Why Two-Face Is Batman’s Second Greatest Villain

Two-Face busted out of prison in the early ’70s, when DC finally went back to writing Batman like the average reader wasn’t 8, and it was only then that Harvey started showing up with any regularity. It’s impressive that the character became such an iconic Bat-villain with only a handful of comic appearances and exactly zero media adaptations across his first three decades. A big part of that is due to the fact that … 

He’s Got The Best Gimmick Of Any Bat-Villain

Two-Face’s scarred coin was right there in his first appearance, although it was originally a piece of evidence against the criminal who threw acid at his face.

Harvey scratches the coin and flips it to decide if he’ll become a criminal or go to a plastic surgeon, and so was born one of the best gimmicks in comics. In keeping with his new theme, he gets a hideout that’s half pristine and half trashed and uses the coin to decide if he’ll do good or bad deeds. A lot of people in Gotham are like, “Sure, he murdered some people, but he also gave me money, so who’s to say if he’s good or bad?

In the same issue, Harvey feels pretty clever for basing his crime spree on the number two, which no one will ever figure out (he hijacks a two-decker bus, robs a double-feature cinema, etc.). This obsession with twos and flipping coins would grow more ridiculous over the years — at one point, he straps Batman and Robin to a giant penny and flips it over some spikes. His crimes would range from robbing a two-masted ship to stealing the binary codes for nuclear weapons and using them to blackmail the government for $22 million dollars. He could spend months planning out a heist only for his coin to land on the unmarked side at the end and force him to give up to Batman.