In comics, there is no ending. So what does that mean for the impending nuptials of Batman and Catwoman? In a universe not known for its joyous endings, is the wedding at the heart of July's Batman #50 really the start of something bad?

To catch up on the bride and groom before they head to the church, CBR News spoke with the issue's co-creators Tom King and Joelle Jones. King has been writing the Dark Knight's adventures since the dawn of DC's Rebirth era, and Jones has been involved in every major moment of the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle – designing the latter's wedding dress while also prepping to serve as writer/artist on an incoming Catwoman solo book.

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Below, DC's dynamic wedding duo prepare the big event by detailing how they approach romance comics, the most fashionable superhero event of the season and whether a happy ending can ever truly be in the offing for comics most brooding superhero.

CBR: Your guys' Batman collaboration has been, in a sense, one of the weirdest romance comics that's hit in a long time. Every few years, someone in mainstream comics comes along and says, "We're going to bring back the romance genre." Have you consciously thought about that or read older romance comics for a feel of how to tell a story like this?

Tom King: Yes. And I write Mister Miracle, which is another romance comic. I've got to get out of this genre. [Laughter] But you try to write in all these different voices. Batman is in several different genres where sometimes we're in space, sometimes we're in sci-fi, sometimes we're in the streets. But at the end of the day, you end up writing your own life into the book. And at this point in my life, I'm insanely happily married to the love of my life, and I feel that what you're seeing in the comic is me talking about that relationship and how important it is to me through panels and words and ink. And even though I try to get away from that, it soaks into the thing. You can't get away from you. So maybe it's less like a romance comic and more like a "my life" comic.

Joelle, you've done a lot of work in a lot of comics genres. What was the appeal to work on a big superhero run?

Joelle Jones: I've been a huge superhero fan since I was little. And I get bored very easily sticking in one genre, so I try to bounce around as much as possible. This was something I'd never done, and so I jumped on it. I want to get better as I go, and that entails trying new stuff.

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One of the cornerstones of Catwoman is that she is one of the most fashionable characters and is always changing her look. How did the identity of that character play into making this wedding dress design work on the page?

Jones: I attempted to do that with the dress – say "This is Catwoman formal." I've always been fascinated with her. I do think she's the most fashionable and with it character, and I've tried to keep on top of that.

And you've also worked in the book to "canonize" the Michelle Pfeiffer Catwoman costume from Batman Returns. How did that become a step in this longer story?

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King: I'm of the generation where that was almost my first exposure to Catwoman. I think the '66 series was always around in reruns, but in terms of the character entering my conscious brain, that Michelle Pfeiffer look was what I saw when I closed my eyes and thought of Catwoman. And there's so much that I love about that performance and movie. "Does this mean we have to start fighting?" is one of the best lines in Batman history.

But that stupid costume is not in continuity! So I just did this issue where we had every Catwoman costume, and the whole point of it was the more she changes, the more she's being herself. But I couldn't use that one, so I found a way to put it in this Tony Daniel issue. And it helps if you're working with Tony because he draws everything so beautifully. Even something as classic as that, he finds a way to make it look modern.

Jones' take on her Catwoman wedding design.

That costume to me is also a joke because Booster makes it for her, which is its own story, but Booster never does anything competently. [Laughter] It just fit the story perfectly.

We're getting closer to #50, and that's both a milestone issue and a wedding issue. Both of those phrases have their own expectations, particularly the latter category stretching from when Reed and Sue got married in the Fantastic Four on through when Lois and Clark were married in the '90s. How do you play with those traditions?

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King: I looked at a lot of things, like the Spider-Man wedding and how big they went with that. I read the Fantastic Four wedding with Stan and Jack knocking on the door. When I was a kid, I loved that soap opera wedding aspect. When Louise Simonson had Cyclops and Jean Grey get engaged, that was one of my biggest comic book moments as a kid. That soap opera aspect of comics interests me greatly.

Joellle, what are your visual touchstones for a story about a wedding?

Jones: Whenever Tom gives me a script, it seems really sparse, but the emotional impact is the driving force for everything behind it. It really sets the tone for how I go about drawing it. And this issue is well thought out and crafted as far as that emotional tone. I'm feeding off what he gives me.

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One of the most fun things for an artist who's designing new looks for characters is to see that design come to life in cosplay, and you gave fans a challenge in a very detailed wedding dress. Are you anticipating that moment when you see in person that someone has made it real?

Jones: She's going to be the most fabulous person on the floor. I look forward to it.

King: I saw someone who had your Catwoman desert design tattooed on their leg.

Jones: WHAT?!

King: Yeah! Both Batman and Catwoman.

What's the most challenging thing you've had to draw so far for this arc?

Jones: It was keeping the Robins straight, I think in the beginning. [Laughter] I was never a Robin person. But now I have a whole board with them up to tell the difference.

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Dave Johnson's Batman #50 variant.

King: This is amazing to hear, because she gave them all different faces and personalities that really fit the characters.

The aspect of the wedding issue that really stands out to me is the tension in the story of whether Bruce and Selina can make their relationships work. Can you talk to the idea of a happy ending for these characters? Is it possible for them to find love and have a satisfying dramatic story?

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King: The unique thing about Batman/Bruce Wayne is that happiness is not a happy ending for him. Bruce thrives on pain. That's what motivates him. That's what writers have always emphasized with him. If we give him more pain, he becomes a more motivated character. So when you give him happiness, you're giving him conflict. Most characters, when you give them happiness, you're boring them. But happiness is conflict to Bruce. It's something you haven't seen before, and I think it's possible to maintain that.

That said... I also think it's possible to go in the other direction. You can make him utterly happy and then take it all away from him. So whatever happens, it's going to be something crazy and something you've never seen before. The stakes are going to be super high. And whatever happens in #50, I think #51 is going to be even crazier.

Batman #50 is on sale on July 4 from DC Comics.