- "The only way to get by in this place is to get ourselves some respect. Fear. That's how we get respect. Show them all how we do things. We should be fair, though. This is a place of justice after all. Screw justice. Kill her and they'll all fear us."
- ―Two-Face before Catwoman's Trial at the Solomon Wayne Courthouse in Arkham City[src]
Former District Attorney Harvey Dent, was once Gotham City's bright future, until half of his face was burnt with acid and his psyche damaged by one of his adversaries. Reborn as Two-Face, a criminal who relied on a coin toss to make his decisions, Harvey was as dangerous as any man could be. Within Arkham City, a massive prison that was meant to hold every criminal in Gotham, Two-Face was a thriving crime lord and was at war with both Joker and Penguin, who intended on wiping both out in order to assume complete control over the prison and carve up the streets for himself.
After Arkham City's shutdown, Dent was released and compensated due to the high amounts of corruption that surrounded the prison facility and used his newfound freedom to buy up the Hell's Gate Waste Disposal Company and formed a law service to work in conjunction. In truth, that was simply a front to reestablish his old gang and recruit others to perform bank heists. Dent and his office were the primary reason why so many Arkham City inmates were released and compensated as his legal expertise paved the way for many successful lawsuits against Gotham City Hall.
On Halloween Night, Two-Face worked together with Scarecrow, the Arkham Knight, Penguin, Harley Quinn, Riddler, Firefly, and Deathstroke to destroy Batman, claim Gotham City for themselves, and specifically targeted both the Gotham and Blüdhaven banks for himself.
Biography
Childhood and Bruce Wayne's Foster Brother
Harvey Dent was raised in an extremely abusive household at the hands of his alcoholic father, Christopher Dent, who suffered from multiple-personality disorder. The abuse became so extreme that Harvey's mother eventually left the family, leaving her son to survive on his own against his unstable father. While his father was not an evil man at heart, when he drank, his violent personality boiled up to the surface, often flipping a coin to determine if Harvey should be beaten. Unknown to Harvey at the time, the coin was two-headed, meaning that no matter which side it landed on, the sadistic side of his father's personality would beat his son.
Eventually, Harvey was placed in a youth center headed by Leslie Thompkins, whom the young boy eventually regarded as his mother. Around this same time, Leslie found Bruce Wayne, just mere moments after the brutal murder of his parents at the hands of Joe Chill, and helped him phone the police. After Bruce spoke and gave a recount of the events to a young police officer, James Gordon, Leslie helped Alfred raise Bruce over the years and enrolled him in the same youth center as Harvey, where the two boys became roommates. Over the next two years, Bruce and Harvey became best friends, watching episodes of the TV show, "The Gray Ghost," and eventually saw each other as brothers, with Leslie as their mother, teaching them right from wrong. Harvey would even promise Bruce that he would help find his parents' killer one day so that he could finally have some closure on their deaths.
One day, Harvey wanted to stand up to his father and announce his intention to finally leave his abusive household once and for all. With Bruce there for support, Harvey confronted his father, during one of his typical drunken benders, resulting in his father losing his temper and attempting to beat his son after flipping his trademark coin. Bruce intervened, resulting in him getting a black eye meant for Harvey, and both boys were locked in a coat closet by Christopher.
The next morning, sobered up and no longer under the influence of his violent personality, Harvey's father let the boys out of the closet, having no recollection of the previous night but quickly surmising what happened, feeling guilt for what he had done. Harvey was never able to leave his father's care however, but was motivated more than ever to make a difference in Gotham, so no one would have to suffer like he and Bruce did, and took an interest in law and politics as a career path.
As Harvey and Bruce aged into young adults, they kept in close contact with one another as well as Leslie, forming a small family of their own. Eventually, Bruce packed up to begin training abroad (the prelude to his activities as Batman), but paid Harvey one last visit at his father's house, giving him a check of a considerable amount to get him through law school.
Years later, Harvey finished law school and Bruce returned to Gotham, just in time to witness the start of Harvey's campaign to become Gotham's next District Attorney. Bruce congratulated his friend, but Harvey's father was infuriated by the news, both for not being told by his son and also for his belief that he and his son are doomed to drag others down with them. Finally reaching his breaking point and no longer afraid, Harvey head-butted his father, knocking him out.
Harvey would eventually win his election for DA, moved out of his father's house, and married a woman named Gilda, finally achieving the life he had wished for. However, he would begin to display traits of the same mental illness his father suffered, first starting as headaches, but would get progressively worse as time went on. Through unknown circumstances, Christopher passed away and Harvey inherited several of his former possessions, including his father's "lucky coin." Harvey finally learned that the coin was two-headed, meaning his father never gave him a chance to avoid his beatings. While infuriated, Dent kept the coin as a reminder of the unfairness of his father's violent and sadistic tendencies, reinforcing his promise to give the people of Gotham much better chances to improve their lives and punish those who would hurt them.
Batman: Arkham Shadow
Roughly two and a half years after Batman's emergence in Gotham City, along with the arrival of the Joker and a host of new supervillains, the city's criminal underworld began to drastically shift to a much more extreme type of villainy and away from the traditional mafia families, including Carmine Falcone. The hope that Batman began to instill within citizens led to the city's massive political corruption finally coming to light, as government officials were forced out of their lofty positions and replaced by much more ethical individuals. Gordon would eventually rise to the rank of Police Commissioner and Harvey used the newfound hope and landscape to finally begin prosecuting scores of criminals, including Firefly and especially individuals employed by the mob.
Harvey's biggest and most ambitious target of them all would be Falcone himself, who refused to accept that his city was drastically changing due to Batman, a reforming infrastructure, and the new brand of criminals. Harvey would form an alliance with Commissioner Gordon and Batman to take down Falcone and the trio were eventually successful in finding enough evidence to arrest him. Batman would be the one to ultimately capture the elusive crime boss, with many of Gotham citizens praising the hero for his actions, leading Harvey to harbor some slight resentment towards the vigilante as his own involvement with Falcone's arrest was overshadowed. Regardless, Falcone was locked up in Blackgate Penitentiary to await trial, while Dent would work tirelessly to build a case against the infamous crime lord to give him multiple life sentences and finally free the city from his influence.
