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dc comics 7/4/18
Comic Book

DC Comics reviews for the week of 7/4/18

Jeffrey Lyles , , , , , , ,

Batman #50

batman 50

It’s finally here. After months and months of buildup, it’s the wedding of Batman and Catwoman. Does the big event actually deliver on the hype and anticipation? I … think it does thanks to an ending that readers probably only think they see coming, but will still be left stunned and shocked.

Tom King has made Catwoman a major player in his Batman run and this marks the culmination of two years’ worth of buildup as Bruce and Selina prepare for their big moment.

At times, King gets fancier than necessary. One of the weaknesses of King’s Batman run is the inner monologue of Batman and Catwoman as if they’re speaking too each other. It never quite flows as nicely as King probably hears it in his head and comes off clunky and choppy. This time it works as there’s a purpose for the overly flowery prose.

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For such a big extravaganza, King has a legendary and legends in the making rotation of artists contributing pages. Among the all-star lineup is Frank Miller, Neal Adams, Art Adams, Greg Capullo, David Finch, Jim Lee, Jason Fabok, Amanda Conner, Tony Daniel, Tim Sale, Andy Kubert, Lee Bermejo, José Luis García-López and Mikel Janin doing most of the framing pages. With so much talent, the art starts to look like one big splash page after another. That’s both a good and bad thing in terms of visual continuity, but it’s hard to resist all these big names contributing.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks with this entire wedding premise is the lack of logical answers for obvious questions. Like why everyone knew Batman and Catwoman were getting married, why Selina was looking for a wedding dress if she was getting married as Catwoman, how a Batman wedding would even work if Bruce Wayne couldn’t be married, the purpose of the Prelude to the Wedding mini-series if none of the Bat Family was actually going to attend the wedding and how it was going to be made official. If you stop and think about these problems and the release of Catwoman #1 this week, the payoff couldn’t end in another way, but at least King has a big twist that should generate a solid year of stories.

It’s the final page that left me most excited about this wedding arc conclusion. King sets things up in a manner that warrants another look at his entire run for clues. I bet there’s been several breadcrumbs he’s left along the way, which would make his run even more impressive in retrospect. Without that final page I doubt this wedding arc would have been nearly as effective, but the future of Batman looks very bright going forward.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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