Batman #44 Review

Writer: Tom King

Artists: Mikel Janin and Joelle Jones

Colourists: June Chung and Jordie Bellaire

Letterer: Clayton Cowles

The wedding is almost upon us, for better or worse. I'm not looking forward to it at all since this series took a serious dive when Catwoman was introduced to the series. And this issue is very wedding focused.

It seems to be that Tom King felt a bit of anxiety when writing this issue. The past few issues have not done a good job at all of building to this special wedding. Random stories happen for random reasons. Why is there a Poison Ivy story in this so-to-speak Road to the Wedding? Batman and Catwoman have had a dubious relationship for decades now, but all King needs to do to win me over is to truly show why these two people are meant to be together. Why are they compatible? Will they be able to truly be together? As an aside, the wedding doesn't make much sense to me. Bruce Wayne, whether King wants to admit it or not, has a public persona that he's spent years trying to maintain in order to prevent his secret double life from ever becoming public. Every women he's with stirs up a media storm. Are you trying to tell me that this Bruce Wayne, the careful, socially dubious man, is going to marry Selina Kyle without any repercussions?

I just can't help but tackle the very logic of this story. And it doesn't help that nothing at all happens in this issue aside from Selina getting her wedding dress. It's preposterous and it's made doubly frustrating that people are going to call this issue a masterpiece!

The art is very strong, however. Both Mikel Janin and Joelle Jones handle the art here, with Janin depicting some flashback moments between the two lovers and Jones providing completely art-driven and dialogue-free scenes with Catwoman doing her thing. I normally like Janin's art but his style doesn't at all suit that he's drawing. It comes across as comical and hilariously bad. Jones on the other hand is doing such a great job with this book. Her inking in particular is really nice and Jordie Bellaire's colours brings it all to life beautifully.

This is just another uneventful issue of the series. It reads like a reminder of the two actually being in love, since the series has been so weirdly directionless despite what Tom King wants you to believe. The art is a split for me since Janin's work disappoints.