Spoilers Incorporated: DC, New York Post Spoil Events of Batman Incorporated #8

Editor’s Note: While I will try to avoid including any spoilers for Batman Incorporated #8 in this piece, it is a story about DC and The New York Post spoiling Batman Incorporated #8. It is a difficult task, like trying to defuse a bomb while looking at a green wire with a yellow stripe, and a yellow stripe with a green stripe.

Yesterday, my co-Editor Amanda asked me idly why there wasn’t the same kind of mainstream press coverage of the events of last week’s Batwoman #17 as there was last May when Northstar did something similar in Astonishing X-Men. She had theories about the public perceptions of lesbians versus gay men, or the widening public acceptance of gay marriage in even the last nine months, but my theory? “Dan DiDio didn’t bother to pick up the phone and call a newspaper to tell them about it. Period. Full stop. It’s not like mainstream newspaper reporters make the comic store part of their local beat, hoping for a page four feature story.”

Well, this morning, it looks like my theory was proved correct. Because DiDio, or someone at DC Editorial, has called The New York Post and spoiled the living shit out of Batman Incorporated #8.

And, while I promised not to spoil the events of the book as reported by The Post, more detailed information that could spoil the book, including the link to the original Post story, will appear after the jump.

So the first question about the events of the issue are whether or not they will have any repercussion outside of Batman Incorporated; that title has always been the conclusion of Morrison’s long-running Batman saga that started when he took Batman over in 2006. By nature, that means that it has been a story that continued through the New 52 reboot, which means that the events of the book have occupied a weird netherworld where the events are both in and out of current DC continuity.

Now, with that said, someone at DC Editorial told The Post that the events of the issue will bubble out through the remainder of the DC Universe:

The [redacted event] will first appear in issue No. 8 of the offshoot title “Batman Incorporated,” but the aftermath of [redacted event] will ripple throughout the DC Comics universe, the publisher confirmed exclusively to The Post.

Look, I’m not gonna say what the redacted event is, although even the cover of the issue gives up the ghost (which is why I posted it as a thumbnail at the top of the article; click it to see the full cover), but on a personal note? I’m glad that it’s happening. I’m sure Amanda or I will be addressing the events of the issue in a full review sometime Wednesday or later (Considering half the non-comic reading public will read the Post story and think that owning a copy will put their kids through college, I have emailed my local comic store, where they know me by name and ask me to stop asking the paying clientele if they want to check out my Dynamic Duo, to put a copy in our pulls. You’ll probably want to do the same), but I anticipate there will be much rejoicing here at the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office come Wednesday evening.

But the big question is: if this event is going to become part of regular DC Universe continuity, how is it going to affect the rest of the Batman titles? There’s at least one title that it would seem just lost its mandate to exist separately from any other given Batman title, and it’s a big enough event that it would seem that the fallout would take a while to fully address in a satisfying manner, and could potentially derail any plans that Scott Snyder, Peter Tomasi, et al have had for their titles. It’s gonna be interesting for a few months, kids.

And as to whether or not it was cool that DC Editorial spoiled the issue for comic fans by spilling their guts to The New York Post two days before the issue drops? Honestly, I’m fine with it. I’m not what you’d call a Spoiler Nazi on my worst day, and I don’t see a downside to this situation. At best, the news brings a bunch of people who don’t currently read comics into a comic store, and there’s a chance that a percentage of them will actually read the thing, decide they like comics and come back for more. At worst, those people have the book slabbed, bring it to the comics store in ten years in hopes of making the down payment on a Porsche, only to find that there are ten copies just like it in the quarter bin, upon which the schadenfreude will be delicious.

Anyway, I think I got through this without giving everything up… although there’s a chance you might have guessed what it’s all about. If you want all the spoilers, check out the Post article… and if you don’t, I’d recommend not hovering over that link for too long.

Batman Incorporated #8 drops Wednesday.