Two-Face

Description

Two-Face is one of the grimmest villains that fights the Batman. Although many of the Dark Knight's foes (including the  Riddler, the  Penguin, and the Joker) are campy and slightly humorous, Two-Face is a grotesque, sad villain that never seems to be able to choose a side.

Origin

Harvey Dent was always headed for greatness. He was intelligent, good-hearted, loving, and handsome as a child, the envy of his peers. He discovered that he loved bringing justice to the world, so he worked in that field and moved up until he was in position to become the District Attorney of Gotham City. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne was nearing the end of his training around the world and with the League Of Assassins, getting ready to journey back to Gotham to start his vigilante war on crime. Dent started his war on crime first-he became the District Attorney six months before the first appearance of Batman. He was nicknamed "Apollo" for his chiseled good looks. He was extremely successful at the post, working with then-captain James Gordon and taking down criminals. Soon, Wayne returned and Batman was first sighted. Batman began his war on crime, beating down criminals in his own particular way. However, the Gotham City Police Department opposed him. Jim Gordon eventually was contacted by Batman and started to support him and work with him. He started using the Bat-Signal, on the roof of the department. Dent opposed Batman too at first, but like Gordon, started to appreciate the work he did to help the city. Eventually Dent, Gordon, and Batman formed an alliance to legally take down Carmine (Falcone), who inherited a criminal empire from his father. A series of serial killer murders were going on( Holiday was the killer) by someone who was murdering people affiliated with Falcone. Dent worked tirelessly on the case, having trouble with his marriage. His wife, Gilda Dent, wanted to settle down, but Dent wanted to solve the case, constantly working. At work, many people suspected that Dent himself was the Holiday killer. Falcone hired Batman enemies ("freaks") to help with the case, but they failed. Finally, Alberto, Carmine's son, was murdered. Carmine was devastated and more suspicion piled up against Dent. A criminal rival of Falcone's was Sal Maroni, who agreed to testify against his rival for leniency. Maroni bribed Dent's assistant to deliver an unknown package to him in court. On the court date, the package was revealed to be acid, which Maroni splashed in Dent's face. Both his face and mind were ruined. Maroni was later murdered by Holiday, who was actually Falcone's son Alberto. The scarred Dent escaped into the sewers and met the monster Solomon Grundy.

Later, the "freaks" (the Joker, Catwoman, the  Penguin, the  Riddler, the  Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, the  Mad Hatter, and Solomon Grundy) attacked Falcone-and their leader was Two-Face. Two-Face surrendered, for he murdered Falcone and his assistant. He was sent to Arkham Asylum but the damage had been done. Gotham City had now created and was going to incur one of the most dangerous criminals the world would ever see....Two-Face. In the end of it all, Harvey Dent, forever changed by the moment in the courtroom, would end up killing Falcone with the flip of a coin.

Note: Many of the events described above are documented in the graphic novel and mini-series Batman: The Long Halloween.

No Man's Land

In Batman: No Man's Land, Gotham City was hit by a massive earthquake. It wrecked the entire city, leaving buildings in shambles. The streets were ruled by looters and criminals-which immediately attracted Two-Face. He took a certain amount of area and declared it his, running crime in his designated area. He took Gotham City Hall and carved out a good, sophisticated lifestyle there and began to seriously benefit, making the wrecked city even worse. However, Lex Luthor had paid perennial Batman foe Bane to destroy Gotham's Hall of Records to cover up past crime. Bane brought down the Records-and Two-Face's criminal empire. Later during the No Man's Land event, Two-Face kidnapped Jim Gordon and prosecuted him(as judge, jury, and prosecutor) for his activities helping the city Two-Face was trying to bring down. Gordon outsmarted the monster, though, using Two-Face's split personality. He knew that Harvey Dent was in law, so he hired Dent as his defense attorney. Dent was his defense attorney-against the judge and prosecutor, Two-Face! In a law battle between Dent and Two-Face, the judge, Dent won. Gordon was given acquittal by Two-Face, and he went free, surviving due to his wits and knowledge of the nature of Two-Face's psychosis.

