Basically, Bruce Wayne and Selina Kayle (Catwoman) got engaged, and it was rumored that they will be getting married. After a while, DC decided to officially confirm it. People got excited, fanboys were constantly talking about it, and comic book media was hyping it up. DC and Tom King fed people tidbits and artwork, thus keeping the conversation going and driving up hype even further. Issues leading up to it had extra materials like wedding plans, love letters, etc. Speculators were ordering high numbers of copies, comic book stores were rolling in money, cosplayers were getting a lot of attention just for making and wearing Catwoman wedding dresses, lots of fanart was getting made for easy shares, and comics/"nerd culture" youtube channels had an easy topic to draw viewers in with. Whole thing generated a lot of publicity and was even covered by mainstream media. It was most talked about and anticipated comic book event in years, and Batman comic sales were growing. Hype and gravy trains kept going for almost six months.
Then The New York Times spoiled that
Bruce Wayne will be stood up. People were not happy, but many were either away from social media to avoid spoilers or refused to believe it.
Two days later the long-awaited wedding issue came out. Right before the ceremony, Selina spoke with her friend Holly Robinson. That discussion led Catwoman to getting cold feet and not showing up to the wedding. Instead, she sent Bruce a letter explaining that she was afraid that marriage would cause Wayne to stop being Batman. But there’s more. It turns out that ruining the wedding was a part of Bane's master plan to break Batman mentally, and Holly was mind controlled to do it. People were pissed, especially retailers and speculators. To make matters worse, weeks beforehand there were speculations that the wedding won't happen. People saying that were dismissed as haters and trolls. Naturally, people predicting that wedding won't happen were celebrating the fiasco and mocking everyone who dismissed them earlier.
Fanboys and people upset that DC killed the batwedding cottage industry aimed their anger at DC's Batman creative team, especially at King. It culminated at threats of lawsuits over false advertising. Spoiling happened after it was too late to cancel orders, so comic book stores argued that it cost them money, as people were less likely to buy the wedding issue after news broke out. DC decided to play it safe, and stores got full refunds for unsold issues. Meanwhile, the CIA badass tom King got personal security because he got scared of internet tough guys.
DC avoided lawsuits, but King's reputation and Batman sales took a hit. King's Batman was already disliked by a sizable chunk of readers, but this whole debacle made King's haters the majority. His Batman did not sell as well as the previous run, but the wedding fiasco caused sales to plummet even further. King was supposed to get 100 issues of Batman, but DC gave him a boot after #80 (wedding was #50).
