i think one of the most frustrating things to see whenever people get into spats about bruce’s romances is the intentional reduction of selina as a character solely in pursuit of establishing her as the superior love interest. it’s baffling how people retroactively rewrite her history prior to helena’s introduction via the idea she was always written to end up in a marital relationship with bruce. selina was set up as a formidable femme fatale counterpart to bruce and maintained a significant independence as a character for years despite expressing her occasional sympathies with him. the earth two story where she ended up married to bruce did so and killed her off within its first five pages to prop up her daughter’s character, and the subsequent earth one stories of the 80s near completely reduced selina’s personal priorities to being with bruce rather than keeping the focus on any of her moral complexities. obv the way their romance can be executed effectively varies but i don’t understand how no one sees a problem with arguing that selina’s one true purpose is to be the love of bruce’s life. it completely erases any contention with her personal circumstances or morals bc in any scenario where this ideology is posited her personhood has to come second to wanting to fit into bruce’s life. it shouldn’t be any prominent bruce love interest’s purpose to be the love of bruce’s life even if you could find a way to argue for it. that’s the last thing i would be worrying about when approaching female characters within a genre that already affords them so little consistency outside of their relationships with men
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