Dave Schaafsma's Reviews > Batman, Vol. 7: The Wedding

Can Batman really ever be truly happy?

Before I answer that question, a joke for you, all tired from reading all these Goodreads reviews:

Catwoman, pressing her artery so she won’t bleed out, talking to The Joker, who is pressing his artery so he won’t bleed out:

C: So you want to hear the joke?
J: I do.
C: This older brother. . .
J: What’s his name?
C: Chuck.
J: I like it.
C: Chuck tells his younger brother. . . Chris. . .
J: How old is Chris?
C: Two.
J: Chuck tells his two-year old brother. . .
C: Chris. If you name two letters of the alphabet, I’ll give you 20 bucks, okay?
J: And Chris says. . .
C: And Chris says. . .
J: Okay.
C: O.K.
J: Hahahahaha.

It’s a comic book, what do you want? But Tom King likes it when he brings The Joker into his Batman run, so he can make jokes. Especially in the middle of a (potential) killing scene such as a fight to the (possible) death between Cat and Joker. I just thought I’d lead with a small piece of one of the best written and most memorable scenes King has yet done.

In Volume 7: The Wedding, what we have been waiting for, building up to, there are three parts: first, three issues with Booster Gold wanting to get Batman a wedding present. I was not into it, there; the second section features a great battle between Catwoman and The Joker, who first lives down to his reputation by killing a lot of people in a church. He wants an invitation to the wedding, he wants to be Bat’s Best Man, and when he does not get what he wants, he goes Ballistic; Cat steps in to Battle him and Best him and the scene is Beautifully done.

The third part focuses on the wedding itself. I can’t say much about that, but the wedding section itself is really an undying love section, which is ultimately appropriate, but it features several guest artists doing romantic pages, it involves pages of Holly and Selina ruminations, it involves hard to read text reflections where you have to turn the pages around and squint to actually read them about the process of their love-which-never-did-run-smooth. The effect is kind of diffuse and scattered, overall. But overall there’s a lot to be happy about, Bat fans, there really is, King is a good writer, and the art is overall great, it’s still memorable, but I can’t really talk about it, sorry. Too many spoilers.

Can Batman ever really truly be happy? The answer is yes, but it’s complicated.

I rate this 3.5 overall, but I round up because I know that in spite of the emotional complications, this is a good volume, a moment in the history of Batman-Catwoman comics.