If you took our Which Comic Book Couple Are You? Quiz around Valentine’s Day there was no chance you could get Batman and Catwoman as one of your results.
If you are a long time Geek History Lesson listener you’ve heard various arguments and theses from Jason and Ashley over the years about why Batman and Catwoman - or their alter egos, Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle - deserve to be spoken of with the same respect as Lois Lane and Clark Kent. Clark and Lois may be the gold standard of the DC Comics Universe, in any and all media adaptation (we see you Superman and Lois over there on the CW!), or Diana Prince and Steve Trevor our current reigning Queen and King of the DC Movie Universe. Maybe it’s their dark-sidedness or the on-again-off-again nature of their relationship, but Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne are universe ending in the power of their love!
Or at least dangerous enough to throw someone from a building. Just ask the aforementioned Lois Lane!
Between you two podcast hosts, Professor Jason is often the one championing this couple, although over the years Professor Ashley has come around. Maybe that’s opening up and changing over time and exposure, maybe that’s stories like the recent almost-wedding, past podcast guest Mitch Gerads’ beautiful rendition of the winter of their romance in the Batman Catwoman Special #1, or Matt Reeves’ recent The Duet trailer for The Batman which have simply wormed their way into her consciousness. In the current landscape Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne are the matriarch and patriarch of the Batman Family, respectively, and are the leads of their own title to this very day - to mention nothing of the sheer volume of titles they share appearances in as well! Each character represents what it means to belong to a very specific camp of the Gotham City underground crime and/or crime fighting scene.
It seems unlikely when Selina Kyle was first introduced as merely “The Cat” during Bruce Wayne’s Golden Age origin anyone thought legions of fans across the internet and across the world would be screaming for their nuptials almost a full century later. Their rivalry must have been painful, a struggle from the second their came to blows on a rooftops, to the first time the Batcave was open up to the possibility of Catwoman’s presence. You have to imagine both were terrified and thrilled across their decades-long courtship. However, the bonds are strong. The commiseration of grief and loss brought Selina and Bruce together the way the drive for justice attracted Lois and Clark to each other. We’re not going to get into trauma bonding, but it can be really nice to know another human person who even kind of understands your own personal darkness.
I mean, heck, Selina and Bruce’s suffering manifested itself outwardly in the same way: both people picked up a mask, created a persona, and carved out their own empire against the tough backdrop of a Gotham City existence.
It’s honestly a low bar for either to clear. There are arguments to be had about both characters’ respective morality. How healthy is either Selina Kyle or Bruce Wayne? There’s a beauty in how they come together. They come together to cross the so-called lower bar and start building back a family. You could argue Selina inherits a family from Bruce - who has a bit of a habit for collecting wayward children - but she doesn’t throw them to the wind either. Orphans and all.
Sure, Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne are both incredibly attractive. They’re supremely intelligent. They’re the best at what they do. They are both wealthy - inherited or spirited away, it’s all a matter of perspective. Bruce also loves a challenge. He often develops real feelings for women who push back against him and brush against the Batman persona, sometimes to their detriment (rest in peace, Vesper Fairchild), Selina is simply the one who loves the beast as much as the man.
Every other character either Selina or Bruce has been romantically involved with has always seemed to be a placeholder. Given the millionaire playboy personality readers have met more of Bruce Wayne’s dalliances than Selina Kyle’s, however, her boytoy, Stark, in Selina’s Big Score is a compelling character I’m not sure any reader imagined would stick around. Like Riker and Troi, DC Comics readers always knew the Cat and the Bat would find their way back to each other. Marriage license or not, we’ve always known they are going to come together in the end.
Part of the reason I think we find the interplay between Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne so attractive is we know they’ll always come back to each other. The interplay and the intrigue means they may not always be on the same side, but they will always catch the other if they fall. They’re are perfect for each other, opposite sides of the same coin, who both do and don’t realize they are each other’s destinies. The closer the magnetic poles of attraction have drawn them into the realm of love the more we’re rooting for them. Their relationship is a chase. The same way they found each other is how they will keep each other. A forever chase.
Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne compliment each other. It is at times uncomfortable. From time to time it even comes to blows. In the end, they’re made better for being in each other’s orbits. We root for them because we want two hurt people to have a happily ever after. Hurt people hurt people. Don’t you like it when there’s nothing left but love?