NS: New York Times Article Spoils Batman #50

[history79]

"The answers to the questions are found in letters the couple have written to each other before their wedding day. Mr. Wayne’s correspondence reveals an acceptance of Ms. Kyle, who in her time has been a jewel thief, a villain, an antihero and a mob boss. “You’re not someone who can be figured out. Or solved. And never will be,” he declares. He also writes that he can be “more than a boy whose parents are dead,” that he can be “the man who loves you. Who will always try to love you better.”

Ms. Kyle’s letter lays out the truth as she sees it: “You’re still a child, Bruce. A hurt child.” Their happiness, she speculates, would kill Batman, who rescues everyone and turns pain into hope. “How can I do that,” she writes. “To save the world, heroes make sacrifices.”

In order to keep countless innocents safe, she concludes that she cannot marry Mr. Wayne. “My sacrifice is my life. It’s you.”

In the final moments of their story, the bride and groom end up at different locations in the early morning hours. In a silent page, Ms. Kyle sits on a rooftop, contemplating. She discards her veil and leaps toward the street. At the Finger Tower skyscraper, after an hour of waiting for his bride, Mr. Wayne realizes she is not coming. He throws off his tie and takes a similar leap, but in the opposite direction. Theirs is a story that is forever to be continued."

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/01/fashion/weddings/it-just-wasnt-meant-to-be-batman.html

Comments

[informationgeek]

I have only one thing to say in response to New York Times & DC spoiling this and this decision in general.

[joetuss]

Fuck.

[mizerous]

Shit.

[obsidianwolf]

So I'm really not surprised at all, Not about the resolution of the story, the asinine reasons given for the ending or for DC spoiling the whole mess.

The only good thing is that anyone who really wanted to see the wedding is now forewarned not to buy the issue though it really sucks for the stores who bought a lot of copies.

[tcampbell1000]

I'm only surprised in the sense that I thought the marriage might last a year or so of real comics time before getting to a conclusion like this. But the previous issue really pointed in this direction, and the fact that this series is written by Tom King means heartbreak and depression have to be somewhere on the menu. In fairness, King's brand of heartbreak is more character-driven than your typical late-1990s fridging.

It's hard for me to decide what I think of King's approach. Stuff like MISTER MIRACLE and VISION is great, and he's done a lot with Batman I enjoy. But it seems like he... tries too hard, sometimes? Like, I don't think there is an inarguably truthful reason why Bruce and Selina can't be together that can just be presented in the form of a single elegant speech balloon that makes everyone say "Oh damn, of course, this shatters all my preconceptions and makes me sad, but I guess this is just how it has to be." I don't think life's that simple. But King seems to think it is, and he just has to figure out what that one speech balloon is. Maybe "he can't be happy and also be Batman?" Sounds profound, let's go with that.

I know a little something about how rewarding it can be to challenge yourself creatively. And I know what happens when you set the bar too high and get to believing that lowering it makes you a failure. I really like the power of King's simple style when it works, which is often, but I'd like it even better if I felt like he accepted that some things, you can't handle simply.

[michaelsaint]

(Facepalm)

[thanekos]

Somewhere, someone's won a betting pool.

[goattoucher]

A lot of people.

With the current trend toward -ending- marriages, who seriously thought that Bruce and Selena (or Kitty and Piotr) would actually -get- married?

To the man-child that is the average comic reader, marriage is not an beginning, but an ending. The end of their pet character getting down with a variety of sexy ladies. The end of their Waifu seeming available.

The end of freedom.

For the writers, it is the end of romantic tension. It is a permanent character change that limits what they can and cannot write. They hate this, so no element of continuity outlasts the current writer any more.

This refusal to let characters grow (on the part of the writers and readers, and the editors whose imperative, above all, is to sell comics) is why the quality of these comics is going down, in my opinion.

We saw some growth in the late 90's and 2000's, but the boss guys of the Big Two (Quesada and Johns) actively reversed character development in favor of older continuity, and our choice has been to get on the trolley or get lost.

Which is why my primary source of comics is SD.

[an_idol_mind]

I mean, that's pretty much my problem with mainstream comics in a nutshell.

EDIT: To whine about this further...

1) DC spends a whole ton of time trying to build up a big character-changing event, only to wuss out and ensure that nothing changes at all. The story has no stakes, which leaves me wondering if it was worth telling.

2) Bruce Wayne isn't a child. While he's a bit messed up, he's shown the ability to think and reason on an adult level, both emotionally and intellectually. The idea that a childhood trauma keeps somebody a child is not a good rabbit hole to go down.

3) Again the BS that heroes aren't really heroic if they don't make sacrifices. This gets trotted all over superhero comics, and it really sucks. Sorry everybody who's ever done something heroic without seeing their parents get shot by a mugger - you're not real heroes.

[janegray]

So much word to all of these.

[owlbrigade1]

DC going for the 2018 "most predictable twist" award again? Frankly it would have been a bigger twist if they'd actually gone through with it.

