Warning: this article contains SPOILERS for The Batman.
The Batman raises many questions over its three-hour runtime, but one of the most intriguing is whether the woman that Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz) repeatedly calls "baby" is really her girlfriend. If nothing else, Catwoman clearly cares a great deal about her, but there's no straightforward explanation as to why that is. The woman in question is Annika Koslov (Hana Hrzic), whose name is sometimes spelled "Anika" and is given little backstory and screen time in the film.
The film introduces Annika through a picture presented to Batman (Robert Pattinson) of her leaving Gotham's Iceberg Lounge with Mayor Don Mitchell (Rupert Penry-Jones) shortly before his death at the hands of Paul Dano's sinister Riddler. Before Selina Kyle gets into her Catwoman garb after a shift as a waitress at the Iceberg Lounge, she's found home caressing a crying Annika. She's implied to be the woman on the other end of a distressing phone call Kyle was engaged in on her way home. Later, Selina Kyle's father in The Batman, revealed to be Carmine Falcone (John Turturro, The Big Lebowski, Severance), strangles Annika to death for learning from Mayor Mitchell that Falcone is secretly running operations in Gotham - he is the "rata alada" referred to by the Riddler. Finding Annika and helping her get back to her native Estonia is Selina Kyle's primary motivation throughout the film, with Batman benefiting from her motivation by using her to get information in the Iceberg Lounge.
Annika Koslov is an original character in The Batman, but she carries similarities to the character Holly Robinson from Frank Miller's 1987 comic book arc Batman: Year One. Like Koslov, Robinson was Catwoman's roommate whom Catwoman took under her care. Holly Robinson was a prostitute on the streets when Selina Kyle found her, who molded Robinson to later become a second Catwoman after Kyle became pregnant with her daughter, Helena. Past Batman movie versions of Catwoman never hinted so assertively at Kyle's sexual orientation as Kravitz's Catwoman does in her interactions with Annika. Regarding Kravitz's interpretation, The Batman's director Matt Reeves stated in an interview with Pedestrian.TV that because Catwoman "was a stray and...really wants to care for these strays...Anika (sic) is like a stray and she loves her," stating further that their relationship is "more than a sexual thing." While Kravitz stated in interviews that she read Catwoman to be bisexual, her relationship with Annika is likely more out of motherly care for this vulnerable person than out of intimacy.
Leading up to the film, The Batman's Catwoman was its biggest villain challenge compared to the Penguin (Colin Farrell) or the Riddler because it had to live up to so many other beloved versions of the character. Annika gives Kravitz's Catwoman an edge to previous iterations by making her closer to her comic version and giving her a stronger character motivation. While a sexual relationship between Kyle and Annika is not out of the question, the Holly Robinson angle reveals more about the stakes Catwoman has in finding her. For Annika to not just be her girlfriend but to also be someone that Catwoman needs to protect, Annika's death becomes all the more crushing. Catwoman doesn't just lose her - she fails her.
While a clearer establishment of Annika being Catwoman's girlfriend would provide better LGBTQIA+ representation in The Batman, she nonetheless elevates Catwoman's character. Kravitz's Catwoman evokes similarities to Michelle Pfeifer and Anne Hathaway's Selina Kyles, who are both regarded as perhaps the most iconic versions of the character on film. By differing from those versions with the Annika relationship, The Batman's Selina Kyle has an arc personal to her, making her a better-developed character with stronger goals.
