The Batrimony is real! BATMAN #50 HITS SHELVES IN TWO WEEKS!
In anticipation of the big event, attached are the final covers for BATMAN #50 and CATWOMAN #1, both on sale 7/4/18, for immediate release. Will the Joker succeed in stopping The Bat and The Cat from finding happiness? Be sure to read BATMAN #50 first, or you’ll spoil the big moment.
BATMAN #50:
It’s the wedding you never thought you’d see! The Batrimony is real as Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle are set to tie the knot in a can’t-miss, extra-length milestone issue that will reshape Gotham City. All their friends (and a few enemies?) will be party to a comic book coupling for the ages. Superstar scribe Tom King officiates the sure-to-be-offbeat nuptials, joined by an all-star lineup of guest classic Bat-artists doffing their hats to the lucky couple in a series of pre-wedding flashback scenes sure to set the romantic mood.
CATWOMAN #1:
The wedding night’s barely over, but Catwoman’s back on the streets, this time to expose a copycat who’s pulling heists around Gotham City. As Selina cracks the whip on her former criminal cohorts, she’s attracting unwanted attention from one of Gotham’s most dangerous groups. The mob? Nope. Try the GCPD. And as if the Bat-Bride didn’t have enough problems, don’t miss the debut of an all-new villain determined to make trouble for all nine of Selina’s lives. Don’t miss the start of an all-new monthly series written and illustrated by Eisner Award-nominee Joëlle Jones!
Replies
Hey -- no chatter here about the actual Batman #50 comic?
I got it on a whim at my friendly neighborhood comics shop. As I have stated a time or two before, I don't follow the Batman books any more because there's too much Bat-Psycho and not enough Bruce Wayne. I have read the Catwoman title for long stretches, but not in many years, either. So I came into it pretty cold. I was aware of the news about the pending nuptials, of course.
Interesting approach, to have half the book be a collection of pinups but slather them with captions to make them part of the narrative. I like the idea, but I'm not sure how much I like the execution. Captions are a trendy but inadequate substitute for thought balloons, and I think they were being asked to do too much here.
In-story, I think it's odd that Batman is getting married with no friends or family around -- no Robin, no Nightwing, no other members of the team, but I gather that Bat-Psycho has chased them all away. It is fitting that he would want Alfred there if nobody else would be.
I think it's really, really dubious to plan on having a drunk judge officiate. There's GOT to be a better, legally binding way to accomplish that than that dumb idea.
And as for Selina's action at the end ... I know we're supposed to think of it as a noble sacrifice, or something, but I just don't buy it.
I posted my thoughts on it at Mart Gray's review, but I'll post them here too, slightly rephrased:
The marketing of this as a wedding issue doesn’t bug me a bit; I don’t think there’s a good way to market a story where someone gets jilted at the altar without giving that part away.* Granted, DC managed to both market it as a wedding issue AND give the ending away, which takes a special kind of stupid. But the initial marketing seems fine with me. If we want surprises with our comics, well — some of those surprises will be unhappy ones.
As for the pinups: I could have used a lot less text on them — particularly a lot less waxing rhapsodic about the other one’s eyes. (I’d have been happy to see more about how they each remember their first meeting, and maybe even some recalling of conversations with Alfred and Holly afterwards, a la Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher in When Harry Met Sally. But the eyes? Puh-leez.
And the final twist? Two reactions:
1) Even as someone who WASN’T spoiled by the New York Times (by virtue of being on vacation, not by some feat of willpower), I was glad to see something that HADN’T been spoiled.
2) I buy it. As much as I can buy any other ridiculous bank-shot necessary for a super-villain to execute his master plan, I can buy Bane setting up all this stuff in order to break Batman. That’s his whole shtick, only this time he’s driving Batman to emotional exhaustion instead of physical exhaustion. It’s preposterous (and there are some parts that I want his orchestration spelled out), but I’m willing to believe — at least for the sake of another two years of comic books I expect to enjoy. If I don’t accept the premise, I’m out, so I’m giving Bane the benefit of the doubt.
(I also didn’t think Catwoman dismissed the Joker’ argument at the end of 49; I thought she was laughing from exhaustion and as a stress release, but not necessarily because what he’s saying was preposterous.)
