Fans of Tom King's Batman series will have to wait longer than expected to see his story end. But it may be more than worth the wait, now that King has expressed his hopes for Batman/Catwoman to stand the test of time, like the most personal (and least restricted) Batman classics.
This December, the main series will be handed off to new Batman writer James Tynion IV without delay, and notably following the Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen clash expected to kick off the new year of DC stories. But the projected Batman/Catwoman series bringing King's run on the book to an end has been delayed past January. Thankfully, fans needn't worry about King getting to finish his love story. Instead, the book has been delayed to give it the best chance of earning a place among the most memorable, standalone stories to explore the DC icon.
First, fans can breathe a sigh of relief that Batman and Catwoman's romantic reunion will stick, at least for the foreseeable future. Speaking to Newsarama, King explained how the story of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle won't just pay off years of his Batman run, but stand apart--as much as his Vision series, and his Sheriff of Babylon and Eisner Award-winning Mister Miracle book with Mitch Gerads. Instead of the end of his run on DC's Batman series:
When we wrapped up “City of Bane” we wrapped up the bad guy part. Someone was tearing down Batman and bringing them back up and if you see with the latest issues, Batman and Catwoman are in a healthier space now. Where they’ve acknowledged who they are and what they've lost and what they've risked and then they’ve now come back together.
The final arc of this was always planned to be about what that relationship is and what it could possibly mean to them. And by doing it in its own book, the way I've done Vision, the way I've done Mister Miracle, the way I’ve done Sheriff of Babylon, it gives me more space to do something super special, to have this be as meaningful as those books. To make it not another Batman issue, even though I love writing Batman issues.
Not that I could, but I want to do something like the Dark Knight Returns. Where you sort of step back from the universe in order to give the universe more power. Those are the comics, like Long Halloween, that both define and redefine the character for a generation. And that's our ambition. I don't know if we're going to do it, but I think we can do it with what we have.
That is a tall order, but one that seems a bit more possible... now that Mask of the Phantasm will be canon for the series. Meaning Bruce's decision to find happiness away from the role of Batman is going to come at a cost.
These quotes offer even more context for the sentiments King expressed via Twitter, in response to the first issue of Batman/Catwoman not being included in the January solicitations for DC, as expected. Again, it seems to be in pursuit of making Bat/Cat stand as a complete vision on its own. Which means delaying the release so artist Clay Mann (and colorist Tomeu Morey) can provide the artwork for every single issue:
So. We decided to go big. While working on the initial issues of Bat/Cat, [Clay Mann] and I started to realize we might have something good here, a Mister Miracle or a Vision in the world of Batman, an attempt to do what Frank did with DKR, a defining of the characters. But to accomplish something that ambitious requires a minimizing of compromises. DKR did not have fill in artists. So Clay offered to do the whole thing, at 22 pages, but he’d of course need time. When the best artist in comics says “let’s do it right,” you don’t say no. But all that means that Bat/Cat is pushed back a bit, which is why it’s not in the January solicits. The first scripts are in; Clay’s drawing them now; they look gorgeous; I, hopefully like you, can’t wait for this one to be out. Thank you all for your patience.
Batman/Catwoman #1 will arrive at your local comic book shop at an unspecified date.