By Phil Perich for Before the Bat: The Gotham Podcast

Everyone watch Harvey Dent? The character and the episode of Gotham? Let’s learn about Harvey. Harvey’s first appearance was in Detective Comics #66 (August 1942).

In this first story, his name was Harvey Kent. His last name was later changed to Dent so there would be no confusion with Clark Kent. Harvey Dent only appears 3 times in the 1940’s and twice in the 1950’s. This was because at this point in their publishing history, DC Comics was focusing on more “kid-friendly” villains. Two-Face returns in the 1970’s as one of Batman’s arch-enemies. He is usually seen attempting to commit crimes based on the number two (such as robbing the second national bank on February 2 at 2:00). Two-Face never makes a move without flipping his lucky coin to make all his decisions. Batman creator Bob Kane stated that the inspiration for Two-Face came from the classic story of Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde. Two-Face was originally District Attorney Harvey Dent. Mobster Sal Maroni throws acid in Dent’s face, scarring it and his already fragile psyche.

p to this point, Harvey Dent had been working with Commissioner James Gordon and Batman to take down the organized crime of Gotham City including it’s head, Carmine “The Roman” Falcone.

fter the acid destroys Dent’s face and mind, he goes on crime sprees that only Batman can stop. Two-Face is a very prominent figure in the Batman storyline. Not only was he an ally as Harvey Dent, but he was the murderer of Jason (Robin #2) Todd’s father, but he was also the first member of Batman’s Rogues Gallery that young Tim (Robin #3) Drake faced. He plays prominent roles in big Batman storylines, such as the “Hush” storyline and the year long “No Man’s Land”. One favorite storyline of mine is “Charlatan”. In Detective Comics #777, Charlatan is introduced as Paul Sloan, an actor who is turned into a double of Two-Face after Harvey Dent will not cooperate with Batman’s other enemies.

harlatan goes rogue and decides to kill Batman and all his enemies, including Harvey Dent. There have been a few actors to portray Harvey Dent. But the 2 best are probably the 2 most recent.

In the movie the Dark Knight, Harvey Dent is portrayed by Aaron Eckhart.