Warning: this article contains spoilers for Batman/Catwoman #1
The Joker and Batman are easily among the most well-known hero/villain duos in popular culture, and it's no secret that both these iconic characters have had their lives intertwined in more ways than one over the years. Now, in the highly anticipated debut issue of Tom King and Clay Mann's Batman/Catwoman #1, it's revealed that Joker's future retirement after a long life of playing superheroes and villains with Batman in Gotham City is… actually not so different from the average senior citizen's retirement plan.
Batman/Catwoman investigates the two black-clad Gotham thrill-seekers through three connecting storylines that each takes place in the past, present, and future. And it's an intriguing approach, as it allows for a narrative that considers the fleeting nature of life, especially for costumed heroes whose youth and vitality are paramount to their ongoing missions. What happens when Batman, Catwoman, and the Joker grow old and can no longer partake in the eccentricity of their chosen careers? How do they frame the hardheaded nature of their exploits from the perspective of so many years removed? For Joker, it turns out the answer is far more unexpected than any fan could have guessed.
Early on in the issue, an elder Selina Kyle arrives at a Florida-like retirement community called Seabird Island. There, she reacquaints with an elderly gentleman who greets her like an old friend. Initially, there's nothing remarkable at all about Selina catching up with this average, everyday old-timer. It's an interchangeable conversation between two folks as they talk of their grandkids and the many years have gone by… but then Selina brings up Bruce Wayne. It turns out Bruce has recently died at this point in the future. Not from his adventures as Batman, not from a villain of the past killing him in his sleep, but by simply getting sick in his old age.
Selina's come to inform this old man of Bruce's passing, and as it turns out, this unassuming elderly gentleman is revealed to be none other than the Clown Prince of Crime himself. As anyone could expect, the news of Batman's death is a crushing blow for Mister J, but there's something intriguingly human about seeing Joker break into tears over the loss of someone so important to his life. As he puts it, "It's the end of something. You get to a certain age and…these days, everything is just the end of something."
This is certainly a surprising reveal, but it's par for the course considering King's penchant for expectation shattering storytelling. With eleven more issues to go in this miniseries, it’s even harder to imagine where the story trails from here, especially with Selina unveiling her true intentions for reacquainting with the Joker in the final pages: with Batman gone, there's no one to stop her from finally doing the laughing man in. One thing's for sure; King displays a firm-as-ever grasp on the Dark Knight as he continues to analyze the psychology behind the costumed characters of Gotham. By exploring these outlandish people as retired folks reflecting on their past, the line between good and evil is blurred and their humanity exposed. In the end, the mundaneness of the Joker's retirement plan is what makes it more alluring than any more grandiose reveal would have been.
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