“Catwoman origin story written by Ed Brubaker and Bruce Timm” seems an absolute no-brainer for a series like Batman: Caped Crusader, a show trying to amalgamate different pieces of Batman’s extensive mythos through the decades into a new, recognizable form. Part of any Batman adaptation worth its salt will offer some interpretation of Selina Kyle, the jewel thief who always manages to steal a piece of Bruce Wayne’s part – and with two authors of the more interesting Kyle interpretations of recent vintage, “Kiss of the Catwoman”, conceptually, is a great opportunity for Batman: Caped Crusader to realize some of its own potential… which makes it even more surprising what a huge swing and miss it is.
It begins strongly enough, opening on a Gotham History exhibit where Bruce meets Selina (a wonderfully cast Christina Ricci) over a display of his dead mother’s pearls; as Batman adaptations often do, Selina’s introduction is one shrouded in a bit of seductive mystery, flirting with Bruce as she points out he’s probably dated everyone in Gotham City except her.
From there, however, “Kiss of the Catwoman” quickly goes off the rails; after Bruce punches a journalist and ends up in court-ordered therapy, the episode splinters itself into three different stories. Almost immediately, Selina’s backstory is being compressed by the dual presences of Bruce Wayne’s therapy sessions with Dr. Harleen Quinzel (yes… we’ll talk about it more in a bit), and his semi-regular flashbacks into the moments and hours following the murder of his parents. It makes for a really strange progression through the episode – and ultimately, comes at the cost of understanding any of the episode’s three main players in any sort of compelling fashion.
In a surprising turn of events, Brubaker and Timm (co-creator of Harley Quinn, it’s worth mentioning) turn some of their most enigmatic interpretations into stilted, dissonant versions of themselves (a growing theme for this series – reinterpretation the appearance or behavior of iconic characters for seemingly no reason). Quinzel’s lackluster presence can be forgiven, because her presence is just as a pre-Joker criminal psychologist; but Catwoman’s back story, which is basically just one of a vapid rich girl who doesn’t pay her maid and gets mad when her corrupt father’s money gets cut off, is incredibly disappointing – and robs her character of her most important asset, her ability to be vulnerable and dangerous, whose morals are unexpected but consistent, and someone who genuinely gets hot under the collar for the thrill of the chase.
This character is none of those things, a paper-thin synthesis of existing Catwoman qualities that only lays bare some of the textual issues Caped Crusader‘s faced in its first three episodes. There’s no attempt to build any kind of sympathy or altruism around Selina’s attempts to reclaim some sense of control and financial stability in her life; even her closest relationship, with her maid Greta, falls apart once when it is revealed she hasn’t paid her for three years, and yet still relies on her 24/7 assistance. Catwoman as a pissy trust fund kid (whose trust fund was squandered by her corrupt father) is about the least compelling version of her character I could imagine – something that isn’t resolved by her presence among the other big plot arc of the episode, our obligatory look into the broken psyche of Batman.
At this point, we don’t even need to do this anymore; we know how Batman came to be, and offering up another version of childhood origin story adds nothing to an already-complicated episode. By interjecting scenes of Batman in therapy (a trope I’ve already talked about being tired of in modern media) with rote flashbacks of him grieving his father, Batman: Caped Crusader treads familiar ground lifelessly, leaving us only with the impression that Batman punches rather than feels, and plans on keeping his life that way. His interactions with Dr. Quinzel are a mix of smarmy, obnoxious dismissals from Bruce and a rather trite portrayal of the enigmatic doctor.
The first two acts are filled with disappointing talking; the third act, which kicks things into a bit higher gear when Batman sets up a trap for Catwoman (adorned in classic Golden Age purple dress, something I can get on board with) to fall into. And this sequence, which goes from history museum and across the Gotham rooftops, is the ugliest thing Caped Crusader has offered so far; awkwardly animated, poorly edited fight sequences that give none of the theatricality of Catwoman’s actions, carry none of the brutal purpose of Batman’s combat -and most importantly, fails to spark any sort of physical chemistry between the two, perhaps the greatest victim of the episode’s uninspired visuals and narrative (including the most sexless Batman/Catwoman kiss in the shared history of these characters).
“Kiss of the Catwoman” is an episode trying to be a lot of different things; at its core, however, its premise is quite, a surface-level psychological study of three well-worn Batman characters. However, smushing the psyches of Selina, Bruce, and Harleen into this particular episode does disservice to them all, constantly underwhelming by taking the most superficial approach to character and narrative possible – it’s incredibly weird to say a Brubaker/Timm story seemingly has nothing to say about Batman at all, but “Kiss of the Catwoman” is exactly that, an empty half hour of head scratching creative choices, garish animation, and incredibly poor execution of theme and character.
Grade: D
Other thoughts/observations:
- Though I love the casting of Jackie Hoffman as Greta, the character’s visual design feels like its from a completely different series, and it’s incredibly distracting.
- That’s Resident Advisors alum Jamie Chung as Dr. Harleen Quinzel!
- There’s a creepy flashback of Bruce waking up in the middle of the night, walking into Alfred’s room to tell him “They’re all going to pay. And you’re going to help me”… which reframes their relationship in an odd way!
- I assume Flass wanting to kill Selina is somehow related to his assumed allegiance to Rupert Thorne, but this episode has no interest in making any of that explicit.
- It’s also incredibly strange this episode ends with a flashback of the moment Alfred hears Bruce’s parents being shot, cutting to credits as a young Alfred takes off running down a non-descript alley. Perhaps framing the episode around Alfred would’ve been a better avenue?
- I’ll never get mad at Batman gleefully beating the shit out of corrupt cops.
- The episode ends with Catwoman destitute and in jail. Though it’s certainly interesting to see a different version of Selina, one who so easily falls into traps and screws herself with short-sighted decisions feels like a betrayal of the character’s spirit. And the dismissal of her charges by Harvey Dent? A touch of white priviledge adds nothing to this version of her character, and boy, is it frustrating.
- Harleen’s first appearance essentially confirms we’re getting the Joker at some point in the near future, no?