Two-Face

This article is about the DC comics villain. For the Nigerian musician, see 2face Idibia. For the Brazilian soap opera, see Duas Caras. For craniofacial duplication, see Diprosopus.
Two-Face

Two-Face, as depicted on the page of Batman and Robin (vol. 2) #23.1 (2013).
Pencils by Guillem March
Publication information
Publisher DC Comics
First appearance Detective Comics #66 (Aug. 1942)
Created by Bob Kane[1] (concept)
Bill Finger (developer)
In-story information
Alter ego Harvey Dent
Team affiliations
Notable aliases Apollo, Janus, Mr. Duall, Count Enhance
Abilities
  • Experienced hand-to-hand combatant
  • Expert marksman
  • Extensive knowledge and experience in law enforcement

Harvey "Two-Face" Dent is a fictional supervillain that appears in comic books published by DC Comics, and is an enemy of Batman. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #66 (Aug. 1942), and was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. Harvey Dent was once a clean-cut district attorney of Gotham City and an ally of Batman. However, he goes insane after mob boss Sal Maroni throws acid at him during a trial, hideously scarring the left side of his face. He adopts the "Two-Face" persona and becomes a criminal, choosing 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 and stealing 2 million dollars.

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 version which he saw as a boy. Some inspiration was also derived from the pulp magazine character the Black Bat whose origin story included having acid splashed in his face.[2] In later years, writers have portrayed his obsession with duality and fate as the result of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and multiple personality disorder. He obsessively makes all important decisions by flipping a two-headed coin, one side defaced. 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, animation, television, and the Batman film series: Billy Dee Williams portrayed Harvey Dent in Batman, Tommy Lee Jones portrayed Two-Face in Batman Forever, Richard Moll voiced both versions of the character in Batman: The Animated Series, Aaron Eckhart played both the district attorney and his villainous alter ego in The Dark Knight, and Nicholas D'Agosto portrays Harvey Dent in Gotham. Two-Face was ranked #12 in IGN's list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time.[3]

Publication history

Two-Face first appears in Detective Comics #66 with the name Harvey "Apollo" Kent; later stories changed his name to "Harvey Dent" to avoid an association with Clark Kent (Superman appears on screen in the story, although almost certainly this is one of the Fleischer cartoons).[4][5]

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.[6] This origin, presented in Batman Annual (vol. 1) #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 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.[7]

Character biography

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

At 26, Harvey Dent is the youngest district attorney to serve Gotham City, and is nicknamed "Apollo" for his good looks and clean-cut image. He is elected about six months before Batman begins his war on crime.[6]

Dent, Captain Gordon, and Batman forge an alliance to rid Gotham of crime boss Sal Maroni[8] and Carmine Falcone, with Maroni murdered by Falcone's son Alberto. (Gordon speculated that Dent might have been Batman, but dismissed him on grounds that Dent lacked Batman's financial resources.) Falcone hires the corrupt Assistant District Attorney Fields to disfigure Dent with sulfuric acid. Two-Face gets his trademark coin from his abusive father, who would employ the coin in a perverse nightly "game" that always ended with a beating. This would instill in Dent his lifelong struggle with free will and his eventual inability to make choices on his own, relying on the coin to make all of his decisions. Eventually, the scarred Dent takes his revenge on Fields and Falcone, leading to his incarceration in Arkham Asylum.[9]

During the Dark Victory story arc, a serial killer called the Hangman targets various cops who assisted in Harvey Dent's rise to the D.A.'s office. Two-Face gathers Gotham's criminals to assist in the destruction of the city's crime lords. After a climactic struggle in the Batcave, Two-Face falls into a chasm after he is betrayed by the Joker. Batman admits in the aftermath that, even if Two-Face has survived, Harvey Dent is gone forever.

During a much later period, Two-Face is revealed to have murdered Jason Todd's father. When attempting to apprehend Two-Face, Jason briefly has the criminal at his mercy, but lets Two-Face's punishment be decided by the law. Two-Face similarly serves as a 'baptism by fire' for Tim Drake, the new Robin: When Two-Face has Batman at his mercy, Tim dons the Robin suit to save him.

In Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, Arkham's doctors replace Dent's coin with a die and eventually a tarot deck; but rather than becoming self-reliant, Dent is now unable to make even the smallest of decisions—such as going to the bathroom. Batman returns the coin, telling Two-Face to use it to decide whether to kill him. Batman leaves safely; but implication is made that Two-Face chose to let Batman live.[10][11]

In the No Man's Land storyline, in which Gotham is devastated by an earthquake, Two-Face claims a portion of the ruined city, takes up residence in Gotham City Hall, and forms a temporary alliance with Gordon to share certain territory. His empire is brought down by Bane (employed by Lex Luthor) who destroys Two-Face's gang during his destruction of the city's Hall of Records. Two-Face kidnaps Gordon and puts him on trial for his activities after Gotham City is declared a No Man's Land, with Two-Face as both judge and prosecutor for Gordon's illegal alliance with him; but Gordon plays upon Two-Face's split psyche to demand Harvey Dent as his defense attorney. Dent 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.[12]

In Gotham Central, 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.[12] and eventually, 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.[13]

In the Two-Face: Crime and Punishment one-shot book, Two-Face captures his own father, planning to humiliate and kill him 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, the Dent and Two-Face personalities argue in thought, Two-Face calling Dent "spineless." Dent proves Two-Face wrong, 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). 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. Batman eventually catches Two-Face, 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 that Two-Face is the twins' natural father.

In the Batman: Hush storyline, his face is repaired by plastic surgery, and only the Harvey Dent persona exists. 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.[14] 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.[15]

On the cover of Justice League of America vol. 2 #23, 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.[16] 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.[17] Alfred Pennyworth saved the hero from Two-Face's torture after he subdues his accomplice, and with his help Batman convinces Two-Face that he is the real, original Dark Knight Detective, informing Dent that his problem is that he cannot imagine Batman changing because he himself is incapable of seeing the world in anything other than black and white.[18] In Streets of Gotham, Two-Face has been at odds with Gotham's latest district attorney, Kate Spencer, also known as the vigilante Manhunter. Two-Face has recently been driven out of Gotham City by Jeremiah Arkham.

In the New 52 reboot, Two Face's origin is revised significantly. Dent is a successful defense attorney whose clientele includes twin sisters from the McKillen crime family, Shannon and Erin. The sisters coerce Dent to become their family's legal retainer for life. They then place a contract on James Gordon and his entire family, despite Dent's protestations. The Gordons survive the attempt on their lives, but Dent, trapped by attorney client confidentiality, is unable to dissuade the McKillens from continuing their lethal vendetta. The violent attempt on the Gordons' lives prompts Bruce Wayne to use his resources to initiate and fund Dent's campaign for district attorney. Dent becomes D.A. and has the McKillen sisters prosecuted and sentenced to life in prison. After Shannon commits suicide, Erin escapes by switching places with her sister's corpse. Blaming Dent for her sister's death, Erin breaks into Dent's house, kills Gilda in front of him, and pours acid on his face, transforming him into Two-Face.

Erin McKillen flees the country and remains in hiding for many years. She is forced to return to Gotham City to reassert her control of her family's criminal operations by killing Two-Face. Her return sparks a climactic battle between her, Two-Face, and Batman. Two-Face scars McKillen with the same acid she used on him, but Batman stops him from killing her. Batman and Two-Face continue battling, with Batman trying to convince his foe to end his vendetta. Two-Face then calls Batman, "Bruce", revealing that he has known Batman's true identity for some time. Dent reveals that he struggled internally for quite some time over whether to kill him, but decided not to because it would have violated his sense of justice. He disappears after the battle and Batman is unable to track him. Several panels of Batman and Robin #28 imply that Two-Face commits suicide by shooting himself in the head.

Abilities and weapons

Before his transformation into Two-Face, Harvey Dent had a reputation as one of the best attorneys in Gotham City, and as proficient in nearly all matters pertaining to criminal law. Despite his later insanity, Two-Face's genius remains, assisting him as he turns to being a crime boss.

