Two Face

For centuries mankind has been fascinated by the duality of human nature. Light and darkness. Yin and yang. Good and evil. The balance between these forces in our lives and the eternal conflict between them will baffle philosophers forever.

Should we be surprised that the only man in total balance is totally unbalanced? For him, good and evil always have an equal likelihood. It all comes down to a flip of a coin.

Harvey Dent wanted law, order, structure, balance. As Gotham City's crusading District Attorney, the mission of D.A. Dent, Commissioner Gordon, and Batman was tearing a wide swath through the crime in Gotham. Dent was after justice. His second self was always there, though. Ruthless and driven, Dent went so far as to ask Batman to plant evidence on felons, or even go so far as to murder them. Dent was going over the edge by inches, and needed some way to prove himself.

Boss Maroni seemed like an easy mark, an airtight case. But Maroni was even more desperate than Dent, willing to exact a wicked vengeance before a packed courtroom. While on the stand, Maroni flung a vial of acid onto D.A. Dent's handsome face...a description which would never fit the left side again.

What did the shock of that event do to Dent? Quite possibly, being jarred totally dislodged the grip his good intentions had on the evil, and the two conflicting sides battled until an equilibrium was reached. Maybe the evil tried to take over entirely, but the good was too strong to completely fall. Whatever the case, there were now two men ...compassionate Harvey Dent and the vicious Two-Face. Which one would it be? The coin would decide.

Whether it be kidnapping a set of twins or stealing a dual-engine jet, Two Face is obsessed with the number two. The more ways he can work twos into his crime, the happier he'll be. His dream crime might be theft of twin diamonds worth two million from the Twin Cities at 2:22 on February 2. That's the predictable side of Two-Face, the one constant which will always appear. It's this immutable trait which will often lead Batman right to Two Face's doorstep - probably a duplex at 22 Deuce Street.

But the coin, that's where everything goes wild. Good and evil are decided by the flip of the coin. Should Two-face kill this security guard? The coin flips, scarred side up, and Two-Face fires two shots from his double-barreled shotgun.     Batman is caught by Two-Face's men-should he live? The coin comes up whole, and Batman is set free. The coin makes every moral decision in Two-Face's life. Every time that piece of silver flies it's a cliffhanger, and lives are literally in the balance.

The Dark Knight Returns shows a possible future where corrective surgery restores Harvey Dent's handsome face...but not his sanity. Dent is one of the few men Batman ever called friend. Will the good Harvey Dent ever return?

Only the coin will decide.