Two-Face

Two-Face
Two-Face, as depicted on the cover of Batman Annual #14 (1990). Pencils by Neal Adams
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Detective Comics #66 (August 1942)
Created by	Bob Kane Bill Finger
In-story information
Alter ego	Harvey Dent
Team affiliations	Injustice League Injustice Gang Underground Society
Notable aliases	Apollo, Janus

Two-Face is a fictional comic book supervillain who appears in comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #66 (August 1942), and was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger.

Once Harvey Dent, District Attorney of Gotham City and an ally of Batman, he goes insane and becomes the crime boss Two-Face after the left half of his face is hideously disfigured; he chooses to bring about good or evil based upon the outcome of a coin flip. Originally, Two-Face was one of many gimmick-focused comic book villains, plotting crimes based around the number two, such as robbing Gotham Second National Bank at 2:00 on February 2. In his autobiography, Batman creator Bob Kane claims to have been inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, specifically the 1931 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde which he saw as a boy. Kane had not read the novel when he and Bill Finger created Two-Face. Some inspiration was also derived from The Black Bat whose origin story included being splashed with acid across his face.^[1] In later years, writers have portrayed his obsession with duality and fate as the result of schizophrenia, bipolar and multiple personality disorders, and a history of child abuse. He obsessively makes all important decisions by flipping a two-headed coin, one side scratched over with an X. The modern version is established as having once been a personal friend and ally of Commissioner James Gordon and Batman.

The character has appeared in multiple Batman media forms, including video games, Batman: The Animated Series, and the Batman film series. Billy Dee Williams portrayed Harvey Dent in Batman, while Tommy Lee Jones portrayed Two-Face in Batman Forever and Aaron Eckhart played Harvey Dent/Two-Face in The Dark Knight.

Two-Face was ranked #12 in IGN's list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains Of All Time.^[2]

Publication history

The character only made three appearances in the 1940s, and appeared twice in the 1950s (not counting the impostors mentioned below). By this time, he was dropped in favor of more "kid friendly" villains, though he did appear in a 1968 issue (World's Finest Comics #173), in which Batman declared him to be the criminal he most fears. In 1971, writer Dennis O'Neil brought Two-Face back, and it was then that he became one of Batman's arch-enemies.

In the wake of Frank Miller's 1986 revision of Batman's origin (see Batman: Year One), Andrew Helfer rewrote Two-Face's history to match.^[3] This origin, presented in Batman Annual #14, served to emphasize Dent's status as a tragic character, with a back story that included an abusive, alcoholic father, and early struggles with bipolar disorder and paranoia. It was also established, in Batman: Year One, that pre-accident Harvey Dent was a major heroic figure working as one of Batman's earliest allies. He had clear ties to both Batman and Commissioner Gordon, making him an unsettling and personal foe for both men.^[4]

Other Two-Faces

Two-Face from Detective Comics #66

During Two-Face's third appearance in the 1940s, his face and sanity are restored. Although there was a demand to use him again, the writers did not want to retcon his last story, so they had other characters assume the role. The first impostor is Wilkins, Dent's butler, who uses makeup to appear that the reformed Dent had suffered a relapse and deformed his face to appear as before.

Paul Sloane becomes the second Two-Face. An actor who was set to star in a biography of Harvey Dent, Sloane is disfigured by an accident on the set in a manner similar to Harvey Dent. Sloane's mind snaps, and he begins to think he is Dent. Sloane recovers enough of his own personality, but continues to remain as the criminal Two-Face. Sloane is reused in later Earth-Two specific stories as Two-Face II of Earth-Two where the original Earth-Two Two-Face remains healed (Superman Family #211). Sloane is revived in the current continuity as a successor Two-Face (Detective Comics #777), though not replacing Dent as done in the earlier Earth-Two specific storyline.

The third Two-Face is another impostor, a petty criminal named George Blake, who like Wilkins is not actually disfigured but is wearing make-up. Furthermore, his makeup is worn on the opposite side of his face to Dent/Sloane.

Also noteworthy is a 1968 story where Batman himself is temporarily turned into Two-Face via a potion (World's Finest Comics #173).

Aside from a 1962 reprint of the Sloane storyline, this was the character's only appearance in the 1960s.^[5]

Another Two-Face appears in the Batman Sunday strips. Actor Harvey Apollo is scarred with acid when testifying against a mobster in court, and becomes a criminal. He only makes a few appearances before accidentally hanging himself after slipping on the silver dollar piece he uses as Two-Face.

