Duela Dent (born c. 1995)[1] is a criminal who had a mental breakdown over her insecurities about her physical appearance. This led Duela to cut her face and later evolved to her cutting the faces of social media influencers treated by Dr. "Ethan Campbell", including her former friends. She was referred to by Vesper Fairchild as the "Serial Slashionista" and by Batwoman as Gotham's Serial Slasher.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Duela was born around 1995 to Evelyn Dent and an unknown father. She went to high school with Myrtis Dinker, where they became close friends. Duela is implied to have excelled in school and/or extracurriculars, earning a collection of trophies.
Duela Dent prior to cutting her own face.
By 2011, Duela had a fairly large psychiatric rap sheet. That year, while getting ready for an outing with her mother, she was unsatisfied with her makeup, imagining an exaggerated frown on her face. Duela punched her bathroom mirror in frustration and used a shard to cut a smile on her own face. Evelyn witnessed this and brought Duela to Dr. "Ethan Campbell" without her consent to get her face treated with plastic surgery. Sometime afterwards, Duela was admitted to a mental health facility on Evelyn's recommendation.[1]
Attacking influencers[]
Duela attacks Kimberly Wright.
Eight years later, after Duela was released from the facility, she went on a spree in Gotham to cut the faces of social media influencers who also got plastic surgery from Dr. Campbell, starting with Mia Cortez.
Later, Duela broke into a studio where Kimberly Wright did one of her photoshoots. After causing a power outage, she cornered and attacked Kimberly, by brutally slashing her face with a box cutter.
Duela about to slice her mother's throat.
Later one night at home, Duela attacked her mother and also slashed her face as revenge for Evelyn making her feel bad about her appearance. She then faced Batwoman and tried to hit her with a baseball bat, but the vigilante overpowered Duela and threw her to the ground. Batwoman tried to talk her down but Duela refused to listen and sliced her mother's throat, forcing Batwoman to attend to Evelyn and allowing her to escape.
Duela's next victim was her former friend Myrtis, now Veronica May. She kidnapped Veronica from her van after killing the driver, then took her to a factory which made her skincare line. Duela planned to drop Veronica into a vat of acid, as revenge for her friend abandoning her when she needed her most. She was eventually confronted by Sophie Moore. The two fought and Duela had an opportunity to cut Sophie, but decided to restrain her instead. However, Sophie fought back and overpowered her while Batwoman saved Veronica. Duela was left tied up in the factory for the cops.
Duela feels perfect after Alice cut off her face.
Shortly after, Duela was found by Alice, who told her she needed something from her. Duela agreed to let Alice cut her face off and use it as a mask to confront Dr. Campbell. When the the GCPD arrived, Duela expressed that she was finally "perfect", no longer having facial scars and presumably able to smile without feeling pain. Duela was sent to Arkham Asylum.[1]
Months later, when Alice released all of Arkham's inmates as a distraction to cover her escape, it is unknown if Duela managed to flee or not.[2]
Personality[]
Duela seemed highly troubled with herself and that others did not accept her. After carving up her face and being sent to a clinic she became resentful of social media influencers for portraying a perfect look she could never achieve.
After stalking and carving up the faces of several influencers, her behavior seemingly escalated as she went after her mother and close friends who had forced her to have plastic surgery and had not accepted her for who she was. She carved up her mother's face and slit her throat to stall Batwoman from chasing her. She even got more murderous when she went after a former friend and wanted to drop her in acid.
Abilities[]
- Expert hand-to-hand combat: Duela was able to swiftly overpower her victims. When confronted by Sophie she was able to pin the Crow agent against the wall and held her knife to her throat but as she did not cut her Sophie was able to knock the knife away and defeated her.
- Skilled knife-wielder: Duela is very skilled in using knives.[1]
- High tolerance for pain: Duela was able to cut her face with a mirror shard without expressing any pain whatsoever and managed to remain conscious even after Alice removed her face. However despite this she still seemed to feel pain from smiling after August Cartwright stitched her skin back together.
- Stealth: Duela was able to sneak up on her victims without them being aware.
Equipment[]
- Box cutter: Duela used a box cutter to slash her victims' faces.[1]
Appearances[]
Batwoman[]
Season 1[]
Behind the scenes[]
- In DC Comics, Duela Dent is the biological daughter of Three-Face and Jokester from Earth-3, originally using the alias Joker's Daughter. Throughout her career as a vigilante, she has used the names Card Queen, Catgirl, Harlequin, Penguin's Daughter, Riddler's Daughter and Scarecrone. She has been a member of the Teen Titans and Titans East.
- This version is based on the one that debuted in the New 52, where Duela is a young girl from Prime Earth who is obsessed with the Joker, going as far as using the Joker’s mutilated face as her mask.
- Duela's self-inflicted scars (Glasgow grin) and what she does to her victims are similar to the Joker in The Dark Knight.
- Duela having her face cut off by Alice is adapted from Batman: Death of the Family, where the Joker had his face cut off by the Dollmaker.
- Cassandra Ebner was a stunt double for Alessandra Torresani in the role of Duela Dent.