As Harvey worked on his case against Falcone, he also became better acquainted with the staff at Blackgate, having need of their various expertise on many of the inmates that he was now prosecuting. He would also use this as an opportunity to visit Leslie, who was now a resident medical expert at the prison following the closures of the youth centers and her free clinic due to city budget cuts. As he focused on his war against crime, Harvey also wanted to bring back the youth centers to further help Gotham citizens and collaborated with Leslie to plan fundraisers to reopen them.
Eventually, Harvey approached the new head of inmate rehabilitation, Dr. Johnathan Crane, having replaced Hugo Strange when he left to focus on his own independent projects, and asked if he would be interested in becoming a go-to medical expert to assist with competency trials and mental fitness testimonials. Crane eagerly agreed, much to Harvey's surprise, seeing it as another opportunity to further his career and research. However, during one such trial, Dent lost his patience when questioning an abusive father on the stand and began to beat the man when he showed no remorse for causing the death of his young son.
Afterwards, Harvey confided in Crane that the man reminded him of his own abusive father, whom he blamed for his short fuse, and believed that his antics at the courthouse would cost him his career. Crane reassured the DA that the public was on his side of the incident, but also persuaded him to become his patient in order to better control his anger and stress. During one of their sessions, Crane administered his experimental shadow formula on Dent, which was meant to bring his suppressed rage to the surface so that it could be confronted and understood.
However, the serum began to slowly accelerate Dent's hidden alternate personality disorder, which had begun manifesting itself as the violent persona of the Rat King, who began to rally legions of outcasted Gotham citizens, including Boone Carver and Dick Grayson, into a massive cult, known as the Rats, and commanded them to attack Gotham City, resulting in riots and bloodshed throughout the streets. This also caused stress in his marriage as well, as his headaches and mood swings became much more frequent and unpredictable, causing Gilda to start to fear her husband.
Completely unaware of this other side of his personality, Dent began to form an alliance once again with Gordon and Batman to locate the Rat King and put him out of commission. On the night of the 4th of July, Dent via his Rat King persona, commanded the rats to riot throughout the streets, rob banks throughout the city to fund their terrorist activities, and attack government officials, which also put himself in the crossfires as the DA. At the same time, his sane personality as Harvey would host a fundraiser with Leslie at the Solomon Wayne Courthouse for the youth centers, only to be attacked by the Rats, leaving countless police officers dead in their wake, and held hostage.
Batman would arrive and save Leslie and Harvey, but this also resulted in the suicide of one of the Rat King's lieutenants, Shrike, to avoid being captured. However, Shrike implied before his death that the Rat King was operating out of Blackgate and was instigating events to have as many Rats as possible arrested so that he could amass his army within the prison and attack the city during an event proclaimed "The Day of Wrath." With one week before this doomsday event were to occur, Batman then created a new identity as a criminal known as Irving Malone and set fire to the bat symbol on the roof of GCPD's alternate headquarters, earning him the nickname of "Matches," in order to be sent to Blackgate for an undercover mission to locate and stop the Rat King.
Meanwhile, Dent would enlist the aid of corrupt GCDP and TYGER officers, the new security company now in control of the facility, to abduct Rats from their cells each night and transfer them into caged cargo containers aboard a massive World War II vessel that was docked within the Blackgate caves during the war. As the Rat King, Harvey planned to crash the ship into the GCPD and have the Rats attack all of Gotham, while his other personality sought to kill all of them to cleanse Gotham of its evil. At the same time, the Rats, especially Otis Flannegan, better known as the Ratcatcher, would continue to build up their forces within the prison, building out hideouts within the walls and tunnel systems, radicalizing their members, and building weapons.
Eventually, Malone became a particular inmate of interest to both Harvey and Gordon as he was rising quickly to the top of inmate food chain in just a few days, was not seen in his cell during night hours, formed an alliance with Falcone, and got into a physical altercation with an inmate who was actually an undercover officer, Chris Nakano, now declared missing. With Nakano missing and presumed dead, Gordon was infuriated with Malone and both him and Dent believed him to not only be Nakano's murderer, but the Rat King himself. Consequently, Harvey set up a competency hearing for Malone the next day and planned to have him tried and convicted of murdering Nakano.
Further intrigued and looking for additional evidence, Harvey began to look into Malone's known associates within the prison, including an inmate named Joe Chill. Upon examining all of Chill's criminal records and history, Harvey was shocked when he found evidence connecting Joe to the murder of the Waynes. Remembering the promise he made to his childhood best friend and foster brother to find his parents' killer and make him pay, Harvey had corrupt GCPD officers abduct Joe from his cell during the night and had him locked up within the ship, containing the Rats, to execute him the next day during the Day of Wrath.
At the hearing the next day, Crane was called as a medical expert to evaluate Malone. Crane, who was battered and exhausted from the events of the previous night, and still reeling from the effects of his shadow formula after an encounter with Batman, attempted to administer a dose of his toxin on Malone, while he was on the stand at the Solomon Wayne Courthouse, to entice him to admit his guilt. Attempting to defend himself, Malone fought back against Crane, causing the doctor to accidently knock the aerosol device containing the serum onto Dent's face.
With the aerosol device smashed and the shadow formula exposed to oxygen, the corrosiveness of the chemicals took full effect and burned half of Harvey's face and body. Shocked and panicked, Crane blamed Malone for knocking the solution on Dent and, in the confusion, Harvey believed Malone to be solely responsible and attempted to attack him before being restrained. The media and witnesses, with only Commissioner Gordon skeptical to what truly happened, believed Malone attacked Dent on orders of Carmine Falcone, as the pair were seen working together in Blackgate, in order to sabotage Falcone's upcoming trial.
With half his face and body irreversibly scarred, Harvey fled from the hospital, fully embraced his Rat King persona, and commanded his legions of Rats within Blackgate to attack all TYGER security personnel and commence a massive riot. The resulting destruction and carnage caused death throughout the facility, while Harvey, as the Rat King, took control of the World War II vessel, containing his army, and made a course for GCPD. However, Harvey's personalities began to conflict with each other, with the Rat King planning to attack Gotham, while Harvey planted a bomb on the ship's deck to kill all the Rats and then execute Chill to avenge his best friend.
