WHTTCC Clues

Random observations on Batman #686

Movie marquis: The Bat Whispers

Someone's gotta be out front, Miss Kyle. Tell people where to go.

Sides, like a wedding. Villain is the bride?

Riddler aware of TV show

Catwoman unaware of Riddler, but he's aware of a Selina Kyle

DKR Oliver Queen

Joker turns into animated version

Catwoman ages, but old before she starts talking

Catwoman story doesn't match the 1940 comics

Batman mishap could match Wayne murder details

"Where am I?" begins story and punctuates Catwoman tale

Mystery woman wants him to watch, is patronizing to him

Calls him Bruce, distinguishes him from Batman

Wants him to listen to Catwoman when she's trying to talk him into

 being "normal"

Jarvis Pennyworth's tombstone: "Good and faithful servant": Biblical phrase that appeared in RIP.

Specifically states that Mrs. Wayne and little Bruce found perfect happiness

Bruce's initial adventure ends with a motorcycle accident, not a fight

Talia is missing, or talking to Gentleman Ghost on p. 12

or in crowd on last page

Someone in a straw hat, red ribbon, is seated in the front right

Two men and a woman are standing against the right wall = Waynes?

Dick Grayson not in costume

Looks like an Alfred seated when Alfred stops talking

"And that Batman... do you think he'd [...] just lie down and die?"

Selina paraphrases Jane Austen (?) and Casablanca

Facts

A man and a woman are witnessing the scenes that are illustrated

No one in the scenes can see them

The man is confused and disoriented; he is, or thinks he is,

 Bruce Wayne AKA BAtman

She is unidentified; he is not certain of her identity

She seems to know what's going on

The scenes portray many alternate accounts of the Batman/Gotham history

 the variants that have been published over the years are mixed together in incompatible fashion; it resembles many of them, and none of them; some elements are totally new; alternate versions of Catwoman and Joker appear in the same sitting

The characters span the history from the beginning to the last few years

The woman wants Bruce to pay attention to what he's seeing and to accept it

Event is run as a wake; but crowd divided like a wedding villains on the bride side; friends on the groom side

Martha Wayne is reading Bruce a story "The Goodnight Book", bat on the cover "Where am I"?

This story is obviously parallel to the 1986 Alan Moore Superman story. In that story, Superman ends up with the woman we always knew he would end up with. So does the same thing happen here?

Strawman Explanations

Bruce is bleeding to death, delirious; Selina is talking him into settling down with her

Bruce is in Talia's clutches; she is talking him into settling down with her

Martha and Bruce are in some surreal state; she is his guide in this look at his life behind/ahead