- Ya hear him? A glocka wood, he called me! Me!! One of da greatest criminal grains in da city! Are you gonna let him get away wit' dat?
- —Scarfacesrc
Scarface is the Ventriloquist's dummy. It appears to be an inanimate wooden puppet, but the villains Arnold Wesker and Peyton Riley project one of their multiple personalities on the dummy.
History
Origin
The Scarface Puppet was created by an inmate of Blackgate Penitentiary called Donnegan, who was sentenced to life in prison. Eventually, Donnegan was given a book about ventriloquism to read in his spare time and when he mastered the technique, he decided to get himself a proper ventriloquist dummy. Donnegan picked up a piece of wood from the prison's vault, unaware that it was actually the charred remains of the old gallows used to execute inmates in Blackgate prior to the abolition of the death penalty. The dark source of the wood was likely the reason why Donnegan's dummy acquired a mind of its own, constantly talking back to his creator and saying things Donnegan didn't intend to say. Donnegan called his puppet "Woody" and spent years in prison, with Woody as his only permanent companion until the arrival of Arnold Wesker; another inmate who had been sent to prison for "accidentally" killing a man.[1]
Donnegan wasn't used to have a cellmate and things turned violent between him and Wesker. The latter then decided to hang himself instead of dealing with Donnegan's abuses. It was then that "Woody"; the dummy began talking to Wesker and convinced him to forego suicide in favor of escaping from prison. While the two spoke, Donnegan awakened and attacked Wesker, brutally beating him down onto the floor. He also stabbed at Woody with a corkscrew, creating a long scar across the right hand side of the puppet's face. Arnold fought back and smashed Donnegan along the side of the face with a loose brick. He strung his body up on the noose that he originally intended to use for himself, and Woody and he made their escape through a tunnel made years ago by Donnegan.
The tunnel led to the shoreline of the island near the prison boathouse. At Woody's urging, Wesker picked up a riot shotgun and killed two guards, before stealing a raft. They paddled to the mainland of Gotham City and acquired a fresh set of clothes. The puppet, unsatisfied with the named that Donnegan had given him, decided to provide himself with a new name; one more befitting an angry criminal mind with high ambitions – Scarface.[2]
Arnold Wesker
Arnold Wesker possessed Scarface from then until his death,[3] with a few notable exceptions. Under his guidance, Scarface became at some times one of the top mobsters in Gotham City.
On their first criminal activities in Gotham, Ventriloquist settled on a club aptly named, "Ventriloquist Club", from where he operated a large drug ring, selling the new designer drug known as Fever.[4] Once Wesker was stopped and captured by Batman, he was locked in prison along with Scarface, making unusual cellmates for each other.[5] However, this unwise decision allowed Wesker to keep using Scarface to keep running drug dealing business from inside prison.[6]
After Wesker was released from prison, he and Scarface sought to reform their lost empire; but the street gang known as the Street Demonz had taken over their criminal activities and they met Scarface with utter violence. The gang destroyed the Scarface puppet, reducing it to splinters. Wesker's mania faded with the puppet destroyed. However, Rhino's efforts allowed Wesker's mania to return and together with Rhino, they rebuild Scarface.[7] Scarface took drastic measures against the Street Demonz and reclaimed his lost empire by force.[8][9]
After escaping from Arkham, Wesker tried to recover Scarface and was forced to make due with a sock puppet.[10][11][12] Scarface was later found inside the evidence locker of a police precinct, but upon learning that Wesker had replaced him with a sock, a confrontation began between "Socko" and Scarface; with the two of them shooting at each other, which resulted in Wesker's hands being seriously harmed.[13][14]
After a while, Wesker's hands healed and Scarface was ready to reclaim his lost drug empire from a new druglord, but his plans were foiled by Batman and Robin. Although Wesker was captured, Scarface was taken away by Rhino, who didn't known what exactly to do with the dummy.[15] Rhino spent months learning ventriloquism until he managed to make Scarface talk and came up with a plan to spring The Ventiloquist out of Blackgate and restore their criminal empire.[16] However, the reunion was short lived as Batman tossed Scarface to the ocean with a well aimed Batarang. The Ventriloquist went after Scarface and swam with the dummy away from Gotham.[17]
After the earthquake that destroyed Gotham, The Ventriloquist came up with another puppet called "The Quakemaster" in order to scam the city for money. His plan failed and when he was confronted by the heroes of Gotham, the Ventriloquist ditched the Quakemaster puppet and tried to use Scarface, but the dummy was shot through the head by Officer Bock and The Ventriloquist was captured.[18] Not long after that, Gotham City was declared a No Man's Land and The Ventriloquist became the overlord of a whole section of the city, using the damaged Scarface puppet.[19] After three months, Batman returned and took down The Ventriloquist. Batman took the Scarface puppet from The Ventriloquist and used it to demonstrate the people of his territory that their leader had fallen. In this process, the puppet was shot once again and lost an arm. No Man's Land had seriously destroyed the puppet almost beyond repair.[20]
