"What's the most you've ever lost on a coin toss?" (In the audience, Harvey Dent roars "YEAH!")

I wonder if Ty actually flipped any coins writing this one. I also wonder if the creative teams felt obligated, 22nd issue, have to trot out Two-Face: they did in the prior series for Batman Adventures #22, then again here, but not for the next series, Batman: Gotham Adventures #22. From 1997, Batman and Robin Adventures #22, "Fifty fifty" Written by Ty Templeton, pencils by Brandon Kruse, inks by Terry Beatty.

Two-Face is busted from an Arkham prison van, against his will; which doesn't trouble him nearly as much as losing his coin in the getaway. Batman and Robin are puzzled, since the escape was on Harvey's third visit to a skin-graft clinic, on a Friday at 9:45...nothing seems to add up there. In a mob bar, Two-Face is forced to make do with a mere quarter, scratching one side of it; when his benefactor arrives: "Little" Jonni Infantino, a third-rate mobster. Infantino had been having trouble with a rival, but knew when Harvey had been district attorney, he had built a case against that rival, that went nowhere without Harvey's notes. Flipping the coin, the scratched side comes up, and Two-Face refuses to help. Infantino then threatens Harvey's ex, Grace Lamont; but the scratched side comes up again, and he still refuses to help.

Consulting with Harvey's doctor, Batman comes to the conclusion that he had been abducted; and the doctor assures him Harvey's only remaining friends, Bruce Wayne and Grace Lamont, were in no danger; even as Infantino heads to Grace's house. Two-Face then gets away from Infantino's goons, sacrificing his quarter to call and warn Grace. Then, furious, he smashes the pay phone open to recover the quarter, but is then recaptured. Grace does get out, calling Bruce Wayne for help: claiming to be out-of-town, Batman has Alfred pick her up, then waits at Grace's house, to beat up Infantino. Robin figures he was dumb enough to have kept Harvey at his own bar, and they go to rescue him--except the coin turns on them, as Harvey cracks them both with a chair! A goon wants to make his rep by killing them while they're down, but the coin turns up unscarred again, and Two-Face takes a bullet to save them.

With the unscarred side again showing on the ground, Two-Face gives them the info to put the rival mobster away too, before complaining for his old coin back: "This one's a pain." Read more!