This article advocates that the comic character of Catwoman is a comic
incarnation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Edward Hyde. It does this first by
problematizing Andreas Reichstein’s reading of Batman as Hyde (1998). While the similarity between Bruce
Wayne and Dr. Henry Jekyll is considerable (such as both being accomplished and
affluent men of science who have nocturnal alter egos), Hyde embodies hedonistic
desire and loss of control while Batman is the incarnation of discipline and
control. This work then goes on to offer the numerous and stark similarities
between Hyde and Catwoman, such as offering their counterparts animalistic
freedom and the ability to achieve unification through embracing their darker
halves. Because of her desire to embrace her dual human experience, the
hero/villain Catwoman encapsulates the most human of comic characters.
CatwomanBatmanHulkHenry JekyllEdward HydeEd BrubakerDarwin CookeRobert Louis StevensonAndreas ReichsteinIdentity SplitHero/Villainanimalistic
Who is stronger, Catwoman or Hulk? In stark contrast to the Hulk, who is arguably the
strongest comic-book character ever, Catwoman—like her beloved Batman—is one
of the few comic-book characters that is “not super-powered, an alien, or a
mutant,” but rather entirely human (Orr 1984: 176–177). Well,
almost entirely human. Therefore, comparing Catwoman to Hulk may as
well be comparing a person to a natural disaster; however, Jason Ranker (2008) discusses
a comparison of these dissimilar comic characters… and, believe it or not, the
comparison is apt.
In his research, Ranker highlights how Catwoman and Hulk represent stereotypical versions
of strength constructed along gender lines; however, there is a better reason to place
these two in a category of their own. Unlike almost every other character in the comic
book multiverse, these two characters are both heroes and villains,
often at the same time. Hulk continues to be one of the greatest threats to Earth but he
is also a founding member of The Avengers. Similarly, Catwoman is a villain on par with
the rest of Forever Evil, but she is also a founding member of the new Justice League of
America (see Figure 1): “Unfortunately, being
a fence-sitter on the thin line separating good and evil doesn’t make her a
neutral party” (Beatty 2004: 36). These are
ambivalent characters that are neither absolute good nor evil, but are constantly torn
between both aspects—they are both modern and powerful Edward Hydes.
Perhaps it can be argued that several villains have aspects similar to Robert Louis
Stevenson’s iconic Edward Hyde. Two-Face is a literal Janus figure and often
physically depicts both good and evil, and Clayface’s inability to fully control
his transformation often results in Hyde-like horror in those around him. However,
Two-Face does not suffer from his ambivalence, but simply relegates his dual nature to
the fate of a coin flip. Clayface is not noble, like Jekyll, but rather is a disguised
monster. Catwoman and her alter ego Selina Kyle, torn between both evil and good, are
the only true Hyde and Jekyll of Gotham.
Adam Capitainio (2010) has thoroughly compared
Marvel’s Bruce Banner and the Incredible Hulk to Stevenson’s Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, so this paper will move the discussion to the similar
intellectual and emotional torment of DC’s Kyle and Catwoman. To accomplish this
task, this paper will first problematize Andreas Reichstein’s (1988) reading of
Batman as Mr. Hyde and then it will offer tangible evidence—especially from
Brubaker, Cooke, and Allard’s 2002 Catwoman relaunch—that,
despite the physical dissimilarities of Kyle to Jekyll, Catwoman is a more complete
version of a modern day Mr. Hyde.
Is Batman an American Mr. Hyde?
Reichstein (1998) makes a compelling argument
that Batman’s alter ego Bruce Wayne is an American Jekyll. Beyond the obvious
comparisons of the successful, popular, and affluent bachelors, these are men of
prominence and success who only transform into their alter egos at night. Reichstein
highlights that despite both men being childless, Wayne and Jekyll have paternal
affection for others: Wayne cares for his various wards and “Jekyll confesses
how he had a father’s concern for Hyde” (Reichstein 1998: 340). Reichstein also discusses how both Wayne and
Jekyll spend the vast majority of their free time in their secret laboratories,
conducting various chemical experiments.
