Arnold Wesker (New Earth)

Arnold Wesker has always been a meek and timid person, even as a child. When he was very young, his parents took him to the Gotham City shipyards to see an albatross, which was something of a local attraction. Terrified, he demanded to be taken home immediately. While his parents were distracted, a truck carrying display dummies rolled down the street, struck, and killed them. Traumatized by the accident, he became convinced that the albatross was an omen. Throughout his life he would cope by repressing all emotion and furthering his timid stature. ^[1]

The repression eventually resulted in a psychotic breakdown during his adulthood, in which he killed a man during a bar-fight. By his own account the murder was completely accidental. He was arrested and sent to Blackgate Prison. There he was placed in a cell with an inmate named Donnegan, who harbored an intense interest in ventriloquism. Donnegan's most prized possession was a puppet named "Woody", which he was very protective of. Despite his violent nature, Wesker became intrigued by the dummy and even went so far as to attempt handling "Woody" whenever Donnegan was out of the cell. When he discovered this, he became enraged and assaulted Wesker for touching his property.

Wesker grew despondent in Blackgate, and prepared to hang himself while Donnegan slept. Despite the fact that Donnegan was unconscious, "Woody" began talking to Wesker. Though he ignored this at first, Woody insisted that he was acting independently of Donnegan's control. He convinced Wesker to forgo suicide in favor of escaping from Blackgate and revealed that Donnegan had been secretly digging an escape tunnel from the cell for the past fifteen years. While the two spoke Donnegan awoke and brutally attacked Wesker. He also stabbed at Woody with a corkscrew, creating a long scar along the side of the face of the puppet. Wesker fought back and smashed Donnegan in the face with a loose brick. He then strung the body up with the noose he originally intended to use for his own suicide. Subsequently Wesker took Woody and escaped through Donnegan's tunnel.

The tunnel led him to the shoreline of Blackgate Island, near the prison boathouse. At Woody's urging, he picked up a riot shotgun and killed two guards before stealing a raft. They paddled to the mainland of Gotham City and, planning to begin a new life, acquired a fresh set of clothes. The puppet, unsatisfied with the name that Donnegan had given him, decided to take a new name, one more befitting an angry criminal mind with high ambitions: Scarface.^[2]

Scarface became the vehicle through which Wesker could express all of his years of bottled-up rage. It was clear early on that Scarface was the dominant partner in their relationship, and Wesker always maintained a subservient and obedient countenance.

Criminal Career

Calling himself the Ventriloquist, Wesker became a powerful drug lord in Gotham City – but it was actually Scarface calling all of the shots. They operated out of a trendy hotspot on Electric Street called the Ventriloquist Club. The bouncer of the club was an over-sized leg-breaker named Rhino. Like many of the Ventriloquist's underlings, Rhino paid very little attention to Wesker himself, but was devoutly loyal to Scarface.

The Ventriloquist and Scarface made their marks in the Gotham underworld through the sale and distribution of a designer drug called Fever. Processed in Tijuana, Mexico, they had the drugs smuggled into Gotham City inside of human cadavers. This earned them the attention of the Batman. He raided Rizzo's Funeral Parlor, where the Ventriloquist and Scarface were busy extracting drugs from the remains of a dead gangster named William Henry "Fatman" Cherry. He fought through the Ventriloquist's armed men and apprehended the drug lord and his puppet master.^[3]

Wesker spent very little time in prison and before long he and Scarface were reunited and back in operation at the Ventriloquist Club. He actually wanted to retire from a life of crime, but Scarface would not hear of it. They discovered that while they were serving time, a criminal gang known as the Street Demonz had taken over Scarface's drug operations. One of Scarface's closest enforcers, Bruno, betrayed his former employer and threw his lot in with the gang. During a gunfight between Wesker's men and the gang, Scarface's body was riddled with bullets. For a brief moment, Wesker felt that he was finally free of the control of the puppet. He even built a small coffin for his damaged wooden partner. Unfortunately, Scarface still had control over the him, even in "death". He heard the voice of the puppet from within the coffin, and set him free. He repaired the damage from the bullets and Scarface was back in action.^[4]

Following another resounding defeat at the hands of the Batman, the Ventriloquist was apprehended and sent to Arkham Asylum.^{[citation needed]} Time passed until a criminal known as Bane set dozens of Arkham inmates free. Wesker was but one of many violent patients to escape from Arkham during the chaos. Although no longer confined to a cell, he was still lost without the commanding presence of Scarface. Desperate to compensate for Scarface's absence, he briefly took to using an old sock as a hand puppet, naming it Socko. Wesker was joined by Amygdala, who acted as a bodyguard for Wesker until they find Scarface. Together, they broke into a toy store, looking for a replacement for Scarface and Batman arrived to stop them. Batman managed to defeat Amygdala, but the fight took all from him, allowing Wesker to escape.^[5]

After being separated from Amygdala, Wesker and "Socko" went to the place of their last attorney at law, Mr. Detweiler and forced him to tell them the current location of Scarface.^[6]

