Catwoman to the rescue! Selina tracks Batman to a Church, where she confronts the Joker, who knows of their upcoming wedding.
Cover A
Cover B
BATMAN # 49
Writer: Tom King
Artist: Mikel Janin
Colorist: June Chung
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Cover Artist: Mikel Janin Cover A. Cover B: Stanley “Artgerm” Lau
Editors: James S. Rich Assoc Editor: Brittany Holzherr
Publisher: DC Comics
What You Need to Know: Batman confronts the Joker, who has been seeking attention by murdering Wedding guests in a church. Batman arrives a bit too late, and witnesses the Joker kill everyone. They fight, and the Joker is bested; however, he had the foresight to plant bombs on the Cross. This goes off an incapacitates him, he then drugs to paralyze him.
What You’ll Find Out: Though she was asked not to assist, Selina traces Bruce’s steps to the church and hears gunshots. she enters to find the Joker lording over Batman’s helpless body. The two begin to talk, almost as old co-workers do. Joker is fine with their Marriage, but he says that the thing that bothers him most, was that through all of their old times Selina never laughed.
She agrees but does not offer an explanation. Instead Joker attacks by shooting at her. She of course ducks and dodges as we would expect, but as the combat becomes close quarters, and the dialogue heats up, they each strike a terrible blow on each other, which changes the battle dramatically.
What just Happened:
Each reeling from their wound, He from his throat gashed open and she from her gunshot wound falls silent for the moment, as they attend to their respective and possibly fatal wounds.
At this point, Batman is still unconscious, and The Joker has used his last shot. He tells Selina that he is considering removing his hand to reload the gun and shoot her. He asks if she wouldn’t mind assisting him in this. Again she doesn’t laugh, but she does mention that if she removes pressure, she may bleed out as well.
The two have several pages of bonding over old criminal stories, and they poke fun at the rogue’s gallery such as “Why did Penguin have Umbrellas?”. It is actually quite charming. They even go into how she stole her dress, but if Batman found out, he would be mad.
Time goes on and Selina tells Joker a joke. He laughs, as it was a bit funny, but then decides it’s time to end this. He rises up to his feet and reloads his Revolver. He begins to Wax Poetic about her murder, when he stops in his tracks, and keels over from his blood loss.
Eventually, Batman wakes up to find Selina and the seemingly dead body of the Joker.
Rating: 8 /10 Final Thought: This is a sort of callback to the early days, an homage if you will to the days when crime was fun for the Joker and Catwoman. We get to delve into the differences between the two, and I get the sense they genuinely liked each other once. Like old High School friends. There’s tension and high stakes in this as they each struggle to keep it together or bleed out. There are some note of the Joker’s Personal relationship with Batman that get explored here as well when he talks about the difference between Selina and Himself. Then How Batman created him and should love him more. Selina says “I’m Prettier than you.”
I thought it was a good read in general. I like the care that King took to show the consequences of the character’s actions, and the throwback to the early years was great. I am surprised I did not get a Kite Man joke in there, but it was funny that they each rip on Penguin and Riddler. A great set up for the Wedding in issue #50 that is out next month. Hopefully some closure for the two as they approach their long-awaited Wedding. Check out this small arc that got better with the second issue.
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