It was the wedding, or the lack of one, seen around the world. And plenty of fans weren't happy with the way they saw it.

This summer's Batman #50 promised the marriage of Batman and Catwoman, but while the issue did celebrate the storied couple, it also had its twist ending spoiled when The New York Times revealed that the feline burglar left the Dark Knight hanging. For Batman writer Tom King, the experience was bittersweet, but he continues to promise readers that the event was only the turning point in his 100-issue epic story.

CBR caught up with King at Comic-Con International in San Diego where the writer spent time praising his collaborators, explaining his overarching plan and revealing that the next major moment in his story will be the reunion of the two lovers in a crossover with DC's new Catwoman ongoing. Read on for the details and see the entire video below.

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CBR: We talked at C2E2 about the incoming Batman wedding, and you had said it's impossible for Batman to be happy. And now with the reveal of Bane in your run, it's really the beginning of an all-new story of misery for Batman. Where do you see it going next?

Tom King: Fortunately -- or unfortunately -- I come from a world of novels, and I see stories as needing some kind of unifying themes and unifying elements. And that goes for my 12-issue series, and it goes for my Batman, which is a 100-issue series. At the end, I want it to feel like one story. I want it to be one exploration of Batman with one huge villain and one huge theme. The huge villain – as revealed in issue #50 – is Bane. And the huge theme is Batman, Catwoman and their love. We're exploring that. And when you explore a theme, you explore all aspects of it, and one of the aspects of love is loss.

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We're at that point in the story where the Nazis just took the Ark, and Indy is snuck with the snakes. Or we're at the point in the story where Han just pulled a gun and Vader pulled it out of his hands, and he's being walked out of the room. That's painful. That jerks at your heart. The whole reason you came here is to be invested in this story, and because you're invested in it, you can feel the pain of the characters. If I did my job right, you're seeing this through the eyes of Batman. You've pulled that cowl on, and Batman is in pain, and you as a reader are feeling that pain. That's terrible, but that's part of the journey. That's part of the journey of "Can you be happy?" I don't know about you, but when I found happiness, it wasn't, "Oh, I've found joy and now everything is going to be happy." [Laughs] It was, "I found joy, but here's another obstacle. Can I find it again?"

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I'm guessing that one of the hardest scenes to write in the whole series is when you put Batman and Catwoman on the page again for the first time since she bailed on him. Have you been planning on how that plays out?

Yes. And I've talked to Joelle Jones about it, who's writing the Catwoman series. This has been planned for so long, and so Joelle and I have been working to that moment. It's part of how she's building her story, and it's part of how I'm building mine. We're building them together, so that when they meet together, that's going to be one of the marks of the entire run – just like the moment where they were engaged was a mark of the run or the moment they were left on the rooftops. That's going to be a pinnacle and hopefully a moment that I write well and people talk about.

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So we had Dan DiDio in for an interview the other day...

Can I talk about Dan DiDio for a second? When I first broke into comics and got to DC, he had a horrible rep. He had quit Twitter and all that stuff, and I was looking at him kind of like, "When will I meet the monster?" But actually meeting him and working with him these past years, he's not at all a monster. He's one of the best lovers of comics and one of the people who's working as hard as possible to save this medium – not only to see that it continues but to help the creators behind it.

It's not just this generation of creators but the generations that came before us. Len Wein, who sadly passed away last year...it was Dan who was taking care of him in the end by making sure he got work and making sure he got invited to places. Dan doesn't talk about any of this stuff, but he takes care of the old creators as much as he takes care of the young ones. He hides that stuff. Dan is one of the great cheerleaders of the medium, and I don't think he gets enough credit for it.

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Well, he was talking to us about the release of Batman #50 and the New York Times spoiler, and I was struck by how emphatically he said, "We did everything right. I know that people are upset, but that's part of what we need to do to draw people to the book." Are you as the writer thinking about all those external factors, or is it just about the story?

I've got three kids – Charlie, Crosby and Claire – and a lovely wife. And every Friday I've got a deadline. And my focus #1 is always to put the best story on the page. And if I spend half my time worrying about how the marketing is going or worrying about what the media does? My focus just has to stay on that story. There just aren't enough hours in the day. I only have so much energy, and I want all that energy to go to me looking at the right words and putting the right things in the right place. I just can't focus on the marketing. To me it's about the story, and the rest of it has to be noise.

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And of course, that's not how it comes out. The reader just sees all the noise. But I'm a stupid writer. I just want to focus on the writing. But I was mad about the rollout of it. That's legitimate to say. I wanted the story to stand on its own. I knew very much this was a story that was going to break hearts. I knew this was a story that was going to bring pain. And I wrote that issue in a way so that people saw it wasn't, "Ha, ha, ha!" It was a celebration of their love. We worked so hard to get the best creators in the history of Batman to show dedications to their love – the idea that this love has lasted for 80 years and is something eternal that can't be broken.

The twist at the end is, "This is something that can be fixed." It was meant to give salve to the wound. But it didn't come out that way. Instead it came out as a headline and as people reading about the issue instead of reading the issue.

As a storyteller, that's a disappointment. Because people were reading the issue and saying, "I like this relationship." That's what you want. It's all about how much I like the relationship. It's like, "As mad as you are, I agree with you. I want them to be married and to be together." But part of exploring that happiness is understanding that happiness is something where there are obstacles both in your control and out of your control. You have to deal with that and find a way to push through it. That's the story.