Some thoughts about Batman #49

The only person who can stop the Joker is Catwoman but how?

The Joker and Selina have exchanged fatal strikes and now will have to relive their old days in the worst way possible.

I'm serious when I say "in the worst way possible" because I'm sure as hell that there are better ways to explore this.

Tom King plays with the ramifications of the last issue with Batman being defeated by the Joker and Catwoman being forced to save him which ends-up with both being about to die and having a personal conversation. You can start seeing where things went wrong. For one, the situation is clearly not the indicate to have this kind of talk, Selina wouldn't humour the Joker in his death bed, especially not after he just killed a bunch of people in a Church and has left Bruce for dead. This situation is just so forced that is just hard to believe which is a common thing for King and this run.

The worst thing is that there's a sound premise behind this whole ridiculous situation. The idea of Selina and the Joker reminiscing the old days is pretty interesting in and of itself but it needs to be told in a way that actually complements her character, maybe I could have bought it if Selina was trying to outsmart the Joker in one of his tricks instead of just having a normal talk when both are about to die. Hell, I could have even bought this if at least Selina wouldn't have accepted Joker's conversation so fast. As it is, is just bad.

Mikel Janin's artwork is great as usual thanks to his beautiful characters and style but needs a better script.

Yeah, didn't work, what else did you expect?