Deadshirt

Harvey                                                                           TWO-FACE

Who is Harvey Dent?                                           Who is TWO-FACE?

In nearly every incarnation of Batman,          Repression, UNLEASHED

be it film, television or comic book,                  HATE and ANGER that 

Harvey Dent is a crusading              ROT and PUTRIFY in a noble man.

District Attorney and ally to Batman   Bottled up for years, bursting forth

before he becomes Two-Face.            when he’s pushed to the wall.

In Frank Miller/David Mazzucchelli’s    Harvey doesn’t KILL

Batman: Year One, he’s the first          But TWO-FACE does.

Gotham City official to trust Batman.  Harvey won’t, can’t break the law

In Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight,  but TWO-FACE will, happily.

Aaron Eckhart’s Dent is inspired by      TWO-FACE is the loss of

the crime fighter’s unorthodox methods   CONTROL and inhibition. 

in his fight to end organized crime.           As with JEKYLL AND HYDE,

What do we see when we look at            TWO-FACE is an excuse to 

all these different Harvey Dents?              act out Harvey’s dark desires.

A man who desperately wants to be Batman.    With the TWO-FACE

Consistent across all his different appearances,  identity, Dent is saying

District Attorney Harvey Dent is a man   he can no longer STOP himself.

facing a hard, public battle.            This is why the COIN is so important;

His enemies are mob bosses with  At first glance, it’s TWO-FACE‘s

hands in every pocket and guys      weapon, it’s really Dent’s own set of

on every street.                Checks and balances, an artificial conscience.

Harvey’s hands are tied because            A WEAK SPOT. 

he has to face his enemies unmasked   The COIN tells TWO-FACE

and answerable to the public.       “You may not kill her” or “Let him go”.

In that light, idolizing Batman makes  The COIN is what’s left of Dent

sense. Here is a man working    yelling to anyone who CARES

who can behind the scenes       that he knows what he’s doing is EVIL 

who can do what he can’t.            and that he wants to be STOPPED.

A lawman who doesn’t need         In the end, TWO-FACE still goes out

search warrants or subpoenas.    and ROBS and MURDERS. 

One wonders if Dent admired      But beneath the exposed facial nerves

Batman because of the good he does  there is a VOICE, however slight

or because of what he represents:    , whispering “Please, help me”.

Order, unrestrained by the system.  This the tragedy at the HEART of

This yearning, this lust             TWO-FACE and Harvey Dent; one man

plants the seed for the vicious  forever CURSED to be torn between

criminal he becomes later.             serving RIGHT or WRONG. 

The disfigurement that ends   TWO-FACE, the character, is compelling

Harvey Dent, District Attorney   less for any classic stories he’s been

and creates Two-Face           (though there are a few) but because HE 

is only the catalyst.           himself is one of Batman’s best STORIES.

Nick DiFabbio (aka Ghostfreehood) is a self taught artist from Baltimore, co-founder of the live art event Super Art Fight & creator of the web-comic My Sweet Wretch. Find him on Twitter. Two-Face prints are for sale on etsy for $12.