As mentioned above, Harvey Dent does return as Two-Face in the 1970s. With the establishment of the multiverse, however, the Two-Face of Earth-Two (i.e. the character seen in the original Golden Age stories) is said to be Harvey Kent, who had not relapsed following his cure. The last appearance of this version of Two-Face was in Superman Family #211 (October 1981), depicting him as a guest at the marriage of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle (Catwoman). He meets Lois Lane and Clark Kent, and his shared name with the latter creates confusion.

After the Crisis on Infinite Earths event the Paul Sloane character, with a near identical history to the pre-crisis version, appears in Detective Comics #580 and #581. In Double Image Harvey Dent (as Two-Face) employs The Crime Doctor to re-disfigure Sloane. Dent does this out of jealous bitterness and the hope that Sloane would commit crimes based on the number two, thus confusing Batman. At the end of the story Sloane is once again healed, physically and mentally.

Paul Sloane is introduced into post-Zero Hour continuity as a criminal called "The Charlatan" in Detective Comics #777 (February 2003). In this incarnation, Sloan (Now spelled without a silent e at the end.) had been hired by Gotham's costumed criminals to take Two-Face's place in a scheme to kill Batman, Dent's coin having come up unscarred. When the real Two-Face learns about this, he captures Sloan and disfigures his face. The Scarecrow then experiments on him with fear toxins. Driven insane, The Charlatan becomes obsessed with both getting revenge on the criminals who hired him and completing his mission to kill Batman.

Although Two-Face has traditionally been shown as fully aware of the actions committed as Harvey Dent and his villainous persona, in the events of The Great Leap — shown in the Nightwing regular series — a new twist was added to the character: Two-Face and Harvey Dent now appear as a stereotypical case of split personality, two different men cohabitating a shared body, as evidenced when he asks Nightwing to protect an old acquaintance of his, a witness in a mob trial, from a hired gun revealed to be Two-Face himself.

Fictional character biography

Harvey Dent gets half a faceful of acid in Batman: The Long Halloween.

When he first appears in Detective Comics #66, the character's name is Harvey Kent, but in later stories his name is changed to Harvey Dent to prevent confusion with Clark Kent.^[6][7] However, the original name is made reference to in the "Prodigal" storyline, where Harvey Dent walks due to a clerical error which causes him to be confused with a similarly named Harvey Kent. At 26, he is the youngest district attorney ever to serve Gotham City, and is nicknamed "Apollo" for his clean-cut image. He is elected about six months before Batman begins his war on crime, as depicted in the events of Batman: Year One.^[3]

His campaign against crime ends tragically during the prosecution of crime boss Sal "Boss" Maroni for murder. At a climactic moment in the trial, Dent produces Maroni's good luck charm, a two-headed coin, which had been found at the murder scene with Maroni's fresh fingerprints upon it. Enraged, Maroni throws sulfuric acid in Dent's face, horribly scarring the left side of his face while leaving the other half undamaged; in some versions of the story, he is only saved from a face-full of acid by Batman's quick, but only partial, deflection of Maroni's hand.^[8] Driven insane by his hideous reflection, Dent scars one side of Maroni's coin and lets tosses of the coin decide whether he acts for good or evil in any situation.^[7][8]

Batman Annual #14,^[4] elaborates on these events, with some changes. In it, Dent, Captain (later Commissioner) James Gordon, and Batman forge an alliance to rid Gotham of crime (large elements of this story were later co-opted for the limited series Batman: The Long Halloween, and to a lesser extent in the 2008 film The Dark Knight). Mafia chieftain Sal "The Boss" Maroni is still the criminal who disfigures him with help from the corrupt Assistant District Attorney Adrian Fields (though in The Long Halloween, his name changed to Vernon Fields). Fields provides Maroni with the acid, concealed in an antacid bottle. Two-Face gets his trademark coin from his abusive father, who would employ the coin in a perverse nightly "game" that would always end with a beating. This would instill in Dent his lifelong struggle with free will and his eventual inability to make choices on his own.

