Two-face (DC animated universe)
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| Two-face
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| Bob Kane Bill Finger |
Two-face (Harvey Dent), a DC Comics supervillain and enemy of Batman, consistently appeared in Batman: The Animated Series, and several of the related series created by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, played by Richard Moll.
In this version, Harvey Dent has always have split personality, one side is a good person overcompensating the bad deeds of the other, known as "Big Bad Harvey", which is destructive and vengative and was represed for years. After Dent is desfigured, the crisis makes him decide to deside between the impulses of both by flipping his coin and commit over the top crimes which are distinguished by duality as theme.
Contents |
[edit] Appearances
- As Harvey Dent
- As Two-Face
- Two-Face, part II
- The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne
- Almost Got 'Im
- Shadow of the Bat, part I
- Shadow of the Bat, part II
- Trial
- Second Chance
- Sins of the Father
- Judgment Day
[edit] Cameos
[edit] DCAU Biography
[edit] Batman: The Animated Series
In the DC animated universe his backstory has some details changed. For instance, in this version, he is not much of an asociate of Batman as he s friend of Bruce Wayne, his costume design is a more acurate reflexion of his duality and his scarring took place in a chemical plant as a result of a plot of Rupert Thorne instead of being scarred by acid thrown by "Boss" Moroni in court, but this was changed, according to Timm, to fit the storyline. As a result of the way the incident ocur, not only half his head is scarred, but half his body and the scarred tissue is blue. Timm also has stated that he wanted Two-Face/Harvey Dent to have a Sicilian accent; Al Pacino was actually offered to voice the character at one point, but declined. Template:Cn
Before becoming Two-face, Harvey Dent is featured twice in the series. In On Leather Wings, he agrees with Detective Harvey Bullock and mayor Hamilton Hill to prosecute Batman if the police apprehends him. The ambiguos way he says it left it unclear whose side is he on. Tehn, in Pretty Poison, Pamela Isley (a. k. a. poison Ivy)woos her way into Harvey's life as a possible fiancee in an attempt to kill him, for nearly killing off an endangered breed of poison ivy by breaking ground on the construction site for Stonegate Penitentiary, where the flower grew. Although he gets badly poisoned, he survives thanks to the medical aid he gets.
In Two-Face, Part I, Harvey Dent is revealed to suffer from deep-seated psychological trauma resulting from years of repressing anger. As a result, he developes an alternate personality, known as "Big Bad Harv", who is as evil as his outer appearance is noble. "Big Bad Harv" would sometimes come out in the form of violent bursts of anger, which comes to the attention of his main enemy, Gotham City crime boss Rupert Thorne.
Eventually, Thorne get his hands on Dent's psychological records and threatens to blackmail him with it. During an encounter with Thorne in a chemical plant, Dent loses his temper, putting his "Big Bad Harv" personality in control, and goes on a violent rampage, which causes a fight tha ends with a massive explosion in the plant. The explosion severely damages the left side of his face and body, and the trauma and stress of the events made Harvey dent become Two-face, a criminal that would decide bewteen what Harvey Dent or big Bad Harv want by flipping a coin.
His criminal career started in Two-Face, Part II with a series of roberies to every business related to Rupert Thorne, who tricks Harvey's former girldfriend, Grace, into seeing him with the idea of capturing him. With the help of Batman, he stops Thorne but ends up apprehended for the first time.
Batman, who as Bruce Wayne was Dent's best friend, is tormented by having to apprehend him again and again, gradually losing hope that he could ever be cured. Meanwhile, Two-face, becomes ansious to get rid of Batman. In The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne, Two-Face unknowingly protected Batman's secret identity after Professor Hugo Strange discovers it and attempts to auction it off to him, the Joker and the Penguin.
In Almost Got 'Im, he brags along with four other enemies of Batman about the time he was closer to kill him. In the story, the tells how he stags a robbery of the Gotham Mint for "$2,000,000 in two dollar bills". Batman, in an attempt to stop the heist, was overpowered by Two-Face's henchmen, the "Two-Ton Gang". Staying true to his personality disorder, Two-Face flipped his coin to see whether he would kill Batman or let him live, with a negative "tails" result. Two-Face took Batman's utility belt, strapped him to a giant penny and placed it on a catapult; if it landed heads, all his bones would be broken from the impact, but if it landed tails, he would be squashed flat. In midair, Batman cuts himself free of the ropes, using Two-Face's own coin which Batman had managed to steal. In return for apprehending Two-Face and his henchmen, and much to Two-Face's irritation, the Gotham Mint let Batman keep the giant penny (the DCAU origin of the giant penny seen in many classic shots of the Batcave).
