The Bat, The Cat, and a Problematic Exit
There are a few fictional relationships that I have a personal interest in beyond “they exist in the media”, and very high on that list is the on-again-off-again entanglement between Bruce Wayne/Batman and Selina Kyle/Catwoman.
In the long and tortured romantic history of Bruce Wayne (as is standard with the playboy vigilante), Selina is an almost refreshing constant, binding his civilian and superhero identities in a way that is rare among superhero romances. She’s been his love interest in several adapted Batman stories, from Batman Returns to the Gotham TV series. If ever there was a pairing in comic book history that was “meant to be”, it’s these two. So, you can imagine my excitement and joy when, in the midst of Tom King’s Batman run, Bruce proposes to her. It’s finally gonna happen. The “Batrimony”, as it was tagged.
To skip forward a few volumes, the wedding doesn’t happen. Selina leaves him on the day to star in her own book written and drawn by the uber-talented Joëlle Jones, and here is where my blood starts to boil. You have all this build-up, all this pomp and circumstance, the travels to the ends of the earth to fight Talia, even going on a double date with Clark and Lois (read Superfriends. It’s awesome). All that, just to not have the wedding? You can understand how a person might feel cheated, just a little bit. And it doesn’t end there. The reasoning proffered for this abrupt rug pull? The peak into the decision-making process? It’s provided by the fucking Joker. During Vol. 7, “The Wedding”, Bat and Cat face off against the Joker, who’s heard that Batman is getting married and has decided that he’s the best man. At face value this is just a continuation of the “he’s the Joker and he’s crazy” bit that’s fueled their relationship for over 80 years. But it’s more than that. See, in Mr. J’s extremely deranged (or completely sane, if you believe the Riddler) mind, Batman needs to be miserable to do what he does (read: stop the Joker), and with Catwoman, he’s actually happy. Or at the very least can reach for it. So, it’s his job to put a stop to all of this nonsense. Naturally, he tells this to Catwoman while the Bat is otherwise incapacitated, so he hears none of this. The same sentiment is echoed by Holly Robinson, Selina’s best friend. Batman needs his misery and gloom in order to be “The Batman”. So, based on this (and some other unimportant shit), she chooses to jump ship because that’s what needs to happen to keep The Batman going. It’s the kind of bullshit reason that stinks of editorial malarkey (and as a longtime Spidey fan, I know a thing or two about editorial malarkey).
So why exactly does this piss me off? Two reasons. One, like I mentioned, I’m heavily invested in this relationship, and I want nothing more than to see it happen, even if it ends badly. In the words of Alfred Lord Tennyson, it is better to have loved and lost and so on. But honestly, that’s just surface level shit that I got into because of too many hours spent looking at comic and fanart of this ship on Pinterest. The real reason is the second. Selina’s justification is the wrong one, and I know it is, because of Joëlle Jones.
Catwoman’s Rebirth release dropped the day after #50 of Batman, so we get to see, almost immediately, where Selina’s head is at after the monumental decision, and one thing is clear: she is restless. Leaving Bruce is weighing very heavily on her, which shows that at the very least, she did in fact love him (if that was ever in doubt). But that’s not even what I wanna talk about. It’s this.
Selina Kyle has always been a “stray cat”. Orphan, to street kid, to street hustler, to burglar, to vigilante. The “stray” identity is one that has managed to stick with her no matter what, or maybe because of what she was doing. It’s a major pillar of who she is as a character. If you wanted to go the route that DC decided to go, this would have been a brilliant way to anchor that story. As Auntie Linda says, “You may love a stray, but you can never keep them.” This provides a much more believable reason for why she’d leave someone that she so clearly loved. It makes it an involuntary thing. She can’t help it. It definitely fits her more than the idea that Bruce “needs” to be miserable to be Batman, especially because multiple writers have been pulling Bruce away from the idea that his crusade must be fueled by his own personal loss and pain. He’s beyond that as a character. But she isn’t. She isn’t beyond bristling against what she might see as “stagnation”, or any kind of lull, or even the concept of safety. She’s lived on the edge too long.
Tom King is a brilliant writer, and if Batman/Catwoman didn’t exist, I’d probably be much more pissed than I am. But this is one of those moments in literature where a master drops the ball for no discernable reason.