Gilda Dent, who had been his fiancée back in Detective Comics #66 and 68 (1942),^[7][9] is instead his wife in "Eye of the Beholder," and therefore subsequently, The Long Halloween (1998). In the former, he escapes from the hospital and confronts Fields, who tries to plea bargain with Dent by offering a massive file of criminal funds, hideouts, and connections for his old boss to begin his "new life." When Batman interrupts them, Two-Face kills Fields and then, losing the coin toss, confronts his father and forces him to play the game they used to play. The coin comes up clean, so he spares his father, and is incarcerated in Arkham Asylum, where he receives experimental plastic surgery. However, in a fit of madness, he claws his face open with his bare hands.

In The Long Halloween, Harvey escapes from the hospital and hides out in the sewers for weeks, finally resurfacing as Two-Face to take revenge on the mob, killing Vernon Field and mob boss Carmine Falcone (Maroni has already been assassinated by this point by Falcone's son Alberto). By the end, Two-Face is incarcerated in Arkham.^[10]

During the same period, Two-Face is revealed to have murdered Jason Todd's father, who had been one of his henchmen. Todd later has Two-Face at his mercy and chooses not to kill him, embracing Batman's ideal of justice. This storyline has been mirrored in other media, with other Robins taking Todd's place: in the animated series of the late 1990s with Tim Drake substituting for Todd^[4] and in the 1995 film Batman Forever, with Dick Grayson as a substitute.

In Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, writer Grant Morrison portrays Two-Face's dependence on his coin. The doctors in the asylum attempt to wean him off his evil personality by taking away his coin and replacing it with a die and eventually a tarot deck, effectively giving him 78 options. The treatment fails, however; with so many options, he can't even make simple decisions. At the end of the graphic novel, Batman gives Two-Face his coin back, telling him to use it to decide whether to kill him. He tells Batman that the coin landed scar face down, and Batman leaves safely, but the next scene shows the scar face up, meaning that he inexplicably chose to let Batman live. In the hardcover edition, Morrison said this was because it was April Fools' Day.^[11][12]

Throughout the history of the Batman franchise, attempts have been made to repair his facial scars but they have not yet cured his insanity; he simply destroys the one side of his face and becomes Two-Face once again. In Frank Miller's revival of Batman, The Dark Knight Returns, Bruce Wayne himself funds Dent's rehabilitation, but he soon returns to crime and Batman must once again stop him from destroying Gotham.

During the aftermath of the earthquake that leaves Gotham City in shambles, Two-Face carves out a sizable portion of the ruined city for himself. He takes up residence in Gotham City Hall, maintaining a relatively sophisticated lifestyle. His empire is eventually brought down by Bane, who, in the employ of Lex Luthor, devastates Two-Face's gang during his destruction of the city's Hall of Records. Two-Face kidnaps Commissioner Gordon and puts him on trial for his activities after Gotham City was declared a No Man's Land, with Two-Face as both judge and prosecutor. Gordon plays upon Two-Face's split psyche to demand Harvey Dent as his defense attorney. Harvey cross-examines Two-Face and wins an acquittal for Gordon, determining that Two-Face has effectively blackmailed Gordon by implying that he had committed murders to aid the Commissioner.^[13]

Renee and Two-Face. Art by Michael Lark

During No Man's Land, Two-Face meets detective Renee Montoya. Montoya reaches the Dent persona in Two-Face, and is kind to him. He falls in love with her, though the romance is one-sided.^[13] Later, in the Gotham Central series, he outs her as a lesbian and frames her for murder, hoping that if he takes everything from her, she will be left with no choice but to be with him. She is furious, and the two fight for control of his gun until Batman intervenes, putting Two-Face back in Arkham.

In the Two-Face: Crime and Punishment one-shot book, Two-Face leads a crusade against Gotham City, culminating in the capturing of his own father to humiliate and kill on live television for the years of abuse he suffered. This story reveals that, despite his apparent hatred for his father, Dent still supports him, paying for an expensive home rather than allowing him to live in a slum. At the end of the book, Harvey and Two-Face argue in thought, Two-Face calling Harvey "spineless." Dent proves Two-Face wrong, however, choosing to jump off a building and commit suicide just to put a stop to his alter ego's crime spree. Two-Face is surprised when the coin flip comes up scarred, but abides by the decision and jumps. Batman catches him, but the shock of the fall seems to (at least temporarily) destroy the Two-Face side of his psyche.