Also during No Man's Land, Two-Face fell in love with Renee Montoya, who was a detective for the Gotham City Police Department. Unfortunately for Two-Face, Montoya is gay, which obviously caused her to reject him. Desperate for her to have him, Two-Face framed her for murder and also outed her as a lesbian. He hoped that if he took everything from her, she would go to him as consolation. He was wrong. They were fighting over a gun to shoot the other with when Batman arrived, putting the madman back in Arkham. Montoya hasn't had trouble with him since, especially because her and Batwoman are now lovers.

"Family" Troubles

Gilda Dent was in a tough position that many women have been in in comicdom. Her loyal, heroic husband suffered a tragic accident and was turned into an evil, monstrous supervillain. She did the smart thing after Harvey's mind was fractured and he often became Two-Face-she divorced him. Two-Face was angry, however-he wanted children to carry on his name, and he never got any. This caused him to believe the marriage was a failure(which it sort of was), and to want Gilda to never have a relationship with other men. This new want posed a problem, as Gilda fell in love with and married another man, a good man by the name of Paul Janus. Two-Face quickly made an attempt to exact revenge on Janus. Two-Face tried to frame Janus as a criminal. He kidnapped Janus, committed a quick crime, then put in a stand-in. The stand-in had been altered by Two-Face, who used makeup to make it seem as though the man was scarred and disfigured. This made it look like Paul Janus had gone insane like Two-Face and started committing crimes. However, Batman noticed something fishy, and after investigating, revealed the truth. He defeated Two-Face, who was thrown back in ("second home")Arkham, and Gilda and Paul were joyously reunited. Years later, Gilda had twins, driving Two-Face even crazier. He escaped and kidnapped the baby twins, believing them to be made with Janus using an experimental fertility drug that wasn't legal. This meant they had to be delivered by Dr. Moon, a black market doctor who wanted the drug to work. They weren't made by the drug, though. They also weren't conceived by Gilda and Paul. The babies were actually Harvey Dent's! A long time ago, Dent's sperm had been frozen. The frozen sperm was used to create the babies. Batman figured this out and informed Two-Face, who gave back the twins, and, devastated, was convinced to turn himself in......although the incarceration didn't last long for someone who's escaped Arkham more times than he could count on three hands.

Destruction Of Two-Face

In the limited series, Two-Face, Two-Face leads a force against Gotham City. His gang made crime go everywhere, and they caused panic, chaos, and havoc for several days. The big opposer was Batman-without him working tirelessly against Two-Face's gang, they might have taken Gotham. The ultimate climax was when Two-Face found his abusive father, who's abuse had created the dormant Two-Face personality in Harvey Dent's mind. Two-Face was planning to murder him on national television-however, part of him loved his father and spared him. This was Dent. Dent and Two-Face had an argument inside their head, and Dent wanted to kill Two-Face. Two-Face called him spineless, but to prove he wasn't and finally destroy Two-Face, he leaped off a building. However, he didn't die-he was caught by Batman. The shock of the fall and the victory destroyed the Two-Face part, and Dent lived happily for a while. However, the rage and evil was still buried there, and the Two-Face persona came out again. Harvey Dent still wasn't fully healed.