Following his disfigurement he developed multiple-personality disorder and became obsessed with duality. He staged crimes centered around the number two - such as robbing buildings with '2' in the address or staging events so that he will take action at 10:22 p.m. (22:22 in military time) - and carried and used dual firearms (such as .22 semiautomatics or a double barreled shotgun). Two-Face does things according to chance and therefore leaves all the decisions he makes to fate at the flip of his two-headed coin in an almost obsessive-compulsive manner, to the point that the Bat-family have exploited his "need" for the coin to their advantage more than once by depriving him of the coin mid-toss to delay his ability to make decisions. On other occasions Two-Face has even helped them when a coin-toss turns out in their favor, such as providing Batman with the antidote to a poison even after he, Joker and Penguin had poisoned the Dark Knight.

The Batman: Face to Face story-arc reveals that Batman has trained Dent extensively in hand-to-hand combat and in detective work, enhancing his already proficient talent in both. Two-Face tends to carry with him a large assortment of conventional weaponry, including guns, knives, rocket launchers, and poison gases; he has expert marksmanship skills.

Family

This section details various members of Harvey Dent's family across various interpretations of the Batman mythos.

In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Two-Face", Gilda becomes Grace Lamont, and is introduced as Dent's girlfriend. Dent is about to announce their wedding date as part of his reelection speech, but is interrupted by a late night meeting with crime boss Rupert Thorne, which results in his disfigurement. In the animated series' tie-in comic book, The Batman Adventures, Two-Face tries to kill her after the Joker manipulates him into believing that she is having an affair with Bruce Wayne. After Batman apprehends him, Grace realizes that Two-Face will never be cured, and leaves him. In another issue, Two-Face warns Grace via payphone that a mobster named Little Jonni Infantino is going to kill her after Two-Face refused to eliminate Weird Tony Hendra, a rival mobster and a racketeer in one of Harvey Dent's last cases.

The novelization of The Dark Knight gave the names of Harvey Dent's parents as Harry and Lucy. The novelization explains that Harry, a respected police officer, was an alcoholic who abused his wife and son, and used his connections with the Gotham City Police Department to avoid prosecution for domestic violence. Harry gave his son a misprinted silver dollar coin, with two face, or head, sides, which Harvey considers his good luck charm; after he is disfigured and one side of the coin is burned, he uses it to decide whether his victims will live or die.

In Batman: Two-Face - Crime and Punishment, Harvey Dent's father is renamed Christopher Dent, although he is once again characterized as a mentally ill alcoholic who frequently abused his son. Harvey represses this trauma for years, fueling the inner torment that eventually turns him into Two-Face.

Batman: Jekyll & Hyde reveals that when he was a child, Harvey Dent had an older brother, Murray Dent, who died in a fire because his brother was too scared to save him. The comics explain that Murray is Harvey's second personality, and that Harvey's father abused him because he blamed him for Murray's death.

In Batman Gotham Adventures #2: Lucky Day, Two-Face plans to rob a game-show contestant of $2.2 million on live TV while seeking revenge against his father (this version named Lester), who has just won big on the show. At the conclusion of the storyline, Two-Face attempts to shoot his father, but is foiled by Batman.

Other characters named Two-Face

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.

Wilkins

The first impostor - Wilkins, Dent's butler - uses makeup to suggest that Dent had suffered a relapse and disfigured his own face, giving Wilkins cover to commit crimes as Two-Face.

Paul Sloane

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. Sloane's mind snaps, and he begins to think he is Dent. Sloane recovers some of his own personality, but continues to commit crimes as 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.

Aside from a 1962 reprint of the Sloane storyline, this was the character's only appearance in the 1960s.[22]

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) had been hired by Gotham's costumed criminals to take Two-Face's place in a scheme to kill Batman. When the real Two-Face learns about this, he captures Sloan and disfigures his face. 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. Charlatan is defeated by Batman and incarcerated.

George Blake

The third Two-Face is 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.

Batman as Two-Face

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

Harvey Apollo

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. At the end of the story arc, he accidentally hangs himself after slipping on the silver dollar piece he uses as Two-Face.

Harvey Kent

As mentioned above, Harvey Dent does return as Two-Face in the 1970s. With the establishment of the multiverse, 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.

Split-Personality of Harvey Dent

Although Two-Face has traditionally been shown as fully aware of the actions committed as Harvey Dent and his villainous alter ego, the events of The Great Leap — shown in the Nightwing regular series — added a new twist to the character: Two-Face and Harvey Dent now appear as a stereotypical case of split personality, two different people 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.

