DC Comics: Batman #50, Lying, Disappointment, and Anger, Long Post

Hi everybody... still working on the next chapter of A Tale of Two Suns. Hit a few mental blocks, but trying to work through them. Though as of Friday, I've had other things on my mind and weighing down my mood. This is just me getting it down here, both to vent a little more, and to spread some news to those who would find it relevant.

Warning: This contains spoilers for Batman #50, if you haven't read it yet. Then again, maybe you've already seen the spoilers... well, warned all the same.

So, if you've read my old blog posts, you may remember how I talked about the DC Comics/Looney Tunes crossovers, how amazing they were, and how they got me to look into DC Comics' "Rebirth" era that started in 2016. From what I learned, since the Rebirth era started, DC was (mostly) on fire with their comics, a contrast to the New 52 era. The Looney Tunes crossovers certainly suggested that. So I got a bunch of trades and started reading. You will also recall a blog post where I vented about humidity problems.

For the last six months, writer Tom King, the writer of the Batman/Elmer Fudd comic and the main Batman writer, has been building to Batman and Catwoman getting married. Yes, married. And then they announced that issue #50 would be the wedding. The actual wedding. It came out on July 4th.

King went on TV in an interview to talk about the wedding "definitely" happening. DC build it up for the last month too, with lots of ads saying "The Batrimony is real", and "you are cordially invited.” They made a six part "prequel to the wedding" miniseries and even created sixty variant covers. Yes, sixty.

Actual cardboard invites were made, a Spotify playlist was created. Even the solicitations (I guess preview summaries, not sure how that works) said it was going to happen. They also created a "wedding album" trade. Haven't done that since Supes and Lois got married, or so I hear.

You may notice my word choice here. That's because it didn't happen. Yup. No wedding. Selina left Bruce at the altar at the very end of the issue. Her maid of honor Holly brought up the idea that Batman couldn't be Batman if he was happy, and Catwoman bought it hook, line, and sinker. Of course it turns out the seeds of doubt were all planted by the villain Bane to break Batman, and Tom King assures the readers that this is a larger part of his "100 issue run".

Tom King has spent the last two years trying to focus on the question of whether Batman can be happy (IMO, yes, yes he can), and his relationship with Catwoman was central to that. And again, he spent six months on them being engaged. Six months of a comic that comes out twice a month.

Now, I'm a Bat/Cat shipper. Always have been. I really wanted to see this happen. I would be overjoyed to see it happen. I read the first few arcs of King's Batman, but I couldn't really get into it. When I heard about Catwoman, I was interested, and kept an eye out. I was actually thinking of spending some of my birthday gift card money on the rest of the trades to catch up for this event.

Good thing I didn't, because this is a trainwreck.

Of course, there are many who knew this before the 4th. DC asked the New York Times to write an article about it, in the "Vows" section, like it was a real wedding announcement. Would have been a nice touch if it weren't for the flimflam. The writer of the article learned after he got the assignment that the marriage wasn't actually going to happen. He felt it was disingenuous to write about the thing if it wasn't really happening, so he wrote the truth. Also put that ending spoiler in the headline.

He has gone on record saying that the headline was a mistake, but I won't fault him for the article (which came out the 1st). It's better he wasn't part of the ugly hype machine. And I do mean ugly.

King's writing is not entirely well liked, and there are those that only held on for the wedding. Now they and many others are angry at being tricked by what was flat out false advertising.

You can be as cynical as you want about the status quo of comics not changing, etc, etc, but rather than smugly saying "I told you so," or mention “Lucy and the football”, substitute that for empathy, please. There are those that just really want it to happen. And when DC's PR machine goes into overtime spouting certainty, and putting in all this stinking effort, it's hard not to believe it.

Retailers too, were tricked. With all this press, you'd naturally assume this was going to be a landmark issue, would you not? Retailers certainly did. Many cleared shelf space for issue #50, and placed orders for tons of copies, including lots of variant covers, not to mention the connected miniseries. Note that these retailers include lots of little local comic stores that may or may not be struggling.

I even saw a picture on Twitter of some local comic store that baked a cake! A cake with an icing heart that had "Congratulations Bruce and Selina!" written inside it. I swear, that is true. Isn't that sweet?

But what happened when the news broke? A lot of those retailers, many of whom had pre-orders, not just for #50 but the miniseries, suddenly had a ton of those pre-orders cancelled.