In Two-Face Strikes Twice, Two-Face is at odds with his ex-wife Gilda, as he believes their marriage failed because he was unable to give her children. She later marries Paul Janus, a reference to the Roman god of doors who had two faces, one facing forward, the other backward. Two-Face attempts to frame Janus as a criminal by kidnapping him and replacing him with a stand-in, whom Two-Face "disfigures" with makeup to make it look as if Janus has gone insane just as Two-Face had. Batman eventually catches Two-Face and puts him away, and Gilda and Janus reunite. Years later, Gilda gives birth to twins, prompting Two-Face to escape once more and take the twins hostage, as he erroneously believes them to be conceived by Janus using an experimental fertility drug. The end of the book reveals a surprise twist; Batman learns from Gilda that Janus is not the father of Gilda's twins—Two-Face is. Some of his sperm had been frozen after a death threat had been made against him, and she used some of it to get pregnant. Batman uses this information to convince Two-Face to free the twins and turn himself in.

In the storyline Batman: Hush, his face is repaired once more via plastic surgery. This time around, only the Harvey Dent persona exists. However, he takes the law into his own hands twice: once by using his ability to manipulate the legal system to free the Joker, and then again by shooting the serial killer Hush. He manipulates the courts into setting him free, as Gotham's prosecutors wouldn't attempt to charge him without a body.

Cover art for the second printing of Detective Comics #818 (April 2006), by Simone Bianchi

In the Batman story arc Batman: Face the Face, that started in Detective Comics #817, and was part of DC's One Year Later storyline, it is revealed that, at Batman's request and with his training, Dent becomes a vigilante protector of Gotham City in most of Batman's absence of nearly a year. He is reluctant to take the job, but Batman assures him it would serve as atonement for his past crimes. After a month of training, they fight Firebug and Mr. Freeze, before Batman leaves for a year. Dent enjoys his new role, but his methods are seemingly more extreme and less refined than Batman's. Upon Batman's return, Dent begins to feel unnecessary and unappreciated, which prompts the return of the "Two-Face" persona (seen and heard by Dent through hallucinations). In Face the Face, his frustration is compounded by a series of mysterious murders that seem to have been committed by Two-Face; the villains KGBeast, Magpie, The Ventriloquist, and Orca are all shot twice in the head with a double-barreled pistol. When Batman confronts Dent about these deaths, asking him to confirm that he was not responsible, Dent refuses to give a definite answer. He then detonates a bomb in his apartment and leaves Batman dazed as he flees.

Despite escaping the explosion physically unscathed to a motel, Dent suffers a crisis of conscience and a mental battle with his "Two-Face" personality. Although evidence is later uncovered by Batman that exonerates Dent for the murders, it is too late to save him. Prompted by resentment and a paranoid reaction to Batman's questioning, Dent scars half his face with nitric acid and a scalpel, becoming Two-Face once again. Blaming Batman for his return, Two-Face immediately goes on a rampage, threatening to destroy the Gotham Zoo (having retained two of every animal - including two humans) before escaping to fight Batman another day.

On the cover of Justice League of America #13 (Vol.2), Two-Face is shown as a member of the new Injustice League. He can be seen in Salvation Run. He appears in Battle for the Cowl: The Underground, which shows the effects of Batman's death on his enemies. In Judd Winick's Long Shadow arc, Two-Face realizes that there's another person under the cowl.^[14] He hires a teleporter and manages to infiltrate the Batcave. When the new Batman investigates the cave, he is ambushed by Two-Face with tranquilizer darts, and in a hallucination he sees Dent in a red and black Two-Face themed Batman costume.^[15] However, Alfred Pennyworth saved the new Dark Knight from Two-Face's torture after he subdues his accomplice, and with his help Batman convinces Two-Face that the original Dark Knight Detective is still alive somewhere hidden within the Batcave.^[16]

Family

Duela Dent is the daughter of Two-Face. Creator Bob Rozakis stated, "It didn't take too long to decide whose daughter she would turn out to be. After all, the only married villain was Two-Face. I convinced Julie (and associate editor E. Nelson Bridwell, the acknowledged keeper of DC's historical consistency) that Harvey and Gilda Dent had a daughter, that Harvey had been disappointed because she wasn't a twin, and that they'd named her Duela."^[17]

Gilda Dent is Harvey Dent's wife in Batman: The Long Halloween. Gilda wanted to have children with Harvey but his busy schedule prevented such from happening. Gilda fled after Two-Face was first arrested and was never seen again. Two-Face constantly denies the chance for plastic surgery and a life with Gilda again but has stated that Harvey Dent is a married man.

