"What's the most you ever lost on a coin toss?" That's not an exact Harvey Dent quote, but he's probably said things close to that, and we just got done re-watching No Country For Old Men. That Anton Chigurh, eh? Chilling. The most memorable villain to ever spring from the Coen Brothers' minds might have been without his most infamous affectation, however, were it not for the influence of Two-Face. A member of Batman's rogues gallery since the Dark Knight's introduction in the forties, the former District Attorney was disfigured with acid by a disgruntled gang member, forcing him to bring his now twisted former on justice down on Gotham City. He also has either a neat tailor or is a dab hand at the sewing machine to produce all of those half-and-half suits that he wears. And they perfectly align with the split between the scarred and normal sides of his face! Quite the skill. Like The Joker, Poison Ivy and the rest of the Batman's best villains, Harvey Dent is a bundle of quirks, gimmicks and idiosyncrasies that add up to make one colourful, memorable bad guy. Or anti-hero. Depends how he's feeling that day. He has those suits, white on one side and dark on the other; there's his tragic past, where once he was aligned with the likes of Commissioner Gordon and Bruce Wayne; but most of all there's Two-Face's method of meting out justice at the flip of a scratched coin, the result of which decides his victims' fate. DC Comics would not leave such momentous decisions to chance. As such a visible part of the Batman mythos - especially given his appearance in the Dark Knight film, played with panache and suitable gravitas by Aaron Eckhart - they've done their best to keep a consistent, singular version of the character on the page. The guy with the coin, the twisted anti-hero, trapped forever in his dual identities. Which means having to put aside a lot of Harvey Dent's sixty year history. Here's ten things DC Comics would rather you forget about Two-Face.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
