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

[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.

[lucean]

For me, as with most of King's Batman stories, is the implementation. I mean, Snyder did almost exactly the same storyline with Superheavy and Bruce/Madison, but there there was a huge build-up for that moment and the realization that Batman cannot be happy while highlighting the tragedy of it.

Here it seems to be someone else making that decision for Batman because... I don't actually even know why as the story hasn't done anything to imply that being with Selina has harmfully impacted Bruce being Batman has it?

[tcampbell1000]

It hasn't really done the legwork. The Joker makes probably the most convincing argument that he can in the space available, but it's not an argument that's backed up by actions: his or Batman's (unless you count how relatively easy it was for the Joker to take Batman out in #48, but that's a little too generous a reading even for me).

[lucean]

Yeah, and thinking on it now, I think that might be a partial reason for some of the reactions I've seen.

If this was a culmination of a story where we had, maybe at times even subtly, seen signs that Bruce's relationship with Selina is affecting him, then there would be so much more power here. Moments when Bruce perhaps gets distracted or isn't solving something because of spending time with Selina. Even some kind of a reaction from the city or something. Then it would feel like a logical conclusion that had prepared the reader for the inevitable.

However, what King's story has been how Bruce is even more effective now as he finally gets loving relationships, which I can't even, and Selina is so awesome that the duo are just unstoppable together. So in this situation for Selina decide by herself that happy Bruce can't be a good Batman does almost seem to be a general argument about heroes being happy as it removes the actual specific character and the impact on him from the analysis.