Batman – One Unhealthy Day: Two-Face has been out for 2 days now. (See what we did there?) Written by Mariko Tamaki, who’s taking up a villain she by no means bought to whereas writing Detective Comics, and drawn by Javier Fernandez, it provides an opportunity to get to know the D.A.-turned crimelord in a method you by no means have earlier than. To delve into the tragedy that altered a once-promising champion of justice into one among Gotham’s most infamous gangsters.
The query of whether or not it is best to decide up this highly effective new one-shot shouldn’t be a coin flip. In any case, Two-Face is without doubt one of the most fascinating rogues in Batman’s gallery. Don’t consider us? Properly, maybe we will change your thoughts in a fashion that Harvey Dent may admire. Listed below are twenty-two little recognized details in regards to the curiously conflicted legal referred to as Two-Face.
1) When Two-Face first appeared in Detective Comics #66, his actual identify was Harvey “Apollo” Kent. He stored the Kent surname for his subsequent few appearances, till it was modified to Harvey Dent in 1948’s Batman #50. The change was probably achieved to keep away from confusion with a sure mild-mannered Metropolis reporter. This was later used as a plot level in Superman Household #211 when Earth-Two’s Lois Lane mistakenly believed that one among Harvey Kent’s enemies was concentrating on her husband.
2) The very first Two-Face story was really (and really fittingly) a two-parter. Detective Comics #66 ended on a cliffhanger, however the decision to the story was printed in Detective Comics #68, skipping Detective Comics #67 totally. In different phrases, the story continued TWO points later.
3) Two-Face’s well-known double-headed coin initially belonged to Boss Maroni. Harvey Dent used the coin as proof throughout Maroni’s trial, which enraged the mobster, inflicting him to scar Dent. In some methods, this makes Two-Face’s coin partially accountable for his existence. Different variations of continuity current the coin as a possession of Dent’s father, with which he abused younger Harvey.
4) Two-Face’s first crime was financial institution theft. As a result of his coin landed on the nice facet, he donated the stolen cash to the native orphanage. Early Two-Face tales would have Harvey utilizing stolen loot for charitable functions, however this angle was dropped in later appearances.
5) Should you haven’t been preserving observe, Two-Face’s scarring is on the left facet of his face. Batman was as soon as capable of spot an imposter framing Harvey Dent as a result of they put their scars on the fitting facet by mistake (this was in Detective Comics #187).
6) In 1946, the Batman newspaper strips printed their very own model of Two-Face’s origin, with a couple of twists. This model of the character was a immodest actor named Harvey Apollo who was scarred by a gangster he was testifying towards. A lot of the story performs out the identical method, besides Two-Face by accident kills himself by tripping over his coin and being hung after falling into some hanging wires.
7) A plastic surgeon named Dr. Albert Ekhart was capable of briefly repair Harvey Dent’s face on TWO separate events. The primary was in 1943’s Detective Comics #80, and that remedy lasted till an explosive gadget detonated close to Harvey’s face ten years later in 1953’s Batman #81. Ekhart tried to repair Harvey’s face once more in Batman #328-329, nevertheless it didn’t take. Apparently, Albert Ekhart’s identify is much like Aaron Eckhart, the actor who performed Two-Face in Christopher Nolan’s 2008 movie The Darkish Knight.
8) A couple of different males have assumed the Two-Face id over time. There was Dent’s butler Wilkins (1948’s Batman #50), an actor named Paul Sloane (1951’s Batman #68) and an exhibition supervisor named George Blake (Detective Comics #187).
9) Two-Face wasn’t all the time an everyday member of Batman’s rogues gallery. After showing in 1953’s Batman #81, Two-Face was absent from the Bat-Books till 1971’s Batman #234. In true Two-Face style, he was TWO years away from a TWO decade absence.
10) Throughout Two-Face’s prolonged absence, a potion from a mad scientist turned Batman into Two-Face in World’s Best #173. Unsurprisingly, this then would go on to occur a second time…type of. It appeared that the Darkish Knight had as soon as once more become Two-Face in 1982’s Detective Comics #513, however the Caped Crusader was simply utilizing make-up to catch Harvey off-guard psychologically.