Poison Ivy is Dent's first fiancée in Batman: The Animated Series. Dent and Isley have dated in "Pretty Poison". She poisons Dent as revenge for killing the endangered flowers to make way for Stonegate Penitentiary. The two later meet again in "Almost Got 'Im." Two-Face remarks that half of him wants to strangle Ivy as revenge for poisoning him. When Ivy flirtatiously asks what the other half wants, he replies, "To hit you with a truck." It's the only thing both sides of Harvey agree on in this version.

In the two-part episode "Two-Face", Gilda becomes Grace (although this name change draws from several of Gilda's comic appearances—including Batman Annual #14 and Secret Origins Special #1—where she is identified by this alternate name). Dent is about to announce their wedding date as part of his reelection speech, but is interrupted by a late night meeting with Rupert Thorne, which results in his disfigurement.

The novelization to The Dark Knight gave the names of his parents as Harry and Lucy Dent. Harry served as a police officer outside of Gotham and was often strict with his son Harvey, and was prone to delivering mental abuse on him. Harry gave his son a misprinted silver dollar coin, with two face, or head, sides. Harvey would consider it his lucky coin. Both Harry and his wife Lucy were killed in a car accident, leaving Harvey an orphan.

In Batman: Two-Face - Crime and Punishment comic book, Christopher Dent, the father of Harvey Dent, was an alcoholic who suffered from mental illness, leading him into a violent and physically abusive relationship with his son, whom he otherwise loved very much. This mixture of love and abuse would later lead the otherwise successful Harvey to a life of crime and insanity as Two-Face.

In Batman Gotham Adventures #2: Lucky Day, Two-Face plans to rob a game-show contestant of 2.2 million dollars on live TV while seeking revenge against his father (This version named Lester), who has just won it big on the show, to get revenge on the abuse he suffered as a child before Lester left them when Harvey was thirteen. At the conclusion of the storyline, Two-Face blows up the prize money when Batman interrupts his attempt to shoot his father, confidently informing Lester that the insurance company won't cover the lost money, and with Lester being unable to cash in on his 'lucky streak' after cheating death as the remaining money must be bagged as evidence.

Abilities and weapons

During the Batman: Face to Face story arc, it is revealed that Batman has trained Dent extensively in hand-to-hand combat and detective artistry, enhancing his already proficient talent in both. He also tends to carry with him a large assortment of conventional weaponry, including guns, knives, rocket launchers, and poison gasses. Two-Face almost always leaves important decisions to the flip of his half-scarred coin, in an almost obsessive compulsive desire. He also tends to fancy the number two, from staging crimes around said number to carrying and using dual firearms-in Batman Forever he carries a black colored revolver and a white colored automatic pistol.

Other versions

As one of Batman's most recognizable and popular opponents, Two-Face appears in numerous comics which are not considered part of the regular DC continuity, including:

A physically repaired Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight Returns

In the alternate future setting of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, plastic surgery returns Dent's face to normal, but at the unforeseen cost of permanently destroying the good-hearted Harvey Dent personality, leaving the monstrous Two-Face in control forever. He attempts to blow up the Gotham Twin Towers with his face swathed in bandages. As he puts it when Batman captures him, "At least both sides match." Later in the series, his psychiatrist (a character noted for telling notorious lies to the media and being inept as a psychiatric practitioner) describes his condition as "recovering nicely".

In the Elseworld story Batman: In Darkest Knight, Harvey Dent is the Gotham District Attorney and distrusts Green Lantern (who in this reality is Bruce Wayne) because of his vigilante tactics. Sinestro, after becoming deranged from absorbing Joe Chill's mind, then scars Dent's face and gives him powers similar to those of the main continuity's Evil Star. He calls himself Binary Star and works with Star Sapphire (who in this reality is Selina Kyle).

Two-Face also appears in the Elseworlds Batman/Daredevil crossover book, partnered with Marvel villain Mr. Hyde for the purpose of using Hyde as an "incubator" to grow an organic microchip, giving Hyde drugs to speed up this process (regardless of the fact that this would kill him). It is also revealed in this book that Harvey Dent had once been friends with Matt Murdock, who is secretly Daredevil. Prior to his disfigurement, Dent believed in giving criminals a chance at rehabilitation, while Murdock believed in final justice; having reversed his outlook to what Dent had once believed, Murdock talks Two-Face out of killing Hyde without Two-Face using his coin. Two-Face, however, insists that act is merely "the last of Harvey Dent."

