There are plenty of good stories in there but King’s relying on it all - particularly that first 1940 encounter, as well as Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One - as the subtext of a relationship between two people who have been to hell and back together and against each other, who have a shared experience only the two of them can really understand. In the decades since, writers have dabbled in the relationship, usually with a How Long Can This Possibly Last? undercurrent of impermanence. There was also the classic Brave and the Bold #197, written by Alan Brennert, that tells the story of how Earth-Two Batman and Catwoman became a couple. It wasn’t really until the ’70s that DC made serious attempts at a Bruce/Selina romance: Len Wein crafted an entertaining, if soapy, arc that set the foundation most writers have built upon since. But as was the case with most things show-related, a Batman/Catwoman romance was played mostly for laughs, largely through Adam West’s faux discomfort at Newmar’s saucy come-ons.
The idea of a romance, though, was pretty much brushed off in the ’40s and ’50s and, other than reprints, Catwoman was pushed out of the spotlight after 1954 until Julie Newmar sharpened her claws in 1966. Two tough acts for King to follow.īut King is mining territory only touched on in the past - and never with this level of gentle nuance.īatman and Catwoman first made eyes at each other all the way back in 1940’s Batman #1, which King has made a crucial stepstone of his story.
His time in Gotham overlapped with Scott Snyder’s six years of horror-inflected epics. Grant Morrison gave us seven years of trippy head games that provided a surprising emotional punch. Over the last 10 years, Batman’s been in excellent hands. No, where King is breaking new, practically revolutionary ground, is his portrayal of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle’s relationship - the most sophisticated romance ever chronicled in a Batman comic.īatman Annual #2, art by Lee Weeks. Standard stuff, well handled by a first-rate writer - but Batman’s had a lot of those.
King’s run, launched with DC’s Rebirth initiative a year and a half ago, has featured all the typical trappings of a Batman comic: Heroes and villains, wins and losses, new characters and refurbished ones - Joker, Riddler, Bane, Kite Man, Dr. Then think about how tough it’d be to be a writer assigned to Batman, sitting at the keyboard, wondering what you could possibly do that had not been done before. How many Batman stories do you think have been told over the last 78 years or so? Thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Millions? It’s hard to come up with a decent estimate when you take into account all the comics, radio shows, serials, books, movies, TV episodes, video games, and even toys and coloring books.
NOTE: This piece contains SPOILERS, including from Batman #36 and Batman Annual #2.
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