TWEEDLEDUM

Real Name: Dumfrey Tweed

Class: Human

Occupation: Criminal

Group Affiliation: None

Known Relatives: Deever Tweed (Tweedledee, cousin), Dumson Tweed (Tweedledum, brother)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Gotham City

First Appearance: Detective Comics I #74 (April, 1943)

Powers: Tweedledum was ruthless, cunning, and carried an electrified cane. Tweedledee was short, lazy and obese, making him little of a physical threat.

History: Tweedledee and his cousin Tweedledfum were criminal masterminds who patterned their identity after the the characters in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass.

(Demon III #31-33) - Asteroth met Tweedledee and Tweedledum on the streets of Gotham, and recounted his fall from being an archduke of Hell to being homeless in the city. He said he was going to eat them, but the brothers said he’d be making a big mistake, because before they lived on the street they were crimelords, and could help Asteroth make a name for himself in Gotham with their insider knowledge of the underworld. They further buttered him up by shocking a homeless man with their electric canes and offering him up to Asteroth as lunch. Asteroth agreed to partner with them, and they said the first thing they’d need was loyal unquestioning henchmen. Asteroth raised a zombie from a nearby graveyard, suggesting they make a gang of the undead. Tweedledee and Tweedledum said zombies would attract too much attention to them, and rotting corpses couldn’t shoot tommyguns. They told Asteroth they knew where to find henchmen, and Asteroth used his magic to dress them all up in fancy gangster suits to command respect for their criminal enterprise startup. Theodore Pezkin was an up-and-coming crimelord in Gotham City who ran drugs and owned the Devil-Spawn Club. Asteroth and Tweedledee and Tweedledum came to the Devil-Spawn Club to tell Pezkin they were taking over, and he made the mistake of not taking them seriously. Asteroth wrapped him in mystic energy that crushed Pezkin into nothingness as he begged for his life. One member of Pezkin’s gang tried to sneak away, so Asteroth incinerated him, and the rest of the gang happily pledged their loyalty to Asteroth. Asteroth settled in, but soon started drinking and moping. Tweedledee and Tweedledum thought Asteroth would appreciate the hellish motifs of the Devil-Spawn Club, but Asteroth was unimpressed. He was also less than enthused about earning a fortune from the club or running Gotham in time because he was focused on getting revenge on Etrigan. Asteroth, now thoroughly drunk, spotted hellfire in the distance and investigated, finding Etrigan, who was searching for the Eternity Book in Gotham City. Etrigan was fighting a man named Adrian Grout over possession of the Eternity Book. He filled Grout with eldritch energy, causing him to explode. Asteroth spotted the Eternity Book, grabbed it, and, taking advantage of Etrigan’s weakened state, blasted him with magic bolts and spilled corrosive chemicals from a nearby tanker truck on him. Lobo arrived on Earth, looking to fight the demon, and attacked Asteroth, not wanting anyone to take his kill away from him. They fought fiercely until Etrigan recovered and ignited the tanker truck’s chemicals, causing a huge explosion. Asteroth limped away and Etrigan retrieved the Eternity Book. Asteroth told his gang to set up crucifixes around the Devil-Spawn Club and sprinkle salt and garlic around the perimeter. His henchmen balked until Asteroth threatened them with bodily harm. Tweedledee and Tweedledum asked him what was wrong, and Asteroth replied that he’d de laying low for a while because a demon was on his tail.

(Demon III #43-45) - After Tweedledee and Tweedledum helped the demon Asteroth establish himself as a Gotham crimelord he later dumped them and they ended up living under a bridge. Gang members whose boss was killed in Asteroth's gang wars came looking for revenge, and laughed when they pulled out their guns and the cousins pulled out their electric canes. The Hitman had been contracted by Etrigan to kill his rival Asteroth, and gunned down the gang members before asking Tweedledee and Tweedledum to tell him everything they knew about their old boss. They drank at Noonan's, and the cousins asked for a map of Gotham. Sean Noonan said he'd used it as toilet paper for the customers, so they improvised with beer mugs, showing Asteroth's ritual sacrifices he was performing around the city to complete the Lodestar Daemonique and summon the Gothodaemon, Gotham City's very own demon. Hitman pumped one of Asteroth's men for information, learning that the final sacrifice would take place at St. Jack's Cemetery before shooting the underling in the head. He allowed Tweedledee and Tweedledum to accompany him, even though his telepathy revealed that once Asteroth was dead they planned to kill him and assume Asteroth's place in Gotham's underworld. Etrigan learned about the sacrifice during his own investigations, and found a drunk Hitman on the scene, and told him he was only paying him $5,000 because he thought he'd solved the Asteroth problem himself by sowing discord and turning Asteroth's ally Reverend Frukker against him. Asteroth killed Frukker when he confronted him, using him as the final sacrifice, and as the Gothodaemon rose Hitman renegotiated his contract to $50,000. The risen Gothodaemon spread his madness across Gotham, turning people into homicidal or suicidal maniacs. Hitman noted that the Gothodaemon resembled Batman, and Etrigan replied that such things were not to be discussed. Asteroth was weakened by the ritual, and Etrigan and Hitman used the opportunity to slaughter the Choirboy Commandoes with hellfire and gunfire. Etrigan cornered the weakened Asteroth, mutilating his face and ripping out his tusks while mockingly acting reverent towards an archfiend of Hell. Tweedledee and Tweedledum relished the chaos, cheering on the brutality. The Gothodaemon absorbed Etrigan, planning on feeding off his pain, but the demon was a mere 500 years old, while Etrigan had over 1000,00 years of experience, and after chiding the stripling burned the Gothodaemon alive from the inside out. Etrigan returned to Asteroth and spent hours torturing him before sending him back to Hell. Hitman left St. Jack's when the GCPD arrived, and Tweedledee and Tweedledum were arrested.

Comments: Created by Bob Kane & Don Cameron.

Tweedledum received a profile in Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #24 and Who's Who in the DC Universe #7.