In the Elseworlds comic Batman: Masque, a pastiche of The Phantom of the Opera, Harvey Dent takes the role of the hideously scarred musical genius.

In the Elseworlds book Batman: Crimson Mist, the third part of the trilogy that began with Batman & Dracula: Red Rain, where Batman become a vampire, Two-Face—accompanied by Killer Croc as his muscle—forms an alliance with Commissioner Gordon and Alfred Pennyworth to stop Batman when his insane thirst for blood drives him to kill his old enemies. After Batman is believed killed in the old Batcave, Two-Face turns on the two men, forcing Alfred to flee and rescue Batman while Gordon kills Two-Face's men. As he confronts Gordon, however, Two-Face is interrupted by the restored Batman, who drives two crossbow bolts into each side of Two-Face's head, citing it as "One for each face".

In the Thrillkiller universe, there are two versions of Two-Face. One is Detective Duell, a corrupt officer on the Gotham City Police Department, whose face is scarred in a manner similar to Dent's. Duell is shown as being arrested at the end of Thrillkiller: Batgirl and Robin. In the sequel, Batgirl and Batman: Thrillkiller '62, Harvey Dent is shown as the new District Attorney. He appears at the end as the new mayor of Gotham.

The new Earth-3 features a heroic female counterpart to Two-Face: Evelyn Dent—"Three-Face"—the mother of Duela Dent. Unlike Two-Face, Evelyn has three personalities and she is not scarred, although she has a cybernetic left arm, after Superwoman mutilates her. Her original affiliation is to the heroic Riddler Family.

The Earth-19 version of Two-Face is a serial killer called "The Double Man", as mentioned in Countdown: Arena.

In the Elseworlds series Catwoman: Guardian of Gotham, model Darcy Dent has half her face scarred when a rival model hires a hitman to lace her facial cream with acid. Unlike the regular Two-Face, Darcy does not rely on a coin toss to make her decisions, nor does she suffer from any type of personality disorder. Her motive is simply revenge based against those responsible for her disfigurement, and her motif is mutilating her victims faces. and wears a half business suit with a spiked metal bikini.

On the Tangent Earth, Harvey Dent is black and that world's Superman, although he has no other similarities to the Two-Face character.

In the Elseworlds tale Batman: Claws of the Catwoman, explorer and adventurer Finnegan Dent is revealed to be stealing the sacred artifacts of an African Tribe. During an encounter with Batman and Tarzan, half of Dent's face is mauled by a lion.

In other media

Television

• Although Clint Eastwood was discussed for the role of Two-Face in the 1960s television series, reimagined as a news anchor who was disfigured when a television set exploded in his face,^[18] he did not appear, as the character was labeled "too gruesome and too violent" for the "kid-friendly" attitude that surrounded the show.

Two-Face as he appears in the Batman: The Animated Series

• In Batman: The Animated Series, Harvey Dent (voiced by Richard Moll) suffers from deep-seated psychological trauma resulting from years of repressing anger. As a child, Dent developed another personality, "Big Bad Harv", who is as evil as the "Dent" personality is noble after he learned that a bully he had attacked earlier was in hospital; although the bully was actually being treated for appendicitis, Harvey subsequently fought to repress his anger out of the belief that he had caused the injury. This alter ego would show itself whenever Dent loses his temper, prompting him to seek therapy. Mob boss Rupert Thorne gets a hold of his psychiatric file and plans to blackmail him and reveal the details unless he were to do him favors. At this provocation, Dent loses his temper, leaving "Big Bad Harv" in control, and he physically lashes out at Thorne and his men. Dent chases Thorne into a chemical plant, where a stray bullet causes an explosion that hideously scars half of Dent's face. After the accident, he becomes a vigilante-gangster known as "Two-Face" and soon begins his own crusade to bring Thorne down. In subsequent episodes, he becomes a crime boss and supervillain in his own right, although he is constantly locked in a battle of wits against the Dent personality, demonstrated in the episode "Second Chance", where he apparently kidnaps himself before he can undergo an operation that will restore his face and eradicate Big Bad Harv once and for all. In the same episode, he is shown to still care for Bruce Wayne, his childhood friend. In the episode "Pretty Poison", set before his disfigurement, he dates Pamela Isley, who is actually Poison Ivy; she attempts to seduce and kill Dent in retaliation for his unintentional extermination of the last of a rare flower species to greenlight the construction of Stonegate Penitentiary. While Ivy nearly succeeds in killing Dent with a poisonous kiss, Batman subdues Ivy and cures Dent. His relationship with Ivy is acknowledged in the later episode "Almost Got 'Im", when Two-Face says that half of him wants to strangle her while the other half wants to hit her with a truck. Ivy's response: "We used to date." He also makes an appearance in the first episode, "On Leather Wings", prior to his disfigurement. Unlike other versions of Dent, he appears to be perfectly willing to prosecute Batman as a vigilante (although on that specific occasion, Batman had been framed for using near-lethal methods by Man-Bat).