Two-Face-Two

In Batman #700, which establishes Terry McGinnis as part of the DC Universe canon, it is revealed that Two-Face-Two kidnapped the infant Terry, along with an 80-year-old Carter Nichols, and tried to disfigure them in the style of the Joker. His plans were foiled by Damian Wayne, the fourth Robin and Batman's biological son. Unlike the original Two-Face, this version of the character was born deformed with a second face, rather than being scarred by acid or fire, and flips two coins instead of one. He is then killed when a machine falls on him.

Another Two-Face-Two is briefly mentioned during the course of the DC One Million storyline, with the Batman of the 853rd century comments how this villain was defeated when the second Batman convinced him that the law of averages proved his coin-tossing would ultimately cause him to make more 'good' decisions than he would 'bad' ones.

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:

The Dark Knight Returns

In the alternate future setting of 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. The monstrous Two-Face is left in permanent control - to the extent that one of his henchmen now refers to him only as "Face." He attempts to blow up the Gotham Twin Towers with his face swathed in bandages, with the intention of dying in the explosions. As he now sees both sides of his face as scarred. As he puts it when Batman captures him, "At least both sides match." Later in the series, his psychiatrist (who is characterized as completely inept) describes Dent's condition as "recovering nicely".

Batman Black and White

Two-Face has a brief short story in the first issue of Batman Black and White, in the comic titled "Two of a Kind" featuring him receiving plastic surgery to regain his original identity as Harvey Dent, only to suffer a relapse when his fiancée — his former psychiatrist — is revealed to have a psychotic twin sister, who kills her sister and forces him to become Two-Face again in order to take his revenge.

Elseworlds

In the Elseworlds 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, made even worse due to Commissioner Gordon's distrust of Lantern due to his sheer power. 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 Eclipso. He calls himself Binary Star and works with Star Sapphire (who in this reality is Selina Kyle).[23]

In The Doom That Came To Gotham, an Elseworlds story based on "The Doom That Came To Sarnath", At The Mountains Of Madness and the overall works of Lovecraft, Harvey Dent is hideously mutated on the right side of his body by Talia Al Ghul, and used as a conduit for a ritual intended to resurrect her father, the ancient sorceror Raz Al Ghul, to bring about the end of Gotham City and the world. He is euthanized by Batman by the end of the story.

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 Phantom.

In the Elseworlds book Batman: Crimson Mist, the third part of the trilogy that began with Batman & Dracula: Red Rain, where Batman became a vampire, Two-Face, having only recently suffered his accident, forms a new gang accompanied by Killer Croc as his muscle and forges 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, Two-Face is interrupted by Batman, restored to life after Alfred sacrificed himself so that his blood could restore his master. Batman drives two crossbow bolts into each side of Two-Face's head, citing it as "One for each face."[24]

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 in the lost city of Mnemnom. During an encounter with Batman and Tarzan- Tarzan had been visiting Gotham to attend to business when Batman learned about Dent's true agenda, teaming up with the Dark Knight to help him stop Dent raiding the city-, half of Dent's face is mauled by a lion, prompting him to decide to remain in Mnemnom and establish himself as its ruler on the grounds that society would have no place for a man with half a face. He is last seen being sealed away in a tomb of the rulers of Mnemnom after he triggers an explosion in a fight with Tarzan and Batman, Tarzan informing Dent as he takes the unconscious Batman to safety that taking Dent back to Gotham to face trial is Batman's idea of justice rather than his; he later tells Batman that Dent died when the falling rubble that knocked Batman unconscious crushed him.[25]

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 wearing a half business suit with a spiked metal bikini.[26]

Thrillkiller

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 the version of Two-Face in the mainstream continuity. Duell is arrested at the end of Thrillkiller: Batgirl and Robin.[27] In the sequel, Batgirl and Batman: Thrillkiller '62, Harvey Dent is the new District Attorney. He appears at the end as the new mayor of Gotham.[28]

Earth-Three

The new Earth-Three features a heroic female counterpart to Two-Face: Evelyn "Eve" Dent—"Three-Face"—the mother of Duela Dent. Her original affiliation is to the heroic Riddler Family (like the similar Batman Family); it included herself, Quizmaster, Jokester, and Riddler's/Joker's Daughter (her daughter Duela). They were later part of Alexander Luthor's Justice Underground, opposing Ultraman's Crime Syndicate.

