Warning: There are massive spoilers ahead for Batman #50 & X-Men Gold #30!
Just over a year ago, Batman proposed to Catwoman on a rooftop, and set the stage for one of the biggest superhero weddings in years. On Wednesday, July 4, Batman #50 will feature the culmination of that storyline. However, if you were expecting things to go smoothly, then your hopes are about to be dashed. DC Comics just couldn’t resist spoiling the twist ahead of time, and The New York Times has the full breakdown of the issue. But the big takeaway is that Catwoman left Batman on their wedding day and there will be no “Batrimony.”
Less than a month ago, something similar happened in the Marvel Universe. The X-Men‘s Kitty Pryde and Colossus were set to wed after a courtship that encompasses three decades of comic book stories. And once again, the bride left the groom at the wedding. To recap, both Marvel and DC spent months hyping up these events and then pulled the plug right before they were supposed to deliver. But at least X-Men fans got a wedding out of it, even if it was an impromptu ceremony for Rogue and Gambit.
The fact that neither Marvel nor DC’s super-couples made it down the aisle suggests that the publishers still have a reluctance to let their heroes be truly happy. That’s actually one of the reasons Catwoman calls off her wedding, because she comes to believe that Bruce Wayne can’t be happy and function as Batman at the same time. Conversely, Kitty Pryde just came to doubt that she and Colossus could make a marriage work after all of their ups and downs.
Rogue and Gambit are about to headline their own series, Mr. & Mrs. X, which indicates that Marvel plans to keep them together for the foreseeable future. Will their union last in the long term? Probably not. Almost all of the big Marvel marriages have been broken up. Spider-Man & Mary Jane, Jean Grey & Cyclops, and Storm & Black Panther all had high profile weddings. But those unions are gone now.
Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman from the Fantastic Four have largely stayed together for several decades as a married couple, but that success appears to be the exception rather than the rule. Superman and Lois Lane shared nearly two decades as husband and wife before the New 52 relaunch of 2011 made them single again. DC ultimately reversed course and reestablished the Superman and Lois marriage, and they seem to be among the few comic book couples who are truly inseparable.
A Batman and Catwoman union could have been a lot of fun, and the build up to the story offered fresh perspective on both characters. Perhaps someday, they’ll try again and we’ll pretend to forget why it didn’t work out this time. These iconic characters will outlive all of us, but few will ever really change.
What do you think about the Batrimony breakup? Let us know below!
Images: DC/Marvel
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