Two-Face


 * For other uses, see Two-Face (Disambiguation)

Harvey Dent was Gotham City's district attorney, but after being scarred for life, moved to a life of crime. Dent was once one of Batman's strongest allies in Gotham City until a criminal threw acid into Dent's face, hideously scarring him. The wounds fractured his psyche, and he was reborn as a schizoid criminal mastermind, obsessed with duality. His former good luck charm, a "two-headed" silver dollar, was damaged on one side during the attack that ruined half his face, and Dent has seized on it as a reflection of his half-scarred visage. He flips it to decide the fates of his victims. Despite Batman's efforts to reform his former ally, Dent is consumed by his fixation on chance and his crimes are designed to prove out his diametric philosophy.

History
Harvey Dent was born into a life of hardship. Growing up in a lower-class family, Dent was raised with an instintive dislike and mistrust for the upper-class. His violent, cruel and mentally-ill father frequently bullied and abused him as a child, with his favourite game being flipping his double-headed coin promising to spare the child a beating if the coin landed tails. These harsh surrondings resulted in Dent developing repressed mental-illnesses of his own, such as bipolar and schizophrenia. His hard work ethic, however, allowed him to raise to become a lawyer and, eventually, a District Attorney. Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent was nicknamed "Apollo" by the media, because he was charming, good-looking and seemingly untouchable. He was dedicated to his job of upholding law and order, and became one of the first supporters, allies and even friends of the Batman. At the time of his job as D.A., the worst criminal threat in Gotham was nigh omnipotent mafia boss Carmine Falcone, "The Roman." He forged a triumvirate with Batman and Commissioner James Gordon to bring the man down within the law, no matter what the cost. His slightly angrier temperament led Batman and Gordon to distrust him slightly, believing there was a possibility he might be the mysterious "Holiday" killer who was gunning down mob members at the time. The alliance ended tragically when Sal Maroni, believing Dent to be responsible for the death of his father, threw acid in his face during a trial. Dent was horribly scarred on the left side of his face and his left hand.

Dent escaped from the hospital and descended into madness. He became obsessed with duality and opposites, and developed a second persona, the villainous Two-Face, to compliment the law & order obsessed Harvey Dent. As Two-Face, his trademark was crimes involving the number two. His obsession even shows in his clothes, which are usually composed of two halves made out of very different materials. At all times, he carries a double-sided coin with one side scarred, which he constantly flips to make any choices.

Modern Age
In the aftermath of the earthquake that left Gotham City in shambles during Cataclysm, Two-Face kidnapped Commissioner Gordon and put him on trial for his actions during No Man's Land, with Two-Face as both judge and prosecutor. Gordon played upon Two-Face's split psyche to demand Harvey Dent as his defense attorney. Dent cross-examined Two-Face and won an acquittal of Gordon.

It was also during this time that Two-Face met GCPD detective Renee Montoya. Montoya was able to reach the Dent persona in Two-Face, and was kind to him. He fell in love with her, though the romance was one-sided. After the earthquake that ravaged Gotham, Two-Face outed her as a lesbian and framed her for murder, hoping that if he took everything from her she would be left with no choice but to be with him. Montoya was furious, and the two fought for control of his gun until Batman intervened, putting Two-Face back in Arkham Asylum.

A short time later, Two-Face met the brilliant surgeon, Dr. Thomas Elliot. Although Elliot specialized in neurosurgery, he was competent enough to repair Dent's face via plastic surgery. Dent's sanity was restored, and the menacing "Two-Face" persona seemed to be gone forever. Thomas Elliot was also the villain known as Hush, and he had hoped to manipulate Dent into acting as one of his many pawns in a campaign against Batman. With renewed sanity, Dent stood by the side of law and order and betrayed Hush, catching him in enough time to save Batman's life, and shooting him into the Gotham river.

One Year Later
Having regained his trust, Dent was trained and conditioned by Batman to act as Gotham's primary vigilante protector when he, Robin and Nightwing all took a one-year hiatus to train during the Lost Year. When Batman returned, a series of murders occurred implicating Harvey and involving Two-Face's M.O.. When confronted on the issues by Batman, in his anger at being distrusted, the Two-Face persona resurfaced, and talked Dent into scarring his face and returning to his life of crime.

Harvey Dent has returned to his Two-Face identity and committing crimes.