11) Famed author Harlan Ellison wrote a narrative remedy for an episode of the 1966 Batman collection that will have featured Two-Face. The episode was by no means produced, however in 2014, Len Wein and Jose Luis Garcia Lopez turned that remedy into a comic book. Take a look at Batman ’66: The Misplaced Episode if you wish to see what would have occurred if Adam West’s Caped Crusader fought Two-Face.
12) Along with Ellison’s misplaced episode, Warner Brothers Animation introduced a second model of Batman ’66’s Two-Face within the animated film Batman vs. Two-Face. William Shatner voiced Harvey Dent, and listening to him work together with Adam West’s Batman (in his closing efficiency because the Caped Crusader) is as superb as you could possibly think about.
13) Inexperienced Arrow is the primary non-Gotham hero that Two-Face battled. Dent encountered the Emerald Archer in The Courageous and the Daring #106.
14) Joker is the primary super-villain Two-Face encountered (Batman #258) and the primary one he additionally teamed up with (The Courageous and the Daring #129-130).
15) Two-Face teamed up with the Justice League to battle off a bunch of invading aliens in 1975’s Justice League of America #125-126. The Flash warned everybody that Two-Face would betray them, which he naturally did. Fortunately, the aliens had been defeated regardless of Dent’s double-cross.
16) For a time, the Teen Titan generally known as Harlequin tricked the superhero group into believing she was Two-Face’s daughter Duela Dent. It seems Harvey by no means had a daughter, and it was revealed that Duela made the entire thing up (Tales of the Teen Titans #50), however that also doesn’t clarify why Two-Face went alongside along with her backstory in 1977’s Teen Titans #48. Perhaps Two-Face sensed potential in having a cohort named “Harlequin.”
17) In DC Tremendous-Stars #14, it was revealed that Maroni had really been aiming his acid at a cop named David Davis. Subsequent retellings of Two-Face’s origin (like Batman: The Lengthy Halloween) have dropped this angle.
18) Harvey ultimately bought his revenge towards Maroni—twice! Salvatore Maroni seemingly died after a confrontation with Two-Face in DC Tremendous-Stars #14, nevertheless it was later revealed that he survived and had develop into bodily disabled. In retaliation, Maroni murdered Gilda Dent’s new husband Dave Stevens, enraging Two-Face, who murdered Maroni “for a second time” in Batman #328-239.
19) Billy Dee Williams, who was well-known for taking part in a two-faced buddy in a well-liked area opera, was forged as District Legal professional Harvey Dent in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie. In 2017, Williams was given a SECOND probability on the function when he supplied the voice for Two-Face in The Lego Batman Film.
20) In Batman: The Animated Sequence, Two-Face and Poison Ivy had been briefly a pair! Earlier than turning into Two-Face, District Legal professional Harvey Dent was planning on proposing to Pamela Isley, unaware that she was going to poison him in retaliation for his crimes towards nature. This breakup made subsequent super-villain get-togethers (just like the traditional “Nearly Obtained ‘Im”) awkward.
21) In “Batman: Hush,” Tommy Elliot restores Harvey Dent’s face, giving the previous district lawyer sufficient readability to surrender his lifetime of crime. For a time period, Dent turned one among Batman’s best allies. The Darkish Knight even tasked Dent with watching over Gotham for a full 12 months whereas he took a visit around the globe. Sadly Dent’s demons returned, inflicting him to scar himself and develop into Two-Face once more (”Face the Face”).
22) In the course of the All-Star Batman storyline “My Personal Worst Enemy,” it was revealed that Harvey has been conscious of the Darkish Knight’s secret id for a while.
Batman – One Unhealthy Day: Two-Face by Mariko Tamaki, Javier Fernandez and Jordie Bellaire is now out there in print and as a digital comedian e-book.
Joshua Lapin-Bertone writes about TV, motion pictures and comics for DCComics.com, is an everyday contributor to the Sofa Membership and writes our month-to-month Batman column, “Gotham Gazette.” Comply with him on Twitter at @TBUJosh.
