Ventriloquist and Scarface

"Better look sharp, yous mugs! Scarface is back!"

- Scarface in The New Batman Adventures

The Ventriloquist and Scarface are a pair of villains in Batman comics, games and animations.

The Ventriloquist and Scarface were created by John Wagner, Alan Grant, and the late Norm Breyfogle.

History
Arnold Wesker (a.k.a. The Ventriloquist) is a villain from the Batman series. He is always seen with the puppet Scarface. Many people believe he is crazy, and just puppetering Scarface, but he believes Scarface took possession over him.

In Detective Comics #818, an issue later included in the trade paperback Batman: Face the Face, Wesker is murdered 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: a street name. Later in the storyline, it is revealed that Tally Man, acting as an enforcer for the Great White Shark, is responsible for the murder.

During the Blackest Night crossover, Wesker is among the many deceased villains that received a Black Lantern power ring and is reanimated into a Black Lantern. Using his power ring, Wesker creates a construct of Scarface made of black energy. He is shown murdering many police officers.

In the New 52 continuity, Arnold Wesker is now living, his death apparently erased from reality in the DC Universe. He appears in Batman: The Dark Knight #2. Implied to be in possession of the Venom steroid, he clashes briefly with Nightwing.

Scarface
Scarface is a villain from the Batman series. He isn't a human, but a puppet. He is being controlled by the Ventriloquist.

The Ventriloquist believes that the puppet controls him, because it is possessed by the souls that died beneath the tree from which he was made. Most people believe the Ventriloquist controls Scarface, and uses Scarface to commit his crimes.

Ventriloquist
The Ventriloquist doesn't appear in the game Batman: Arkham Asylum. One of the Riddler's riddles revolves around him.

He has an entry in the Character Bios. His profile states:

Arnold Wesker was a timid orphan whose deep repression erupted in a barroom brawl, resulting in him being send to Blackgate Prison. There he encountered the puppet Scarface, and promptly murdered the man who’d carved the puppet. The two are now inseparable, with Scarface directing a series of criminal activities. While most believe that Wesker is simply acting out a second personality through the puppet, Wesker sees himself as a reluctant lackey who merely does his puppet’s bidding.

Scarface
Scarface isn't an actual villain in the videogame Batman: Arkham Asylum. He can only be seen in the closet in the warden's office, and on the televisions. One of The Riddler's riddles revolves around him. He has an entry in the Character bios. His profile states: Gotham’s Blackgate Penitentiary once had a Gallows Tree from which 313 criminals with death sentence were hanged.

The wood from that tree was whittled by an inmate into the puppet Scarface, and that inmate was murdered by Arnold Wesker, a man who soon fell under Scarface’s influence. While most believe that Scarface is simply a tool through which Wesker, as the criminal mastermind the Ventriloquist, acts out a dark side to his personality, Wesker himself believes that Scarface is possessed by the souls who died beneath the Gallows Tree, and the puppet actually motivates him to commit the duo’s many crimes.

Batman: The Telltale Series
Arnold Wesker appears in the fourth episode of Telltale's Batman series of games. He is shown as an inmate of Arkham Asylum who uses a sock pocket to represent Scarface.

Batman: The Animated Series
The Ventriloquist is portrayed as having disassociative identity disorder, with Scarface as his alternate personality. The series also provides him with a backstory: Arnold Wesker was born into a Mafia family, and witnessed the murder of his mother by his father's rivals. He developed the "Scarface" personlity soon afterward to vent his anger over losing her. In the episode "Double Talk", however, he finally manages to stand up to and destroy Scarface, freeing him from his tyrannical alternate personality for good.

The Batman
The Batman makes a major departure for the character in that Scarface, rather than resembling a 1920s gangster, resembles Tony Montana from the film Scarface. In this series, he is voiced by Dan Castelleneta, who also voiced Megavolt in Darkwing Duck.

Titans
The Arnold Wesker incarnation of Ventriloquist makes a cameo appearance in the season finale of Titans, titled "Dick Grayson". Grayson is placed inside a dream world by Trigon which involves Batman going on a killing spree, which involves his rogues' gallery. Wesker is one of the victims, and is found lying dead on the ground next to his Ventriloquist dummy at Arkham Asylum. Whilst a cameo, this is the first live-action incarnation of the Ventriloquist to appear on-screen.

Gotham
Originally the Ventriloquist was to appear in the fifth and final season of Gotham, but was cut from the story as the writers struggled to find anywhere to fit him in. Instead the character will be alluded to through the use of Easter Eggs.

Trivia

 * Ventriloquist is diagnosed with delusional schizophrenic with multiple personality disorder
 * Ventriloquist is obsessed with his puppet, Scarface, whom he puppeteers with unsettling skill
 * When teamed with Scarface, the two operate as a brilliant criminal mastermind
 * Puppet animated with eerie verisimilitude by the Ventriloquist
 * Frequently wields under-sized but lethal weaponry
 * When teamed with the Ventriloquist, acts as an old-style mob boss, with a sociopathic disregard for human life
 * He sometimes tries to kill the Ventriloquist despite the fact that killing the Ventriloquist will also kill Scarface himself.