When I finished reading Batman #39 a few weeks ago, I laughed for 20 minutes straight.
It wasn’t because Tom King had done anything funny, per se, but because I couldn’t believe the audacity of a writer spending years convincingly getting Batman and Catwoman to an engagement only to create a scenario where Batman would be justified in cheating on her with Wonder Woman. It was a glorious troll that pissed off a lot of fans. However, they can rest easy. Batman #40 is not only surprisingly fun, but advances the central romance in an emotionally complex and intelligent way.
The issue picks up right where #39 left off. In one dimension, Bruce and Diana sit in front of a fire, just about to kiss after fighting hordes of monsters for what feels to them like a decade. In another, Selina has just figured out that time is passing differently for Bruce and Diana and demands that the “Gentle Man” whose place they took to bring them back. King has never been the most literal of storytellers and here, he sets up a challenge for Batman and Catwoman’s relationship that really is about teaching them what marriage means.
Now, I could spoil whether or not Diana and Bruce actually kiss, but that would be a disservice to the rather brilliant cliffhanger King set up. But it’s probably safe to talk about what each character learns through their experiences.
For Batman, fighting with Diana for decades teaches him what it means to support your spouse at every step. When one feels too weak to go on, the other convinces them to keep going. It’s a partnership and, despite all the Robins and all of the other members of the Bat Family–including Alfred–Bruce has been fighting alone. For Cat, it’s about learning to believe in love. It’s about commitment and devotion and how powerful deciding to love someone can be.
They’re somewhat cheesy lessons, sure, but King manages to give them weight by emphasizing how much both characters are affected by them. However, the issue isn’t perfect. There’s something not quite right about his version of Diana. Mostly, it’s in her dialogue.
While King’s characters are always a bit terse and circumspect, it doesn’t fit Wonder Woman. It makes her seem as if she only recently left Themyscira and is still struggling with English. It also makes her seem more obtuse than she usually would and it seems strange for a woman who carries a lasso of truth. Even more troubling is the way that she mainly functions in the issue as a plot device for what’s really a story about Batman and Catwoman, but King has made her just emotionally well-rounded enough to side-step that criticism.
Good as the story is, though, Joelle Jones’s art and Jordie Bellarie’s colors are really what sell it. Jones’s figures are startlingly expressive—so much so that even a full two pages where Bruce and Diana close-talk in the same position conveys every shade of emotion they feel. Bellarie’s colors, meanwhile, are not so much realistic as moody. They help make what could be a totally overwrought story feel grounded. Jones and Bellarie make Batman #40 the perfect marriage of art and words. King is lucky to have such partners and readers are lucky to have him finally telling this story.
Rating: 8.5/10
