Catwoman’s Betrayal of Batman is So Much Worse Than Fans Realize
As readers discover that Catwoman has pulled a robbery behind Batman’s back, many miss the incredible significance of exactly what happened.
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Warning: contains spoilers for Batman/Catwoman #2!
As the Phantasm’s return to Bruce Wayne’s life continues to impact his present day relationship with Selina Kyle, AKA Catwoman, a lot of hidden truths are being brought into the light. While Andrea Beaumont is stirring up memories of a past romance, Catwoman is the latest vigilante partner to betray Batman. But while the full extent of her plans hasn’t yet been revealed, her present-day betrayal of Batman is so, so much worse than most fans realize.
Batman/Catwoman #2 is written by Tom King with art by Clay Mann, and explores the partnership of Gotham City’s iconic vigilantes, taking place in three time periods: the early days of their relationship, their present-day partnership, and a near future in which Bruce Wayne is dead and Catwoman is wrapping up old business. Of course, the timelines are bound together by a single case, and Catwoman just killed Joker, apparently for his involvement in the death of Andrea Beaumont’s son. At the same time, years earlier, fans see that Catwoman was involved in a murder attributed to the Joker, stealing a necklace from the scene, with which she later confronts the Clown Prince of Crime.
Suspecting Catwoman’s involvement – since the valuable necklace was emblazoned with feline symbols that don’t match the Joker’s field of interest – Bruce probes her until she requests that he just comes out and ask. When Batman asks Selina directly if she took the necklace, she lies to his face, covering up the theft and the fact she’s clearly bound up in a scheme with the Joker. The larger story, focusing on the Phantasm’s unsuccessful attempt to kill Joker as revenge for the death of her child, will have many twists and turns to come, but this moment of deception is pivotal, and for more reasons than fans may recognize on first reading.
While Catwoman’s betrayal is bad enough, it’s the precise details of her crime that really drive the knife home. Bruce Wayne committed at a young age to make war on crime, an unyielding edict that he had to bend to breaking point in making his relationship with Catwoman go the distance. But he made that pledge only because of the theft of a necklace – a crime which famously led to the murder of his parents, as a sloppy criminal panicked and shattered his life forever. That Catwoman would work with Batman’s greatest enemy is bad enough, but that she’d do so in the commission of the very crime that ruined Bruce’s life drives that betrayal to the very core of everything on which he’s built his life. Even as Joker apparently goes further than Selina expected, how could she ever explain to Bruce Wayne of all people that she didn’t expect the theft of a necklace to spiral out of control?
The future storyline reveals that Selina waits until Bruce is dead to enact her revenge on Joker, but this only serves to belittle the Dark Night’s legacy, creating a world in which Batman is born from a murder that began with the robbery of a necklace and now, as soon as he dies, unleashes Catwoman to commit another. In choosing this theft, and the vengeance that unravels from it, Catwoman symbolically scours Batman’s legacy from the world, underscoring how the cycle of theft and murder resumes the moment he’s not there to stop it – albeit with a victim as contemptible as the Joker. While many fans will only see the beginning of intrigue in this issue, those who look back over Batman and Catwoman’s history will see one of the greatest blows to Bruce Wayne’s guiding ethos every struck, and by the person who professes to love him most.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/catwoman-batman-betrayal-joker-stole-necklace-explained-king/