The script for Batman/Catwoman #1
The ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future
It’s been too long again, and again I apologize and thank Elsa for handling everything these past few weeks. Needless to say, it’s been busy.
But I’m back with something special: the script to Batman/Catwoman #1! The complete hardcover for the series is coming out in just a few weeks, and I thought it would be a great time to post this one.
Oddly enough this script is one of the older ones I’ve published here. I wrote it back in 2019 before I’d even left the Batman title. I’ve said this elsewhere, but the plan had been to end City of Bane at 85, do 15 issues of short Bat/Cat team up stories and marry them in 100. For many complicated reasons that had to do with many complicated things, this was called off.
But DC was kind enough to give me 12 issues to tell a final, hopefully definitive tale of the Bat and the Cat. They asked me what artist I would like to work with, and I immediately said, the brilliant Clay Mann, who agreed to do it…he just had one caveat, that I’ll get to later.
Now that I had an artist and room to run, I had to problem of how to tell this story. My first thought was to go back to my best work, to build on that. And I always thought the second annual I had done with Lee Weeks and Michael Lark was as good as I had ever written the Bat/Cat relationship. It was a story of Bat/Cat’s first and last kiss.
I read this issue over and I immediately wanted to know what happened next. What happened after this initial spark between them? What happened to Selina in a world without Batman? I wanted to tell those stories in addition to the story in the present day that led up to their marriage.
Then, I thought of Jason Aaron’s now classic Thor—three stories told simultaneously, young, middle aged, and old—and I had my how I’d tell the story.
Which finally brings us back to Clay’s caveat. Clay said he’d do it, but he wanted The Phantasm to be in it. I said yes—you would too if you knew how pretty Clay was going to make this book. So then I had a villain that would drive my plot, for, if you’ve seen the movie, you know the Phantasm is tied forever to the Joker.
So that’s how it started. It ended a pandemic later with a lovely wedding, all of which you can pick up in the new hardcover in time for Christmas.
And here is the very first words that kicked it off. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
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