Two-Face


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

Harvey Dent was Gotham City's heroic and kind-hearted district-attorney and one of Batman's strongest allies until Sal "Boss" Maroni threw acid in his face, hideously scarring him. It also fractured his mental state, causing him to become Two-Face, a schizoid criminal-mastermind obsessed with the number two. 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's childhood consisted of hardship. Growing up in a lower-class family, Harvey was raised with an instinctive dislike and mistrust for the upper-class. These harsh surroundings resulted in him developing repressed mental-illnesses of his own, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. His hard work ethic, however, allowed him to rise up to become Gotham City's district-attorney.

Dent was nicknamed "Apollo" by the media due to the fact that 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 Batman.

At the time of his job as a district-attorney, the worst criminal threat in Gotham City was Sal "Boss" Maroni. He forged a triumvirate with Batman and Commissioner Gordon to bring the man down within the law, no matter what the cost. His slightly angrier temperament led Batman and Commissioner Gordon to develop a slight distrust for him, believing that it was slightly possible that he could be the vigilante dubbed "Holiday." The alliance ended tragically when Sal "Boss" Maroni, believing that 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 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. Two-Face flips the coin at critical junctures: The scarred side would usually result in a crime, but the clean side would allow Two-Face to do the right thing, such as returning his loot or restrain from a murder.

Early Career
After his first few encounters with Batman, Two-Face attempted to abandon all ties with his own past life, including his loving wife, Gilda. This, however, proved too much for the good side of his personality, and he began attempting to visit Gilda, claiming he had regained his face through plastic surgery. Gilda, however, soon saw through the fabrication, and this unhinged Dent even more. Finally, he was apprehended by Batman, with the help of his partner, Robin.

Shortly after, a certain Dr. Ekhart performed plastic surgery on Dent's face, seemingly repairing it for good. While the facial reconstruction managed to partially heal Two-Face's fractured mind, Ekhart's assistant, Mr. Wilkins, began to place suspicion on Harvey Dent once more by committing crimes disguised as Two-Face. Batman, however, saw through the disguise and helped Two-Face clear his name. For two years, Dent led a normal life until actor Paul Sloane, scarred in the same manner as Dent had once been, was driven mad, beginning to think he was really Dent as Two-Face. Batman arrested Sloane for several attempted robberies and had his face restored, in the same manner Harvey Dent's had once been.

Dent, however, was caught in an explosion a few years later, which undid the plastic surgery and scarred his face once again. Maddened again, the revived Two-Face hired the Crime Doctor to kidnap Paul Sloane and scar the actor's face again, to mirror the transformation that had occurred in Dent. Although restored as Two-Face's twin, Sloane proved more fortunate, and had his face repaired again after being rescued by Batman. Dent, meanwhile, was brought to justice again and placed behind bars, with his renewed mental and physical scarring seemingly more permanent this time.

Post-Cataclysm
In the aftermath of the earthquake that left Gotham City in shambles during Cataclysm, Two-Face escaped custody and kidnapped Commissioner Gordon to 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.

In Justice League of America #13 (Vol.2), Two-Face joins the new Injustice League, headed by Lex Luther, The Cheetah, and the Joker. After the Injustice League was captured by Amanda Waller and the Suicide Squad, Two-Face was exiled to a distant planet with most of the other villains. Upon escaping with his life, Dent returned to Gotham City to reestablish himself.

Two-Face soon carved out a piece of Gotham's local mobs for his own, sharing an underworld empire with The Penguin. He appears in Battle for the Cowl: The Underground, which shows the effects of Batman's death on his enemies. A returning Black Mask, however, soon topples Two-Face's criminal empire, claiming it for his own.

Battle for the Cowl
Dent is forced into hiding, but ponders the possible death of the original Batman when Batman seemingly reappears, being caught on security footage to let Gotham City know that the Dark Knight lives on. Two-Face studies recent video tapes of Batman and notices that he is smiling. Dent’s henchmen notes how rare it is for Batman to grin, and Two-Face reluctantly agrees. He deduces that there is a new person under the cowl, which is in reality Dick Grayson.

Two-Face then searches for a person with teleporting abilities he can hire who can take him to the Batcave. Two-Face selects three candidates, and when he locates the one who is willing to hire himself out to him, murders the other two.

Two-Face is teleported into the original Batcave, although his intrusion is soon discovered by Alfred Pennyworth. When the new Batman investigates the cave, he is ambushed by Two-Face. The hero discovers that the giant penny in the Batcave is covered with deep scratches across the surface. Two-Face then shoots Dick with several high-powered darts that pierce his inferior costume, since Grayson had sacrificed the body armor of the Batsuit for better mobility. In a hallucination, the poisoned Dick is affected by the drugged darts and sees Dent in a twisted, red and black version of Batman's original costume.

Two-Face beats Dick brutally, and Grayson realizes that the villain's darts had been coated with the Scarecrow's fear toxins. Two-Face continues to beat the fallen crime-fighter angrily, shouting that he could never replace the original Batman. He also reveals that he had been trying to infiltrate the famed Batcave for years, but had no success until that day, because the original Batman would never leave himself open to attack. Alfred Pennyworth saves Dick by giving him an antidote for the toxin, careful to stay in the shadows so as not to be recognized by Two-Face. Dick recovers and slips into the inner depths of the cave, disappearing from Two-Face's view. Dent starts to panic and starts firing his gun at every shadow, and Dick then retaliates by administering a savage beating. Defeated, Two-Face admits he really believes that Dick is the original Batman, but has changed in major ways.

