Bat-chelors and bat-chelorettes

[laughing_tree]

This week's Batman #68...

Comments

[icon_uk]

Slightly sozzled Lois and Selina mucking around in the Fortress of Solitude is not a story I realised I needed in my life, but here we are.

(Just for reference it would be helpful if you tagged the posts, and perhaps put the title and issue number a little more prominently than just in the cut text, since opening it directly from notifications doesn't show cut text.)

[laughing_tree]

Done and done. Cheers.

[cainofdreaming]

"Here's a death trap designed for Superman."
*shove!*

Why don't I have friends like this?

[icon_uk]

Plus the fact that it was Brainiac of all people (as he's a noted emotionless computer brained maniac), deciding to try a method which sounds like it would have had Superman more or less orgasm to death. (I know that's not quite a requirement for bliss, but....)

Beats the hell out of yet another story involving the ruddy "Black Mercy".

[roxas832]

In reality it was Lex but Lois doesn't want to get into that with Selina.

[icon_uk]

Also, "Beetle juice" created by the Reach???

Somewhere Jaime Reyes just got a cold chill, and isn't sure why.

I mean... "Ewwwww!"

[nyadnar17]

I can't think of a single writer I love and hate as much as Tom King.

This is golden.

[goattoucher]

That last panel..

As Uncle George would say: "Oh, myyy..."

[crinos]

People on Tumblr were looking at the " Lois pushes Selina in the Bliss pool" and were like "Oh, Lois is just introducing Selina into her, Clark and Bruce's poly relationship."

And the scan I saw cut out the panel at the end where Bruce and Clark were getting ready to jump in.

I mean everyone thinks Supes is straight edge, but he did hang out with the Legion of Super heroes back in the day, and you know what kind of shenanigans they got up to. I bet everyone has a "I visited the Fortress of Solitude and shit got weird" Story.

[shadowseeking]

Sadly its not Bruce and Clark. Just a pair of Superman robots waiting with towels.

[crinos]

Awww

I mean that would have been the cherry on the top of the Sundae.

[cainofdreaming]

Pair of *naked* Superman robots, from the look of it.

[burkeonthesly]

When Lois Lane plans a bachelorette party, she does it right.

[lieut_kettch]

It gets better. Or worse, depending on how you view it. I just hope those robots aren't truly sapient or there might be grounds for a lawsuit.

[deh_tommy]

Aw, now I'm disappointed. Curse you, horniness!

[bradygirl_12]

Priceless! A SuperBat dinner and the gals having fun. :)

[lego_joker]

... man, Amanda Conner's style looks weird as hell squeezed into a nine-panel grid. Kinda makes me wonder what would happen if King worked with one of the out-and-out cheesecakers like Mike Deodato.

[powerpb13]

Loved the "double date" comic a while back and wished we had gotten more of Lois and Selina as odd gal pals.

[shadowseeking]

Why is it that in all these comic book weddings lately...

The grooms do bland, boring, dull things for bachelor parties
But the brides go wild with alcohol and strippers, often ones dressed as or modeled after all their male friends and family?

[cainofdreaming]

It just tells you that you want Lois setting up your parties, not Clark. Seriously, Jimmy Olsen would do better.

[zachbeacon]

A Jimmy Olsen party would be EPIC. He could get Bibbo to close the Ace O' Clubs for a private party only to have something so insane happen that they question the reality of it the next day.

"Did you really turn into a turtle man and fight a giant ape?"

"I think you might have had a few too many, Chief"

[deh_tommy]

Get Jimmy Olson into wedding planning, and, whether it was planned or not, you'll end up with the best man swapping bodies with a gorilla, an alternate reality baby version of the groom crashing the party and a horde of ants convincing the bridesmaid's grandfather he's their queen.

[bruinsfan]

Hey, Johnny Storm threw Ben Grimm a bachelor party that included wrestling, the female members of the Serpent Society popping out of a giant cake, and the first ever all-superhero strip poker game!