Batman infiltrated the ship and fought through Harvey's corrupt forces of GCPD officers and TYGER security, located Nakano in captivity (who had been abducted on orders of the Rat King), and confronted Dent while he was in his Rat King persona. Horrified at the discovery that his best friend and brother was the Rat King, Bruce tried to reason with Dent, but he was too far gone. Even with the knowledge that his personality was splitting, Dent and his Rat King persona continued on their missions. Batman eventually disarmed Harvey's bomb and cornered him and his remaining forces just as the ship crashed into the GCPD.
As he navigated through the wreckage, Alfred called Bruce and revealed that Harvey left him a voicemail revealing that he located his parents' killer, Joe Chill, the same man that Bruce, as Malone, befriended in the prison. Shocked, Bruce reached Harvey just as he was about to execute Joe and tried assuring Dent that killing Chill would not be what his friend Bruce wanted. When Dent scoffed at this and wondered aloud how Batman would know what Bruce would want, Batman voluntarily removed his mask and revealed his secret identity as Bruce Wayne. The revelation stunned Dent into releasing Chill, who sincerely apologized for what he'd done, and Batman told him to flee for his own safety, to which Joe would reluctantly agree.
Bruce then reached out to his friend to help him, but Harvey, now transitioning into his new and final personality as Two-Face, told Bruce that there is no coming back from all the damage he caused. Following in his father's footsteps, Dent flipped his coin, one side now burnt from the incident at the courthouse, to decide his own fate with the result landing on the damaged side. Dent then attempted to commit suicide by falling off the GCPD roof only to be saved by his brother.
Dent was then secretly taken to Blackgate to undergo treatment by his adoptive mother, Leslie, with the populace believing Malone to be the Rat King, who was now presumed dead and believed to have been stopped by Dent, heralded as a hero. TYGER was disbanded from the facility for failing to stop the riots and, after evidence of massive corruption came to light, both Lyle Bolton and his second in command, Howard Branden (both in critical condition at the Gotham Hospital following the riots) were fired, charged and placed under arrest, while nearly all escaped inmates were recaptured. A guilt-ridden Joe Chill would willing turn himself back into custody, believing that he belonged locked up for the rest of his life.
While he was recovering in the prison infirmary and looked after by Thompkins, Bruce visited his friend, who had already forgotten much of the events from the pervious night, including Batman's true identity, as a result of his condition. Slipping in an out of his personalities, Harvey was horrified when he realized that he was suffering from the same condition as his father and desperately asked Leslie if there was a cure, to which she responded there are only treatments. Broken, Dent was then consumed by his Two-Face persona, telling his former friend and brother that this is just "the beginning of us."
Before Batman: Assault on Arkham
The truth of Harvey's condition and criminal history would eventually become known to all of Gotham, tarnishing his reputation and causing Gilda to leave him and himself branded as a criminal. Now known as Two-Face, Harvey had nothing but crime left and formed his own gang, using his coin to determine nearly every decision he made. His previous friendship with Bruce was now firmly in the past, with the former DA seeing Wayne as nothing more than a spoiled brat who had nothing in common with him, with most of his memories of his foster brother and alley now twisted, distorted, or outright forgotten.
When Arkham Asylum was eventually cleared for reopening, Harvey would become one of the first new inmates of the facility. Despite this, even with years of clinical treatment, Harvey was no closer to overcoming his alternate personality nor his dependability on his coin to make decisions.
Batman: Assault on Arkham
Two-Face was released from Arkham Asylum by Joker. Dent tried to steal a police car, but had his head frozen by Killer Frost, who then threw him backwards and into the crowd of inmates where he escaped.
The Road to Arkham
Two-Face was briefly mentioned by Oracle when Batman voiced his suspicions of the three anonymous tips upon apprehending the Joker, where she mentioned that he was unlikely to have been the anonymous tipster as he was still hospitalized from an earlier encounter with Batman.
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Two Face's Cell at the Penitentiary at Arkham Asylum.
Although Two-Face didn't appear in Arkham Asylum, his cell could be found at the Penitentiary. After finally defeating the Joker, a call came in over the police radios that Two-Face was robbing the Second National Bank in Gotham. Batman then cut his conversation with Commissioner Gordon short in order to pursue him. The outcome of that implied confrontation between Batman and Two-Face was unknown, but Two-Face remained at large regardless months later.
Between Arkham Asylum and Arkham City
Several months after the events of Arkham Asylum, Two-Face remained at large in Gotham, and continued in leading his gang into making several heists. However, two former gang members of his, the brother, sister team, T&T, (based on his obsession with duality) begin operating on their own throughout Gotham. Batman correctly guessed that Two-Face had hired the pair, who, earlier that day, had attacked an armored car on its way to the bank. When Batman found Two-Face, his left leg was broken, right arm was in a sling, he wore a neck brace, and had two hookers at his side (each who represented his two personalities).
He accepted Batman's deal for a thirty minute head start in exchange for information about T&T. He explained that following the Joker's Arkham Asylum Riot, he bought several of the crates of Titan that had floated into Gotham docks and said that "the Coin said it was a good investment". Little did Two-Face realize the mistake of getting relatively new employee's T&T to bring it down into his basement. Upon realizing what they had, T&T began training extensively in hand to hand combat and experimenting with Titan in small doses (thereby retaining control of themselves in Titan form). It wasn't long before T&T made their experiments known, slaughtered Two-Face's Gang and nearly killed the man himself. Two-Face prevented his men from killing Batman, knew that they wouldn't be able to do it, and more importantly, believed that T&T would.
However, Batman stopped the duo, but not before they initiated a suicide attack that completely destroyed the newly rebuilt City Hall and killed more than three hundred people. That atrocity was all that the Gotham City Council needed to approve a plan made by Mayor Quincy Sharp and, secretly, Professor Hugo Strange, who was also responsible for T&T's attack, known as Arkham City. Arkham City was going to be an entire walled off section of Gotham where every criminal and inmate of Blackgate Prison and Arkham Arkham would be thrown into with no rules or regulations except for no attempts of escape. As the prison was built, almost every single criminal in Gotham, along with scores of innocent people, were arrested and thrown into the hellish domain to survive with little to no food, medical attention, clothing, and shelter.