Two-Face has been at odds with Gotham's latest district attorney, Kate Spencer, also known as the vigilante Manhunter.

Since the arrest of Black Mask, Two-Face has been working at regaining his former power over Gotham. However, his plans have garnered the attention of the FBI. After he discovers a mole in his midst, he flees only to be stabbed by his own henchmen. Two-Face is left for dead, his body dumped off a bridge. Sometime later, two fishermen in the middle of a lake reel in Two-Face's water-logged body.

Personality
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 materialized 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. However, he did end up getting his coin back, and also showed a rare case of giving a different fate than the coin foretold: He set Batman free despite the coin landing bad side up. 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. One special occasion can be seen in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, where Dent goes through a surgical procedure to restore all the damaged tissue in his face, all funded by Bruce Wayne. After the surgery, Dent is considered to be cured from his dual personality insanity, and he even appears on TV with a coin that has two clean sides. However, as the story progresses, he gets involved in crimes again and is eventually caught by Batman.

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

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

The Joker -- It is unknown why the two villains hate each other. Maybe because they had rivalry in the past, perhaps when they were younger. Perhaps more likely because their dispositions are entirely opposite, with the Joker's motivations centering around self-amusement, and Two-Face's often centering on anger and revenge. Either way, these two always feud and compete on defeating Batman. In The Nolan films continuity, the Joker is indirectly responsible for his fiancée's death, as well as his disfigurement.

Poison Ivy -- A rivalry or sense of hatred exist between Two-Face and Ivy in Batman: The Animated Series due to Ivy attempting to murder Harvey Dent with plant toxins some time before his incident. Future interactions between the two shows that the only thing keeping Two-Face from killing Ivy out of revenge is a lucky coin flip. This carried over into the animated series, in which both sides of Dent's personality expressed a desire in killing her, though "Dent" wanted to strangle her and "Big Bad Harv" wanted to hit her with a truck.

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

In Harvey Dent's first appearance 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, although the version played by Tommy Lee Jones is the only one to not feature an eye bulge and exposed teeth. As depicted in Batman: The Animated Series, it is a sky blue.



In The Dark Knight, Two-Face is disfigured by fire rather than acid. As such the deformed side of his face lacks hair and is charred and bloody, revealing the muscles, tendons and bone structure beneath. This is also his appearance in Batman: Arkham City.



Powers and Abilities

 * Professional Lawyer: He was a successful attorney and is proficient in nearly all matters pertaining to criminal law.
 * Expert Detective: He possesses great deductive skills and analytic ability, reinforced by the training given by Batman.
 * Criminal Mastermind: He's a genius in criminal planning and has many ties to the underworld, showing himself capable of competing with the Penguin.
 * Expert Marksman: Thanks to Slade Wilson's training, Dent became an excellent marksman, able to shoot accurately from large distances.
 * Skilled Combatant: Dent has been extensively trained by Batman in Kung-Fu.

Paraphernalia

 * Two-Face's Coin - Two-Face is mostly dependant on his coin to make decisions.

Weapons

 * Various Weapons: Two semi-automatic pistols, Sniper rifle, Knives, Rocket launchers and poison gases, to name a few.

Henchmen
Two-Face is supported by various henchmen. The following were the only ones that were named:


 * Joe - Detective Comics #66

Batman (1989)
See: Harvey Dent (Billy Dee Williams)

Batman Forever (1995)
See: Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones)

The Dark Knight (2008)
See: Two-Face (Aaron Eckhart)

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 over-sized coin that lands on bad heads. In a later appearance in "The Fate of Equinox!", Two-Face voiced by James Remar, orders his henchmen to try and 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.

Lego Batman: The Videogame
See: Two-Face (Lego Batman: The Videogame)

Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City
See: Two-Face (Batman: Arkham City)

DC Universe Online

 * Two-Face is voiced by Edwin Neal in DC Universe Online.

Trivia

 * Harvey made his debut as Harvey Kent, however DC soon changed the name to "Harvey Dent", as to not confuse the character with that of Superman's alter ego.
 * 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 severely 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.
 * Although the giant penny is considered to be canonically known as an item that Two-Face attempted to use to crush Batman; it was in fact first used by the Penny Plunderer, a villain who has since been ret-conned out of Batman's rogue gallery.
 * The Doctor that rebuilt his face is called Dr. Eckhart, the actor that portrayed Two-Face in The Dark Knight film is called Aaron Eckhart.
 * In Batman: Arkham City, Two-Face's appearance is astonishingly close to the Dark Knight. His suit is an amalgam to the animated series and The Dark Knight. The left side of his suit is badly damaged and burnt with red spots burnt into it, and his hair is missing on his scarred side and his muscles and tendons can clearly be seen, though the suit itself is almost completely identical to his suit in Batman: The Animated Series. Hugo Strange also said that Dent was Gotham's "White Knight" before his accident, a term used to describe Dent in The Dark Knight.