WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Batman/Catwoman #4, by Tom King, Clay Mann, Tomeu Morey and Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
The maxi-series Batman/Catwoman revolves around three separate time periods in the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle: The present as the couple faces the return of Andrea Beamont and her masked alter ego The Phantasm, several years into the past in the early days of Batman‘s crimefighting career and Catwoman‘s tenuous alliance with the Joker, and decades into the future after Bruce’s death and his and Selina’s daughter Helena Wayne stepping up as her own superhero in Gotham City.
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While the latter time period has revealed the bloody murder of the Joker, there are still plenty of familiar rogues that have outlived the original Caped Crusader. Here are all of Batman’s enemies revealed to have survived into Batman/Catwoman‘s alternate future timeline.
The Penguin
Oswald Cobblepot is still alive and up to his old tricks, working as a crime lord in the streets of Gotham despite his advanced age. Both Helena and Selina separately pay the Penguin an unhappy visit, with Helena continuing to investigate the Joker’s murder by interrogating those still alive that knew him and her parents. Selina follows up to ascertain how much her daughter exactly knows, with her pet cat devouring one of Oswald’s penguins as she asserts control over him.
Tweedle-Dee & Tweedle Dum
An older Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum are the first two criminals Helena approaches after the Penguin to learn more about Gotham’s supervillain community, her mother and the Joker’s place in it before her birth. The twins are visibly older and require a breathing tank and hearing aid, respectively.
The Ventriloquist
Arnold Wesker was always subservient to his puppet Scarface and, in the future, the Ventriloquist has let his more villainous half do all the talking. An older Wesker sleeps soundly as Scarface recounts to Helena the good old days of the criminal underworld in Gotham, with the puppet implying Catwoman and the Joker were closer than Helena initially thought.
Victor Zsasz
Zsasz is the next supervillain she visits, with his scarred hands giving away his identity as he grips the bars to his jail cell while Helena interrogates him. The deranged serial killer reminisces that everyone in Gotham’s supervillain community knew each other fairly well, though he notes that Joker and Catwoman seemed to especially enjoy each other’s company in the early days.
Clayface
Clayface is similarly approached to discuss the early days of the Gotham supervillain scene, though it’s not clear which specific iteration of the villain is speaking. Clayface appears to have changed little physically due to the nature of his abilities as he looks back fondly on the rogues’ heyday. Clayface observes that no one was particularly close to the Joker, with the exception of Catwoman, heightening the mystery.
Mr. Freeze
For the love of his terminally ill wife Nora Fries, Victor turned to crime and became the supervillain Mr. Freeze, keeping Nora in cryogenic stasis until he discovered a way to cure her. In the alternate future timeline, Victor and Nora’s roles have reversed, with Victor now kept cryogenically in stasis under Nora’s watchful eye as she shares with Helena the secondhand stories Victor told her about Catwoman and Joker before going on ice.
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