And here you thought there was nothing that could top last week's comeback for Extraño.

Yes, 2016 has been a pretty amazing year for people who love obscure and forgotten DC Comics characters (read: me), but this week, the Rebirth era got its most shocking return yet. As Batman and Two-Face continued their road trip upstate in the pages of All-Star Batman, beset on all sides by assassins, arch-villains, and other assorted ne'er-do-wells, they run straight into one of the most unexpected characters in a long time --- and no, I'm not talking about KGBeast. That dude came back last month. This one's even weirder.

 

All-Star Batman #3, DC Comics
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That's right, everybody: Harold Allnut is back!

For those of you who were left scratching your heads at his appearance and want to know pretty much everything there was to know about him before this Wednesday, you can find a detailed history of the character here.

The short version, though, is that Harold --- introduced in 1989 by Denny O'Neil, Alan Grant, and Norm Breyfogle --- was a mute mechanic suffering from Kyphosis who ended up living in the Batcave and building Batman's high-tech gadgets for most of the '90s. Considering that he couldn't talk and never left the cave, this was not the best possible answer for, "Hey, who builds the Batmobile?" and only ended up raising more questions about the morality of keeping your mechanic locked up in your basement until 1999.

Scott Snyder and John Romita Jr.'s take, on the other hand, fixes a lot of those problems. By removing him from the isolation of the Batcave and making him more communicative --- with some nifty letting tricks to represent sign language --- Harold seems like more of a character and less of an indentured servant.

Also, for those of you keeping score at home, this means that at least one part of Hush --- the story in which Harold was killed by the title villain --- is no longer in Rebirth-era continuity.

 

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