Much later, the Two-Face persona was destroyed again for a much longer time. Plastic surgery advanced to a level where extensive damage like his could be fixed-so they used it to make Dent look like Dent again. This destroyed the Two-Face(or so it seemed), and Harvey Dent rejoiced-it looked like his life was going to come back to him. He shot Hush, the serial killer, as the reformed Dent. Batman offered to train Dent to become a vigilante like him, and Harvey agreed. After long, grueling training(including fighting Mister Freeze and The Firebug), Batman left for about a year and Dent became the city's vigilante protector while the Bat was gone. Although Dent was less refined and more violent than Batman, he did a good job and kept the city safe in the Caped Crusader's absence. But when Batman came back, Dent was dejected, and he began to feel like he was unnecessary. These thoughts prompted the return of Two-Face, who Dent began to see in hallucinations. Meanwhile, Ventriloquist, Magpie, KGBeast, and Orca were all murdered in style of Two-Face. When Batman confronted him, Dent wouldn't answer him and set off a bomb to escape. He escaped to a motel, where he had a battle with Two-Face in his head. Two-Face won. He used acid and a scalpel to scar half his face, and Two-Face returned. He attacked the Gotham Zoo. Although he was defeated, he escaped, and Two-Face remains at large in an unknown location. He was seen meeting with Penguin, Hugo Strange, Riddler, and Scarecrow. He is soon captured by Suicide Squad. Trickster and Pied Piper try to save him but by flip of a coin he stay imprisoned.He is exiled to "hell" planet with all the other villains. He sides with the Joker when the conflict broke out. He returns to earth with the other villains.Two-Face is now forming a plan to stop his crime boss rival ,Penguin, by using Batman [ Dick Grayson] to stop the Penguin's gangs. Two-Face can tell it's not Bruce Wayne wearing the cowl by seeing him in action.

Powers And Abilities

Two-Face is trained in hand-to-hand combat. He is homicidal and crazy, and uses a variety of weapons like guns that he has skilled marksmanship. He is a criminal mastermind and has lots of minions and soldiers. He has an uncanny ability to escape from Arkham Asylum, where he is frequently put.Two-Face was trained by Bruce Wayne how to improve Harvey's fighting when he left Gotham for awhile and Harvey was healed from his insanity for a time so he could help on Bruce's war on crime. Harvey wasn't cured for long.

Characteristics

Two-Face is an extreme case of multiple personality disorder. Harvey Dent and Two-Face are two separate beings within the same body. Two-Face has a coin that he uses, a silver dollar. One side is scratched while the other is unmarked. He flips the coin whenever he has a choice to make. If the unmarked side comes up, he will show mercy or do good. If the disfigured side comes up, then Two-Face will do evil. He is obsessed with duality. Two-Face is caught between two extremes, but between the two personas, Two-Face is dominant. Two-Face is a mobster, too, and often goes on killing sprees for fun. He is totally dependent on the coin, but it has been overcome twice in the graphic novel Batman: Arkham Asylum. While in Arkham, Two-Face's psychiatrist takes the coin and replaces it with a die, giving him six choices of what to do. This confuses him slightly, and she then replaces it with a tarot deck. This gives him a whopping 78 choices, which paralyzes him. She hopes to replace it again over and over until he gets a full set of choices, but the events of the graphic novel prevent any more work being done with Two-Face in this regard. This, however, may be for the best--he is shown sitting in a corner, creating a house of cards, totally incapable of deciding anything whatsoever. In that same graphic novel, Two-Face finally has Batman at his mercy. He flips his coin, then lets Batman go. The Caped Crusader cannot see the outcome, but he naturally assumes it came up unscarred side. At the end, Two-Face reveals-the coin was scarred side. Of his own will, Two-Face-not Harvey Dent, but Two-Face-overcame the coin and showed mercy anyway. This was a great event for both Batman and Two-Face-for it proves that there is still sanity left somewhere within the hollow shell. Harvey Dent was also abused as a child. This led to his obsession and insanity. Many times, plastic surgery has cured his physical scars on his face, leaving them normal (including in the graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns), but it doesn't cure his mental illness. Every time, Two-Face has rescarred himself with acid or another substance and reoperated as Two-Face. His illness may be completely impossible to correct or flush out. Two-Face joined the Injustice League, led by Lex Luthor, but quickly fell out with them. Like Joker and other Batman villians, Two-Face is incompatible working with other villians because of his insanity. 
 

Elseworlds