"We're the same thing, you and I. We're both lies that eventually became the truth." Lara Notsil, Star Wars: X-Wing: Solo Command, Aaron Allston
"All that is not eternal is eternally out of date." C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves
"There's room in our line of work for hope, too." Stephanie Brown
Stephanie Brown Wiki, My Batman Universe Reviews, Stephanie Brown Discord
Since Bane appears to be in the Year of the Villain one-shot and King is not writing it (and also given the premise of the story) I think that some author will simply have Bane reject Luthor's offer so that King doesn't have to deal with it.
It's the Dynamic Duo! Batman and Robin!... and Red Robin and Red Hood and Nightwing and Batwoman and Batgirl and Orphan and Spoiler and Bluebird and Lark and Gotham Girl and Talon and Batwing and Huntress and Azreal and Flamebird and Batcow?
Since when could just anybody do what we trained to do? It makes it all dumb instead of special. Like it doesn't matter anymore.
-Dick Grayson (Batman Inc.)
"We're the same thing, you and I. We're both lies that eventually became the truth." Lara Notsil, Star Wars: X-Wing: Solo Command, Aaron Allston
"All that is not eternal is eternally out of date." C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves
"There's room in our line of work for hope, too." Stephanie Brown
Stephanie Brown Wiki, My Batman Universe Reviews, Stephanie Brown Discord
"Perception" is a big theme in King's run. Not only the many moments Bruce has shown insight into what Batman is about (even when he can be wrong) in some decisive moments in the story, but also how others perceive him. Catwoman and her thoughts about their love, and also why they can't be together, and Dick explaining to Damian about Bruce's pain. Gotham's perception of Batman, that changed from a superhero who invited him to do something with the fear he felt to the sight of an ennemy who represents the city that took everything from him
"The Batman is Gotham City. I will watch him. Study him. And when I know him and why he does not kill, I will know this city. And then Gotham will be MINE!"-BANE
"We're monsters, buddy. Plain and simple. I don't dress it up with fancy names like mutant or post-human; men were born crueler than Apes and we were born crueler than men. It's just the natural order of things"-ULTIMATE SABRETOOTH
A while back he revealed that he was doing a sequel to the Ballad Of Kite Man, and I forget which it was exactly, but the issue number was in-between 75 and 82, so I would believe this is all but confirmation that the core story will be 6 issues, and then 2 for the Kite Man story, ala War Of Jokes And Riddles.
Plus, I can imagine there's gonna be other fill-in issues popping in throughout anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if the main issues are not all Daniel.
"We're the same thing, you and I. We're both lies that eventually became the truth." Lara Notsil, Star Wars: X-Wing: Solo Command, Aaron Allston
"All that is not eternal is eternally out of date." C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves
"There's room in our line of work for hope, too." Stephanie Brown
Stephanie Brown Wiki, My Batman Universe Reviews, Stephanie Brown Discord
Let me think.
So City of Bane starts at 75, and runs at least till 82. That's four months, taking us from July to October. I think there's a good chance we'll get like "the war to retake Gotham" or something for the next two-three months (taking us to January/February). The climactic arc is likely 95-100, with the five issue aftermath arc following. So I think there's definitely a chance that City of Bane status quo will last at least 12 issues (six months). I kind of hope it does, because I'd like to get a feeling like No Man's Land again.
"We're the same thing, you and I. We're both lies that eventually became the truth." Lara Notsil, Star Wars: X-Wing: Solo Command, Aaron Allston
"All that is not eternal is eternally out of date." C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves
"There's room in our line of work for hope, too." Stephanie Brown
Stephanie Brown Wiki, My Batman Universe Reviews, Stephanie Brown Discord
Depends when/how much Selina gets involved. If she’s absent from the City of Bane / Bane takeover story, I wouldn’t expect it to last that long since King will want to spend time on them figuring stuff out and 4-5 issues wouldn’t be enough to do that + tie up all the loose ends. If she’s there for most of the story though, I can see the Bane runs Gotham status quo lasting quite a bit.
I'm going to predict this now:
So, you know how Selina started out the series? In Arkham, sentenced to die, because she killed 300 odd terrorists. But she didn't! She was protecting Holly!
Then, remember how she appeared to betray Batman in I Am Bane, only it turns out she was helping him all along?
Then, in Batman #66, Batman dreams of Selina remembering that she appeared to betray him to Two-Face, but it turns out they worked it all out together?
Here's what I think is going to happen.
Selina will be working WITH Bane during City of Bane. And it will look like she's truly become one of Bane's creatures.
But she hasn't.
(I could be completely wrong. I just want to throw my parallelism analysis out here before we get any solicits so I can at least say I guessed.)
"We're the same thing, you and I. We're both lies that eventually became the truth." Lara Notsil, Star Wars: X-Wing: Solo Command, Aaron Allston
"All that is not eternal is eternally out of date." C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves
"There's room in our line of work for hope, too." Stephanie Brown
Stephanie Brown Wiki, My Batman Universe Reviews, Stephanie Brown Discord
Maybe the story ends with somebody shooting Bane in the end, he’s rushed to the hospital and suddenly gets amnesia once he’s awake.
King’s Big bat status quo change #1 is Bane is now Wanye, a traveling paficist working in some organization to help people.
Last edited by Arsenal; 04-11-2019 at 10:29 PM.
"We're the same thing, you and I. We're both lies that eventually became the truth." Lara Notsil, Star Wars: X-Wing: Solo Command, Aaron Allston
"All that is not eternal is eternally out of date." C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves
"There's room in our line of work for hope, too." Stephanie Brown
Stephanie Brown Wiki, My Batman Universe Reviews, Stephanie Brown Discord
I could totally see this being right... in a way that would kind of retcon her "leaving" him at the altar in 50... she was playing along with Bane's plan, but had to do it in a way that Bruce genuinely didn't know... but relied on trusting him?
Maybe? Maybe not. But I like where your head is at.
Guesstimating with the amount of issues we have left, I think this is how the remaining volumes are gonna be:
Vol. 12: #75-82
Vol. 13: #83-88
Vol. 14: #89-94
Vol. 15: #95-100
Vol. 16: #101-105
I would imagine he'd want to put a couple 1- or 2-issue stories spread around in there too, so it probably won't just be more 6 issue stories all the way till the end. But yeah, I wouldn't 6-7 months for the Bane status quo, that's a good compromise in comparison to the full 12 months.
That's also what happened in I Am Suicide too, looked like she betrayed him, but was helping him the whole time. So that is definitely one of his recurring and repeated themes he keeps bringing back, so I am expecting one more instance like that to happen.
He has teased that Selina may be making some kind of an appearance in 75, though there is also the larger question of if her solo series will have any ramifications or will halt her from being apart of the main events for a certain period of time.
And yeah, I'm hoping their reunion isn't saved until 100 or the final arc, because its way too important to drag out that long, and feels like they would need way more time to figure out the stuff between them.