a DC Comics character enemy of Batman, created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger in 1941. He is known for his half desfigured body and his obssession with duality and making chices by flipping a coin.
His look is characterized by the entire left side of his head and left hand being monstrously disfigured and pigmented and his way of dressing with suits composed of two different ones cut in half and sewn together. He is always seen flipping his trademark double faced coin, which is scratched on one side.
His creator, Bob Kane, revealed that he was inspired by a movie poster advertising the Spencer Tracy film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde which had half the face of both characters displayed as one head, as well as the 1932 version of Scarface, in which a coin was used by the character chooses to do either good or evil by flipping a coin and betting.
After the role Two-Face has Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns in 1986, he has often been considered Batman's "number two archenemy", despite the fact that the Penguin and Catwoman have more appearances, outside media popularity and protagonism since the times of Kane and Finger. (Two-face only appeared about a dozen times during golden age and was absent during the 1960's) However, Two-face is perhaps more versatile in the Batman mythos in terms of violence and cruelty: unlike the Penguin, Catwoman or the Riddler, if his coin allows him, he could be a merciless and remorseless, torturer, killer or mass murderer.
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[edit] DC Universe fictional history
In the current continuity, Two-face's origin has been explored mainly in Batman Annual #14, Batman: The Long Halloween, its continuation, Batman: Dark Victory, and Robin: Year One, but some details were retconned each version.
[edit] Batman Annual #14
Harvey Dent's mainstream history before the accident that turned him into an insane criminal was revealed in Batman Annual #14. He grew up bullied by an abusive father who gambles and gets drunk to then go home to beat him on a daily basis. Harvey's trobles in school gain notice of the psychology advisors who then diagnosed him with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and thought he would have a low probability of leading a normal life. Despite so, he went on to find success in law school. He married Gilda, a loving and caring wife, and climbed the ladder until he was elected District Attorney of Gotham City. Around this point he faces his father, who proves to be as abusive as ever, and who gives him a double faced silver coin, which is the only material thing he has from him. The coin however, has been retconned as being property of Sal Marony.
In Batman: Year One, as Batman begins his career as a vigilante, Harvey Dent becomes his first ally against the authority corruption that has ties all the way up the mayor and the organized crime dominated by the Italian mob, led by Carmine "the Roman" Falcone, the Falcone family and the Maroni family.
Batman provides the evidence, Dent prosecutes the criminals and they are very successful up until the case of a murderer in which, due to the lack of evidence reunited by Batman, Dent failed to get the criminal to jail. And that's when he has the first psychotic break down. Although it is never proven by anyone, frustrated, Harvey decides to kill the murderer and gets away with it.
[edit] The Long Halloween
At the end of Batman: Year One, James Gordon, now police captain joins Batman and Dent in their alliance against the mob and Gotham City's corruption. In Batman: The Long Halloween, a mysterious serial killer known as Holiday starts targeting key people of the Italian mob. and due to his efforts as the District Attourney to get rid of the organized crime, among the many suspects, Harvey Dent strikes capo Salvatore "Sal" Maroni as the murderer and after Holiday kills his father and consiglieri, Luigi Maroni, Sal decides to get revenge. He agrees to testify in court against Carmine Falcone, but he also bribes Dent's assistant into bringing a bottle of antacid with acid inside and when Dent shows Maroni's trademark double-faced silver dollar coin as evidence (according to this version Two-face's coin used to belong to the mobster instead of his father) that he was in a crime scene, he throws the acid at his face. The acid deforms left half his head and his left hand.
That's when Dent decides to leave his wife and former life and becomes Two-face, now fighting the Italian mob with more crime, leading a gang of Solomon Grundy, the Joker, the Penguin, Poison Ivy, the Scarecrow, the Mad Hatter and Catwoman against the Falcones, the Maronis, Batman and even the Police. The gang succeeded where Dent couldn't as a District Attorney, killing Carmine Falcone and Sal Maroni.
[edit] Batman: Hush
[edit] The Middle Crisis and one year later
[edit] Powers and skills
Two-face has no super powers at all. However, he is a brilliant strategist both as District Attourney and later as a criminal. His leadership, careful planning and organization skills has him as the head of the "freak" gang that finished the leading Italian, African-American and Irish mob families. All his actions are decided by the flip of a coin, sometimes he bets between something good and something bad, but he can bet between something bad and something equally bad or worse. His plans are characterized by both duality and references to the legal system in the targets, the victims, the dynamic, themes, gimmicks, etc.
He has no particular training, however. Much like the Joker, through the use of weapons, thugs, tricks and set-ups he has managed to beat or capture both Batman and Robin. However, his desire for vengeance invariably results in him putting them through tortures and speeches in which they escape.
During his criminal career he has varied in power from being on his own, having a small or large gang of hired goons, or being a crime boss in charge of the illegal operations of a part of Gotham City.
As District Attorney, with Batman and then Gordon as his allies, he was able to greatly reduce the influence of Gotham City's organized crime and government corruption.
[edit] Appearance
Harvey Dent is a handsome white man with dark hair, described by the Gotham City press as "Apollo" for his good looks. After the incident, half his head, the left side, and his left hand looks monstrous. The particular features vary according to the artist interpretation, which has had his skin green, red, purple, pink, gray and blue. His hair is most times white or gray, but the tone of the discoloration also varies. In most versions his left eye is popped and the lips on the left side of his mouth are drawn back.
He tends to wear a suit composed of two different ones cut in half and taylored together. After Batman: The Animated Series, the black or dark side tends to be on the left and the clear of white tends to be on the right, with the exception of the shirt, with is the opposite.
[edit] Other versions
| Earth/continuity | Creators | First appearance | Appearances | Main article |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Earth | Two-face | |||
| Earth-2 | Two-face / Earth-2 | |||
| Earth-1 | Two-face / Earth-1 | |||
| Earth-3 | Three Face | |||
| Earth-19 | The Double Man | |||
| Earth-1099 | Catwoman: Guardian of Gotham | Darcy Dent | ||
| Comic strips | Two-face / Harvey Apollo |
[edit] In other media
Despite being one of the most popular and recurring Batman villains in comics, Two-face has relatively few appearances in other media. He has only been one time in an animated series (Batman: The Animated Series), however counting his cameo as Harvey Dent in Batman, he has appear in three movies, which is as many as the Joker.
| Series | Actor | Appearances | Year | Main article |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batman | Billy Dee Williams | 1 | 1989 | Two-face (Batman film series) |
| Batman: The Animated Series | Richard Moll | 14 | 1992 | Two-face (DC animated universe) |
| Batman Forever | Tommy Lee Jones | 1 | 1994 | Two-face (Batman film series) |
| The Dark Knight | Aaron Eckhart | 1 | 2008 | Two-face (Batman Begins film series) |
[edit] References
- In The Venture Bros. he is parodied as Shame-face, a disfigured criminal with no real superpowers, only his disfigurement doesn't really make him look like anything at all, like "two-face" or a "joker".
- Two-face became a seinfeldism when in Seinfeld, Jerry Seinfeld dates a woman that looks good with certain illumination and bad with other. George comments "She is a two-face!", Jerry says "like the Batman villain?", to which George replies "If that helps you...".
