BATMAN/CATWOMAN Will Take Place In Three Time Periods, Including One Set After The Dark Knight's Demise

BATMAN/CATWOMAN Will Take Place In Three Time Periods, Including One Set After The Dark Knight's Demise

Tom King is finally returning to the Caped Crusader's corner of the DC Universe with this December's Batman/Catwoman #1, and we now have more information about what to expect from the maxiseries...

By JoshWilding - Sep 11, 2020 04:09 AM EST
Filed Under: DC Comics
Source: DC Comics

Tom King and Clay Mann's Batman/Catwoman maxiseries now has a confirmed release date of December 1st, with the DC Comics Black Label imprint promising to pick up with the romance between Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. King heavily focused on their relationship during his Batman run, but this 12-issue title (which will be followed by a one-shot next June) looks to be grander in scale than first expected.

Exploring three different eras, we'll follow these characters in the past when they first met, the present day, and eighty years into a future where the Dark Knight is dead. 

In the past, we pick up with "The Bat and The Cat [when they] first fell in love. Did they meet on the street? Or was it on a boat? Rooftops, ramparts and gargoyles, and over 80 years of fans that have read their comics, are their only witnesses."

As for the present day, "Bruce and Selina’s union is threatened by the arrival of one of Batman’s past flings, Andrea Beaumont, a.k.a. Phantasm. Beaumont’s return calls into question how each character chooses to operate in their costumed, and personal, lives, and any move by Phantasm could change the fate of Bruce and Selina’s future."

Then, "There’s the distant future, where after a long and happy marriage Bruce Wayne has passed away. Selina Kyle decides to settle an old score without having to worry about the Batman objecting. Catwoman is serving a very cold dish: Revenge."

This all sounds pretty epic, and it's great that King is finally getting the opportunity to end his run the way they wanted. However, with less of a focus on continuity in the DC Universe, we don't know how much of an impact this will all end up having on the other Batman titles currently on sale.

Check out some cover art below:
 

BatCat2

BatCat
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DoubleD
DoubleD - 9/11/2020, 4:37 AM
OT..... Hulk 911 background is AWESOME looking holding the American flag. "Strongest One There Is"
GwenLantern
GwenLantern - 9/11/2020, 4:50 AM
This sounds like it will more than make up for Batman #50. A 12-issue penance if you will.

Don't know what DC have against continuity, though.

Dan Didio's entire tenure was founded on the notion that continuity gets in the way of creativity (and the second he decided to create a more solid aligned continuity, he was fired for it).
Now Walter Hamada's policy of throwing shit at a wall and seeing what sticks has been made official (at Fandome, recently) with the multiverse as an excuse for not having to think about continuity.

But I believe that continuity does matter. You don't get a passionate, dedicated fan-base without creating a cohesive reality and a continuity that they can follow.

And I fear that these will prove to be very testing times for DC in general and that now more than ever they need to bring their A-game. They need to create a new audience. To build something from the ground up, with a very clear starting point. It's needs to be welcoming to new fans. Something in which everything counts.

I'd say they need continuity right now.

Let's hope they have something workable for after Death Metal, where suddenly everything counts again and makes sense again and is cohesive.
AbidNaga
AbidNaga - 9/11/2020, 4:51 AM
I dont know about this. I love Tom Kings writing on smaller projects, but his Batman... oof and I'm assuming this is just a continuation of his run to #100.

I'm not sure I can stomach another round of "bat" and "cat"

Reeds2Much
Reeds2Much - 9/11/2020, 4:56 AM
Did they meet on the street? Or was it on a boat?