In that same eisode, Ivy makes a reference to the group that she and Two-Face used to date, and he replies by telling her one side of him wants to strangle her. when she asks what does the other half wants to do he replies strangle run over her with a train.
In Shadow of the Bat, he frames Gordon for taking bribes from Rupert Thorne. The idea is to have Gil Mason as Gordon's replacement as police commissioner to gain control over the police, but they are both stopped by Batman, Robin and Batgirl.
[edit] The Adventures of Batman & Robin
In Trial, he briefly "reasumes" his role as prosecutor to put batman on trial in a court constituted by the Arkham Asylum inmates. He fails to convince the jury (even though it consists of the Mad Hatter, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc, the Scarecrow and the Riddler).
Two-face, spoils for himself a opportunity of becoming once again Harvey Dent in Second Chance, by ordering his henchmen to kidnap him at the moment of his operation, leaving Batman with two fake leads to Rupert Thorne and the Penguin, with whom the was in bat terms at the time.
[edit] The New Batman Adventures
As in Batman Forever, in the second episode of the The New Batman Adventures season, Sins of the Father, Two-Face is directly connected to the origin of a Robin: Tim Drake, whose father was in this version, one of Two-Face's henchmen. Stephen Drake was trying to hide the binary components of a toxic chemical Two-Face planned on using to hold the city hostage, who scoured the city looking for him. Fleeing for his life, Tim eventually crossed paths with Batman and helped him bring Two-Face to justice, but in the process the villain kills Tim's father. This story also reflects the archenemy relationship both characters have in the comics (in which he killed Jason Todd's father and holds a grudge against the Robins).
In the last episode of the series, Dent's personality fragmented a third time in Judgement Day, creating a superego personality called "The Judge", a violent court-themed vigilante that attempted to eliminate verious criminals including the Penguin, the Riddler, Killer Croc and himself (failing with all of them). Dent, looking to eradicate this new threat to him, had no idea that he himself was The Judge.
A similar storyline appeared in the comic books - however, in the books, Dent's third persona was called Janus, a reference to the Roman god of doors who had two faces, one facing forward, the other backward.
[edit] Further appearances
In Batman Beyond, Two-Face appears in a training simulator used by Terry McGinnis, and again as a mannequin in the Batcave. In the beginning of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker Bruce Wayne cut the same Two-Face mannequin's head off. The only other appearance of this version of Two-Face was a cameo in an episode of Justice League, however it was another universe version of the character.
[edit] Video games
Two-Face has also appeared in several Batman-related video games. A pre-Two-Face Harvey Dent appeared as a hostage of Poison Ivy in the video game Batman: The Animated Series (which carried Ivy's vendetta against Harvey for being indirectly responsible for the destruction of an endangered plant in the episode Pretty Poison). As Two-Face he was a boss in The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Super NES, The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Sega Genesis, the video game adaptations of Batman Forever and Batman: Chaos in Gotham (in which he is the final boss).
[edit] Design
Two-face's design is an abtrabtion of his look in the comics, only with the "Big Bad Harv's side" completely black and Harvey's side completely white, that is save for the shirt, which is inverted. His face looks in mediterranean which could have something to do with Timm wanting him to have Sicilian roots.
For The New Batman Adventures revamp, his features were siplified with more angled lines. He also looks slimer and taller with broader shoulders in comparison.[edit] Action figures
For The New Batman Adventures, Kenner released an action figure modeled after the new design of the character. The figure is part of of a set entitled Escape form Arkham Asymum along with a Batman figure and the Arkham arylum doors. It gets actually looks closer than the previous model to its targeted design, with the lips colored, the black eyebrown and the closed jacket, which only has the defect of being too short in order to aloud the leg movement. It comes wit a machine gun.
[edit] See also
- Two-face, the original version from the comic books.
- Two-face (Batman film), the version from the Tim Burton movies.
- Two-face (Batman Forever), the version from Batman Forever.
[edit] External links
- The World's Finest, a site with a complete guide to the DC animated universe. It's the source of a great deal of the related images in Pop-Cult Guides.
- DCAUResource.com, a very well documented site when it comes to DC fictional biographies.
- The Animated Batman, an Unofficial Guide, a site with a complete guide to Bruce Timm's Batman. It's the source of a great deal of the related images in Pop-Cult Guides.