Two-Face calling Catwoman and taunting her over her impending capture
Eventually, Strange shut down all criminal operations throughout Gotham, forced many criminals and innocent civilians to flee the city, and captured every one of his targets except for three: Two-Face, Catwoman, and Batman. Two-Face, desiring to become the ruling elite on Gotham's streets, gave a tip to Strange on where Selina Kyle resided. Using that information, Strange located one of Selina's apartments where she resided.
Attacking the apartment, the TYGER Guards were unable to capture Catwoman, but were able to locate her safe, which was full of stolen loot and goods. Under Strange's orders, the guards took the loot and goods to the Arkham City Confiscated Goods Vault, and hoped that this would draw out Catwoman to be captured. True to Strange's prediction, Catwoman would set her sights on Arkham Island to obtain the blueprints for Arkham City that would allow her to locate the perfect entry level into the vault.
Unfortunately for Selina, Dent and his gang had the same idea and attacked the facility first, but Strange saw that as the perfect opportunity to capture the last two criminals on Gotham's streets. As Catwoman and Dent brawled for the plans, which Two-Face photographed with his camera, the TYGER Guards were sent in to apprehend them both. Batman, however intervened and saved Catwoman just as she stole Dent's camera and Dent was arrested. Before Batman could get Selina to safety, she learned that Two-Face had removed the SD card from the camera, looked down, and saw him swallow it.
Infuriated, Catwoman broke free of Batman's hold to attack Dent, only to be arrested as well, while Batman escaped the facility and knew that there was nothing further that he could do. While Strange was satisfied with Harvey and Selina's capture, he was nonetheless disappointed that Batman had escaped him yet again. Strange has his guards bring in Two-Face so that he could interrogate him personally while he increased TYGER patrols throughout Gotham to locate Batman.
Upon his incarceration in Arkham City, Two-Face became a rising gang leader in the war for Arkham City, immediately took over the Solomon Wayne Courthouse in Park Row as his base of operations, and locked Calendar Man in a cell beneath the courthouse. To gain power and respect in Arkham City, Dent kidnapped the Joker and prepared for a "trial" to be held against him, whom he blamed to be the entire reason there ever was an Arkham City in the first place.
Two-Face invited the Penguin, Bane, Ratcatcher, Poison Ivy, Sickle, Zsasz, Riddler, Mad Hatter, The Carpenter, The Ventriloquist, Black Mask and Deadshot to be apart of the jury and Harley Quinn as Joker's lawyer. Nearly every inmate in Arkham City attended the trial, and left the streets abandoned and Batman suspicious of the inactivity in the prison. After Joker was proclaimed guilty and sentenced to death, Batman arrived and the entire court turned to chaos, which allowed Joker and Quinn to escape with their gang, and for Batman to slip away from the fight, where he met with Catwoman on the rooftops of Park Row.
Batman: Arkham City
Once Dent was brought to him, Strange saw him as a great, potential ally as his past public admiration and political prowess would serve Strange's plans and strengthen his hold over the city, though he would need to be cured first. Seeking to break Dent's addiction to his coin, Strange had his guards take it off his person while he replaced it with a coin of his own to ensure that Dent cooperated and answered his questions regarding his past.
When Dent learned of Strange's deception, Strange had him released into Arkham City without his coin in hopes that he would learn to become independent of his iconic item. At first, Dent seemed to function well enough to form his own gang, obtain his headquarters at the Solomon Wayne Courthouse, and locked up Calendar Man, who used the structure to kill others on holidays, in one of the court's holding cells, which encouraged Strange into thinking that Dent may have been able to be cured after all.
Once Dent was brought back to him, Strange put one final contingency manipulation into effect and began to add fuel to Dent's hatred of Bruce Wayne, whom Dent saw as nothing more than a spoiled rich boy, in preparation towards Wayne's inevitable incarceration in his facility. Strange then legitimately reached out to Dent and gave him a choice: he would throw his coin in the air and if Dent did not catch it, then Strange would do all that he could in his power to cure him and make him the man that he once was. However, if Dent did catch it, then Strange would let him loose in Arkham City and inform him of what Catwoman was doing that very second. After Strange threw the coin into the air, Dent caught it, much to Strange's disappointment and annoyance, but let Dent know of Catwoman's impending theft of his safe in his old campaign office.
Strange then let Two-Face go, and knew that Dent was too far gone to be cured and serve as a useful ally, and catch Catwoman, hoping to dispose of the cat burglar so that she could no longer interfere with his plans. Soon after, Two-Face caught Catwoman just as she stole the SD card and held her prisoner at the courthouse. Two-Face soon built up his forces until he was seen as one of the leading powers within the massive prison and eventually seized complete control over Park Row in Arkham City to direct his affairs from.
Having established himself as one of the leading crime figures in the lawless region and captured Catwoman, Two-Face intended the execute the feline thief to showcase his might and recruit others for his thriving gang. He believed that this would gain him the respect that he deserved among the gangs of Arkham City and would make him a well placed rival to both Joker and Penguin. His ultimate plans were to recruit half of the city's populace to his cause and slaughter the other half.
Remembering his past, Two-Face decided to flip his coin to determine whether he should give Catwoman a trial (heads up) or pronounce summary judgment (tails up) against her. His coin landed heads up and meant that she got a trial. Batman reached the courthouse after he heard TYGER radio chatter that it would happen, observed part of the trial, took out the armed guard, and observed Catwoman tied up above a tub of the same type of acid that made Harvey into Two-Face, right before he pounced on the trial. Harvey fired wildly into the fray as his men fought Batman and, when the Dark Knight defeated them all, Harvey quickly shot Batman in the chest.
Catwoman slashing Two-Face's "good" side as she escapes his execution attempt at the Solomon Wayne Courthouse.
