Hello, everybody!! My name is Adrián
Ramírez, I’m a 15 year old Mexican, and today I’m going to talk about one of my
favorite Batman villains, which is none other than: Two-Face.
Besides the death of his parents, Bruce Wayne’s
life also changed significantly when he had a traumatic childhood experience
with bats. Harvey Dent’s fate, on the other hand, was sealed by the flip of a
coin, which his alcoholic father would use to decide whether or not to abuse
him. Bruce Wayne’s parents were killed by a mugger, while it is implied that
Harvey Dent is responsible for the death of his own parents. They both forged
an alliance, along with Commissioner Gordon, in order to take down the Mafia,
which at the time had complete control over Gotham. Bruce Wayne, in order to
strike fear into the hearts of criminals, eventually overcame his fear of bats, promised to himself to prevent as many deaths as he could, as well to get rid of the evil in Gotham City that had taken his parents' lives,
and became Batman, in order to stop criminals and
help the people of Gotham. However, Harvey Dent, after half of his face was
scarred by acid, eventually lost his self-control, became Two-Face, and decided to use his late
father’s coin in order to carry out his twisted sense of justice. In other words, Two-Face is technically what Batman could have become if he, one day, snapped, and decided to take the law into his own hands, seeking revenge instead of justice.
Quote from "The Dark Knight" (2008):
Two-Face: "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."
By the way, speaking of Gordon...
Dialogue from the image above:
Commissioner Gordon: "You can."
"I want Harvey Dent to defend me."
Two-Face: "...Dent...?"
Two-Face may be an archetypical enemy of Batman, but he shares some similarities with Commissioner Gordon as well.
At one point, both of them were among the first supporters of the Batman and even joined forces with him in order to
bring justice to Gotham City. While Gordon and his family were threatened, and sometimes tortured, by villains such as the Joker and the Court of Owls, they eventually remained as great allies of the Dark Knight. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Harvey Dent, who after his scarring, blamed Batman over what happened to him and dedicated his life of crime to take control of all of the gangs in Gotham City, and kill the Caped Crusader, and while he maintains a grudging respect towards Batman, going so far as to join forces with him occassionally, he actually hates Gordon, the Robins, and probably the rest of the Bat-sidekicks, in general, as well. One clear example of that hatred towards Batman's allies is when he kidnapped Gordon's family in "The Dark Knight" film.
Two-Face is also considered an archenemy of all of the Robins in general, especially of both Nightwing (Dick Grayson) and the Red Hood (Jason Todd) during their days as the 1st Robin and the 2nd Robin, respectively. In the case of Nightwing, Dent nearly beat him to death during the events of the comic book "Robin: Year One", and years later, when Grayson became Batman II, Two-Face was the FIRST person to realize there was a new person under the cowl patrolling the streets of Gotham, so he somehow managed to discover the Batcave, after all these years, and tortured Bat-Grayson until the latter managed to gain the upper hand thanks to Alfred's intervention. On the other hand, Two-Face earned Jason Todd's enmity by being responsable for his father's disappearance (Todd's father was a former henchman of his's who, after refusing to follow Dent's orders in a crucial operation, he abandoned his son in the middle of a futile effort to get away from him, and... two guesses as to what happens later).
Actually, the more you really think about it, the more you can notice the contrasts that exist between these two characters (You probably must have already seen a page from the Modern Mythologies website that talks about this exact rivalry, didn't you?). Gordon is a policeman whose job is to enforce the law at all costs, but he recognizes that in order to better intercept the corruption in Gotham, there have to be vigilantes like Batman to help him accomplish that goal. Harvey Dent, on the other hand, used to be a lawyer who was exceptional when it came to putting in jail the worst criminals around, only to succumb to his own dark side, and since then he has become a personification of the flawed justice system that sentences criminals like the Joker to Arkham Asylum or just allows them to continue wreaking havoc with no real consequences whatsoever, and worst of all, there exist people like him in real life.
Dent is not even the only Two-Face that has encountered the Caped Crusader. There have been several other characters who have assumed the mantle of the Twisted Judge, but due to their storylines being overshadowed by some of the most well-known Batman arcs, it's fair to say that they have become criminally underrated (see what I'm doing there?) and they tend to be mostly forgotten by the writers of DC Comics. I'm only going to mention two examples.
One of them is Paul Sloane a.k.a the 2nd Two-Face (in the Silver Age), or better known as "The Charlatan" (in Post-Crisis, which I will be talking about). Paul Sloane used to be a method actor who was known for getting a little too deep in the roles he portrayed, until he came across some members of the Batman rogues gallery, who were looking for a replacement for Two-Face, since the latter declined to participate in a plan to destroy Batman. He eventually began to enjoy his role as "Two-Face", but unfortunately for him, Dent himself kidnapped him, scarred his ENTIRE FACE instead of just one half, and proceeded to torture him into submission. Sloane was later declared dead by, none other tan, the Scarecrow who, unbeknownst to everyone else, kept him alive in order to use him as a test subject for his experiments, until one day (or should I say, one night), he escaped and proceeded to get revenge on Dent, Scarecrow and the rest of the rogues who had originally hired him in the first place, all the while trying to kill Batman, even going so far as to using the Joker as a distraction for his schemes.
The other example is Millicent Mayne (a.k.a "The Face of Gotham"), who was disfigured by yet another Two-Face impersonator right around the time Batman was believed to be dead due to the events of Final Crisis. Mayne, for some reason, gained a connection to the city via visions that would more or less predict when would a citizen of Gotham be in inminent danger.