[coldfury]

Yeah, this ending is just a huge waste of time. There wasn't even a good story that showed her coming to this realization. This entire thing is just a waste now.

Batman & Catwoman getting married, that would've been bold. That would've driven the story to new places. This is boring, stale, and it makes everything that comes before it lesser for existing. Poor move, DC. Poor move.

[spider_man6]

Well that's just great!

Really, I was REALLY hoping that DC could circumvent Marvel's bait and switch with the X-Wedding, but no, they've got to just go and do the exact same things, spoil in in the New York Times TO SAY IT ISN'T HAPPENING.

I mean, it feels realistic as to why Catwoman says no (and more than Kitty and Peter's rushed decision) given that we had more time to prepare, but after all the buildup, I kind of feel cheated. This also feels like only one of DC's currently questionable decisions post-Rebirth, and I'm not a fan of it. (Like Robin going back to killing, for instance).

I'm just hoping that Bendis' Superman, the New Justice titles, and what else comes next can prove to be amazing.

[zachbeacon]

I have faith in King's abilities as a storyteller and will continue to read his run ... digitally ... when its on sale.

(Astro City is the only thing since Flashpoint that I still buy in print)

However I hope all of those "Prelude to the Wedding" One-shots are returnable for retailers because they just became worthless.

[icon_uk]

Worthless? You'll pry the prettiest Dick Grayson has been in years (In Nightwing vs Hush) out of my cold dead hands!

And Selina and Damian's interactions in his special were lovely.

[cypherfdp]

Thanks to the NYT for saving me some wasted time

[bradygirl_12]

Thanks to the NYT for saving me some wasted time.

Thanks also to DC! I was planning to go down to my LCS and buy Batman #50. Now I won't bother. They saved me some bucks. I don't see myself buying a wedding issue with no wedding.

I always hate spoilers, but I would've hated to buy this issue and find out no wedding. I would have felt cheated. I wonder how many people cancelled this issue off their pull lists.

Casual fans? I doubt they buy a wedding issue with no wedding, too.

[cyberghostface]

It's really obnoxious how the 'Big Two' does stuff like this. I still remember how they spoiled the end of USM before it came out. And if I cared at all about Spencer's Captain America having the culmination of his run spoiled ahead of time would probably annoy me as well.

[crinos]

Okay seriously, why do comic creators hate marriage so fucking much?

Between this, Lois and Clark's marriage being deleted in the new 52, One More Day, someone really has it out for marriage in comics.

I mean come the fuck on.

[locuatico]

You know? if this isn't some trolling from DC, then what annoys me is not even that they are not married, but how much they wasted everyone's time (and money...)

[locuatico]

oh! you mean i don't have to give King's latter half of the run the benefit of "well, at least he married Bruce and Selina"? Great, aweome: everything after the fight with Bane has been downhill.

[speedingtortoise]

Well now I'm just sad :(

[lordultimus]

Ummm... At least Satan wasn't involved?

[alicemacher]

That'll be the next issue. :-I

[beyondthefringe]

Fuck all of this.

Fuck DC and Tom King for wasting a year's worth of issues on a storyline that doesn't even have the guts to go through with its potential, and which ended up spinning its wheels just so it could happen in #50, and which necessitated, somehow, a bunch of one-shots ahead of time which were equally pointless.

Fuck everyone involved for then proceeding to SPOIL the goddamned resolution days before it came out, just to make sure that not only was this a waste of time, but we don't even get the enjoyment of being at all surprised or satisfied.

As a reader, I feel rather letdown by everything involving this entire mess.

[neverwherehere]

I've been following this story since it broke and I think DC made a huge miscalculation since the vast majority of responses to this has been overwhelmingly negative. I've even come across responses from comic retailers who've said that they're seeing demand for Batman #50 dry up in real time.

Batman and Catwoman getting married was big. As in, it was up there with them killing off Superman in the 90s, big. This even made mainstream news.

DC is going to lose readers and trust over this.

[caivu]

I've also seen many people dropping Catwoman from their pulls/cancelling their preorders, so it's going to take a hit as well.

[tripodeca113]

Guess it saves them the hassle of undoing it.

[mesmiranda]

[lucean]

While I'm personally happy that the marriage didn't happen, not only because I utterly hate the pairing but even more importantly I think it would have caused issues with future creative teams, the way it is done here is really, really weird.

I think a partial issue is due to King's focus on presenting Selina as the perfect woman, which has narrative impacts like this, but I also continue to be confused on how little agency Batman really has in King's run. Like here, it doesn't really strengthen the tragedy of being Batman when someone else basically decided that you can't be happy while being him.

[akodo_rokku]

Mark Waid once gave Matt Murdock a message to deliver to anyone who thinks you can't be a hero without unhappiness and suffering, and I think it applies here.

[cainofdreaming]

You know, you only need three words to counter that whole "only personal tragedy makes heroes" thing.