As for if we’ll ever get a happy Batman? Briefly, I think. The kind of happiness Charlie Brown (no, not Kite-Man, the other one) feels when he knows he’s going to kick the football this time. I thought King was planning to tell a different story, one where Batman was married. But I don’t think being married to a compulsive thief is something that would make him happy for long, no matter her other good qualities. And THAT’s the story I wanted to see.
We’ll see if I get it down the line.
*In talking to my retailer today, he said that DC was encouraging stores to buy wedding cakes, hire cosplayers, etc. They've since made every bit of marketing/advertising costs about any Batman #50 events they had reimbursable via their advertising co-op program. He also said there was a chance that the book itself would become returnable. As my LCS owner told me, he sold about half of his order, which is what he expected to sell in this first week. But he expected people would be walking in for a while to buy the book where Batman gets married...and that just ain't gonna happen.
They should make it returnable. Otherwise, DC has it's money and the retailers get screwed.
Did anyone really think the marriage would be for keeps?
Some changes stick. Superman's marriage did -- and even reasserted itself after a few years without it.
But most of them don't. I didn't think Batman and Catwoman would stay married forever...but I could see the marriage, and what happened afterward to bring about its conclusion, being part of his story for a long time.
Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) said:
Um ... what? What did Bane have to do with anything? Likewise, The Joker? (Like I said, I haven't been following the Batman titles.)
Richard Willis said:
Well, no ... but I did think we'd get two years' worth of stories about why it was a match made in Hell before it was wiped away in the next Infinite Final Identity Crisis at Zero Hour on the Brightest Day after the Darkest Night.
And I did think there would be a wedding.
I guess I'm old, but I didn't care whether Batman got married or not. Whether he does or doesn't, it's not permanent. So I'm just looking at the story. Is it good or not?
I thought it was outrageously good through Batman #47. I mean, I'd never seen it so good. So I was really happy.
Then came Batman #48-49, and I thought, "wow, this might be the worst Batman-Joker story I've ever read." I mean, really? Batman's going to fall on his knees and pray because the Joker threatens to kill himself? Honestly, that's the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Not just comic book stupid, but stupid in any situation, anywhere. So Joker can render Batman irrelevant in any situation by holding a gun to his own head?
Jesus, Batman, do I need to point out to you, or anybody reading this, how ridiculous and pathetic and crazy that is?
After that, I couldn't read any more without distancing myself. The next issue was two people dying, who chit-chatted instead of, you know, trying not to die. Then there was the non-wedding, where Catwoman suddenly began to think about the things THE REST OF THE WORLD WAS THINKING ABOUT SINCE THE ENGAGEMENT.
So, you know, I'm not impressed. It was really good until Batman #48, though.
CK, the last page of Batman 50 implied that Bane has been manipulating Batman & Catwoman, orchestrating the engagement just to spur Catwoman into breaking it off. It's ridiculous -- there are some people we see working with him that really merit an explanation as to why -- but I'm willing to buy it, with a little explanation. (And Psycho Pirate & the Medusa Mask are involved, so mind control & direct emotional manipulation are on the table.)
As for the Joker, Cap explains what happened to a certain extend up above. He attacked a wedding, confounds Batman in an absolutely baffling way (holding the gun to his own head, Blazing Saddles-style...although again, throw in the Medusa Mask and I can see it working), and then devoted the next issue to a conversation between Joker and Catwoman as the both tried not to bleed to death. And his argument was basically that by making Batman happy, Catwoman would also be making him ineffective, or unwilling to be Batman.
“Hey -- no chatter here about the actual Batman #50 comic?”
Here’s what I posted last week:
“I hadn’t heard that there was a spoiler published in the NYT until Cap mentioned it on Monday. I could think of only one thing it could possibly be. Then, on Tuesday, inspired by Richard Mantle, I looked it up. Yup. That was it. (It’s spoiled in the headline, BTW, so be sure you really want to know before you look.) The cover of Batman #50 identifies it as an “Extra-Sized Anniversary Issue,” but it doesn’t specify what number anniversary or anniversary of what. I can only assume it refers to the usual (incorrect) “comic book” definition of the term.”
I read the above discussion, too, and I don’t really have anything to add except…
“Did anyone really think the marriage would be for keeps?”
Isn’t that like saying, “Did anyone really expect a comic book to tell an adult story with status quo altering ramifications?”?
I guess not. But as Rob pointed out, Superman’s marriage lasted and Batman’s could have played out for months if not years to come before the reset button was finally, ultimately pushed.