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"This is my world now. A dichotomy of order and chaos, just like me."
―Two-Face[src]

Harvey Dent (A.K.A Big Bad Harv A.K.A. Two-Face) is a former District Attorney of Gotham, but now a professional criminal after his career was wrecked by an unfortunate accident.

History[]

Early Life[]

Harvey grew up as a true believer in law and order. Revered as an enforcer of the law, Dent earned a reputation for producing results, which led to his election as Gotham's District-Attorney. However, the DA had a hidden dark side; Dent suffered from severe mental illness - a multiple personality disorder - that developed in his childhood when he mistakenly believed he seriously wounded a bully in a fit of rage. As a result, Dent attempted to repress his emotions, yet his anger never truly disappeared, but built up and formed a contrasting personality to that of the mild-mannered Harvey Dent.[1]

District Attorney[]

Dent studied Law and became a lawyer.[citation needed]

He was eventually elected as District Attorney of Gotham City and among his first actions as D.A. was the construction of Stonegate Penitentiary with help from Hamilton Hill and Bruce Wayne.[2]

Sometime later, Dent granted Harvey Bullock an immunity for his actions against Batman, who was being framed for the attacks on several pharmaceutical companies.[3]

PP 26 - Harvey at Hospital

Harvey taken to the hospital

During his early days in the office, Harvey met Dr. Pamela Isley and they started dating. Dent was completely hypnotized and proposed to her just after one week of meeting her. However, after having dinner with her at the Rose Cafe, Harvey was poisoned and fell into a severe coma. Bruce discovered that Isley was responsible and took an antidote from her. After that, Harvey recovered and Bruce told him to drop his relation with Isley.[2] In the possible Cannon Batman adventures in issue 3, Joker kidnapped Jim Gordon and beat him with a bat on live television Batman decided with Harvey Dent that he would use him as bait despite Harvey Bullock not agreeing eventually Joker broke into Harvey's house and kidnapped Harvey and Batman who tried to save him Joker on television was going unmask Batman but it turned out it was Harvey Dent in the costume and batman was just pretending to be Harvey eventually he chased after Joker But Joker got away Dent managed to control himself for many years. Dent was also pressuring the justice system to arrest Rupert Thorne, fueled by his desire to get re-elected. Dent aggressively pursued Thorne's case personally. His re-election campaign proved so tiring that the violent outbreaks became more frequent, to the point where his psychiatrist recommended committal to a psychiatric ward in order to prevent a traumatic psychotic break. However, such an action would ruin his campaign and Dent instead compromised, agreeing to a reduced campaign effort and increased medical treatments.

TF P1 71 - Two-Face

Harvey after the accident

However, Thorne acquired the DA's psychiatric records and learned of Dent's condition. Thorne knew if it was exploited it could ruin Dent's career. When a fight ensued between Dent and Thorne's cronies, a freak explosion destroyed the left side of Dent's body. The trauma was powerful enough to force his alternate personality to dominate, and left in state where right and wrong no longer held any meaning.[4]

Two-Face Is Born[]

Under his new identity as the criminal Two-Face, Dent started a crimes' spree against Rupert Thorne. He also started using a double head coing with one of the sides scratched to act upon. Every decision Two Face made fell on the flip of this coin. When the "Good Heads" turns up, Harvey would act good, but when the scarred side of the coin landed up, he would choose to perform evil deeds.

TF P2 10 - Two-Face

Reborn as Two-Face

Two-Face attacked several of Thorne's fronts, such as night clubs and gambling circuits. The victims, however, were always left down to a toss of Two-Face's double-headed coin. Over six months Thorne lost huge amounts of money and the gangster put a two million dollar bounty on Dent's head, one million dollars for each face.

Two-Face then proceeded to steal Thorne's criminal files and "repay" the favor. With the information in his hands, Two-Face planned to blackmail Thorne to leave Gotham forever. Unbeknownst to either party, Thorne's accomplice Candice posed as a police detective and contacted Dent's ex-fiancé Grace, tricking her into contacting her if she heard from Harvey.

As expected, Two-Face arranged a meeting together, and Grace unknowingly contacted Thorne, giving him her location. Thorne attempted to rid himself of Two-Face once and for all, but Batman intervened. In the end, Thorne was at Two-Face's mercy. When Two-Face tossed his coin to decide Thorne's fate, Batman threw a box of silver dollars into the air, preventing Two-Face from identifying his coin. Unable to make his decision without testing chance, Two-Face was calmed by Grace and subsequently arrested, then sent to Arkham Asylum.[5]

Batman vs Two-Face

Fighting Batman

Some time later, Two-Face escaped from Arkham somehow and he was summoned to to Yucca Springs along with Joker and Penguin, on an invite from Hugo Strange, who claimed to know the identity of Batman, but instead they were all captured by the Dark Knight.[6] Afterwards, Two-Face struck a deal with Deputy Police Commissioner Gil Mason and together, they managed to frame Commissioner Gordon and have him arrested, to clear the way for their crimes.[7] As usual, Two-Face's plan was thwarted by Batman and Robin, only this time, they also had help from their new ally, Batgirl.[8]

Later, Two-Face was part of the mock trial that he and other Arkham inmates created for Batman as their master plan to eliminate the Dark Knight. Acting as the prosecutor, Two-Face advocated that Batman was responsible for all of the Arkham inmates's existence. Batman eventually found a way out of the trap and Two-Face was captured along with the rest of the criminals.[9] After months of therapy, Harvey Dent had recovered enough and was given the chance to undergo plastic surgery to remove his scarred face. Bruce Wayne paid for the procedure, but Two-Face arranged a plan to have himself kidnapped and prevent Harvey's full recovery. Two-Face was eventually captured by Batman and taken back to Arkham, to continue his rehabilitation.[10]

Appearances[]

Video Games[]

Two-Face Design

References[]

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