Hello and Welcome to the World of Bats, the Batman Book Club! And welcome to another CASEFILE, where we tackle larger stories that would be too big for our traditional weekly readings.
So for this month of December, with Christmas looming over us like an avenging creature of the night, I thought it might be fun to look at a big, recent Christmas themed book starring our Caped Crusader and his beloved Feline Fatale, Batman/Catwoman, written by Tom King with art in the main series by Clay Mann, with a little help from Liam Sharp in the middle.
We’ll also be looking at the Batman/Catwoman Special, written by King, with initial art by the late, great John Paul Leon, and additional art by Bernard Chang, Shawn Crystal, and Mitch Gerads.
Reading will go from 2022-12-01T06:00:00Z→2022-12-31T06:00:00Z, but if you’re busy decking the halls or some other holiday themed metaphor, you can always come back!
Looking forward to discussing this epic story with you all!
First, if you’re looking for more of Tom King’s Batman, we’ve covered some of it – including some side stories taking place in the past and future timelines in this story – in previous WOB entries, with more to come in the future!
If you’re interested in some team-ups of the more…out there characters, in celebration of the upcoming Batman/Spawn release, WOB will be looking at other crossover team-ups with characters outside of the usual DC Multiverse (or is it Omniverse? Always getting those mixed up!):
I missed this post last week, so I’m getting a late start, but I’m hopeful I can finish before 12/31. As I recall, I mostly like King’s Batman and Catwoman. Curious to read more of his take on their often ill-fated romance
I’m three issues in and even though I am intrigued by the story and the art looks great, I have one critique. I think the story jumps around in time too much. I think it was a little better in the third issue, but rapidly jumping between 3 different time periods makes the story a little difficult to follow.
The reveal at the end of the first issue worked for me though
Yeah, I can see that being an issue in terms of the time shifts. I think Mann does his best to try and make it clear what time it is by using characters’ costumes and the like, but it’s an imperfect way since, y’know, they’re not in costume all the time.
I can think of two ways they could have made the transitions as easy to understand as possible. One would be the coloring – having each period have a certain palate would help make it at least subtly easier to tell.
A more radical solution would be doing a bigger version of what King was doing in Strange Adventures at the time and having different artists for each time period.
Clay Mann can still do the present, especially since apparently his big passion part of the book was the Phantasm element.
I initially thought of Mitch Gerads doing the future, but then I remembered he was doing Strange Adventures at this time, so I would think of Michael Lark – this way it would really feel like an expanded version of that beautiful annual that King, Weeks and Lark did.
That’s a cool idea and I think it would have worked for this story. I will say it has gotten easier for me to tell where we are in the time-line the farther I get into the book
This was good, it’s an interesting exploration of Catwoman’s character. I would say that it’s more of a Catwoman story than a Batman story, but since it was viewed largely through her relationship with Batman he still plays a major role. My favorite part is probably the special, just seeing Bruce and Selina’s relationship evolve by checking in on several Christmases. I also especially enjoyed the wedding scene. Holy Batrimony Batman . Lois and Clark as a witnesses was a great choice. I’m also intrigued, but not surprised, by the choice to have Bruce declare his love first.
I might have already said, but the artwork is great and suits the tone of the story. Great choice, thanks for selecting this series
That makes sense – Selina does go through a bigger character journey in this series while Bruce, while not completely static, is a bit more subtle. Hell, he’s only alive in two-thirds of the book!
I’m of two minds on that. On one hand, Lois and Clark do work, and it evokes that wonderful two-part Double Date story that I think even the most ardent haters of King’s run will admit was fun. On the other hand, I feel like other members of the Bat-Family would take more priority, like Dick/Babs.
. Lois and Clark as a witnesses was a great choice. I’m also intrigued, but not surprised, by the choice to have Bruce declare his love first.