After issue 48 ended with a literal bang (and Batman down), this one escalates immediately into a cinematic showdown between Selina Kyle and The Joker.

But writer Tom King quickly changes the confrontation’s nature and tone to deliver maximum emotion and suspense in clever ways that pages upon pages of furious fisticuffs never could, capably concluding “The Best Man” with one of the greatest Catwoman stories AND one of the greatest Joker stories ever told!

Full review at Batman On Film!

“The Best Man” begins!

Deep inside one of Gotham City’s most beautiful cathedrals, The Joker cruelly kicks a young couple’s wedding into a sickening spiral of slaughter. He knows his disgusting deed will bring Batman, and it’s one of the nastiest and grandest plans The Clown Prince of Crime has ever perpetrated.

Because, you see, he’s well aware of Batman’s impending nuptials… and he’s jealous that he wasn’t invited. Unleashing such carnage at a wedding, when Batman clearly has his own vows on his mind, is a stroke of vile genius; maybe, just maybe, the very venue will throw Batman off his game just enough.

It’s enough.

Full review at Batman On Film!

“You were happy… and the world wasn’t.”

When a broken Booster Gold speaks those words to Batman in the finale of “The Gift,” it’s both a confession of his catastrophic attempt at a wedding present and also — possibly — an unintended bit of foreshadowing.

Can Bruce Wayne truly remain our silent guardian, our watchful protector, our Dark Knight… if he’s living happily ever after?

In the hands of lesser writers, this three-issue detour into an alternate reality could have been little more than filler. But Tom King is smarter than that, crafting a weird, wild story that says big things about Bruce’s connection to Batman while adding even more gloom and gray to the already ominous clouds that gather above his upcoming wedding to Selina Kyle.

Full review at Batman On Film!