However, the staunchest similarity between these two characters is their double
lives. Reichstein explains, “Besides all these formal similarities between
Wayne and Jekyll, the essential link between these characters lies in their basic
trait: their double identity, their double personality” (Reichstein 1998: 343). As Philip Orr discusses, “[When]
Bruce Wayne refers to the Batman, he is not referring to himself in the third
person; rather he is referring to the other” (Orr 1995: 174). Rather than just
one person with two aspects, Wayne and Batman are two distinct individuals who just
happen to exist within a common body. Wayne even confesses this idea to a
psychologist: “I guess, we’re all two people—one in daylight and
one we keep in shadow” (Batman Returns). Similarly, in his
final confession, Dr. Jekyll writes, “With every day, and from both sides of
my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to that
truth … that man is not truly one, but truly two” (Stevenson 1886: 77). Clearly, both of these men of science are
all too intimately familiar with the dual nature of humanity, and their polarizing
personalities. However, it is worth highlighting that the parallels between these
two characters lie almost exclusively along the similarities of Wayne and
Jekyll.
As such, while Wayne is an American Jekyll, what is the answer to Reichstein’s
(1998) titular question
“Batman—an American Mr. Hyde?” Both Batman and Hyde are empowered
shadows of their other selves, and are able to accomplish what neither Wayne nor
Jekyll ever could. They achieve this power by embracing animalistic aspects of their
personalities. Jekyll describes his other self as playing “ape-like
tricks” (Stevenson 1886: 91) and
possessing “ape-like spite” (93). Capitainio explains, “This
suggests that Hyde, as the hidden side of Jekyll’s personality, is
representative of the animal past and behavior that human beings have necessarily
repressed in their quest for ‘civilization’” (Capitainio 2010: 250).
While Jekyll is an accomplished pinnacle of human evolution—generous,
brilliant, scientific, attractive, and affluent—Hyde returns this character to
his evolutionary ape-like past, which was a common theme in the Gothic novels of the
1890s (Reichstein 1998: 346). Regarding the
newfound freedom and anonymity of becoming Hyde, Jekyll writes, “And thus
fortified, as I supposed, on every side, I began to profit by the strange immunities
of my position” (Stevenson 1886: 86).
Batman too is able to tap into his primal animal form—in this case a
bat—and uses this animal aspect to achieve his deepest desire for vengeance
against the criminal element that orphaned him as a child. Batman also allowed Wayne
to safely fulfill his desires for vigilantism.
While such similarities exist between Hyde and Batman, one of the most interesting
parallels between these two characters is that both of them murder adversaries in
their initial appearances. Mr. Hyde brutally assaults Sir Danvers Carew after a
perceived insult: “And next moment, with ape-like fury, he was trampling his
victim under foot and hailing down a storm of blows, under which the bones were
audibly shattered and the body jumped upon the roadway” (Stevenson 1886: 27). Similarly, in Batman’s first
appearance, he is holding the villainous Stryker when “… suddenly,
Stryker, with the strength of a madman, tears himself free from the grasp of the
Bat-Man…” (Finger and Kane 1939:
6). Stryker then pulls out a gun and shoots at Batman, but Batman punches
Stryker, knocking him over the rail and into an acid tank, to which Batman comments,
“A fitting end for his kind” (Finger and
Kane 1939: 6). While both men have murdered an adversary, Hyde has killed
an upstanding gentleman and must pay for his action with his life, while Batman has
killed a murderer and deserves an accolade. Hyde must hide behind Jekyll or face the
gallows, whereas Batman can continue crime-fighting, and be a vigilante without
repercussion. Despite the consequences of these actions, Hyde only longs to kill,
while Batman resolves to never take a life.