• In the final episode of The New Batman Adventures, Two-Face's psyche fragments a second time, creating a third personality called "The Judge" (voiced by Malachi Throne), a violent court-themed vigilante who attempts to eliminate all of Gotham's criminals. Two-Face, looking to eradicate this new threat to him, has no idea that he himself is the Judge. At the end of the episode he is sent back to Arkham. Since this is Two-face's last appearance in the DC animated universe, it remains unknown whether or not his face was restored.

• An android of Two-Face appears in the Batman Beyond episode, "Terry's Friend Dates a Robot", battling the future Batman in a simulation.

• An alternate reality version of Two-Face makes a cameo appearance during the Justice League episode "A Better World", where he has been lobotomized by Superman and is now the janitor of Arkham Asylum.

• In the unedited version of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, it is shown that Bruce Wayne has wax replicas of some of his old foes including Two-Face. The Two-Face replica is beheaded with a batarang by Wayne with a remark "still got it."

• Two-Face appears in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "The Fate of Equinox" voiced by James Remar. Two-Face has his henchmen kill Batman when he arrives. After flipping his coin, Two-Face ends up teaming up with Batman against the henchmen. Before he can flip again, he is knocked out by Batman.

Film

• In Batman (1989), Billy Dee Williams appears as a pre-disfigured Harvey Dent. Williams took the role specifically to guarantee his casting in a sequel, reinforced by a pay or play contract. Williams was set to reprise the role in a more villainous light in the sequel, Batman Returns, but his character was deleted and replaced with original villain Max Shreck. However, when Two-Face was to become a secondary villain to Jim Carrey's Riddler in the third movie, director Tim Burton had abdicated to Joel Schumacher, who decided to pay Williams' penalty fee to hire Tommy Lee Jones.^[19]

Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face in Batman Forever

• In Batman Forever (1995) Tommy Lee Jones portrays Harvey Dent/Two-Face alongside Jim Carrey's Riddler and opposite Val Kilmer's Batman. He is built up to be the main antagonist of the film until the emergence and rise of the Riddler, who he teams up with on the promise he will be told Batman's secret identity. The origin of his criminal personality is exactly the same as it was in the original Golden Age comics. "Harvey Two-Face" plays up the "two" gimmick to the point where Two-Face even refers to himself in the plural (using "we," "us," and "our", much like Marvel's Venom ), and is implied to actually suffer from dissociative identity disorder. In the film, Two-Face (instead of Tony Zucco, as in the original comics) is responsible for the origin of Robin when he kills Dick Grayson's (Chris O'Donnell) family. Also, Jones' Two-Face uses his coin flipping more frequently; in one scene, he decides to "cheat" with his moral game by flipping his coin until it comes up as he wants it (although in that particular scene, he had been ordered by the Riddler to capture Bruce Wayne alive). Jones' Two-Face was a comedic, camp version of the character. At the movie's climax, as Two-Face eventually holds Batman and Robin at gunpoint, Batman prompts Two-Face to flip his coin to decide if he should shoot them. Two-Face does so and Batman throws a handful of identical coins into the air; Two-Face panics and scrambles to find his coin, plummeting to his apparent death in the process. His costume is later seen in the sequel, Batman & Robin, in Arkham Asylum. This version of Two-Face, as well as the film itself, was met with a mixed response among critics and audiences alike. Scott Beatty, in particular, noted that he felt that the Batman Forever version of Two-Face was more of a Joker knock-off than the multifaceted character in the original comics.^[20] However, Jones was nominated for "Best Villain" at the MTV Awards for his performance.

