Ventriloquist (comics)
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The Ventriloquist is a DC Comics villain, an enemy of Batman. He first appeared in Detective Comics #583 (February 1988).
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[edit] History
A meek, quiet man, the Ventriloquist plans and executes his crimes through a dummy named Scarface, with the dress and persona of a 1920s gangster, complete with pinstripe suit, cigar, and tommy gun.
Born into a powerful Mafia Family, Arnold Wesker developed multiple personality disorder after seeing his mother murdered by an assassin from a rival Family. Growing up, his only outlet was ventriloquism, which he mastered, forming an act with a dummy he named Scarface. Eventually, the Scarface dummy took on his repressed anger, becoming another personality Wesker was convinced was real. When Wesker turned to crime, he let the Scarface personality do the dirty work, including robbery and murder. Wesker is dominated by the Scarface personality, who barks orders at him and degrades him with verbal abuse, ironically calling him "Dummy." Wesker always submits with a timid "Yes, Mr. Scarface." Wesker was never able to enunciate the letter "b" in his act, and replaces them with the letter "g" instead. Therefore, Scarface will often address his foes as "Gatman and Rogin." In many stories Wesker was accompanied by a loyal bodyguard named Rhino. Rhino was sometimes portrayed as genuinely believing Scarface to be the boss, but more often was shown as humouring Wesker (and sometimes forgetting and addressing the Ventriloquist directly, to Scarface's outrage).
In the Riddler story The Riddle Factory (published in 1995), it was revealed that a gangster named "Scarface" Scarelli had once been active in Gotham, though had apparently died long before Batman's era. Possible retconning may mean that Wesker's alter ego was somehow based on this individual.
He is one of many supervillains in the Rogues Gallery to be confined to Arkham Asylum when Batman apprehends him. One particularly memorable and amusing series of events concerning him took place during the Knightfall saga, after Bane had destroyed Arkham and released its inmates. Unable to find Scarface, the Ventriloquist uses a sock puppet in his place for a short time. After robbing a toy store, he procures a number of other hand puppets to fill in for Scarface, including one of a police officer whom he refers to as "Chief O'Hara" (in a possible reference to the pre-Crisis character popular on the 1960s Batman TV show).
He was once apparently killed, and in a bizarre twist, Scarface appeared to still talk and act alive before he was destroyed. This death appears to have been retconned in "One Year Later" (presumably due to the events of the Infinite Crisis crossover). Wesker appeared as one of the members of the Secret Society of Super Villains that faced the Jade Canary, who pitched Scarface off the top of a roof.
In Detective Comics #818, Wesker is shot in the head by an unseen assailant. The puppet Scarface is stepped on and its head crushed. The dying Wesker uses Scarface's hand to leave a clue regarding his murder: the street where he had met Two-Face. Later in the storyline, it is revealed that Tally Man, acting as an enforcer for the Great White Shark, is responsible for the murder. Solicitations indicate an appearance by a Ventriloquist in a future issue of Detective Comics. It is unknown if either the featured Ventriloquist will be Wesker or if the featured dummy will be Scarface.
[edit] Appearances in other media
[edit] DC Animated Universe
The Ventriloquist and Scarface appeared in Batman: The Animated Series, where they were voiced by George Dzundza. In this depiction, he is a master ventriloquist and can pronounce every sound perfectly as Scarface.
In his first appearance, "Read My Lips," his activities and persona were unknown to the authorities. When Gotham Police are baffled by a series of crimes executed with clockwork-like precision, Batman investigates the case and discovers that the crimes are planned by a mob boss known as Scarface. He traces Scarface to his lair — a deserted mannequin warehouse — and discovers, to his astonishment, that the crime czar is a wooden dummy, manipulated by a mild-mannered man called the Ventriloquist. Even worst, as he makes further developments, he realizes Arnold Wesker, the ventriloquist, has split personality and it is the dummy who manipulates the Ventriloquist.
