Scarface (New Earth)

From DC Database

Contents 1 History 1.1 Creation 2 Scarface and the Ventriloquist 2.1 Arnold Wesker 2.2 Peyton Riley 3 Recommended Reading 4 Notes 5 Trivia 6 See Also 7 Links and References

History

Creation

The creation of Scarface has its roots in the dark, violent history of Gotham County's island correctional facility Blackgate Prison. Years before the state repealed the Death Penalty, Blackgate was one of the few remaining prisons that still used hanging as a means of execution. 313 convicts were sentenced to the gallows, their writhing bodies often described as "puppets dancing on a string". Three days before the repeal, lightning struck the gallows pole, sending it crashing down to the ground.

One of Blackgate's later inmates was a convict named Donnegan. Donnegan was serving a life sentence for murder. One day, he borrowed a book about ventriloquism from the prison library. With nothing better to do with his time, he practiced the craft using his right hand (which he appropriately named Handy) as a surrogate puppet. Donnegan found a piece of blood-encrusted warped wood from the old gallows pole in the prison workshop, and fashioned it into a hand-held puppet. Naming the puppet Woody, Donnegan continued practicing his ventriloquism, and soon became skilled enough to perform at the Annual prison show. Donnegan became obsessed with Woody, and even held conversations with it in his cell. The prison guards thought that he had finally started to go crazy, as he was seen arguing with the puppet on a number of occasions.

Years passed, until finally Donnegan received a new cellmate – Arnold Wesker. Arnold was a quiet and passive man, who had apparently been sent to prison for "accidentally" stabbing a man to death in a bar fight. Wesker was impressed with Woody and wanted to try him out, but Donnegan was very protective of his puppet and warned Wesker to stay away. One day, Arnold found himself alone with Woody. When Donnegan discovered them, he punched Wesker in the face, shouting that nobody lays their hands on his puppet.

Wesker eventually grew despondent with prison life and prepared to hang himself from the ceiling of his cell while Donnegan slept. Despite the fact that Donnegan was unconscious, Woody began talking to Wesker. Arnold ignored him at first, believing that Donnegan's subconscious was acting through the puppet, but Woody insisted that he was acting independently of Donnegan's control. He convinced Arnold to forego suicide in favor of escaping from prison. He revealed that Donnegan had been secretly digging an escape tunnel from his cell for the past fifteen years, but he eventually gave up after becoming institutionalized. 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 Donnegan's tunnel.

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. ^[1]

Scarface and the Ventriloquist

Arnold Wesker

Arnold Wesker possessed Scarface from then until his death in Detective Comics #818, with a few notable exceptions. Under his guidance, Scarface became at some times one of the top mobsters in Gotham City. Wesker lost Scarface in the beginning of the events of "Knightfall," and was forced to make due with a sock puppet ("Socko"); this made Scarface furious when he returned, and he and Socko fought, with Scarface, of course, emerging the victor. During the events of No Man's Land, Scarface was one of the top territory holders in Gotham City, and commanded his own entire community. Comically, when 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!"

Peyton Riley

More recently, as of Detective Comics #837, a new female Ventriloquist has debuted. 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, she believed he had begun to talk to her (she was talking to herself as Scarface for the first time), 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."
Peyton Riley would later die at the bottom of Gotham Harbor, having put her husband in cement shoes, and forced by Batman to sacrifice her own life if she wanted to take his. Batman was disappointed by her choice. Scarface is currently a trophy in the Batcave.

Recommended Reading

• Batman: Knightfall
• Batman: Cataclysm
• Batman: No Man's Land
• Batman: Face the Face

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.

Trivia

• 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.
  

See Also

• Appearances of Scarface (New Earth) (Chronological)* Appearances of Scarface (New Earth) (Alphabetical)
• Item Gallery: Scarface (New Earth)
  
• Quotations by Scarface (New Earth)
  
• Images featuring Scarface (New Earth)

Links and References

• None.