Summary: <br> Catwoman and Batman are engaged but they have to settle some old business and also a double date with Superman and Lois Lane.<br> Affiliate link included. <br> Transcript:<br> Graham: Batman and Catwoman go into the desert on a secret mission and then they go on a double date with Superman and Lois Lane. Find out more as we take a look at Batman Vol 5: Rules of Engagement, straight ahead.<br><br> <br> [Intro Music]<br> Announcer: Welcome to the Classy Comics podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise Idaho, here is your host Adam Graham.<br> Graham: Rules of Engagement is a really interesting Batman book about Tom King. It really doesn’t hinge on the fight scenes or the big action sequences you saw, particularly during the first three volumes of Tom King’s run and, of course, a little bit in The War of Jokes and Riddles. This is much more a character-based book. It collects issues 33 to 37 of Batman along with Batman Annual #2. <br> The first part of the book is issues 33 to 35 and the story, Rules of Engagement, in which Batman and Catwoman are heading to Khadym, a restricted area that no one on earth is supposed to enter, especially superheroes. There’s even agreement with the Justice League but Batman is violating the agreement because, as it eventually turns out, the woman who is responsible for the hundreds of murders that Catwoman has been accused of and is still wanted by law enforcement for is in Khadym but she’s also there with the League of Assassins and Talia Al Ghul. So, with the help of Tiger a friend of Nightwing’s, i.e Dick Grayson, they make their entrance into Khadym. There Tahlia sends out the League of Assassins to weaken Batman before she can come out and finish the job and defeat him. However, Catwoman stands in her way and the two have the best fight in the whole book, which is essentially a book length sword fight. As can be expected with anything Tom King writes, there is a lot of dialogue in there but it is really a great dual and of course there’s an explanation in the book because one thing you might wonder is why Batman is kind of down from the count, not able to do anything while Catwoman has the wind and strength to actually carry on the sword fight but the reason, as stated in the book, as Dick Grayson said, he always would take the brunt of any fight whenever he fights so. Catwoman has not received the level or severity of fight as the brunt of the battle came on Batman.<br> As they dialogue Talia Al Ghul essentially says that she views herself as the best and Batman as the only man who could possibly be her equal. Catwoman scoffs at that and challenges her and tells her how she views Batman. “The man is broken. All the way from the start, cracked. He’s always going to put a vow, a vow he took as a 10-year-old, a vow to war on crime, whatever that is. He’ll always take that vow over anyone”, and she goes on to say, “If you think of yourself as the best and you’re looking for the best, whatever he is Talia, I swear he’s not that. What he is, all he is, he’s just the stupid man I stupidly love”. And it’s a very honest statement but there’s some sweetness in it too and I think this is one reason why the entire Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne marriage could work and I think, if nothing else, it does explain part of what he finds attractive. Selina doesn’t love him as this mythic figure, this incomparable perfect a legend. I think that so many women in the D.C. Universe have had designs on Batman but really have just kind of have this very mythic view and put him on this huge pedestal and that’s really uncomfortable for anyone but I think Selina’s view is a lot more honest and accepting of who he is and it’s something that he can live up to.<br> The book is also interesting because it does feature more of the Bat family finding out about this engagement,