Two-Face then turned to Catwoman and flipped his coin a second time to decide her fate; that time it landed bad side up and he raised his gun to shoot her. Catwoman managed to knock him down, freed herself from the gallows above the acid vat, and scratched his face's good side in the process. Two-Face went to kill her again with his second gun, but Batman stopped him and tied him above the acid, after which Catwoman kicked him in the groin after she sarcastically asked "how's it hanging Harv?", and retrieved the PDA that she had earlier attempted to steal. Two-Face vowed revenge and was later released from his confinement by his gang.
Eventually, the tide in the gang war changed dramatically when Batman subdued Penguin and defeated most of his forces. Two-Face immediately took advantage of that new tide and had his forces seize complete control over Penguin's territory and claimed the Museum as their own. He succeeded, slaughtered any of Penguin's followers who resisted, converted the Museum into his new base of operations, and claimed all of the goods, loot, and weaponry inside as his own. With a large portion of Arkham City his, Two-Face began moving his own supplies and weaponry from the courthouse to his new base and turned his attention to murder Catwoman once again.
As Two-Face made his plans however, he heard Strange announce that Mayor Sharp's impending incarceration in Arkham City. Remembering Sharp from Arkham Asylum when he was Warden, Two-Face sent a handful of his men to abduct him as soon as he was processed and take him to the Museum so that he may kill him in retribution for the "treatments" that Sharp administered on him to cure his illness.
However, Batman subdued all of Dent's men before they could capture Sharp and rescued him, and left Two-Face to refocus his concentration on securing his position in the gang wars, between only him and the Joker. While Two-Face and his forces were more than a formidable opponent, Joker gained the upper hand when he retrieved the TYGER weapons and proceeded to leave a path of death and destruction throughout Arkham City and conquered most of it. Before Two-Face could act, Strange enacted Protocol 10, the systematic destruction of the entire prison city and inmate population through missile attacks. Hundreds of inmates were instantly slaughtered in a rainfall of death and destruction, including many in Two-Face's Gang. Two-Face was able to find a secure location to remain hidden and safe while Batman defeated Strange and neutralized all of the TYGER forces and stopped Protocol 10.
After the destructive ramifications of Protocol 10 and Strange's death, Joker's Gang, many of which survived by hiding in the sewer tunnels and subway system, took over the rest of Arkham City as Joker made the Monarch Theatre into an arena for his final showdown with the Dark Knight. While most of Two-Face's Gang believed that they had lost the gang war, Joker was defeated by Batman and finally succumbed to the Titan Disease. As Batman grimly carried Joker's corpse out of the Theater and Arkham City, Two-Face's Gang was able to resume their control over their territory, though Joker's Gang still maintained hold over a large portion of Arkham City as well.
Two-Face, defeated by Catwoman a second time in the Armory at the Museum.
Planning one final massacre against Joker's remaining forces, Two-Face also set himself out after Catwoman, who previously spent her time in the prison compound attempting to break into the Arkham City Confiscated Goods Vault. While Catwoman was on her quest, Two-Face had his gang rig her apartment to blow with bombs and stole her loot.
Taking the loot back to the Museum, Two-Face put his army on patrol in case Catwoman was not killed in the explosion, as he prepared all weapons and ammunition for his last attack and siege on Arkham City. Two-Face himself took some of his men holed up in the Armory, and knew that Catwoman would come back for her loot. True to his prediction, Catwoman reemerged, systematically took out Two-Face's Henchmen, and eventually defeated him a second time. Two-Face got one last laugh on Catwoman however when he revealed that he only kept half of her loot and gave the rest away to various members of his gang, at which point a frustrated Catwoman responded by knocking him out cold with a punch to the face.
After he was humiliated by Catwoman again, Two-Face went into hiding, lost the confidence of many of his men, and left his gang's future questionable. However, Two-Face's rage and vendetta against Catwoman would only be amplified further after his second defeat at her hands. Before he retreated into the shadows, Two-Face left a threatening message on Catwoman's apartment: "Catwoman Must Die!!!"; which implied that their vendetta was far from finished, had only gotten more personal, and possibly foreshadowed events to come.
Without leadership from Two-Face, his gang's power remained neutral in Penguin's previous territory, which ended the gang wars in Arkham City once and for all and left the site secure enough to be shut down by the GCPD. Once Harley and her gang were apprehended and Arkham City was finally shut down, it could be safely assumed that Two-Face was evacuated to a temporary holding facility along with the other inmates until Blackgate was cleared for reopening.
Batman: Arkham Knight
Ultimately, the GCPD was forced to release Two-Face from prison due to the illegal nature of Arkham City and caused several of its former inmates to give lawsuits. With his newfound freedom, Dent bought up the Hell's Gate Waste Disposal Company and set up a legal office to work in conjunction. Using his legal expertise, Dent launched a series of successful campaigns and lawsuits against City Hall that saw the release of nearly every single inmate imprisoned within Arkham City and compensated with millions of dollars. Many of the released inmates would become employed at Dent's newly formed company, which was actually a front for illegal activities.
Nearing Halloween, Two-Face alongside Penguin, Harley Quinn, and the Riddler, arrived for a meeting arranged by Scarecrow so that they could discuss a truce so they could destroy Batman. While waiting for Scarecrow's arrival, Penguin proceeded to smoke one of his cigars in front of Two-Face, which resulted in him telling him not to do that, and Penguin taunting him regarding whether it gave him bad memories of his disfigurement, as well as Two-Face being insulted alongside Penguin by Harley by her calling them both "bozos". After Scarecrow, alongside the mysterious mercenary known only as the Arkham Knight arrived and explained why they were there, Two-Face, when Penguin demanded for Scarecrow to tell them "something they don't know", asked directly how they could kill Batman, and with the Arkham Knight confirming that killing Batman was his job.
Some time later, although they agreed to the truce, Two-Face and Penguin still managed to bicker, largely because of Two-Face's smart remark about the Penguin's height after the latter commented that when making a deal, he preferred to "look them straight in the eye," as well as vocally voicing his distrust of the Arkham Knight. In addition, Two-Face reminded Penguin that he needed to keep his men armed and their guns loaded for his various bank heists, at least until Batman's death ended the truce, after Penguin told him that he wouldn't have any part in his bank heists beyond getting his cut.
