When a Baaaaat loves a (Cat)woman… !
The wedding’s right around the corner but there’s more adventures to be had first! Batman, Volume 6: Bride or Burglar? collects four stories of differing length. And, as usual, Tom King’s done it again, producing yet another corking Batman book!
The opening issue highlights how insane Bruce Wayne/Batman is, just in concept, when Bruce encounters a wealthy young boy, accompanied by his own butler, whose parents were also viciously murdered. But is this more than coincidence… ? It’s not the first time someone’s shone a light on the strangeness of Batman’s origins and Bruce’s choices after his parents’ deaths but it’s a fine issue nonetheless.
King continues the Superfriends story from the last book with Parts 3 and 4, this time featuring Wonder Woman. The Gentle Man is a warrior battling never-ending waves of monsters, forever, to keep our world safe. Wonder Woman and Batman do him a solid by giving him a day’s respite to visit his wife – except time doesn’t work the same way in the Gentle Man’s realm and Bruce’s faithfulness is about to be tested as he’s separated from Selina for 37 years…
I loved seeing Joelle Jones return to draw this two-parter. Her art is delectable here, particularly with the characters’ body language like Catwoman laughing at Bruce in actual knight armour and Bruce and Diana talking about their pets over dinner (of course Wonder Woman has a kangaroo!). The Gentle Man may be a contrived character, made purely for this story to work, but he was surprisingly more developed than he should’ve been, another testament to King’s skill as a writer. I don’t get how Bruce doesn’t age 37 years though. I understand why Diana wouldn’t – she’s a god – but Bruce is just a man. Hmm… shenanigans!
Everyone Loves Ivy is another callback from earlier in the series, this time to The War of Jokes and Riddles. A traumatised Ivy uses the Green to seize control of everyone’s will and it’s down to Batman and Catwoman to save the world. The concept felt derivative of Unity from Rick and Morty and the explanation behind Ivy’s actions meant little to me mostly as The War of Jokes and Riddles is the only book in King’s run that I haven’t been crazy about. Also, Catwoman – even on her best day – is NOT faster than The Flash, let alone 3! I guess Ivy controlling them must’ve slowed them down or something, right?
But it was fun to see the Gotham City Sirens reunite, I love how King continues to feature Bat Burger in his stories (KGBLT and Killer Croque Monsieur - I wants them!) and I’m so enjoying seeing Batman and Catwoman working together – they’re quite the formidable team! Mikel Janin’s art is spectacular – he’s seriously becoming one of the best comics artists working today – and I loved June Chung’s gorgeous colours, blending Ivy into her plants so they become one.
The book closes with Selina going shopping for her wedding dress – Catwoman-style (ie. breaking and entering)! There’s no real story but both Joelle Jones and Mikel Janin take turns drawing the comic so it looks amazing; Jones designs a helluva dress for Selina’s big day.
I liked some stories less than others and had some nitpicks but I wasn’t bored by any of them either and I LOVED the art throughout. Batman, Volume 6: Bride or Burglar? is another reliably entertaining entry in Tom King’s run.