While surface similarities—such as the stark similarities
between their alter egos, empowerment through animalistic disguise, and both having
taken a life—exist between Hyde and Batman these characters are as dissimilar
from each other as they are from their better halves. For Jekyll, becoming Hyde was
embracing and savoring his dark side, “I knew myself, at the first breath of
this new life, to be more wicked, tenfold more wicked, sold a slave to my original
evil; and the thought, in that moment, braced and delighted me like wine”
(Stevenson 1886: 79). Jekyll seems to use
Hyde to indulge his baser desires. This is completely different from Batman whose
“armor/costume harnesses the evil inside and outside of him, as well as
protects against repressed sexual desires” (Reichstein 1998: 348). While Hyde is allowed to run rampant,
participating in any debauchery that he comes upon, Batman focuses only on punishing
criminals.
Most of all, Hyde embodies Jekyll’s willing loss of control, while
“Wayne/Batman is control” (Reichstein
1998: 347). After Hyde has killed Carew, Jekyll abandons the potion that
unleashed his sinister self, but Hyde continued to reassert himself. Hyde manifests
himself at first in dreams and then in reality by forcing the transformation unaided
by any chemical concoction. Jekyll could not stop Hyde from taking over their body
more and more. Batman, on the other hand, could be taken off at any time, cast
aside. Reichstein explains, “He can don the costume/armor whenever he wants
and drop it again to become Bruce Wayne” (Reichstein 1998: 348). Reichstein ultimately concludes, “Thus,
Batman really is an American cousin of Edward Hyde” (Reichstein 1998: 350). However, this paper suggests that by
Reichstein’s definition, Hyde’s familial relationship might as well just
as easily include comic book characters such Green Arrow or Iron Man, both of whom
are—beneath their masks—affluent playboy bachelor inventors who don
costumes/armors to combat evil. While the similarities between Jekyll and Wayne are
notable, Batman is not a complete Hyde.
No, but Catwoman Is
However, Catwoman, on the other hand, shares many similarities with Hyde. Jekyll
describes the initial transformation into like this: “I felt younger, lighter,
happier in body; within I was conscious of a heady recklessness, a current of
disordered sensual images running like a millrace in my fancy, a solution of the
bonds of obligation, an unknown but not an innocent freedom of the soul”
(Stevenson 1886: 78). Kyle too feels the
strength and freedom of her alter ego: “That had been one of the reasons for
the mask, initially. To help provide. That and the excitement… the adventure.
Don’t kid yourself that they weren’t a big part of it, too” (Brubaker, Cooke, and Allred 2002: 48). There is
a youthful vibrancy and hedonistic abandonment to both Hyde and Catwoman. Catwoman
is unbridled. Throughout Catwoman’s history, she is known as thief, and she
ultimately ignores societal rules while helping herself to whatever she desires. Ed
Brubaker explains, “She was like Robin Hood, except she forgot to the money to
the poor” (Beatty 2004: 6). Catwoman,
like Hyde, is in it for the freedom and youthful thrill.
Jekyll and Hyde, Kyle and Catwoman are completely different people from their
counterpart selves. Hyde has his own apartment and his own companions that exist in
totally different circles than Jekyll. Similarly, as Beatty explains, “Aside
from a few friends and lovers, Selina and Catwoman are two different women moving in
different worlds. And that suits them both just fine” (Beatty 2004: 19). Jekyll/Hyde and Catwoman/Kyle are in actuality
two individuals who share one common body and one common memory, but share little
else.
Hyde and Catwoman are impervious shields for their more noble halves. No matter the
potential atrocities that Hyde could ever commit, Jekyll believes that at any moment
he could dispense Hyde instantly and permanently:
Think of it—I did not even exist! Let me escape into my laboratory door,
give me but a second or two to mix and swallow the draught that I had always
standing ready; and whatever he had done, Edward Hyde would pass away like the
stain of breath upon a mirror; and there in his stead, quietly at home, trimming
the midnight lamp in his study, a man who could afford to laugh at suspicion,
would be Henry Jekyll. (Stevenson 1886:
82).