As part of his bank robbery plans, Two-Face and his gang later proceeded to take ownership the Hell's Gate Garbage Disposal and Legal Services, a subsidiary of LexCorp. When asked by one of his thugs about the purpose of the name, Two-Face (under his Harvey Dent persona) implied that the name was due to how the garbage disposal and legal system in Gotham City were one and the same (presumably referring to the notorious amount of corruption in the legal system).
Around the time Batman that took Poison Ivy from the GCPD Lockup and took her to the Botanical Gardens on Miagani Island to supply aid in stopping the Arkham Knight and Scarecrow's Cloudburst and brought her to an ancient tree, Two-Face started his first target for his run on bank robberies, the Bank of Gotham in Chinatown on Bleake Island. He then had various thugs blow the gate, which set off the alarm while the remainder of the task force breached the bank with various garbage trucks that plowed through all of the entrances by backing into it. Two-Face also anticipated Batman's arrival, had his thugs attack him, and also claimed that he needed the money for surgeries that were related to his disfigurement.
Although the blaring of the alarms was loud enough for Batman to not rely solely on stealth in order to take Two-Face's henchmen out, he eventually went back to that approach when Two-Face sealed him inside the bank with the remainder of his men, and also told his men that whoever killed Batman and delivered his body to him got their cut doubled. After Batman successfully foiled the robbery, Two-Face claimed that the Bank of Gotham was a laundering front for what was left of the mafia, while he also briefly referenced how the mafia had burned half "their" face off because they couldn't get to Batman, and also dismissed that there was plenty of clean money mixed in with the dirty money because the town itself was dirty, as well as threatened him to stay away from the banks, and made clear to Batman that the Chinatown Bank was not the only bank that he intended to rob.
Afterward, Two-Face then sent his men to the Bank of Gotham in Drescher on Founders' Island. Like before, Batman detected the robbery in progress, and then proceeded to use the alarm systems to his advantage when he took out the Two-Face's Thugs. Because of that, Two-Face proceeded to implement a penalty system for his men: Namely, he'd toss a coin for each person that Batman took down: if his coin landed on heads, the crooks' family got hazard pay while the crooks themselves were imprisoned, and if the coin landed on tails, Two-Face would punish the families in the crooks' place.
At least two of the crooks were unfortunate enough to get tails, with one's wife and another's kids that placed in grave danger (with Two-Face specifying to the latter that each one would get two bullets) He then proceeded to cut the alarm, and told them that they had an opportunity for a bonus of double their pay if they killed Batman, which forced Batman to adopt his silent techniques again. Ultimately, the robbery was foiled, with Two-Face referencing how back when he was just Gotham's DA, when he initially had principles and stated that they shouldn't have worked with Vigilantes, and he was promised to take down crime within the year, before he accusing Batman of setting him up as a fall guy for the mob. Two-Face then warned Batman that if he didn't stay out of his way, he would deal with him personally.
Two-Face and what was left of his men then proceeded to rob Gotham's largest bank in Kingston on Miagani Island. After he fully anticipated that Batman would arrive, Two-Face also brought along a backup crew that was composed of the Arkham Knight's Militia: namely two of whom who wore Detective-Vision camouflage, one that had detection equipment for when Batman used Detective Mode, two that had Detective Mode Jammers, and two Medics, and, like with the previous attempts, Batman used the alarms to his advantage to take out Two-Face's men, and did not need to do it quietly either. Two-Face then commented that the coin had decided that Batman had to die. He then proceeded to blame Batman for setting him up years ago.
After he cut the alarm, Two-Face, making good of his threat, then personally entered the bank to deal with Batman alongside a contingent of militia soldiers that were able to detect Batman and camouflaged themselves from him. However, despite Two-Face's efforts, he was subdued. He was then taken to the GCPD Lockup by Batman in the new Batmobile. Upon arrival, Two-Face's men cheered for his arrival, with Two-Face stating that they would bide their time as they'd get their revenge on Batman soon. Two-Face also threatened Batman that the next time that they encountered each other, he'd make sure that Batman's dead at his hands. In addition, the GCPD had seized all of the cash that was from the bank heists, which was enough that Officer Cash joked that he'd spend a lot of time at home counting it.
Two-Face also appeared in a hallucination where he, alongside Penguin, Riddler, and Killer Croc had presumably teamed up to capture Joker (with Batman's body) by knocking him unconscious, and were discussing how they're to kill him, after he killed 50 of their men. Unlike his compatriots, who insisted on killing him immediately, Two-Face insisted they "do it right" in a manner befitting justice, with Penguin, who wanted revenge for Joker killing over 50 of his men, protesting the decision, and Riddler stating they should kill him before he wakes. Two-Face remained adamant, confident that Batman/Joker won't be going anywhere as he was surrounded by over a hundred armed men. True to Riddler's warnings, however, Joker revealed that he in fact had tracked them down and allowed himself to be captured by them before revealing his Jokermobile. Two-Face then attempted to flee with the other two surviving crime lords (Killer Croc having been crushed by the Jokermobile's explosive entry earlier) while their men tried to gun down Joker and his Jokermobile. When cornered by the Joker, Two-Face attempted to prevent his escape by standing between him and the exit while armed, citing that he simply cannot allow him to leave especially after what Joker did, although Joker shot him dead anyways, gloating that he was, among things, the Clown Prince of Chaos, the Comeback King, and the Jester of Genocide. Although after shooting him, Two-Face turned into James Gordon, who begged Joker not to do his actions.
A Flip of a Coin
However, even being locked up was not enough to permanently put an end to Two-Face's plans. At least a month after the events of Halloween, having somehow managed to escape the GCPD Lockup, Two-Face and several of his men then proceeded to return to their main hideout, the Hell's Gate Disposal Services Headquarters, where they counted up all of the money they had taken, largely due to exploiting Batman and Nightwing's earlier raids on Penguin's Gunrunning in Gotham and used that to raid all of Bludhaven's banks instead.