[deh_tommy]

Probably an attempt at humorous gender role-reversal. For the longest time (at least from what I can tell), media depicts the Groom's bachelor party to be wild, testosterone-fuelled drunken bar crawls with blackjack and strippers, and the woman's just exists (if it's even shown at all).

[penguinzero]

I honestly think it's partially for the thrill and comfort of the straight male writers (and presumed straight male readers), when you get down to it. Seeing a generic female stripper is, for them, probably just okay -- sexy, but without much connection or thrill. Seeing their supposedly morally-upright, maybe even father-figure male superheroes ogling those strippers could be very uncomfortable -- bringing conflicting feelings. They don't want to see them being sexy and sexual -- it's not a turn on for them.

Seeing Lois Lane and Catwoman getting naked and aggressively sexual, on the other hand? That's the kind of thing they've fantasized about since they were teenagers. You can imagine a version of that last page without censor steam in a porn parody comic with no alterations whatsoever. (No insult intended to Amanda Conner -- she's been very consistent over the years in putting both male and female sexuality front and center.) For at least some of the authors -- I can't speak for all of them -- it feels like kink under the protective shroud of feminism. (And for others, it's just following in the footsteps of the ones who were doing it for kink reasons.)

[crinos]

Can we talk about how the Khunds have a drink called "Death of Superman."

Khunds are awesome, they're like Klingons ratcheted up to 11.

[shakalooloo]

And due to their name, we'll likely never see them in any live-action capacity.

[zachbeacon]

Didn't they use them in Supergirl?

Also I love that R.E.B.E.L.S. actually hung a lampshade on that. I miss that book so much. It was one of many that didn't deserve to be sacrificed at the unholy alter of the Nu52.

[strejdaking]

What, why would theyOHMYGOD.

Seriously didn't notice until now. Not a native English speaker.

[deh_tommy]

As a native English speaker, might I ask what's so bad about Khund?

[strejdaking]

If it'S pronoued the way it apparently is, it can sounds like the C word.

[lieut_kettch]

I always thought it was pronounced koond and not kuhnd.

[icon_uk]

That's what DC WANT you to think....

[arilou_skiff]

Death TO Superman

Which really feels more like a wine Luthor would grow in his spare time.

[tripodeca113]

Well I think well all know what happened next in Brainiacs hot tub...

[doctor_spanky]

Oh my gosh they drank so much

[beyondthefringe]

See, it -is- possible for Tom King to write fun stories that don't devolve into trauma porn.

I wish he'd do it more often. This was delightfully awkward, Amanda Conner is a hell of an artist, and I'd love a book that was nothing but her drawing Selina and Lois getting up to wacky hijinks.

"One's a thief. The other's a journalist. They solve the DC Universe's weirdest mysteries... all without the help of their superheroic spouses."

"Selina, you have some explaining to do..."

[icon_uk]

He did co-write Grayson with Tim Seeley which was full of sexified silliness, and some lovely character moments.

[donnblake]

This looks really fun, but I'm a little confused.

Wasn't there already a Tom King story where Batman and Catwoman had their respective pre-marriage parties? And Bruce's involved Dick and Clark taking him to another dimension for a relaxing afternoon's fishing? And then Catwoman left Bruce at the altar because Bane convinced her that a happy marriage would make Batman weak? Is the wedding back on?

[zachbeacon]

IIRC that stuff was mostly covered in the inaccurately named "Prelude to a Wedding" one-shots by other writers but, yeah, the events played out differently.

I've only read up until Cold Days but I get the impression at least some of the current arc (Knightmares) is supposed to be a dream or something.
.

[laughing_tree]

Yes, this is another one of the nightmare scenarios Batman's being subjected to in the Knightmares arc, where the baddies have hooked him up to some VR thing.

[janegray]

...this is a nightmare?

[icon_uk]

How on earth does this work as a nightmare for Batman, with Lois and Selina off doing things which Batman is completely unaware of?

[lieut_kettch]

The cover was a little misleading though, as it had Harley and Ivy joining in on Selina's hen night.

[shadowpsykie]

is this a flash back episode?