Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: Batman, batwedding, catwoman, clay mann, dc comics, Tom King

Tom King Finally Gives Batman And Catwoman What He Promised (Spoilers)

Tom King

Spoilers for Batman/Catwoman #12 going ahead. But then you probably guessed that. Tom King has said that his run on Batman, from 2016 to 2019, was the story of Batman and Catwoman. A year into his run, with Batman #24, he specifically got David Finch to draw this proposal scene, even firing his own editor, to do so. The huge sales that Batman was enjoying gave Tom King far more power than he might otherwise have enjoyed at DC Comics. He was untouchable.

The halfway point in what was planned as a hundred-plus issue run, was marked by their wedding – or rather a lack of it.

Selina Kyle was persuaded against it by her best friend, Holly Robinson, being manipulated by Bane and the Psycho Pirate, as a way to break Bruce Wayne. It kinda worked.

But Tom King stated that he had a big change to Batman that  had to ask the bosses at Warner Bros and AT&T about, when this storyline was the original plan for the ongoing Batman seriest. And he got it.

However, the dream-arc Knightmares saw sales on Batman start to slip, and it was enough for DC Comics Editor-In-Chief Bob Harras and Publisher Dan DiDio to take advantage of, able to fire Tom King off the book with Batman #85 in 2019, a story broken by Bleeding Cool, with James Tynion IV brought in to fill in on the book for a year until Batman #100 reboot into Batman #1 with Jace or Tim Fox as the 5G Batman going forward written by John Ridley. Or that was the plan before both DiDio and Harras were also fired. So in their final issue of Batman, Tom King, Mikel Janin and friends, recalled the wedding that wasn't.

And in Batman #85 wondered if that drunkard judge is still available. No. But here's the thing. It may have been official, but it would not have been a legal ceremony anyway. Too many secret identities to hold.

From here on in, as far as Tom King was concerned, to all intents and purposes, Batman and Catwoman, Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle, were married. They just didn't need a piece of paper to say so. And that was Tom King's present to Batman fans. However, with Tom King jettisoned from the Batbooks, Batman and Catwoman split up. Indeed, Bleeding Cool has recently run gossip as to who Selina Kyle will be sleeping with next. 

As a sop, Tom King was given the Batman/Catwoman mini-series by DC Comics with his artist companion from Batman and Heroes In Crisis, Clay Mann, as a place to run his planned Batman storyline to its conclusion. Its place in continuity probably wouldn't be an issue as 5G was about to hit, changing everything, and giving us a new DC Comics Timeline.

The book was late, very later, with Liam Sharp drafted in to draw a couple of issues in what seems to have been a labour-busting move, and against Clay Mann's wishes.  The Batman/Catwoman Special, designed to sit between the two arcs, was drawn by John Paul Leon, who died while drawing the book, completed later by his friends and colleagues. The book has had a troubled history, and a story that was originally meant to have begun at the beginning of 2020 and finished later that year, is now seeing its final issue published two years after that.

The comic book has shown us three time periods, adventures when Batman and Catwoman were young, the present day and the future after Bruce Wayne's death, including Selina Kyle killing the Joker. With Christmas as a common factor with Christmas carols showing the passing of time, and seasons. And this week Batman/Catwoman #12 shows just where Tom King was heading.

Batman and Catwoman were going to get married properly. I say, properly, it would have been in the Gotham equivalent of a Las Vegas Elvis Wedding Chapel. A Batman Wedding Chapel.

Who could be going on about hope? Who count as family? And could be here in a second?

Lois and Clark, who dressed for the occasion in the seconds it took as well. Note Clark Kent in is the red, blue and yellow. Tom King and Clay Mann famously gave them a double date in Batman #37 at a cosplay funfair where they ended up dressing as each other.

And during which they talked about Bruce Wayne's then-engagement to Selina Kyle, and Clark Kent's marriage to Lois Lane.

Just talking, drinking, eating ice cream and playing baseball.

It may be one of my favourite superhero stories ever.

And so, in this final issue of Batman by Tom King and Clay Man, Batman/Catwoman #12,  they get to do a sequel.

And Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle get to use the words they have been holding back for years.

Batman and Catwoman, Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle, married officially, legally and definitively. Now, Batman/Catwoman may no longer be part of the planned DC Comics continuity. But as long as no one is saying anything… well, let's just say it's going to make a scene with Valmont in upcoming Batman and Catwoman comic books a little on the awkward side. But just as Killing Joke wasn;t published in continuity but made such an impact that it was retconned in, might this story also be reabsorbed into the non-5G DC Universe? After all, as Infinite frontier told us, everything counts and everything matters…

BATMAN CATWOMAN #12 (OF 12) CVR A CLAY MANN (MR)
(W) Tom King (A/CA) Clay Mann
Wedding bells are finally ringing for Batman and Catwoman! As our story concludes, the lovers prepare to take the next steps in their lives together by trading everlasting vows. The Bat/Cat wedding is here, and knowing Bruce and Selina, it'll be anything but conventional. You won't want to miss this final chapter of Tom King's Batman epic!
Retail: $4.99 In-Store Date: 06/28/2022

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