Aaron Eckhart as Two-Face in The Dark Knight

• Aaron Eckhart portrays Harvey Dent/Two-Face in The Dark Knight (2008), the sequel to the 2005 film Batman Begins. In this film, Dent, Gotham's newly-elected D.A., forms an alliance with Commissioner James Gordon and Batman to take on the mafia, only to have his life destroyed by the Joker and Sal Maroni's mob. His trademark coin is his father's double-headed 1922 Peace Dollar. The Joker's men kidnap him and his fiancée, Rachel Dawes, locking them up in two separate buildings rigged with explosives. Dent attempts to break free but accidentally knocks over a barrel of gasoline. The left side of Dent's face becomes soaked by the spilled gasoline. Batman arrives in time to rescue Dent, but after the building explodes Dent's face catches fire. Dent is left grotesquely disfigured and Rachel is killed in the other explosion. One side of his peace dollar is marred as well. After the accident, Dent refuses medication and skin grafts out of guilt from Rachel's death and takes the sarcastic nickname the police had given him when he was in the GCPD's Internal Affairs Division: "Two-Face." The Joker then convinces him to become a vigilante, making things "fair" by confronting Sal Maroni and the corrupt police officers who ruined his life, deciding whether or not to kill each one by flipping his newly-charred coin. He kills Maroni's driver and one of the two cops who helped kidnap Rachel, and eventually turns his thirst for vengeance on Gordon's family, threatening to kill the Commissioner's son. Batman stops him just in time, tackling him off a building to his demise. In order to preserve Gotham City's hope for the future and Dent's reputation, Batman takes the blame for Two-Face's murders. Director Christopher Nolan explained that the movie's portrayal of the character was meant to emphasize both the differences and parallels between Two-Face and Batman. For every Two-Face scene, Nolan shot Eckhart twice; once in make-up and once without. The effect created means both shots are present, but one side will dominate at any given moment. The entire performance could then be altered, at will, in the editing room.^[21] Eckhart has expressed his enthusiasm to reprise his role for a sequel if asked,^[22] although he later confirmed that, in talks with Nolan before Heath Ledger's death, the director considers Two-Face to be dead.

Video games

Two-Face appears in several Batman-related video games:

• A pre-disfigured Harvey Dent appears as a hostage of Poison Ivy in the video game Batman: The Animated Series (which carries over Ivy's vendetta against Dent for being indirectly responsible for the destruction of an endangered plant in the episode "Pretty Poison").

• As Two-Face, he is 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).

• He appears in Lego Batman: The Video Game (with his sound effects are done by Steven Blum) as an enemy of Batman and a deputy of the Riddler, as with Batman Forever.^[23]

• Two-Face is set to appear in the upcoming video game DC Universe Online.

• Two-Face is mentioned at the end of Batman: Arkham Asylum. After finally defeating the Joker, a call comes in over the police radio that Two-Face is robbing a downtown bank. Batman then cuts his conversation with Commissioner Gordon short in order to pursue the criminal. His cell is also seen in the Penitentary with a poster advertising a "Voe Dent" campaign.

Miscellaneous

• During the Batman Sunday comic strips that ran from 1943-1946, he is an actor (Harvey Apollo) who is testifying at the trial of criminal Lucky Sheldon. He is killed at the end of the story arc. Also, his origin is again altered in the Batman daily strips published from 1989 to 1991. In this version, Harvey Dent is scarred by a vial of acid thrown by an unnamed bystander, and intended for the Joker.

• Two-Face appears in the comic-book one-shot "Two of a Kind" in Batman Black and White #1, written and drawn by Bruce Timm (this vintage vignette, like the rest of the Black and White miniseries, isn't considered canon). Harvey Dent has been reconstructed, rehabilitated, and released from Arkham, but along the way he and his plastic surgeon Dr. Marilyn Crane fall in love and plan to marry. A chance meeting with Marilyn's twin sister Madeline ignites his obsession with duality and his new life begins to crumble as she seduces the Two-Face personality out of hiding. Dent calls off the affair to save his sanity, but Madeline kills Marilyn and a distraught Dent brings Two-Face back to avenge his fiancee's murder by burning one side of his face and shooting Madeline.

See also

• List of Batman Family enemies
• Batman: The Long Halloween
• Batman: Dark Victory
• Gilda Dent

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Two-Face

• Two-Face at the Internet Movie Database
• Two-Face at the DC Database Project