They then processed the money through the smelting vat. News of Two-Face's escape eventually reached the newly-wed couple, Tim and Barbara Drake, aka Robin and Oracle, and thus forced them to return from their Caribbean honeymoon early to stop him. Two-Face was holed up in the management building, and also had some of his men posted nearby, and anticipated Robin's arrival, though he didn't view him as much of a threat due to Batman gone (as Batman was forced to enact the Knightfall Protocol after Scarecrow unmasked him as Bruce Wayne on live television, destroyed Wayne Manor, and potentially killed himself and Alfred).
Two-Face also had a sniper in his room in the event that Robin had managed to hack his security door, as well as had some of his men break open what was presumably a safe to get money inside. Two-Face then fought Robin, and although Robin had managed to defeat several of his men, he managed to shoot Robin in the foot and taunted him about how, despite his becoming a man, it was short lived. However, Robin managed to take Two-Face down while he was distracted by Oracle, in an attempt to buy Robin time, who activated a PA system that she had hacked earlier, although with enough injuries for Robin who canceled their honeymoon trip altogether.
Personality
Harvey Dent was described as selfless, moral, and righteous. He was truly one of the few good men in Gotham and was devoid of corruption by the city's standards of a politician due to his unwavering sense of right and wrong and the belief that the city could become a better place. His idyllic views of justice were considered out of place in a lawless town such as Gotham, but he nonetheless inspired hope for its citizens and Batman himself that a better tomorrow was possible. He was incredibly determined even when his face was burned by acid, he continued to attempt to fight the Falcone Crime Family, such was his tenacity. However, Dent also hated criminals or other corrupt individuals and secretly had mental scars from his abusive childhood that scared off his wife and occasionally went too far while he dealt with criminals.
When Dent was scarred at the Solomon Wayne Courthouse, which resulted in the loss of half of his face, it warped his mind completely, and caused a blow for not only his close friend, Batman, but for the city of Gotham as well. After he viewed justice as an unobtainable and naive dream from a "pretty-boy lawyer", Dent's new beliefs were that the only immutable law in the world was fate and that everything should be judged on that perspective. He viewed the world as pure black-and-white and the only thing that mattered in an otherwise cruel and unfair world was 50/50 chance, and, because of that, he made all of his decisions based on his coin, including people's lives. Dent was heavily reliant on his coin and the prospects of fate and destiny rather than calculated decisions. Though he was depicted as a mild strategist, Dent would much have preferred to follow the coin, even if the decision was a poor one. He was shown the capability to make a decision by himself but only under pressure or in a forced situation.
Because of his former job as Gotham's District Attorney, Dent's views of justice were extremely twisted. Believing the unprejudiced hand of fate as the only pure causality in the world, he considered the judicial courts of Gotham as a waste of time and that the only thing that came out of them was injustice, and viewed his methods as more superior and just. His new negative ideals of justice also enforced his somewhat draconian beliefs of punishment to said injustice such as removing the hands of Catwoman during her trial when she was caught stealing from him. Matching his appearance and obsession with duality, Dent made it the motif of his criminal empire, and had his men dress to match his appearance and divide everything into halves including two guns, split Catwoman's loot, and once cut one of his own henchman in half.
In rare instances, the Two-Face aspect and Harvey Dent personality could contradict each other. While Harvey was rather soft-spoken and how he used to sound like, Two-Face was more aggressive and raspy. He would often refer to himself in the plural. That opposition between the two personas was displayed before Catwoman's trial where Harvey considered giving her a fair one while Two-Face considered killing her to gain respect. Two-Face's own self-opinion after his accident varied, though he refused help from Strange to cure his scars in Arkham City: either he was pressured to make a decision or he was comfortable the way that he was. He claimed to Batman: "I wish I was dead" while he was taken to the GCPD Lockup.
Two-Face and Penguin bickering in their cell at the GCPD Lockup.
Two-Face had difficult relationships with the rest of Gotham's super-criminals, even though he himself was one. He grew a vendetta with Catwoman for stealing from him, scratching his face, and humiliating him in front of his men, and wrote "Catwoman Must Die!!" at her destroyed apartment and constantly called her "bitch". With Penguin, theirs was of an intersection dislike due to their ongoing war in Arkham City that resulted in the deaths of dozens of each sides men. Dent humiliated Penguin by keeping him locked him within his own Museum and mocked him over his short stature and Penguin planned to kill him and his men after Scarecrow's truce ended. Nevertheless, they were able to begrudgingly form an alliance to kill Batman and Dent always called Penguin by his first name, which showed a taunting friendliness. All of Dent's men seemed to have respect and loyalty for him, but due to his coin, he had very few loyalties if it came up bad for someone.
Psychological Profile (by Dr. Young)
Two-Face's photo
Real Name: Harvey Dent
MEDICATION SEEMS TO BE HAVING A HIT & MISS EFFECT
Psychological Profile: A bizarre schizotypal, Dent shows intense ideation focused on the concept of dualism. This arises out of his unique facial disfigurement (half of his face has been scarred by acid) as shown by its emergence concurrent with the incident that scarred him. He has no prior history of psychopathic behavior, but since his disfigurement he has continually created situations based on positive and negative outcomes with chance as the deciding factor. He accepts no responsibility for the sociopathic, destructive outcomes that result approximately 50% of the time.
Additional Notes:
Dent's ideation around dualism extends to his clothing, his environments, and the central token of his psychological make-up, his half-scarred silver dollar. He becomes catatonic if it is removed from him.
Perhaps I should be unsurprised that only half of our treatment sessions are productive. The other half are characterized by endless, pointless word games revolving around chance and fate.
Arkham City Profile: Dr. Hugo Strange
Harvey Dent A.K.A Two-Face
The capture of Two-Face brought an end to his reign of violence and terror on the streets of Gotham. Since his incarceration in Arkham City, he has used his persuasive influence to quickly rise to the top of the food chain.
Two-Face is obsessed with duality, and determined to recruit half the population of Arkham City in preparation for a bloody war against the other gangs within Arkham City. But his strategy starts and ends with a flip of his coin, adding an element of randomness to his every move.
Hugo Strange: Side Note
Is Two-Face useful?