In the aftermath of No Man's Land the Scarface puppet was restored, but Arnold Wesker went through a rigurous therapy in Arkham and part of the therapy was to set Scarface on fire and send it down the river. The fire partially consumed the puppet, but Scarface was not destroyed. Instead, it was found by a number of people, all of whom suffered terrible fates as a result of coming across the puppet. Eventually, Scarface found its way to The Penguin, who felt threatened at the sudden success of The Ventriloquist Club as a result of Wesker's apparent rehabilitation and successful management of the place. In order to stop Wesker, Penguin delivered Scarface back to Wesker, who had a complete relapse at the sight of the puppet and resumed their criminal activities.[21] After setting a trap for The Penguin, The Ventriloquist and Scarface took control of one of Penguin's clubs, where they hired Matches Malone as part of their gang, unaware that Malone was Batman in disguise. Scarface's smuggling operation was thwarted as a result and in return, Scarface killed the actual Matches Malone, forcing Batman to take down The Ventriloquist and burn Scarface once and for all.[22]
Afterwards, The Ventriloquist found himself a new Scarface puppet, although his face was actually painted in clown make-up, resembling The Joker. This puppet was only used once and never seen again.[23]
After Wesker was attacked by The Body, Scarface was the only surviving member of the crew and told Batman all he knew about this new enemy.[24] Wesker was then taken to a hospital to recover and when The Body tried to attack him again, Robin used Scarface as a decoy before eliminating them.[25]
Peyton Riley
Shortly after Batman and Robin inspected Wesker's murder site during "Face the Face", Scarface was picked up by a woman named Peyton Riley. Riley was a depressed former mafia princess whose husband had just had her whacked, and she had been bleeding out in the next room when she overheard Wesker's murder. She had met with Arnold Wesker when he was the Ventriloquist, and Wesker had liked her enough that Scarface pardoned her and her husband from an execution (her husband had been stealing from him, and Wesker still demanded a 30% cut of all of his future profits). When she found Scarface, he started talking to her, and she barely managed to grab him and drag herself to the hospital, where she eventually recovered from her wounds.
Although Scarface's classical personality is exactly the same with her, the Scarface/Ventriloquist relationship is different. She has him acting as her boyfriend, and Scarface seems to believe himself to be in love with her, going so far as to call her "Sugar" instead of "Ventriloquist." When nearly captured by Batman and Harley Quinn (who has a strong dislike for Sugar), she has Scarface say, "Save yourself."
Scarface and Peyton later attempted to throw Peyton's ex-husband over the side of his own yacht, only to be interrupted by Batman and Zatanna, Zatanna attempting to talk Peyton down while Batman rescubed Sabatino. Unfortunately, Zatanna was attacked by Moose, Scarface's henchman, before she could have any real effect, Peyton subsequently going over the side with Sabatino while Batman was busy protecting Zatanna from Moose. Before they hit the water, Scarface said "G'bye, kiddo. I loved y..."
Recommended Reading
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.
- Batman keeps one version of the puppet in a glass case on the trophy room of the Batcave.[26]
Trivia
- Comically, when Arnold Wesker throws his voice, he cannot pronounce the letter 'B', and had to substitute it with the letter 'G', so with him Scarface always talked with an impediment; i.e. "I'm gonna riddle you with gullets, Gatman!"
- Over the years, Scarface has been destroyed many times over, by members of the Batman Family especially. The process of frequently rebuilding him has never been gone into. During the "Face the Face" story arc, when Arnold Wesker was killed by the Tally Man, Scarface was also seen on the floor with a bullet hole in his head, showing that Tally Man had actually taken the time to kill the two of them individually.
- Not to be confused with Al Capone, who was famously nicknamed “Scarface”.
See Also
Footnotes
- ↑ Showcase '94 #8
- ↑ Showcase '94 #9
- ↑ Detective Comics #818
- ↑ Detective Comics #583
- ↑ Detective Comics #584
- ↑ Detective Comics #610
- ↑ Batman #475
- ↑ Detective Comics #642
- ↑ Batman #476
- ↑ Detective Comics #659
- ↑ Detective Comics #660
- ↑ Detective Comics #661
- ↑ Detective Comics #663
- ↑ Detective Comics #664
- ↑ Batman: Shadow of the Bat #32
- ↑ Batman: Shadow of the Bat #59
- ↑ Batman: Shadow of the Bat #60
- ↑ Robin (Volume 2) #53
- ↑ Batman: No Man's Land #1
- ↑ Detective Comics #730
- ↑ Batman/Scarface: A Psychodrama
- ↑ Batman #588- #590
- ↑ Joker: Last Laugh #5
- ↑ Detective Comics #806
- ↑ Detective Comics #808
- ↑ Detective Comics #850
Batman Villain(s) |
This is an in-universe article with out-of-universe material.