What responsibility, if any, do journalists have not to spoil plots for our readers? What is the role of a headline or news alert for a story that contains such a secret?



A Vows feature this past weekend by George Gene Gustines, a senior editor at The Times who writes about the comic book industry, gave away the climax of a nearly 80-year-old relationship between Batman and Catwoman, days before the latest issue of the Batman series goes on sale. The plot twist is contained in issue No. 50 of Batman, published by DC Entertainment and set to go on sale at 12:01 a.m. July 4. (Read the feature here, but beware: The headline includes the spoiler.)

The piece was a fun feature in the Vows pages of the Styles section, but many of our readers took it very seriously.