Catwoman revealed as bisexual in new DC comic

Batwoman is lesbian, the Green Lantern is gay, and now Catwoman, the leather-clad denizen of Gotham City who made her comic book debut in 1940, has been confirmed as bisexual.

In the new issue of the DC comic, Catwoman #39, the character Selina Kyle, also known as Catwoman, kisses another woman and confirms a long-held rumour about her sexuality.

“She’s flirted around it – often quite literally – for years now; for me, this wasn’t a revelation so much as a confirmation,” said writer Genevieve Valentine on her blog, adding that Kyle was “canon bisexual”, meaning that this isn’t a plot that will be quietly forgotten about.

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The current Catwoman storyline sees Kyle having hung up her catsuit to head up a crime family in Gotham City, with a new character, Eiko, having taken on the masked identity. Eiko warns Kyle that “they’re going to declare war on you”, adding: “Be careful. Please.” Kyle responds “I know”, before the two kiss. “Was that for me, or the suit?” asks Eiko. “I don’t know,” responds Kyle, before walking away while the words “if we survive this, might be nice to find out” hang in the air.

“Eiko seemed like the right person: intelligent, driven, in that uncanny valley of Almost Catwoman, and knows enough about Selina that their honesty has become something of a shelter in a situation that’s getting increasingly dishonest for everybody involved. The more we talked about it, the more it was something I wanted to make happen,” writes Valentine on her blog.

“Was it a surprise for them? In terms of their sexualities, not particularly; certainly it’s no surprise to Selina that she has an attraction to a woman. Is this particular kiss a surprise? It’s definitely surprising; this is the very last thing you’re supposed to be getting into on the brink of war, and they both know it.”

While Valentine promised that Catwoman’s “longstanding connection” to Batman had not been forgotten about – “that is not how bisexuality (or humanity) works” – she said that the relationship with Eiko was set to be explored further.

“This also isn’t a throwaway; as soon as my renewal as the ongoing Catwoman writer was confirmed (early enough in the scripting process to give the major relationships some breathing room across arcs), I was able to start work on a thread for them that would be woven into the next arc,” she wrote on her blog. “Will they dramatically implode? I mean, it’s comics, it could happen. But it will be a relationship.”

The move was welcomed by the comics community. Comics expert Laura Sneddon, who blogs at comicbookgrrrl, called it a “a big deal as although Catwoman has flirted with woman in the past, that’s been in keeping with her hypersexual portrayal rather than an actual meaningful character development”.

“In terms of LGBT representation in DC Comics, it’s great that we have Batwoman, an original gay character, and it’s nice that they reintroduced the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, as gay but neither of those characters have the same popular recognition that Catwoman does,” said Sneddon. “This is the real Catwoman, not an alternate-world or different woman, but Selina Kyle herself.”

She added that Valentine’s confirmation of the character’s sexuality as canon, “and that it isn’t a mistake or mind-control or various other tropes that have been used to explain away ‘shocking’ kisses in the past”, makes the development “a huge deal for LGBT fans, and for bisexual women in particular who are often hard done by when it comes to non-sensationalised portrayals in our media in general, and superhero comics in particular”.

“Some ardent fanboys may be up in arms, or making boorish comments of pleasure, but for many women this is a great moment of Selina stepping outside the male gaze in a meaningful and powerful way,” said Sneddon. “Hopefully Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn won’t be too far behind.”