Madness
Two-Face is not consistently evil; every time he contemplates a crime, he flips his two-headed coin. Only if the coin came up scratched-side did Two-Face go ahead and commit the crime, never questioning the result of the toss. This compulsion is a compromise between Dent's evil "Two-Face" personality and his former, law-abiding self. Over the years, he has been shown to rely on the coin to different degrees. Sometimes to decide whether or not to commit a crime, sometimes to decide whether or not to do something good, like save someone. He will even go out of his way to do good deeds if the coin mandates. Since Two-Face is hideously scarred on the left half of his face, he plays up to it with clothing that is differently styled and materialed on one side. Two-Face also carries his obsession with the number "two" in his choice of weapon, twin .22 automatics, with which he is extremely skilled. His psychotic obsession with duality and his designing crimes around the number two often leads to his downfall. In the questionable "Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth" one-shot, the doctors at Arkham were shown to have weaned him off of the coin, and onto a die, then a pack of tarot cards. With the die, instead of only good and evil, he is given six different options, and with the tarot, seventy-eight. Two-Face is shown to be completely dependent, and is unable to even decide to go to the bathroom before sorting through the cards. During Countdown, when he is being deported to the "Hell Planet" along with the other villains in Salvation Run, Pied Piper and the Trickster offer to break him out of Belle Reve after defeating his escorting guards. Two-Face flips the coin, and it comes up un-scarred, so he declines, and instead simply waits patiently in the middle of the hallway for more security guards to show up.

Over the years, various attempts have been made to repair his facial scars, but none have successfully cured his insanity long term; although he has briefly returned to his Dent persona, he has ended up simply destroying one side of his face and becoming Two-Face once again.

Rivalries
Over the years, Two-Face had many rivalries with other DC characters, especially the following two:

Batman-- Although it was the crimelord's fault, Dent had blamed Batman for his facial scarring. He and the Bat had fought each other in over 50 issues of Batman and Detective Comics.

The Joker-- It is unknown why the two supervillains hate each other. Maybe because they had rivalry in the past, perhaps when they were younger. Either way, these two always feud and compete on defeating Batman. In The Nolan films continuity, however, It's revealed that Two-Face hates the Joker since he was indirectly responsible for his fiancee, Rachel's death, as well as his disfigurement (since it was the Joker who plotted the entire thing). The Joker also has some hints at not really being amiable towards Two-Face and only viewing him as a pawn, due to the fact that he forcibly gives a sympathetic smile, while sighing in annoyance before, and also mentioning that Harvey Dent was nothing more than his "ace in the hole" in the film's climax.

Facial Appearence
Two-Face's face has been altered over the years.

In Harvey Dent's first appearence in Detective Comics #66, the deformed portion of Dent's face is light green.

In the newer comics, as well as the motion picture Batman Forever, Dent's deformed part of his face is a bright red. As depicted in Batman: The Animated Series, it is a sky blue.

As depicted in The Dark Knight, Two-Face's deformed side is a gory reddish-gray, and sections of his skull are shown and has no hair.

Batman: The Animated Series
See: Two-Face (BTAS)

"Batman: The Brave and the Bold"
Two-Face appears in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Legends of the Dark Mite." This version is modeled after his first appearance in the Golden Age comics. He, along with the Joker, Catwoman, the Riddler, Killer Moth, Mr. Freeze, Kite Man, the Mad Hatter, the Penguin, Catman, and several other villains are shown briefly in Bat-Mite's imagination. Bat-Mite even falls into an oversized coin that lands on bad heads. In a later appearance in "The Fate of Equinox!", Two-Face voiced by James Remar, has his henchmen kill Batman. After flipping his coin with a good heads result, he ends up teaming up with him against the henchmen. Before he could make his next flip, he is knocked out by Batman.

Batman
See: Harvey Dent (Billy Dee Williams)

Batman Forever
See: Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones)

The Dark Knight
See: Two-Face (Aaron Eckhart)

Trivia

 * In K.A. Applegate's young adult book series, Remnants, a female character named 2face appears. Like Harvey Dent, this 2Face had half her face serverely burned. In the beginning of the series, she is one of the main characters, and tries to survive; However, she later becomes more of a villain. The author has stated that 2face is indeed based on Two-Face from the Batman mythos.


 * All of Two-Face's incarnations followed a certain design scheme when it came to the scarred left half of his face. The left eye always appeared to be bulging, sometimes due to the fact that the eyelid was burned away, while the teeth were exposed due to the lips also being burnt away. The only Two-Face to break this pattern was the one played by Tommy Lee Jones in Batman Forever. This incarnation's left eye was not bulging, while the teeth were not exposed.