Through his potion, Jekyll could transform into his shadow self and fulfill his most
monstrous desires. In the same vein, in The Dark End of The Street,
Kyle embraces her bestial aspect, throwing off all moral, legal, and earthly
limitations by transforming herself into a Cat-Woman. In this comic, The Cat-side is
able to beat up her (masculine) enemies, climb tall buildings, and seemingly fly
through the air (via her whip).
It is important to note in Catwoman history, she was known as “The Cat”
and first appeared in the first issue of Batman in 1940. However,
in 1950, ten years after “The Cat’s” inception, the mild-mannered
alter ego Kyle was named. It is a common misconception that Kyle came
first—not a decade later—but this idea of the villainous side appearing
before the sociality acceptable persona parallel’s Stevenson’s novella
in which the story of Hyde accosting the young girl appears pages before the
discussion of Jekyll. This argument will now go back to a previous quote from
Jekyll, “I knew myself, at the first breath of this new life, to be more
wicked, tenfold more wicked, sold a slave to my original evil; and the thought, in
that moment, braced and delighted me like wine” (Stevenson 1886: 79). Jekyll seems to use Hyde to indulge his
baser desires, but in reality the reverse is true—Hyde uses Jekyll for his own
desires.
The problem is that these shielding personas eventually took on a life all their own.
Hyde lashed out at his alter ego, punishing him through the destruction of
Jekyll’s belongings: “Hence the ape-like tricks that he would play me,
scrawling in my own hand blasphemies on the pages of my books, burning the letters
and destroying the portrait of my father” (Stevenson 1886: 91). In Brubaker, Cooke, and Allread’s comic,
Catwoman too began to have a life outside of Kyle, who says, “The mask is part
of who I am now. But it’s also part of the problem, too… because it
became a person all on its own” (Brubaker,
Cooke, and Allred 2002: 54). Thus, while Hyde and Catwoman were created
to liberate their alter egos and allowed them to achieve humanly-impossible,
animalistic acts, these personas became whole persons in and of themselves. The
animal-side uncontrollable and often exhibits behaviors that are outside of
normative human roles. Catwoman is wild, something that Kyle struggles to understand
(Figure 1). Furthermore, in Figure 1, this Cat-self bides for ownership of the body
she cohabitates and eventually becomes intricately integrated and a fully realized
being.
Ultimately, Hyde asserts himself and begins replacing Jekyll. The problem is that,
with Carew’s murder on his head, Hyde’s only salvation lies in being
Jekyll, but he could not condemn himself to perpetual torpor; as such, “Unable
to compound the remedy that turns him into Dr. Jekyll again one day, Jekyll/Hyde
kills himself” (Reichstein 1998: 339).
Similarly, in this comic, Catwoman killed off both Kyle and then herself (Brubaker, Cooke, and Allred 2002: 16)… or
at least Catwoman went through a lot of trouble to make it appear that way. Hired to
find out if Catwoman truly was dead, Detective Slam Bradley asks the-very-much-alive
Kyle, “But a while back, you killed off Selina Kyle…
and a few months ago, you killed Catwoman,
too… so, the question is—who’s left to find?” (Brubaker, Cooke, and Allred 2002: 33). Kyle
reemerges and tries to live again, believing that Catwoman is dead and buried;
however, Catwoman too refuses to stay dead. As Orr says, “[Catwoman]
won’t be killed” (Orr 1994: 181).
Catwoman’s immortality is in fact the sole attribute that Ranker’s
(2008) work offers as to why she is stronger than the Hulk. Beatty too notes,
“Selina definitely has nine lives considering the number of times she has
survived near-fatal catastrophes” (Beatty 2004:
25). While most often the nine lives of the Catwoman are seen in response
to her battle with others, this immortality applies to her battle with Kyle as
well.
