Taking one’s love of cats too far.
What They Say:
Selina Kyle is captured by a mad scientist and transformed into a humanoid cat creature.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
There’s always some fun in seeing familiar story elements from novels make their way into comics since they lean on the basics and twist as needed for the characters involved. This book plays to the Island of Dr. Moreau in plenty of obvious ways, showing the writers love of that work throughout, but it’s also something that has entered the standard template for stories over the years at the same time so that you can easily enjoy it without those hooks. Taking a familiar character and playing to their traits in a bigger and more involved way is definitely fun as the emotional stakes can be pretty big with the uncertainty of what the characters are going through and how they react.
Selina finds herself targeted too late by a man named Emile Dorian, who has created a cat-man hybrid named Tyger. He’s got his own little island of creations that are in thrall to him and uses the whispered threat of a big cat in the zoo being kidnapped to draw her out to that. That has Bruce learning of it and being drawn into it as Selina is not someone to be captured easily, though there is a delight for fans of classic monster movies in her being something of a damsel in distress thanks to the costuming and set design put together for it. Selina’s no wallflower, however, and is able to get Dorian to reveal his intentions easily enough. Which from anyone’s point of view is pretty frightening as he intends to turn her full cat-woman to give his pinnacle of creation so far, Tygrus, a companion.
With that setup, Bruce uses his connection to Langstrom to explore the clue he does have because all mad scientists kind of know each other – and their lairs. Dorian’s island is a delight to watch from the outside as Batman investigates it in search of Selina and deals with all that’s thrown at him. Batman’s discovery of what has happened to Selina sets him into a rage, something we’ve seen from time to time, and that makes for some good action sequences with Tygrus as he protects Dorian while also getting all riled up about Selina – who is resistant to him from the start. It’s enjoyable watching Batman going up against something more primal and having to cope with that as it challenges him in a different way than most of the usual villains and thugs.
In Summary:
With a few quotes of William Blake’s famous poem “The Tyger”, this episode was always going to delight me due to my enjoyment of it from the novel “The Stars My Destination.” The animated series has had its weirdness from the start, such as starting off with Langstrom and Man-Bat, but a lot of it has played to the street crime and more grounded criminals even if they are twisted like Clayface or the Joker. Episodes like this with twisted science and leaning into the horror side are fewer and further between but welcome as they give us something very different, whether it’s a fight in the jungle or the lab or the horror across Batman’s face realizing what Selina has become – at least for a little while. Everything may return to normal by the end but the experience is a strong one.
Grade: B+
