It's official: Catwoman is bisexual

Their comics aren’t printed in black and white — and neither, as it turns out, is DC Comics’ conception of sexuality. You might want to consider picking up your very own copy of Catwoman #39, which has a big surprise in store for fans of cat burglar Selina Kyle.

The current story arc sees Kyle taking control of the Calabrese crime family. In her absence, someone else has assumed the Catwoman persona: Eiko Hasigaway, whose father heads a rival crime family. As it often does, regular tension evolves into sexual tension and, in Wednesday’s issue, they totally smooched.

This landmark moment is neither simple titillation for the benefit of the male gaze nor, for Kyle, a one-time experiment. Catwoman writer Genevieve Valentine was quick to confirm that the character is “canon bisexual” on her personal blog and on Twitter.

Valentine writes:

[Selina’s] flirted around it — often quite literally — for years now; for me, this wasn’t a revelation so much as a confirmation. …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.

Dueling comics giants Marvel and DC have seemingly entered into a diversity arms race to better represent women, the LGBT community, and people of color on their pages. It’s about time.

In the last year alone, Marvel has reinvented Ms. Marvel as Pakistani-American teen Kamala Khan, anointed African-American crimefighter Sam Wilson as Captain America, introduced an all-women Avengers team and a female Thor, and — just this week — resurrected Spider-Man’s dead girlfriend Gwen Stacy as a superhero in her own right. DC Comics, whose Green Lantern came out as gay in 2012, recently responded to the pleas of an 11-year-old female fan for more lady-superheroes by drawing the girl as one herself.

Let’s see how long it takes the movie versions to catch up.

[h/t The Hollywood Reporter]

Molly Fitzpatrick is senior editor of Fusion’s Pop & Culture section. Her interests include movies about movies, TV shows about TV shows, and movies about TV shows, but not so much TV shows about movies.