The immortal Catwoman torments Kyle, much as Hyde tortures Jekyll: “And this
again, that the insurgent horror was knit to him closer than a wife, closer than an
eye; lay caged in his flesh, where he heard it mutter and felt it struggle to be
born” (Stevenson 1863: 91). Kyle struggles to control the beast within her,
but unlike Jekyll who does not seek to understand Hyde—Kyle grapples with
accepting Catwoman as a part of herself. Kyle waits a moment and then answers
Bradley’s question: “I don’t know. Hopefully
someone who can look in the mirror without any pain” (Brubaker, Cooke, and Allred 2002: 16). In the mirror here, Kyle
sees all the pain that she has caused and that she has endured. Jekyll has a similar
mirror experience, but his is all the more tragic because of the loss of control
that it represents: “[and] bounding from my bed I rushed to the mirror. At the
sight that met my eyes, my blood was changed into something exquisitely thin and
icy. Yes, I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde” (Stevenson 1886: 83).
It is important to highlight that mirrors denote the true representation of self.
Christian Metz explains how it is only through a mirror that people can understand
themselves and construct their egos: “Thus the child’s ego is formed by
identification with its like, and this in two senses simultaneously, metonymically
and metaphorically: the other human being who is in the glass, the own reflection
which is not the body, which is like it” (Metz
1975: 48–49). Metz underscores the duality of co-existence of each
individual’s two selves—the rational ego and the primal id. Thus, by a
proverbial mirror, Kyle is able to be a full self, and it is in this mirror, that
she understands the Cat’s self. Another way to put it is that the animal-self
allows Kyle the only way for her survive and to be a full and actualized person.
Whereas the rest of humanity strives to deny the animalistic id inside them, Kyle
realizes that she ultimately needs to embrace her Cat self into her life.
Whereas Jekyll embraced the concept of humanity’s dual nature, he theorized
that each person was in reality a conglomeration of individuals forced confined in
uncomfortable cohabitation: “I hazard the guess that man will be ultimately
known for a mere polity of multifarious, incongruous and independent denizens”
(Stevenson 1886: 78). In her nightmares,
Kyle wrestles, not with Catwoman, but with the vast multitude of individuals that
exist inside her: “Like everything I’ve ever been is struggling inside
me… trying to find some place to fit themselves” (Brubaker, Cooke, and Allred 2002: 44). On the surface, it is
easy to focus simply on the duality, but for both Jekyll and Kyle, the double
personalities that they battle are just the beginning, as if both these
two—and everyone of us for that matter—could just as easily say,
“My name is Legion; for we are many” (Mark 5: 9).
While Kyle and Catwoman embody just two persons that inhabit their body, there are
multitudes of others. Ignoring the staunch differences in attitude and mannerisms
between Kyle and Catwoman, both characters pronouncedly vacillate in skin tone and
costume within themselves—even just within this single comic book. For
instance, while the panels within the comic showcase a Catwoman who is very overtly
a pale Caucasian brunette, the various covers from this same comic depict a darker
complected Kyle that is clearly mulatto, Hispanic, or even Italian (see Figure 3, left side). However, even this ethnic
alteration pales to the disguises that Kyle dons that make her unrecognizable, the
staunchest of which is when Kyle goes undercover as a blond bombshell (see Figure
3, right side). Thus comic’s art work
is indicative of Kyle and Catwoman’s personality and multiplicity. Despite all
of her various incarnations, Kyle and Catwoman are always at their cores women:
“She was a ‘woman,’ and all woman at that” (Madrid 2009: 248). Kyle summons up her female
alter egos, uses them as tools, and discards them just as quickly. Kyle can control
all these incarnations of herself—other than Catwoman.
Kyle’s therapist asks her, “How long has it been now since you put on the
[Catwoman] outfit?” to which Kyle replies, “The outfit?
Oh, yeah… that. Almost six months” (Brubaker, Cooke, and Allred 2002: 45). Like
Jekyll, Kyle has tried to repress her own Hyde by abandoning the hide of Catwoman.