Captain freaking America.

[icon_uk]

DC's official statement about the leak (Which even pissed off Tom King)

Responding to complaints, John Cunningham, DC’s senior vice president of sales, offered a five-point response on a comics retailer Facebook group, explaining why the publisher spoiled its own event


1. DC Sales strongly advocated getting the news out ahead of the OSD, so that the Moment of Realization did not occur hours before events began. We even did our level best to try and spoil it here on this page over and over again (and failed). The NY Times article was posted here at 630 a.m. PST not out of “Pride” — please — but to get you the information as soon as we could.

2. In the abstract, we believed the news would break on Monday morning, given the arrival time of physical copies in store and the reality that a copy or a scan would end up being passed to uncontrolled comic book outlets (much like Marvel’s wedding issue last week and every other major comic book event in the lat decade).

3. As mentioned here before, any discussion about financial remedies for problematic DC product must occur after the product is on sale.

4. While The Times piece is more fulsome that [sic] some might like, it does not spoil the shock ending of the book for fans. We’re working on getting this posted here for you.

5. I stand by my belief that BATMAN #50 is one of the best single issue periodicals of the last decade, that it is a special moment in comic book history, and that if it’s not the book we (think) we want, it’s the book we need.

Hmmm.....

[informationgeek]

I saw that and I like some of the responses to it:

...it is a special moment in comic book history, and that if it’s not the book we (think) we want, it’s the book we need.

Exactly the kind of terminology I've known Marvel's writers to have used to justify really lousy directions for characters.


Also...

To an extent, I understand what he's saying on Point 1 (e.g. the Catwoman 1 cover sure makes the idea of the wedding happening a bit suspect, the post Batman 50 and Catwoman solicitations sure read like a pair of unmarried heroes, etc.), but it's by and large an out-of-touch-with-reality statement. You didn't want people to go into the shop thinking they were buying a wedding issue, but you sent out invitations to every comic shop, solicited a Deluxe Wedding Album (spoiler alert: few people make wedding albums of their aborted weddings), created a pre-wedding mini-series, and used solicitation copy with the phrase "the Batrimony is real." That was Sales and Marketing's idea of trying to spoil the ending? No wonder it failed.

Does point 4 mean they're going to spoil the book more before it arrives? Just a guess, but I'd imagine they'll fail to do that right, too.

I think I'll enjoy Batman 50 a great deal, but that point 5 really makes my skin crawl. It's a special book that "we need," and we just spoiled the heck out of it, created a firestorm of (mostly justified) bad will with fans and retailers by mis-marketing it, and want to condescend to you about how you feel about it. Good job, DC.



Lastly, this pretty good response:
Sometimes controversial stories and plot turns are the right way to go, even when they're divisive among fans.

Not every story has to appeal to every fan equally for it to be a valid creative choice.

The problem here, regardless of how well or not well the actual issue is written, is the manner of the hype machine behind it.

DC purposely built all their promotion around the event of the wedding, not around the question of whether there would be a wedding.

They sold it as a certainty. Whether the marriage would last for a few panels, a few issues or a few years was unknown but it seemed very clear that there would, at least, be a wedding.

To pull the rug out from under readers who have invested so much time and money into following this storyline is a punk move. Not to mention what it did to retailers who surely poured a great deal of money into making sure shelves would be stocked for this historic event only to be left holding the bag. Maybe these issues will still fly off the shelves, I don't know, but it seems very likely that the air has been let out of the balloon and that a lot of fans will be taking a pass on this, either out of disgust or simple lack of interest.

Certainly, there's no one in the general public who's going to feel compelled to make a special visit to a comic shop to buy a wedding issue in which Batman doesn't actually get married.

[thezmage]

This reminds me of the show Home Improvement. They built for a whole season the idea of Al Borland getting married, only to not get married because they just didn’t want to. I remember thinking at the time “if the hero’s sidekick can’t get married, what even is the point of all of this? It’s not like Al’s dating life is such a huge and integral part of the show.”

I really hope the follow up stories to this is Bruce wondering how he could be the world’s greatest detective when he almost married someone who knows him so poorly

[icon_uk]

In situations like the one you mention, it might be that one of the actors didn't want to commit to more episodes the following season and so the whole thing went kaput.

Plus I wonder if it happens more often than it doesn't. Just in terms of sitcoms, I'm thinking of; Friends, Frasier, even Everbody Loves Raymond who all did it, and even Al on HP DID get married in a later season

[the_phantom]

DC: Look comics are a product for single people, bitter single people. Now yes maybe people in relationships like comics too, but we don't know. Frankly, we don't want to know. It's a market we can do without.

[yap]

Part of me wonders if they’re trying to shake this crowd into watching the tv shows instead.

[rainspirit]

Ugh! Damn it! We can get Batman a biological son out of wedlock, but not a marriage?

I really wanted more stories of Bruce and Selina as a power couple, especially after that issue with Talia.