With a goat? In the rain? On a train? In the dark? In a tree? What will their love's origin be?
GhostDog
GhostDog - 9/11/2020, 5:04 AM
@Reeds2Much - I am with Selina, the street
GwenLantern
GwenLantern - 9/11/2020, 5:06 AM
@BlackBeltJones - I mean it was neither really. The boat was pre-Crisis Earth 2 in the '40s and the street was post-Crisis New Earth in the '80s. Neither meeting should count anymore.
GhostDog
GhostDog - 9/11/2020, 5:07 AM
@GwenLantern - I know, but I’m just with Selina because I prefer how they met on the street to the boat. Simply as a fan
GhostDog
GhostDog - 9/11/2020, 5:07 AM
I mostly liked King’s Batman but it was some of the arcs that annoyed me. A few serious swing and misses. The I Am Gotham arc was boring as hell for example.
tmp3
tmp3 - 9/11/2020, 6:03 AM
@BlackBeltJones - King works better on minis than ongoings, imo
xfactor
xfactor - 9/11/2020, 5:18 AM
This is not good news. Tom kings run on Batman was boring as [frick]. Why would dc recruit him for another bat title??
GwenLantern
GwenLantern - 9/11/2020, 5:53 AM
@xfactor - They didn't. They fired him from his original bat-book and then found a way to monetise his already partially finished work.

Interestingly enough, this would have been the original story culminating in Batman #100, the replaced him with James Tynion (who has been doing pretty good work) for the build-up to Batman #100 where he would pass the reigns to John Ridley. Then they fired Ridley, changed the story again and decided to keep Tynion on indefinitely after #100. And in order to monetise Ridley's partially finished work, their printing his story as a mini-series next year!

So there are actually three separate versions of Batman #100 that we will be seeing soon:

1. The King Cut (Batman/Catwoman).

2. The Ridley Cut (Untitled Luke Fox/Batman mini-series).

3. The Tynion Cut (Batman #100).

Alphadog
Alphadog - 9/11/2020, 6:05 AM
@GwenLantern - honestly I don't think Tynion's run will be memorable. What's he doing with Batman that is important to the character?
xfactor
xfactor - 9/11/2020, 6:06 AM
@GwenLantern - that is absolutely insane. So I guess since variant covers aren’t selling like that anymore, offer three different versions of the same issue? Ridiculous
GwenLantern
GwenLantern - 9/11/2020, 6:36 AM
@xfactor - heh, pretty much, this is where we could be headed. I blame the Snyder Cut.

@Alphadog - His schtick is to create new villains (that will promptly be discarded by other writers). Like Batman doesn't already have a billion different villains that nobody ever uses. I'd settle for just telling good stories.
99OPTIMISTPRIME
99OPTIMISTPRIME - 9/11/2020, 5:35 AM

The Phantasm's actually listed as a villain online, so Tom King may not even try to make her redeemable. If King portrays Andrea as a formidable antagonist, and avoid the low hanging fruit of making her the crazy jealous ex, then that would be pretty nice. DC Comics' continuity is probably forever screwed-up, so canon doesn't matter as much as it used to. Jeph Loeb basically created his own Batman canon, which other writers incorporated into the main canon. Tom King is attempting to do the same thing.
marvel72
marvel72 - 9/11/2020, 5:42 AM
I don't know if this is a good idea or not. He is a good writer sometimes but his Batman run was pretty bad overall.

The hype of the Bruce and Selina wedding in issue 50,then they didn't get married.

James Tynion run on Batman is great at the moment he has introduced lots of new characters with Punchline being the best.
patgreyc
patgreyc - 9/11/2020, 5:43 AM
Please, no more Tom King on Batman. His suicidal Batman idea.......ugh.
GwenLantern
GwenLantern - 9/11/2020, 5:56 AM
@patgreyc - Oh I loved that. I thought that was so astute.
patgreyc
patgreyc - 9/11/2020, 6:06 AM
@GwenLantern - I mean, its not wrong or outside the realm of possibility for a man that lost his whole family to violence committed in front of him. Its just that his burning sense of justice and vengeance has been such a driving narrative force over 80 years that it feels off, like this is the kind of man who would fight to his dying breath to stop evil, not someone who would contemplate killing himself first before getting revenge.
GwenLantern
GwenLantern - 9/11/2020, 6:43 AM
@patgreyc - Right, yeah I can see that him contemplating actual suicide makes less sense than vengeance and fury. But I love the metaphor that, in his despair, he threw himself into his mission of vengeance and justice. And that's a kind of suicide because any real, sane version of himself leading a life with actual desires and dreams would never exist.
He committed so fully to how he was feeling that it's almost like he committed suicide.
But I also see your point and agree somewhat.
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