Harvey Dent

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"*What am I? I'm not a man! I'm half a man... beauty and the beast... good and evil! I'm a living Jekyll and Hyde!*"
―Two-Face[src]
**Harvey Dent**, (also known as **Two-Face**), was a Human lawyer and criminal who served as the District Attorney of Bronx, New York and later as an ally of the Batman family.

## Biography

### Early life

Harvey Dent was born on March 30, 1954 in Houston, Texas to
Lucy Blake, a real estate agent, and Christopher Dent, a moderately successful attorney. His violent, alcoholic, and mentally ill father frequently bullied and abused him and his older brother, Murray, as a child. He also had a sister named Jessica.

Dent also often found himself harassed by a school bully during grade school. After being bullied by the student for quite some time, Dent decided to stand up to him. One day, he lost his temper and punched the bully in the face. The next day, Dent found out that the bully was in the hospital. Though he went there to get his appendix removed, Dent thought he had sent him there because of their fight. Dent felt so guilty about what happened that he vowed never to lose his anger like that again. Over the years, that built up anger developed into a second personality. Dent managed to keep it under control for most of his life, but it would always slip out during moments of anger and embarrassment. He played football in high school and was evidently their star quarterback.

After graduating high school, Dent would go to college at New York University where he would play baseball as a pitcher on the NYU Violets. One of his teammates was the millionaire Bruce Wayne. Harvey and Bruce enjoyed playing games of strategy, though Dent always seemingly outmaneuvered the otherwise brilliant Wayne. Once he finished his studies at NYU, Dent remained in New York as a lawyer.

His hard work ethic eventually allowed him to rise to the position of Deputy District Attorney in the Bronx. During his time in Gotham, he distinguished himself enough to be nicknamed "Apollo" by the media, because he was charming, good-looking and seemingly untouchable. He was dedicated to his job of upholding law and order, and became one of the first supporters, allies and even friends of the new Batman, unaware that he was in actuality his friend Bruce Wayne. In the 1988 election, Dent was elected Bronx County District Attorney.

### Becoming Two-Face

Dent was later assigned to handle the murder case of fledgling mob boss Sal Maroni. However, during the trial, Maroni threw sulphuric acid in Dent's face, horribly scarring his left hand and the left half of his face. While Dent recovered from his injuries in the hospital, his wife Gilda left him due to his disfigurement and Dent, unable to accept the loss of his own personal beauty, sank into despair, allowing fate to determine if he was to rise above his disfigurement or sink into it. The trauma and the loss of his career was powerful enough to force "Big Bad Harv", his alternate personality, to dominate. Soon after, Dent was paid a secret visit from Batman that confirmed that assistant D.A. Adrian Fields had given the acid to Maroni, and also brought him Maroni's two-headed coin. Unfortunately, the coin only inspired Dent to finally give free rein to his lawless, no-choice personality, but only at the "right time": when the coin's marred face—produced by Maroni's acid—came up during a flip.

His mind set on revenge, Dent escaped from the hospital and assaulted Fields in his own home. Despite intervention from Batman and offers of information on Gotham's criminals from Fields, allegedly enough to "control half the underworld", Dent killed Fields and fled, leaving Batman badly injured. This led to a crime spree and acts of good, that kept people confused about Dent, who was now calling himself Two-Face. Eventually, Batman tried to stop Two-Face allowing him to take control of his life and work on the side of the law once again. However, Dent's fate was determined by the coin and heeding its advice, he continued his life of crime. After a few successful hits, Two-Face was finally apprehended by Batman after he was double-crossed by a member of his gang.

## Powers and Abilities

### Abilities

**High Intellect**: Harvey Dent possessed a high level of intelligence, capable of setting in motion a grandiose series of events aimed at confounding the Batman and was considered by some as a master strategist.

**Skilled Attorney**: He was also a successful attorney, and was proficient in nearly all matters pertaining to criminal law.

**Leadership**: Both as law enforcer and criminal, Dent was able to impose his authority over his peers.

**Trained Hand-to-Hand Combatant**: Harvey Dent was extensively trained by Batman in Hand to Hand combat and proved a match against him on occasion.

### Weaknesses

**Multiple Personality Disorder**: Two-Face was obsessed with duality. He did things according to chance and therefore relied heavily on his coin to make decisions, making the coin his Achilles' heel.

## Paraphernalia

### Equipment

**Double-Headed Coin**: Two-Face used a two-headed silver dollar, one side of which was defaced, the other side clean. Flipping the coin dictated Harvey when making any significant life decisions. If the coin landed on the scarred side, Two-Face would pursue acts of evil. If the coin landed on the unmarked side, he was compelled to commit acts of good. At one point, Dent as Two-Face was so dependent on the coin for any of his criminal acts that he could be easily defeated by taking the coin away from him or preventing him from seeing the result of the flip. Dent lessened his dependency on the coin flip to whether a situation should be implemented, rather than each individual act.

### Weapons

Typically Two-Face used a variety of automatic and semi-automatic handguns to conduct his criminal affairs.

## Personality and traits

"*Everyone has a part to play. And no, I won't tell you your lines before it is time to go on.*"
―Two-Face[src]

Harvey's mind was as damaged as his face in a attack initiated by mobster Sal "The Boss" Maroni.