Also like Jekyll, Hyde (i.e.: Catwoman) fought back: “[But] I was still cursed
with my duality of purpose; and as the first edge of my penitence wore off, the
lower side of me, so long indulged, so recently chained down, began to growl for
license” (Stevenson 1886: 87). Catwoman
plagues Kyle with hellish dreams in which she is surrounded by Catwomen who set Kyle
on fire, burning away her humanity and leaving only the silhouette of the Catwoman
(see Figure 2). In this suffering, Kyle is like
Jekyll: “I began to be tortured with throes and longings, as of Hyde
struggling after freedom” (Stevenson 1886:
85). Kyle feels the Cat personality struggling for freedom. However, Kyle
tries to avoid the temptation of becoming Catwoman—which is why she is seeing
a therapist—but Catwoman refuses to let her get a moment’s peace until
Kyle acquiesces. Catwoman refuses to let Kyle be complete until Kyle fully embraces
all of her aspects.
Conclusion
Reichstein tries to reduce Catwoman to little more than one of the “mostly
bizarre array of villains in the Batman comics, like the Joker, the Penguin, the
Catwoman … [who] reflect the purely bad side of Batman—like
counterparts, or mirrors showing him what would happen to him if he lost
control” (Reichstein 1998:
346–347). However, Catwoman should not be reduced to simply reflect the
bad side of Batman. While Bruce Wayne is similar to a Dr. Henry Jekyll, Batman is
not a complete Mr. Edward Hyde… but Catwoman is.
This argument suggests that Catwoman is such an integral part of Kyle and that her
life is shattered—without her “other.” While other critics have
studied Batman and Hulk—no one has considered Catwoman as Hyde. It is
interesting to note that Kyle logically and consciously puts on Catwoman and both
co-habitat the same space. Again, this is very akin to Jekyll and Hyde,
who—although different in body and manner—share the same memory (Stevenson 1886: 85) and handwriting (89). These
are two parts of a cohesive whole, both vying for control over their life while
staunchly rebelling against being controlled by any man (even a Batman) and any
law.
Reichstein succeeds at linking Jekyll with Wayne, but she ignores the complexity of
comparing Hyde to Batman. Thus, this work corrected that oversight by advocating
Jekyll and Hyde story is about identity structure: the socially acceptable
personality versus the uncontrollable and often intolerable. A close examination of
Dark End of the Street reveals the identity problems in
Stevenson’s novella also manifest in Kyle and Catwoman. This comic reinforced
the Jekyll side is about social conformity, whereas the Hyde represents the
uncontainable and unacceptable. Thus, this paper argues that offering a critical
approach to Catwoman as Hyde is the only way for freedom from social norms and
offers independence from social conformity.
It is noteworthy that Kyle’s Hyde self is not about a tortured individual who
seeks to redeem herself from her alter ego, but about accepting that separate self
and releasing it from the confines of societal rules. In other words, Catwoman is
the ability for humankind to negotiate life with a wild animalistic side.
Catwoman’s fictional personality offers readers a chance to enter a new sphere
of identity understanding. However, instead of untamed mayhem or total anarchy,
Catwoman tests the limits of what life would be like without the rules and
limitations of social rules. The tragedy of Stevenson’s novella is not the
fall of a celebrity, but rather the fall of one of us. Jekyll is a friend and peer,
not an estranged and obsessive recluse like Wayne. As such, Kyle is more like
Jekyll—like all of us—in that she is a complex character torn between
manifestations of good and evil. Catwoman, the Hyde-like heroic villain and
villainous hero, and is one of the most humanistic comic characters of all.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Benjamin Syn for his continuous support and dedication
to this project. This project would have been an impossible task without the help
that Benjamin gave during the extent of the project. As this project has taken
almost a year from topic idea to formulating a well-crafted research
paper—Benjamin has been a vital aspect to the project. He often brainstormed,
gave relevant insights into my argument, and often offered substantive feedback to
this paper. Thank you Benjamin Syn for being an ongoing partner in my quest to
finish my degree and my obnoxious desire to become a published writer. It is only
because of Benjamin’s dedication—that I am who I am…I adore you
and I thank you.
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