Be prepared for potential wedding bells in Gotham! DC Comics has announced that this week’s Batman #24 will see a major step forward for Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle’s relationship—one that culminates in the Dark Knight himself getting down on one knee, asking Selina for her hand in marriage.
Revealed by USA Today, the scene—written by Tom King, with art by Danny Miki, David Finch, Jordie Bellaire, and Clay Mann—sees Bruce and Selina on the rooftops of Gotham mid-patrol, as Bruce removes his cowl and offers a ring to a shocked Selina in a rare moment of emotional vulnerability, admitting that he’s both scared and been waiting to do this a very long time. In fact, it’s been since the moment he first met her, given that the engagement ring is made out of a diamond Selina stole the first time Batman encountered Catwoman.
Bruce has had many romantic entaglements over the years, but Selina Kyle is one of the most persistent recurring figures in his life as both a billionaire playboy and Gotham’s brutal protector. That said, the prospect of marriage is definitely out of the blue. Tom King’s run on Batman has given us a more emotional and vulnerable version of Bruce than most, especially when it comes to his feelings for Selina—after all, she’s the one he confided in to admit he once attempted to kill himself after his parents’ death.
A recent encounter with the Flashpoint version of his father has also seen Bruce reckoning with the question of whether he should hang up the cowl and move on with his life, too. So even if it is a surprising moment, it’s perhaps not too shocking to see this Batman in a moment of raw, emotional sentiment like this.
We probably won’t have much more information on this until the issues following Batman #24—after all, we don’t see Selina’s response here, and she could very easily decline—but whether this engagement attempt actually goes through or not, this represents a major, emotional step forward for this incarnation of Batman.
