Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Two-Face! (as seen in Batman and shit)



PERSONAL DATA
Alter Ego: Harvey Dent
Occupation: Former District Attorney, now Professional Criminal [Redundant.]
Marital Status: Divorced.
Known Relatives: Gilda Gold Dent Stevens (ex-wife)
Group Affiliation: None.
Base of Operations: Gotham City
First Appearance: (Harvey Dent) DETECTIVE COMICS #66, (Paul Sloane) BATMAN #68, (George Blake) DETECTIVE COMICS #187
Height: 6' Weight: 182 lbs.
Eyes: Blue Hair: Brown

HISTORY
Harvey Dent was a successful Gotham City district attorney who was nicknamed "Apollo" by the press for his good looks. Dent was the prosecutor in the trial of gangster "Boss" Maroni for murder, when at the climactic point in the trial he produced a two-headed silver dollar (which Maroni had always carried with him for good luck), and stated that the coin had been found at the scene of the murder and thereby proved Maroni was responsible [Compelling proof!]. Infuriated, Maroni hurled a vial of acid at David Davis, the arresting officer in the case, but the acid struck the left side of Dent's face instead [I hope Maroni wasn't convicted for killing somebody with a throwing knife. "Mistrial!"], scarring it hideously [As opposed to beatifically.].

After the bandages were removed, Dent visited this fiancée, sculptress Gilda Gold, who, although she still loved him, was shocked by his now grotesque appearance.

The ruin of his face and his fear of losing Gilda's love drove Dent insane. Blaming Maroni's silver dollar for his fate, Dent slashed one side of it with a knife so that one of its heads was now scarred, too. Believing he was now all alone, shunned like an outcast, Dent thought a "flip of a coin" would be all it would take to make him a criminal. He flipped Maroni's coin to decide his fate, and the scarred side landed face up. And so Dent began his criminal career as Two-Face [I've read some pretty ridiculous origin stories but the events leading up to Two-Face make like a contortionist trying to stick his own head up his ass. It feels like somebody thought up the character of Two-Face and then put together a bunch of stupid reasons to get him there. A convicted man smuggles a vial of acid into his trial. He gets angry and throws it, hitting the wrong man. The man is disfigured and goes insane because he thinks the woman he loves will drop his fugly ass. The man blames it on a coin and attacks the coin. Man bonds with coin. Man allows coin flip to seal his fate. Everything adds up to become Two-Face, the two-faced criminal!].

Two-Face became obsessed with the number two and duality, and based all his crimes on these themes. He made all his decisions by flipping his coin and seeing whether it landed on the "good" side or on the scarred, "evil" side [And then disregarding the result and choosing to do what he really wanted to do initially.].

After repeatedly clashing with the Batman (see Batman II), Dent finally regained his sanity and reformed after he nearly killed Gilda accidentally. Plastic surgeon Dr. Albert Ekhart repaired the damage to Dent's face, and Dent married Gilda. (Contrary to past accounts, Dent has no children [But does Two-Face?].)

Later, actor Paul Sloane suffered an injury similar to Dent's and became the second criminal called Two-Face; his face was later surgically repaired. Still later George Blake used makeup to impersonate Two-Face and commit crimes [But later the makeup was surgically removed.].

Finally, the force of an explosion undid Dent's plastic surgery so that current surgical techniques cannot now repair Dent's face [Oh, fuck you! I let the first plastic surgery bit slide pretending that it would even be possible to make this fucker back into his Apollo persona because I gave Harvey the benefit of the doubt that he could afford some fantastic comic book Plastic Surgeon. But this surgeon's work could be "undid"?! It's not that Harvey suffered more facial scarring! The surgery was "undid"! And in such a way that no other surgery can ever be attempted to fix it! Oh comic books. Why do I read you?]. Dent again went mad and became the criminal Two-Face once more. Gilda divorced Dent, who finally killed Maroni in revenge for his injuries. Since becoming Two-Face again, Dent has fought the Batman many times, but the Batman continues to hope that someday the "good" side of Dent's personality will regain control of Two-Face.

POWERS & WEAPONS
Two-Face is a brilliantly cunning criminal strategist and a good hand-to-hand combatant [That's it? That's all we get? Whatever. I have to go flip a coin now and see if I can use the toilet.]

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