See, the PR tricked them into buying a lot of this stuff, and now the sales are going down, meaning many of these little stores spent money on a ton of comics that might not sell, or at least bring in far less than what the store had hoped for. When you get right down to it, DC's fraudulent PR robbed these businesses for a quick sales boost of their own.

As far as King goes, he was ticked at the spoiler, but encouraged people to pick up the issue anyway. There are those that say it’s a beautiful love letter to Bruce and Selina’s 75 year on and off romance, beautiful and heartbreaking with art by people involved from Batman over the years, and more, blah, blah, blah.

As for me, I was angry, furious even. I was depressed and genuinely heartbroken. It was one of those things that got me so upset, it took me most of the next day to try and work out all the negative emotions I had. I’m still working through them a little bit.

Tom King promises this isn’t the end of his run or the story, and people say issue 50 is beautiful, but to me, it doesn’t matter. Why should it matter? What good is that love letter when it fails to pay off? What good were all those stories building up to this for half a year or even the whole two years depending on how you look at it, when it fails to pay off for a twist that you could have done before the wedding, rather than cheating us out of something beautiful!

It could have some of the most beautiful art in existence and have words crafted to the level of the greatest pieces of literature, but I’d still say “who cares?” I myself still wouldn’t call it worthwhile or fit for anything other than recycling, because it lied.

And that’s the big issue for me: He lied. He lied on camera. He lied again and again, no question. DC Comics themselves lied, launched a fraudulent ad campaign that robbed people and retailers. They hurt people, emotionally and financially, for their own gain. Or in King’s case, because perhaps he thought this twist at this point was a good idea. Even without the PR stunt, King would probably still deserve a whack upside the head for doing this after six months of the "Rules of Engagement" arc.

Even if he promises this isn't the end, would you believe the man? Would you believe anything DC Comics advertised again after this? Would you, knowing they took their chance for a big, historical event and turned it into an ugly cash grab, while sacrificing good will and trust, something just as valuable or more valuable? Would you believe anything that came out of Tom King's mouth after this?

I wouldn’t, and I won’t. Liars do not sit well with me, nor does hurting people like this. So as a result, I’m quitting DC Rebirth.

With an exception or two (one a project between DC and another studio, which supports them and not just DC, and the other collecting a now completed digital-first series that reads better when collected together), I am dropping all interest in their new material, even books I’d been enjoying, because enough with this. I might still collect some of their older material here and there that I'd meant to years ago, but otherwise, no. No more. I'd rather not be disappointed with more stupid.

Maybe things will get better down the line, and maybe I’ll change my mind, but for now, I’m done. Even if the wedding does happen, I’m not sure I’d want to read it, and isn’t that sad? Whatever spark of interest I had in Rebirth, whatever respect and belief I had in it and DC right now, it’s gone.

To my readers, I would advise you to and spread the news to those that may not have heard it (little as that may be). If you are comic fans or know those that are, consider my words. Would you trust them? Would you reward them for this, for their fraud and robbery, for trampling on people’s expectations and emotions so blatantly?

Any effect on sales won’t appear for months as retailers order several issues in advance, or something to that effect. But it will also be harder to tell because Batman has so many related Bat-book other than the “Batman” title. Those other books make any hit to Batman less apparent. Batman is still the top-selling book after all.

If you are disgusted by this news as me, or were already angry at DC, there are a things I can suggest.

One: Don’t buy Batman OR the other Bat-books. Especially the other books. Send a message to DC and Tom King that this was wrong. Send it in one of the only ways they understand, through your wallets.

Two: If you are in possession of this issue (or the prequel mini) and hated the failed payoff, you could mail it to DC in protest. This method was used by a large number of fans for the awful miniseries Amazons Attack years ago. It’s, along with physical letters, are also a form of protest that is harder to ignore, unlike emails and such.

Three: If you know a local comic store that was hit by this mess, please try to support them. Again, they may have taken a hit from this mess, so show them a little kindness if you can.

As for me, I’m going to keep working on my story amidst everything else. Sorry this was so long, but I felt like I needed to say something on the matter and inform those that might otherwise not have been. DC Characters and superheroes mean a lot to me, so this hurt me very badly.

Comments are welcome.

Comments

[Christopher Jones]

I know what you mean all tha build up