10 Things Every DC Comics Fan Forgets About Two-Face

9. The Character Is Based On A Horror Classic

Two Face
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It should come as no surprise that Batman co-creator Bob Kane drew inspiration from the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but it was the 1931 film and not the original Robert Louis Stevenson 1886 novel “ The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” from which the writer took his inspiration.

In the film, Dr. Henry Jekyll believes that every man has the capacity for both good and evil inside them and experiments with a mixture of drugs that unleash his sadistic, amoral alter ego, Edward Hyde. Hyde abuses and eventually murders a music hall singer that Jekyll had saved from a fight and assaults Jekyll’s fiance and murders her father. Hyde was eventually killed and transforms back into Jekyll.

Kane also drew a great deal of inspiration from the pulp character the Black Bat. Not only is he a bat-themed character that fights crime, similar to what would become The Batman but the Black Bat’s alter ego is Anthony Quinn, a district attorney who is blinded and disfigured after acid is thrown at him by a criminal.

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Contributor

John Wilson has been a comic book and pop culture fan his entire life. He has written for a number of websites on the subject over the years and is especially pleased to be at WhatCulture. John has written two comic books for Last Ember Press Studio and has recently self-published a children's book called "Blue." When not spending far too much time on the internet, John spends time with his lovely wife, Kim, their goofy dog, Tesla, and two very spoiled cats.