Heads or tails
~ Hugo Strange
Patient Interviews
Batman Arkham City Two-Face Interview Tapes
Two-Face Interview tapes.
Part 1
- Strange: Sit down, Mister Dent. It is Mr. Dent I am talking to, right?
- Two-Face: Use our real name.
- Strange: Two-Face? If you wish. Please. Sit.
- Two-Face: What is it, Strange? Not happy just arresting us? Throwing us in this place.
- Strange: I wish to understand you. I have read the reports, seen the footage and now I want to hear your side of the story.
- Two-Face: We'll see.
- Strange: I assume that you feel the need to toss your coin in order to decide whether to answer my questions.
- Two-Face: You ready to find out? (tosses coin in the air, then catches it)
- Strange: Well?
- Two-Face: Came up bad. Sorry.
- Strange: Not a problem. Guard. Take Mr. Dent's coin off of him. (struggling is heard)
- Two-Face: NO! No!
- Strange: Good. Now, let us see what fate has in store for you.
Part 2
- Two-Face: I'll kill you for this.
- Strange: Really? (flips coin) Look at your coin. It wants you to tell me about that day in the courtroom.
- Two-Face: It was painful.
- Strange: Elaborate.
- Two-Face: I was naïve. I thought I could make a difference. Falcone was going to go down for what he had done.
- Strange: But he had other plans.
- Two-Face: Look at my face.
- Strange: I am. A combination of first, second and third degree burning, hmmm, the scar tissue is quite fascinating.
- Two-Face: You think?
- Strange: And that is all it took to make you the way you are?
- Two-Face: Give me my coin.
- Strange: Not yet.
Part 3
- Two-Face: What is it, Strange. Are you enjoying this?
- Strange: Not in the slightest. Let's go back further. You were a rising star, a beacon of light for this city. A white knight riding in to save it with the dark knight not far behind.
- Two-Face: You can leave him out of this. He is wrong. They all are. No one understands the beauty of fate's hand. I am grateful to Falcone. He gave me a clarity; a purity that few will know. Everything boils down to a simple choice, this way or that way, good, or bad.
- Strange: Do you really believe that?
- Two-Face: How could I not?
- Strange: Interesting... So all you need is this coin (places coin on table) and everything is simple?
- Two-Face: Give me it!
- Strange: Or what about this coin? (throws coin on the table) Or this? (and another) Or these? (and a handful of coins)
- Two-Face: What are you doing?
- Strange: Proving a point. Fate didn't make you answer my question. I did. I replaced your coin with my own. See? You answered me because I wanted you to.
Part 4
- Strange: How is he today?
- TYGER Guard: The prisoner has been quiet. Since getting those coins, he has spent most of his time examining them.
- Strange: Good. Hello, Harvey. Are you ready to talk?
- Two-Face: Leave us. We don't want to talk, not to you.
- Strange: Please. Take a seat. I have one last thing to discuss and then I will give you something in return.
- Two-Face: I don't know. I can't decide. It's too confusing.
- Strange: Of course it is. I want to talk about Mr. Wayne.
- Two-Face: Why?
- Strange: Indulge me.
- Two-Face: We don't like the guy.
- Strange: Hardly surprising. Did you ever consider that you were alike? A traumatic event created you, an equally traumatic event altered him.
- Two-Face: He's nothing like us. There's no... no risk, no... danger. It's all just money and girls. We should kill him.
- Strange: Maybe you should.
Part 5
- Strange: Listen to me, Harvey. I am going to give you a simple choice. This is your coin.
- Two-Face: Is it? Why should I trust you?
- Strange: It was your father's, correct? You know every inch of it. When you close your eyes you can feel it can't you?
- Two-Face: Give me it... Please.
- Strange: I want you to understand what I am about to tell you. You believe that this coin determines the fate of your world. I however believe your condition has always been present. It was there before you were attacked and it is still there now. You probably had headaches, your wife found you unpredictable, scary sometimes.
- Two-Face: Give us it!
- Strange: I am going to throw the coin in the air. If you let it fall, I will do whatever I can to cure you. I will help you become the man you used to be.
- Two-Face: Or?
- Strange: If you grab it, I will let you loose in Arkham City and I will tell you what Catwoman is doing right this second.
- Two-Face: We can't decide.
- Strange: You have to. (tosses coin in the air, then Two-Face grabs it) At this moment Catwoman is preparing to steal the contents of the safe in your old campaign office.
- Two-Face: The bitch! We need to stop her!
- Strange: And you may. Goodbye Mr. Dent.
Game Over Lines
Batman Arkham City - Game Over Two-Face
Two-Face's game over screens.
Batman
- "What's up, Batman? In two minds about saving the kitty? Let me help you out. KILL HER!"
- "Looks like your luck's run out, Batman!"
- "And the judgment is... death!"
- "Bad luck, Batman!"
- "Heads or tails?"
Catwoman
- "Time to die, kitty-cat."
- "Sorry, kitty."
Gallery
Trivia
- Concept Art from Arkham City showed Two-Face wielding a revolver, however within the game, he used twin .45 ACPs.
- Two-Face often referred to himself as "we", much like the Batman Forever incarnation of His Character.
- While waiting for Catwoman to show up at the Museum Armory so that he could kill her, Two-Face repeatedly urged his men to keep a sharp lookout for her. One statement that he said was: "We both want her dead! The first one who finds her gets to be, my right hand guy!" The way that he said that line was very similar to and likely referenced a humorous line that was delivered by the Joker to His Most Trusted Henchman in imitation of Carl Grissom in the 1989 film, Batman.
- Dent's former campaign office was found in Park Row as a solution to one of The Riddler's Riddles.
- Two-Face had a cameo in Injustice: Gods Among Us in one of the stage transitions in Arkham Asylum. When the player attacked their opponent near the edge of the Mess Hall Arena, they were knocked into a room where Killer Croc, Penguin, Two-Face, and Riddler all attacked the fighter before they moved on to the Cell Block Arena.
- With the Arkham Episode, A Flip of the Coin, Two-Face was the only one of the criminals who were captured by Batman in Gotham to have successfully broken out of the GCPD Lockup after the Knightfall Protocol.