Batman's Engagement Will Impact Other DC Comics Characters

Earlier this year, Batman stunned DC Comics fans by getting down on one knee and asking Selina Kyle to marry him. Almost four months later Batman -- and readers -- finally got Catwoman's answer. Now that the Dark Knight's engaged, however, he has to break the news his friends and family.

The upcoming "The Rules of Engagement" story arc which begins in Batman #33 will follow Batman as he tells the people in his life, including Dick Grayson, Superman, and Talia al Ghul, about his engagement and, as Batman writer Tom King recently told Entertainment Weekly, it's going to have a major impact.

"The next arc is actually called "The Rules of Engagement," and it's about Batman going back to his family, going back to Dick Grayson, the original Robin, Damian, his biological son, Superman, [and] Green Lantern," King explained. "It's him going back into his comfort zone and them reacting to this, because the honest reaction is, people are going to look at Batman proposing to Catwoman as something insane. They're not going to understand it."

It's not just Batman's inner circle who don't fully understand the Batman/Catwoman engagement. Some comics fans weren't quite sure what to make of the proposal to start with and King insists that for as odd as fans may find the engagement, it's even weirder for the characters of DC Comics.

"As crazy as it is to the audience, it's even crazier to the people in the fictional world," he said. "So, that's what we're going to record in our next books."

That direction, King says, is completely rooted in the engagement. The writer says that though who Batman and Bruce Wayne fundamentally is has not changed how he interacts with his friends and even the world around him will change.

"You're not losing the core of the character, but there's something new here," King said. "He's going to talk to Superman in a different way now. He's going to talk to Green Lantern in a different way. He's going to approach danger in a different way. He's got a partner that's his equal in every sort of way but is not the same as him morally. There are plenty of places to point the camera, so we're going to point it as many places as we can."

And some of those places are going to get more than a little awkward right away for Batman and Catwoman.

"They run into Talia al Ghul. So, the next issue is Batman going on a quest and running into the mother of his child, who is not his fiancé."