He was Harvey Dent, Gotham City's crusading district attorney and one the Batman's closest allies until an act of vengeance changed everything. With the left side of his face horribly deformed, Dent's mind shattered. One half of his personality remained the law-abiding D.A., the other a crazed, murderous villain who calls himself Two-Face. Scarring one side of his "lucky" two-headed silver dollar. the criminal allows the coin to choose his actions - good or evil, there is nothing else...

Batman vs. Two-Face collects together ten Two-Face based stories that were originally printed between 1941-2007. Reprinted here are tales from Detective Comics issues #66, 68, 80, 187, Batman #81, 234, 527 and 528, 653, Batman: Black and White #1, plus Two-Face's origin story from Countdown #29.

Gotham City is plagued with crime and corruption in places high and low, but one man has taken a stand against evil in all its forms: the dark avenger known as Batman.

Perhaps the most tragic villain in the Dark Knight's world, the scarred, duality-obsessed maniac known as Two-Face was once District Attorney Harvey Dent, one of Batman's allies and Bruce Wayne's close friends until he was scarred with acid, losing his sanity in the process. Now, his origin is retold along with some of the greatest battles with Batman - most often as an enemy, but sometimes, as a friend.

It was interesting to see that the first three classic stories reprinted here have Harvey Dent going by a different name; Harvey Kent. There's no explanation in this collection as to why his name was changed, but I'd guess it was to stop confusion between this character and Superman's Clark Kent.

On a slight nit-picking point, it was amusing to see the story Half an Evil (from 1971) had a flashback to the events that happened in 1952's The Double Crimes of Two-Face in order to illustrate Two-Faces's evil past. However, the Two-Face in The Double Crimes of Two-Face was actually an impersonator, so it seemed a little odd to include that in the later story. Looks like someone didn't quite do their research properly when working on the 1971 tale.

This collection has something for everyone, and I have to admit that I found the old tales as enjoyable as the more modern stories.

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Nick Smithson