Two-Face, in my opinion, is a very interesting villain, not only because of his personal connection to Bruce Wayne/Batman, but also because he has such a complex backstory, whether it is the Post-Crisis one, or the New 52 one, not to mention that he's also one of the most sympathetic villains of the Batman franchise. My favorite incarnations of the character so far are "The Dark Knight", the Batman: Arkham series, and "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" both the comicbook and the movie. He's also my 3rd favorite Batman villain, with the 2nd one being Scarecrow, and in the 1st place, The Riddler. By the way, speaking of sympathetic villains, in my next entry I'm going to talk about a tragic Batman villain with a cold heart.
And with everything being said and done, that's all for today. From now on, I recommend you to take your time to read again not only this post, but all my previous ones as well. Why? Because every character, every comic book storyline, game, or movie that is either found in an image or referenced in any one of my posts serves as potential foreshadowing for what you can expect to see next on my blog, also you may as well find some modifications from the last time you saw them. Here are 3 images from my previous entries that can help you with that:
See you soon, and have a wonderful day!!
Quote from "The Dark Knight" (2008):
Two-Face: "Tell them it's gonna be all right, Jim. Lie... like I lied."
Two-Face is also considered an archenemy of all of the Robins in general, especially of both Nightwing (Dick Grayson) and the Red Hood (Jason Todd) during their days as the 1st Robin and the 2nd Robin, respectively. In the case of Nightwing, Dent nearly beat him to death during the events of the comic book "Robin: Year One", and years later, when Grayson became Batman II, Two-Face was the FIRST person to realize there was a new person under the cowl patrolling the streets of Gotham, so he somehow managed to discover the Batcave, after all these years, and tortured Bat-Grayson until the latter managed to gain the upper hand thanks to Alfred's intervention. On the other hand, Two-Face earned Jason Todd's enmity by being responsable for his father's disappearance (Todd's father was a former henchman of his's who, after refusing to follow Dent's orders in a crucial operation, he abandoned his son in the middle of a futile effort to get away from him, and... two guesses as to what happens later).
Quote from "The Dark Knight" (2008):
Two-Face: "You thought we could be decent men, in an INDECENT time!! But you were wrong... The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased. Unprejudiced. Fair."
Actually, the more you really think about it, the more you can notice the contrasts that exist between these two characters (You probably must have already seen a page from the Modern Mythologies website that talks about this exact rivalry, didn't you?). Gordon is a policeman whose job is to enforce the law at all costs, but he recognizes that in order to better intercept the corruption in Gotham, there have to be vigilantes like Batman to help him accomplish that goal. Harvey Dent, on the other hand, used to be a lawyer who was exceptional when it came to putting in jail the worst criminals around, only to succumb to his own dark side, and since then he has become a personification of the flawed justice system that sentences criminals like the Joker to Arkham Asylum or just allows them to continue wreaking havoc with no real consequences whatsoever, and worst of all, there exist people like him in real life.
Dent is not even the only Two-Face that has encountered the Caped Crusader. There have been several other characters who have assumed the mantle of the Twisted Judge, but due to their storylines being overshadowed by some of the most well-known Batman arcs, it's fair to say that they have become criminally underrated (see what I'm doing there?) and they tend to be mostly forgotten by the writers of DC Comics. I'm only going to mention two examples.
One of them is Paul Sloane a.k.a the 2nd Two-Face (in the Silver Age), or better known as "The Charlatan" (in Post-Crisis, which I will be talking about). Paul Sloane used to be a method actor who was known for getting a little too deep in the roles he portrayed, until he came across some members of the Batman rogues gallery, who were looking for a replacement for Two-Face, since the latter declined to participate in a plan to destroy Batman. He eventually began to enjoy his role as "Two-Face", but unfortunately for him, Dent himself kidnapped him, scarred his ENTIRE FACE instead of just one half, and proceeded to torture him into submission. Sloane was later declared dead by, none other tan, the Scarecrow who, unbeknownst to everyone else, kept him alive in order to use him as a test subject for his experiments, until one day (or should I say, one night), he escaped and proceeded to get revenge on Dent, Scarecrow and the rest of the rogues who had originally hired him in the first place, all the while trying to kill Batman, even going so far as to using the Joker as a distraction for his schemes.
The other example is Millicent Mayne (a.k.a "The Face of Gotham"), who was disfigured by yet another Two-Face impersonator right around the time Batman was believed to be dead due to the events of Final Crisis. Mayne, for some reason, gained a connection to the city via visions that would more or less predict when would a citizen of Gotham be in inminent danger.
Two-Face torturing his imposter Paul Sloane in "Batman: Dead Reckoning" (2003)
Charlatan being experimented on by Scarecrow
The Charlatan: The Fearless Knight
Millicent Mayne confronting the fake Two-Face
The Face of Gotham
Two-Face, in my opinion, is a very interesting villain, not only because of his personal connection to Bruce Wayne/Batman, but also because he has such a complex backstory, whether it is the Post-Crisis one, or the New 52 one, not to mention that he's also one of the most sympathetic villains of the Batman franchise. My favorite incarnations of the character so far are "The Dark Knight", the Batman: Arkham series, and "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" both the comicbook and the movie. He's also my 3rd favorite Batman villain, with the 2nd one being Scarecrow, and in the 1st place, The Riddler. By the way, speaking of sympathetic villains, in my next entry I'm going to talk about a tragic Batman villain with a cold heart.
And with everything being said and done, that's all for today. From now on, I recommend you to take your time to read again not only this post, but all my previous ones as well. Why? Because every character, every comic book storyline, game, or movie that is either found in an image or referenced in any one of my posts serves as potential foreshadowing for what you can expect to see next on my blog, also you may as well find some modifications from the last time you saw them. Here are 3 images from my previous entries that can help you with that:
I also have the Batman storyline called "Night of the Owls", which is not shown because I did not have it yet by the time I took this picture, but I'll soon include a picture of it when I have time.
See you soon, and have a wonderful day!!
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