Batman & Robin "The Big Burn" question

[JAG2045]

I recently re-read Peter Tomasi's "Batman & Robin: The Big Burn" (Batman and Robin (vol. 2) #24-28, Batman and Robin Annual #2) and there were some changes made to Two-Face during it:

1. Rather than having acid thrown in his face during a trial he was now disfigured in his office by the McKillen sisters after they murder Gilda
2. Two-Face is aware Batman is Bruce Wayne
3. The story ends with Two-Face committing suicide

Was any of this ever addressed in subsequent issues? Obviously the suicide was retconned because Two-Face has since turned up alive and well and he doesn't (AFAIK) know Batman's secret ID. Was this intended to be Two-Face's final appearance? Or was it canon until Rebirth?

[charliehustle415]

I recently re-read Peter Tomasi's "Batman & Robin: The Big Burn" (Batman and Robin (vol. 2) #24-28, Batman and Robin Annual #2) and there were some changes made to Two-Face during it:

1. Rather than having acid thrown in his face during a trial he was now disfigured in his office by the McKillen sisters after they murder Gilda
2. Two-Face is aware Batman is Bruce Wayne
3. The story ends with Two-Face committing suicide

Was any of this ever addressed in subsequent issues? Obviously the suicide was retconned because Two-Face has since turned up alive and well and he doesn't (AFAIK) know Batman's secret ID. Was this intended to be Two-Face's final appearance? Or was it canon until Rebirth?

That was a great New 52 arc; Tomasi has been writing Detective Comics and had Two-Face in a arc and I don't think it was ever addressed.

I'm going to assume that future writers are going to hand wave it away by saying Dr. Manhattan and the whole Rebirth shenanigans did it, very similar to Jason Todd's return by cosmic punch.

[PurpleGlovez]

Tomasi addresses all these questions in a recent Two-Face story arc in Detective Comics (forget the title or issue numbers). Though via flashback he erronously has Big Burn take place during Death of the Family, while it originally took place after Damian's death. Basically, Tomasi has it so that he remembers Batman's identity as Harvey Dent but not Two-Face. Other writers ignore this but it was referenced in Snyder's All-Star Batman.

And his origin is switched back to the classic Maroni version in James Robinson's short Detective run.

[charliehustle415]

Tomasi addresses all these questions in a recent Two-Face story arc in Detective Comics (forget the title or issue numbers). Though via flashback he erronously has Big Burn take place during Death of the Family, while it originally took place after Damian's death. Basically, Tomasi has it so that he remembers Batman's identity as Harvey Dent but not Two-Face. Other writers ignore this but it was referenced in Snyder's All-Star Batman.

And his origin is switched back to the classic Maroni version in James Robinson's short Detective run.

But doesn't Snyder's All Star take place during the New 52 and if his origin is the Maroni version then how can the Big burn happen at all?

[PurpleGlovez]

All-Star was Rebirth. And yeah, that's just comics for you. We now have to imagine some modified version of The Big Burn's events took place. For all practical purposes the only continuity DC has right now is whatever each writer feels like referencing.

[charliehustle415]

All-Star was Rebirth. And yeah, that's just comics for you. We now have to imagine some modified version of The Big Burn's events took place. For all practical purposes the only continuity DC has right now is whatever each writer feels like referencing.

True, hopefully after this Metal event things get straitened out. What's even weirder is that Tomasi is the writer for both arcs and even he couldn't iron it out.

[Restingvoice]

True, hopefully after this Metal event things get straitened out. What's even weirder is that Tomasi is the writer for both arcs and even he couldn't iron it out.

If Big Burn happened but Maroni was the origin, then Two-Face and McKillen had a different beef

Couldn't or doesn't want to? Sometimes they just don't wanna deal with the confusion