Out of all of Gotham’s Rogues, few vex Batman quite like his former friend Harvey Dent, AKA Two-Face. The coin-flipping former district attorney turned gangster first appeared in Detective Comics #66 in 1942 and has since been portrayed in other mediums by prominent actors like Tommy Lee Jones and Aaron Eckhart. While not typically portrayed as a major threat to Gotham, writer Peter J. Tomasi plans to put Two-Face into the top-tier of super-villainy with his storyline in Detective Comics titled “Ugly Heart.”
Unlike his fellow rogues Poison Ivy, Killer Croc, and Mr. Freeze, Two-Face has no super-powers or meta-tech to use to his advantage and instead utilizes henchmen, firearms, and a double-headed silver dollar that governs his decisions. In Tomasi’s “Ugly Heart” storyline, Two-Face now has a literal cult following to back up his criminal machinations. With the dangerous Church of the Two at his disposal, Two-Face represents one of the biggest threats to Gotham and its protectors.
According to DC’s April 2020 solicitations, “Ugly Heart” part three is going to be the type of edge-of-your-seat ride readers have grown accustomed to with Tomasi’s Batman books. With the Dark Knight riddled with bullets and left for dead in Detective Comics#1022, it seems as though the disfigured criminal overlord may be one step closer to enacting his “final revenge” on both the Caped Crusader and the city that turned him into a monster.
But all hope is not lost quite yet. Two-Face’s alter ego, the morally upstanding Harvey Dent has plans of his own in “Ugly Heart.” Teaming up with his old friend Batman, the two attempt to permanently cure the former DA of his evil personality. If that isn’t complicated enough, DC’s April solicitation also promises a resurrection involving a certain Clown Prince and the “heir to Gotham’s vigilante throne” in Detective Comics #1022. That’s quite a bit to pack in a single issue.
Writers have previously attributed Two-Face’s obsession with chance and duality to various mental health disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but it seems that Tomasi is leaning towards the dissociative identity disorder diagnosis for his story. Otherwise known as multiple personality disorder, DID is controversial within the field of psychiatry since many believe the condition is merely an offshoot of other mental health problems and not a true disorder in and of itself.
Whether Harvey Dent’s “Two-Face persona” is the result of a split personality or due to an amalgam of disorders brought on by a history of psychological trauma, his old buddy Bruce Wayne has always stopped at nothing to rid his friend of its evil influence. “Ugly Heart” wouldn’t be the first time Batman has come close to exorcising Harvey of his demons, but perhaps Tomasi will finally be the writer to lay Two-Face to rest for good.