He was reunited with Scarface soon after and attempted to gain a foothold in the Wharfdale area of Gotham by eliminating a rival gangster named Marty Vetch. Scarface made a severe impact in Vetch's operations by killing one of his main drug suppliers and contaminating a shipment of heroin that belonged to his cartel. The feud between Scarface and Vetch came to a head outside of the Ventriloquist Club. During this time, Bruce Wayne had relinquished the role of Batman to his first ward Dick Grayson. As Batman, Grayson with the current Robin raided Marty Vetch's penthouse and fought with the Ventriloquist's thugs. Wesker attempted to flee down a fire escape and was seperated from Scarface. He was captured once again and sent to Blackgate Prison for psychological evaluation.^[7]

While he languished away in prison, Scarface wound up in the hands of his old enforcer, Rhino. Rhino attempted to operate the puppet, but Scarface would not respond to him. After numerous attempts however, Scarface began to communicate through Rhino. The puppet instructed him to make a deal with the Penguin in order to stage a prison breakout. The Penguin agreed, and before long, the Ventriloquist was free.^[8]

Reunited with Scarface, Wesker resumed his old lifestyle and crossed paths with the Batman on several more occasions. In one instance, a crazed Batman nearly killed him, but opted instead to destroy Scarface.^[9] The Ventriloquist repaired Scarface yet again, only this time the criminal duo set their sights on their competition, notably the Penguin.

War Games

Main article: Batman: War Games

Ventriloquist and Scarface were summoned to a meeting where all the other crime lords of Gotham were summoned as well. The meeting ended up in a shooting and Scarface killed Silver Monker.^[10] After that incident, the greatest gang war broke out in Gotham and Wesker's gang was approached by Alexandra Kosov from the Odessa Mob and they made an alliance to get rid of other crime lords in Gotham. Together, they eliminated a minor lord called Saunders,^[11] and later, they targeted Darla Aquista, daughter of the crime boss Henry Aquista. Both gangs attacked the Louis Grieve High School, where Darla was attending to and they were temporarily stopped by Tim Drake, who wrecked Wesker's car and took Scarface away from him.^[12]

Death

Ventriloquist Dead — Death during "Face the Face"

Wesker and Scarface survived the events of Alexander Luthor's attempt to recreate the multiverse, but a year later had become a pair of washed-up criminals reduced to eating canned pasta in a ramshackle apartment. Though they schemed to return to their glory days, their plans were interrupted by the Tally Man, who had been sent by the Great White Shark to murder costumed criminals around Gotham in a gambit to frame the recently reformed Harvey Dent. The Ventriloquist stood little chance against the younger, more vicious criminal, and was killed by a single shot to the head.^[13]

Resurrection

Black Lantern Ventriloquist 001 — Black Lantern Corps

During the "Blackest Night", the Ventriloquist was among those resurrected by Nekron as a member of the Black Lantern Corps. Although he no longer physically possessed Scarface, he created an army of constructs that looked like the puppet with his ring.^[14]

Powers and Abilities

Abilities

Ventriloquism: Wesker is a skilled ventriloquist, an act of stagecraft in which the person changes his voice so that it appears that the voice is coming from elsewhere, usually his puppet Scarface. The ability to do so is called throwing one's voice.
Tactical Analysis: The Scarface persona is a brilliant criminal strategist and tactician.
Business Management

Weaknesses

Multiple Personalities: Wesker suffers from multiple personality disorder, and is thus obsessed with his dummy/dissociated personality Scarface.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Scarface

Weapons

Tommy Gun

Notes

It has never been clear whether Scarface was actually just an aspect of Wesker’s multiple personality disorder, or if he had actually somehow gained sentience. There have been several instances where Scarface has functioned independently of a human controller, but this may also be a reflection of the controller's mental state at the given moment. On occasion, Scarface has been animate during times when Wesker was asleep or unconscious, or not even present at all. One of the strongest arguments for suggesting that Scarface may be a separate consciousness is the fact that he always maintains the same personality no matter who is operating him. In the case of Donnegan, however, Scarface's diction was much better, and he didn't replace the letter "B" with a "G" as was the case with Wesker.

After the events of Flashpoint, reality was drastically changed. Arnold Wesker was still alive and still the Ventriloquist. He fought against Robin and Nightwing in the White Rabbit related breakout. He appeared to have developed the ability to stick his hand into a living person and use them as a ventriloquist dummy instead of only relying on Scarface.

However, Wesker only appears in a couple of the first issues of the New 52, and his existence is thought to be a transition mistake by the comic creators. Therefore, Wesker's existence has been retconned in the New 52 and, instead, is replaced by Shauna Belzer.

Trivia

Wesker is unable to pronounce any word with a letter "B" accurately without moving his lips, giving Scarface a speech impediment. He compensates for this by using the letter "G" as he often calls the Dark Knight "Gatman".

Arnold Wesker (New Earth)

Contents

History

Origins