Ventriloquist (character)

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.

 

Template:Spoilers In the recent Detective Comics #818, Wesker is shot in the head, apparently by Two-Face. The puppet Scarface is stepped on, crushing its head. In his dying moments, Wesker used Scarface's "hand" to leave a clue as to how he died: the street where he'd recently met Two-Face.

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 sharpen 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, the rolls it over revealing it was a new Scar-face head. He takes a knife and makes a the scar. 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 appearence 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.

The Ventriloquist and Scarface also appear in The Batman, where they are voiced by Dan Castellaneta, known as the voice of Homer Simpson from The Simpsons. 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 Scarface movie. In his debut episode, The Big Dummy, Wesker arranges for the theft of various technological items 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 the train. Wesker was then taken to Arkham Asylum. Later, in 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 and Batman confronted Hugo Strange who was nearby. Wesker and Scarface's henchmen are Rhino and Mugsy (both voiced by John DiMaggio).

Arnold Wesker should not be confused with Albert Wesker, the central antagonist of the Resident Evil video game series.