Scarface and his gang prove to be very effective when they managed to capture Batman by developing the spying device he put on the Ventriloquist tie and organize a fake hit to get the vigilante. Probably as a homage to the classic villain plots from the 1960s Batman TV series, Scarface ties and hangs Batman and sets him to fall into a pit full of mannequin hands with sharpened nails pointing up. At this point, by faking and projecting the voice of the Ventriloquist, Batman plays both of Wesker's personalities, setting them to fight against each other. That way, he made enough time to set himself free and defeat the gang. During the fight, Rocco, one of the main Scar-face thugs, accidentally shoots and destroys him, apparently traumatizing Wesker.
At the end of the episode, locked in Arkham Asylum, Wesker is shown in one of the workshops shaping some wood. After a nurse congratulates him, he rolls it over revealing it was a new dummy head. He takes a knife and makes a "scar" across the face, similar to the orginal Scarface's. However, the scenes when the dummy is destroyed became recurring in his future appearance, leading to Scar-face's temporary "death" until a new dummy is made. In "Trial" he didn't even die after his head was accidentally chopped off by The Scarecrow. One of the dummies, probbably the one from "Read My Lips" (because of the several bullet holes), was featured as one of the items of the souvenir gallery of the Bat-cave in Batman Beyond.
After "Read My Lips," one of the last episodes of the first season, the character became so popular that when the series returned for a second season (The Adventures of Batman & Robin), he was cast as a regular among the enemies of Batman, making three more appearances (two more than The Penguin). A reference to his sudden popularity was made in Harlequinade, when listing all their friend to the Joker she tries to mention him but she forgets his name.
Later, in The New Batman Adventures episode "Double Talk," Wesker finally stood up to and destroyed Scarface, thus ridding himself of his alternate personality. However, in the comic books and in his last appearance in "Over The Edge," it is implied that a normal life may be always just out of Wesker's reach.
In an episode of Justice League entitled "A Better World," the League visits the alternate dimension populated by their alter egos the Justice Lords. In the alternate reality's Arkham Asylum, several lobotomized patients appear before them, courtesy of the alternate world's Superman. Wesker is present in the dayroom, and though his forehead is unmarked, Scarface intriguingly bears the two burn scars indicative of the treatment, which apparently had the same psychological effect on Wesker.
[edit] The Batman
The Ventriloquist and Scarface also appear in The Batman, where they are voiced by Dan Castellaneta. In the series, Wesker is a ventriloquist who snapped when he was booed off the stage one night, and turned to a life of crime. The Scarface dummy itself is not cast in the mould of a 1920s gangster, but is based upon the appearance of Al Pacino in the 1983 film Scarface. In his debut episode, The Big Dummy, Wesker arranges for the theft of various gadgets which are used to construct a giant Scarface robot, which holds Wesker in its hand in a reversal of their roles. In the end, Scarface was "killed" after he was run over by a train. Wesker was then taken to Arkham Asylum.
In the episode Fistful of Felt, Wesker returns with a new Scarface. It was then revealed that Wesker once had a TV show which was cancelled. After Batman stops them from stealing dollar molds from a treasury, Wesker and Scarface were seen in Arkham during Hugo Strange's therapy group with the Joker and the Penguin. Hugo Strange considered Wesker his main patient and "freed" Wesker from Scarface. Wesker started to do kids' parties with a puppet named Mr. Snoots, until Strange took the next stage into his hands. In a confrontation with Batman in a newly opened building for children, Scarface and Mr. Snoots were both once again destroyed by a train. Wesker was then returned to Arkham.
In Both Batman: the Animated Series and The Batman, the Ventriloquist's henchmen are Rhino and Mugsy (both voiced by John DiMaggio).
[edit] See also
Some films have touched on similar themes:
- Dead of Night, a British portmanteau horror film, from 1945, whose most celebrated story involved Michael Redgrave playing a crazed ventriloquist.
- Magic, a 1978 film directed by Richard Attenborough.
