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.
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.
