Batman #50

[deh_tommy]

“Batman issue fifty? More like Batman issue shifty, amirite?” - Tom King (probably)




Happy April Fools Day, everyone! Please stay safe out there.

Comments

[zachbeacon]

I still don't get the outrage over this. They telegraphed this "twist" pretty hard during the first half of the run.

Having said that, I do think the book takes a nosedive in quality after this but that's more because we had to endure so much filler where nothing happens. Dick getting shot could have been interesting but KGBeast and his a-hole dad were the only ones who weren't wasted there.

[deh_tommy]

I can only speak for myself (and I’m biased since I never really liked Tom King’s run), but:

•DC insisted that this was totally gonna stick, you guys... and sure, that was incredibly obvious that would never happen, but that was almost believable considering there were hundreds of dollars worth of tie-ins and variant covers touting this as the event of the century, and even a wedding album special.

•The ending (minus Bane) was revealed a few days before the issue came out. Cue the disappointment and outrage.

•The excitement was enough to get comic shops in on the hype, and even decorate their places to match the theme of batrimony... except now the word is out that the wedding is off. Pre-orders start to drop, and due to pressure from said shops over concerns of false advertising, the issue is made fully returnable. Oops.

•The book was very obviously treading water with filler until the big event in #50 which would be fine if the filler thatself was any good. However, apart from Annual #2 and the first half of the Superfriends arc, they fell short due to a mix of poor characterisation of established characters and noticeable pacing problems. That would be worth trudging through them for #50, though, right?

•There was almost nothing of actual substance in the issue proper: that was just pinup after pinup of Batman and Catwoman declaring their unending love for each other in prose that would make Twilight blush, all building up to... still nothing. So why the filler?

•The wedding was almost nothing like what was built up in the tie-ins. Contrary to what they would have told you, the wedding was on some dingy rooftop, ordained by a drunken minister, with none of the batfamily or allies bar Alfred actually being present.

•Why do Batman and Catwoman love each other? I mean, I’m Bat/Cat trash and love isn’t nor shouldn’t be something you can accurately describe or quantify, but if I was going off this book alone then what exactly draws the Bat to the Cat and vice versa? We’re TOLD they love each other from their endless soliloquies and duologues about how gosh darned great love is, but we never, ever SEE anything beyond they’re two physically attractive people who have sex a lot. Which, coupled with how the wedding was organised and turned out from beginning to end, as well as how this whole thing could be resolved if they actually talked TO each other instead of at each other, comes across as really immature for characters who should know better.

•The idea that this is all Bane’s diabolical masterplan was just so, so dumb. He’s essentially taking credit for everything that’s happened thus far, but his methods and desires are ridiculously petty, the plan needed to go off perfectly and without a hitch even in spite of variables Bane shouldn’t have possibly known about, and his posse made no sense lineup wise and even irreparably ruins some of the characters there (what are Flashpoint Batman, Skeets and Gotham Girl doing there? Why would Holly do that?).

•The thing they spent 50 issues setting up is actually nothing more than even more setup for the next 50 issues of Batmangsting, all to answer something painfully obvious that could be resolved in way less time yet is treated like some big, Earth-shattering revelation: can Batman be happy while still being Batman? The answer is yes. We’ve established this nearly a dozen issues ago, maybe more. Heck, we established this YEARS ago. Why do we need to spend the next two to three years going over the exact same thing and waiting for the same event when there is no reason that couldn’t have happened here?

The real kicker is that they never do get married, but they do the sex like all the time and they’re married in their minds so that’s pretty much okay. That’s practically the same thing, right? Gosh, how and why is children’s media able to tell meatier and more mature stories than the “mature” adult stuff?

...sorry. If you liked this run, more power to to you. This just wasn’t for me.

[kurenai_tenka]

I wasn't even reading comics at the time (took a couple of years off), but it still seemed super obvious to me from the outside that the marriage would never actually happen.

That being said, I thought that because I have no faith in DC and know them to be extremely cynical, so I can certainly understand the annoyance at it being hyped up and then being a fake-out (even if I'm surprised that people were surprised).

[shakalooloo]

It was anticlimactic. If the wedding doesn't happen, sure, fine, so long as something else does, as long as there's some dramatic reason or event for it. But no, it's just that Catwoman chooses not to show up, and the event fizzles out with a whimper.

Woo.

So all this build-up, leading to a big number issue, and what is within? A wedding does not happen. Reading a story about something not happening will never be as exciting or fulfilling as reading one where things actually happen.

[scorntx]

Asking as someone who didn't follow this, but did King ever explain why Skeets was in on Bane's Fiendish Master Plan?

[deh_tommy]

Okay, a little backstory: in ‘The Gift’ story arc, Booster caught wind that Batman and Catwoman we’re getting married, and, getting inspiration from Superman’s ordeal with the Black Mercy, thought the best wedding present to get them would be to stop Bruce’s parents from dying in Crime Alley, which caused the world to end up terrible and wrong so Booster could then fix things and say to Batman that he’s right to be Batman because Batman makes everything and everyone better. In this new timeline, Catwoman was a serial killer who could only say “meow”, the Joker took out the Justice League and spread a deadly Joker virus around the continent, and Dick Grayson was an anti-heroic Punisher-esque Batman. However, this timeline’s Bruce Wayne was perfectly happy both not being Batman and having his parents alive. Booster ended up trapped in this timeline for around a year or so, causing a bunch of shenanigans along the way (like mistakenly unleashing serial killer Catwoman on the Waynes, killing them all over again) until he eventually got the means to time travel again... but his correction of time accidentally exposed new-Bruce to their murder in Crime Alley, causing new-Bruce to kill himself. The whole ordeal traumatised Booster so heavily that he was checked into Sanctuary, setting up his role in Heroes in Crisis.

I bring all this up because a dozen or two issues after #50, that’s revealed in passing that this was all part of Bane’s diabolical plot to break the Bat, too: he got the Riddler to reprogram Skeets to plant the idea of this particular ‘gift’ in Booster’s head, so as to further convince Bruce that he can’t be Batman as long as he’s happy and vice versa.

[scorntx]

... how did a guy from the 21st century manage to reprogram a droid from the 25th?
... actually, y'know what, never mind. Sure the answer will just be irritating.

[laughing_tree]

King's Riddler is a super-genius. Earlier in his run, he had him deciphering New Gods tech in five minutes or something like that.

[blackmassvillain]

I have often thought it could just be people just liking to crap on King's stuff too.

[deh_tommy]

Probably, but I really, really wanted to like Tom King’s Batman and see what everyone else saw in his run. That just wasn’t for me (even before that became popular to hate on him).