Batman Will Reveal His 'Darkest Secret' To Catwoman

CBR

Batman Will Reveal His 'Darkest Secret' to Catwoman in New Arc

By Stephen Gerding

Published Jun 7, 2017

Before they can become Batman and wife, Bruce Wayne will fill Catwoman in on one of his deepest, darkest secrets - but what it is?

It's official - the Dark Knight has proposed marriage to the DC Universe's most notorious burglar. But that's not the end of the story; not only do readers not know whether Catwoman will accept Batman's costumed hand in marriage, before she can even respond to his offer, Bruce Wayne will further bare his soul to Selina Kyle.

“It’s like, ‘You think you know me, but you don’t know me until this,’ ” King told USA Today. “The actual answer [to the proposal] will come after he reveals something he’s never revealed to anyone, and she has to decide whether that’s good or bad.”

Obviously, King did not elucidate further, and fans will have to wait a few months before Bruce's secret is revealed, not to mention whether she'll accept Bruce's proposal upon learning it.

The next question, then, is if the secret is an all-new revelation for readers as well as Catwoman. There's a lot Selina doesn't know about Bruce, particularly regarding his life prior to becoming the Dark Knight. And while there's obviously a chance that King is set to reveal another previously unknown piece of his past, odds are good we're poised to learn what happens when he either relates the story of how he recently met his father via the inter-dimensional Watchmen-fueled "The Button" storyline, or of his attempt as a young child to commit suicide.

It was just a year ago when King and artist Mikel Janin told that story for the first time in Batman's "I Am Suicide" arc, a storyline that found Bruce freeing Selina from the prison sentence she was serving to allegedly killing 237 people (she was later cleared of the crime) and kicking off the current stage of their relationship. Batman #12 revealed that as a ten-year-old boy, Bruce Wayne attempted to cut his wrists with his father’s razor blade. He described this as his act of surrender, after which “my life was no longer my life,” and it was at that moment he made his oath to fight crime -- in short, it was the true birth of the Batman.

The answer as to whether this is the secret Bruce will fill Selina in on will have to wait a few months to be revealed, though; the next issue of Batman kicks off an all-new story arc set in the hero's past. King an Janin re-team for “The War of Jokes and Riddles," which promises to give readers a new outlook on a pair of the Dark Knight’s classic villains as the Riddler and Joker take center stage in the storyline set one year after the Batman’s career began.

Featuring the Dark Knight's marriage proposal, Batman #24, by Tom King, David Finch, Clay Mann and more, is on sale now.