This week from DC Comics, besides all the Future State titles, we get the next in Black Label series, Batman Catwoman 3: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. I still cannot see how these song titles are tying into the issues themselves as far as meaning. Each song shows up in the issue, but I cannot see a related theme, but oh well. This title continues to hit on all cylinders and reads like of of the great stories ever written in comics. Sure it will never be mentioned in the same breath as runs like Crisis on Infinite Earths or The Death of Superman, but it will quietly be amazing.

Batman Catwoman 3 – Tom King Works In Threes

This title received billing as a Batman and Catwoman story, but after three issues, let’s face it. The story revolves around three characters, not two. While our two main lovers may be the central point of the story, Joker wove himself nicely into events of all three timelines. Even after his gruesome death at the hands of Selina Kyle last issue, his actions reverberate throughout the comic.

I love the way Tom King positioned Joker in the present tense story line. Batman and Catwoman may be a couple, but Selina continues her ‘less than legal’ ways. Her dealing included Joker, and she failed to tell Bruce. Joker now pulls the masterful move Joker is know for and creates a Kobayashi Maru/no-win scenario.

He tells Selina he will kill a bunch of people at the Gotham City Ice rink. This puts Selina in the impossible position of deciding what to do. If she tells Bruce, she will then have to tell him how she found out, thus exposing her. She could say nothing, but then the deaths of possibly hundreds would be on her shoulders. Lastly, she could try and stop him herself but both Joker and Selina know Bruce will still find out.

How Joker ever fit into that safe is beyond me.

Batman Catwoman 3 – CAT FIGHT!!

We knew this was coming, and finally we have it. One does not write a love story with Bruce and Selina and then include Phantasm (Andrea Beaumont) and not have a ‘cat fight’. Sure enough Phantasm finally comes after Catwoman, but oddly enough it does not happen in the past but the present. I love how Bruce’s call overlays the fight. The security systems are going off and he thinks it’s a fluke. Little does he know his present love is fighting with his past flame. Like I mentioned before, if you have not seen the animated Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, it’s a MUST!

I would like to have seen more of this fight. The two seem pretty equal. In the end they both land unconscious on the ground, but who will wake first? Or will Batman find them and put an end to the fight? Or it could be even worse. They wake up and patch things up only to begin sharing their favorite ‘Bruce’ stories. Choose a side Bats.

Batman Catwoman 3 – The REAL Batman Beyond

Now don’t get me wrong. I love Terry McGuinness in Batman Beyond, but what BC3 just gave us is a future I NEED to see. The Batman of the future is not a young kid, but a girl named Helena, daughter of Bruce and Selina. She sports a new suit that crosses the look of Catwoman and Batman in an impressive fashion.

One cool feature that popped out were the wings. The suit maintains the Catwoman appearance by only armoring the top half and adding cat ears, but it also dropped the cape. When it comes time to fly, however, the suit sports a pair of wings that look exactly like the wings on the Batman Beyond suit Terry wears. The suit looks sleek and deadly as does its wearer.

Not only does Helena Wayne make an impressive Bat-(girl? woman?) but she, like her father, has a friend leading the GCPD, one Commissioner Grayson! That’s right. The little boy wonder now leads the Gotham police department. I would love to see the dynamic these two would have as they try to protect Gotham. This comic must happen!

Batman Catwoman 3 – Helena Wayne, Who’s Daughter Is She?

We know Helena was born daughter of Bruce and Selina, but is she a daddy’s girl or a momma’s girl? While donning the suit, she radiates the feel of her father. She owns the mantle and the crime fighting moxy of her father, but while she fights crime, is she more dedicated to justice or family?

Selina sought her revenge on Joker. In killing him in Florida, she thought herself safe from prying eyes, but when the tests confirm the body is THE Joker, authorities alert Dick back in Gotham. He alerts Helena who travels down to Florida to case the scene. She finds something of interest.

Later on, she shares dinner with her mother, and when she tells Selina about the investigation and the death of Joker, Selina calmly asks if Helena found any evidence. Helena’s response? “It was clean.” Now she hides things from her mother, and appears to be protecting her. So how much of her is her mother’s daughter?

Batman Catwoman 3 – Artwork In and Out

This title continues to astound me on every level. The suit designs, Phantasm, Helena and Dick, the Catwoman/Joker/Batman triangle that continues, the way it seamlessly time jumps between past, present and future. Tom King is writing a masterpiece and we are only on issue 3.

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