Prelim & Finished Pencils for Much Ado About Nothing

I was going to wait until the inked version was ready, but since I saw this on the net already…

Joe Rubinstein set me up with Mike Netzer who took my vision of casting Batman and Catwoman as Benedick and Beatrice in the costume ball scene of "Much Ado About Nothing" (Act II, Scene I) and really ran with it. I really like the costume he came up with for Batman because it is reminiscent of the one Bruce's father wore in the Silver Age classic "The First Batman" (which I remember reading in one of the 100-Page Super Spectaculars DC published in the 70s). Also, the catty look he gave Selina is just perfect. The only change I asked for was to give Bruce's expression a bit more befuddlement.


Here we see Beatrice, who, depending on the interpretation, may or may not know that her partner is Benedick, insult Benedick thoroughly:

BENEDICK: I pray you, what is he?


BEATRICE: Why, he is the prince's jester: a very dull fool;
only his gift is in devising impossible slanders:
none but libertines delight in him; and the
commendation is not in his wit, but in his villany;
for he both pleases men and angers them, and then
they laugh at him and beat him. I am sure he is in
the fleet: I would he had boarded me.


BENEDICK: When I know the gentleman, I'll tell him what you say.