Lord of Poison and Two-Face

"Macandal, the one-armed, now a houngan of the Rada rite, invested with superhuman powers as the result of his possession by the major gods on several occasions, was the Lord of Poison." (Carpentier, Alejo. The Kingdom of This World, 30.)

         Carpentier's Macandal in The Kingdom of This World is a character described as being a leader among his fellow slaves. Able to win the hearts of both men and women with his engaging stories and captivating personality, he plays a major influence on the novel's main character, Ti Noel. When Macandal loses his arm in an accident, he loses value as a slave.  His workload is lightened as a result, which takes him away from the other slaves to relative isolation. He eventually runs away, but his owner puts little effort into searching for him. After all,  "A one-armed slave was a trifling thing." (21) As a renegade, Macandal harnesses the poisonous qualities of plants and animals around him, and becomes "Lord of Poison."

             Macandal and Harvey Dent from the Batman comics share similar stories. Harvey grew up poor with an instinctive mistrust and dislike for the upper-class, much like Macandal. He developed a repressed mental illness as a result of the harsh circumstances under which he was raised. To overcome his illness he devoted himself to working hard--he became good-looking and successful as a result.  After his face and hand were disfigured by an acid attack, however, his mental illness took over and he became a super-villain.

           Macandal's injury was a major blow, but that was not what caused him to become "Lord of Poison". Macandal was of the Mandingue--"it was common knowledge that every Mandingue was a potential fugitive. Mandingue was a synonym for intractable, rebellious, a devil." (21) The obedient slave before, Macandal's injury triggered the manifestation of the Mandigue within him, just as the acid spill unleashed the schizophrenia within Harvey. Macandal was able to repress the Mandingue until his injury limited his value and forced him away from the other slaves, into isolation. Similarly, Harvey was able to repress his schizophrenia/bi-polar disorder until his injury deformed him, destroying his very public career.  Harvey and Macandal responded to their life-altering mutilations by wreaking havoc-- not in revenge, but because they lost control of the one thing that gave them control over that which inhabited them.