Evelyn has three personalities (Irrational, Practical, and Hedonistic). To portray this, she wears a costume that is divided in three parts. Her right side favors loud fabrics like polka-dots, stripes, or plaids; her left side favors animal prints like tiger or leopard; and the center is a wide stripe of green. Over her leotard she wears a leather jacket that is a brown bomber jacket on the right and a black biker jacket on the left. Her face is not scarred but is instead usually painted all white with a vertical green center stripe and dark green or black lipstick; sometimes she is shown with her face parted into light green on the right, white in the middle, and mauve on the left. Her black hair is divided into cropped short on the right (sometimes dyed pink or red), worn shoulder-length on the left, and a mohawk in the center. She carries a revolver in a holster slung on her right hip.

She later has a cybernetic left arm after Superwoman mutilates her and leaves her for dead.

Gotham By Gaslight

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

Tangent Comics

On the Tangent Earth, Harvey Dent is an African-American man with psionic powers and is that world's Superman, although he has no other similarities to the Two-Face character.

Flashpoint

In the alternate timeline of the Flashpoint event, Harvey Dent did not become Two-Face. Instead, he is now a judge and has a wife and twin children. When the Joker kidnaps Dent's children, Dent asks Thomas Wayne for help in their search, agreeing to do anything he asks of him. Dent warns him that he will shut down everything he owns, including Wayne Casinos, unless his children are saved.[29] Chief James Gordon locates the Joker in Wayne Manor, and he goes in without any backup. Gordon is tricked into shooting Dent's daughter, as she has been taped to a chair and disguised as the Joker. The Joker then appears and kills Gordon before Batman arrives.[30] Batman rushes in and manages to save Dent's daughter by resuscitating her. Batman then moves them away from the Joker.[31]

The Batman Adventures

In The Batman Adventures, which is set in the continuity of Batman: The Animated Series, Two-Face is on the verge of being cured when the Joker convinces him that his fiancee, Grace, is cheating on him with Bruce Wayne. His evil personality takes hold once again, and he kidnaps Grace. Batman and Robin foil his plan and send him back to Arkham. Grace, meanwhile, realizes that Dent will never be cured, and leaves him.

Batman: Earth One

In the graphic novel, Batman: Earth One, Dent has a twin sister named Jessica, who was a friend of Bruce Wayne from preparatory school. Harvey Dent occasionally would bully Bruce, due to his maternal family's reputation (who are Arkhams instead of Kanes) of eventually would become insane, leading at one point, that the two boys had a fight. After the twins reach adulthood, Harvey becomes Gotham City's District Attorney, and Jessica as the president of the city's board of supervisors. They are also political enemies of Gotham's corrupt mayor Oswald Cobblepot. Jessica takes over Cobblepot's term as mayor following his confrontation with Batman, which resulted his death and his crimes are posthumously outed.[32]

In other media

Television

Film

Live action

Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face in Batman Forever, with Sugar (Drew Barrymore) on his left and Spice (Debi Mazar) on his right.
Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two-Face in The Dark Knight (2008).

Animated

Video games

Miscellaneous

In popular culture

See also

References

  1. Daniels, Les (1999). Batman: The Complete History. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. p. 45. ISBN 0811824705. Nearly everyone seems to agree that Two-Face was Kane's brainchild exclusively
  2. Kane, Bob (1989). Batman and Me. Foestfille, CA: Eclipse Books. pp. 108–110. ISBN 1560600179.
  3. "Two-Face is Number 12". Comics.ign.com. Retrieved 2010-12-29.
  4. "Comic Book DB - Two Face". Comic Book Database. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
  5. Ellsworth, Whitney, Weisinger, Mort (w), Robinson, Jerry, Roussos, George (a). "The Crimes Of Two-Face" Detective Comics 66: 68 (August 1942), DC Comics
  6. 6.0 6.1 Miller, Frank (w), Mazzucchelli, David (p). Batman: Year One 4 (March - June 1987), DC Comics, 0930289331
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