Looks like the cat’s finally out of the bag: Selina Kyle, better known as Catwoman, is bisexual.
In the latest issue of the eponymous comic book, Kyle kisses Eiko Hasigawa, a female character to whom Kyle also bestows her legendary black suit in a sort of “passing the torch,” in which Hasigaw assumes the role of Catwoman in Kyle’s place. Series writer Genevieve Valentine confirmed that Kyle’s long-time (and literal) flirtation with bisexuality was real. “For me, this wasn’t a revelation so much as a confirmation,” she wrote on her blog. “The more we talked about it, the more it was something I wanted to make happen.”
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Catwoman has famously used her sexuality to manipulate the characters around her — including Batman. And Valentine warned that just because Kyle has connected with Eiko doesn’t mean Batman won’t return. “Please be assured that Selina’s longstanding connection to Batman has not been forgotten; that is not how bisexuality (or humanity) works. Selina doesn’t care easily, but when she does care it strikes deep, and there will be plenty of that coming up.”
Kyle is not the first member of the DC Comic family to come out of the proverbial closet. In 2012, fans learned that Alan Scott, the first to bear the title Green Lantern, was gay. And within the Batman franchise, such characters as Holly Robinson and Batwoman are written as openly gay characters. When announcing Batwoman’s sexuality in 2006, writer Greg Rucka said, “yes, she’s a lesbian. She’s also a redhead. It is an element of her character. It is not her character.”
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Ali Vitali is MS NOW's senior congressional correspondent and the host of "Way Too Early." She is the author of "Electable: Why America Hasn’t Put a Woman in the White House … Yet."