Silver St. Cloud

Silver St. Cloud is a fictional character who appears in Batman comics set in the DC Comics Universe. She is a recurring love interest of Batman/Bruce Wayne, debuting in Detective Comics #470, written by Steve Englehart. The issues featuring her earlier appearances have been collected in trade paperback form as Batman: Strange Apparitions. She was ranked 64th in Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.^[1]

Fictional character biography

St. Cloud is a socialite residing in Gotham City, hosting parties for the rich and influential. She later becomes a successful event planner outside of Gotham.

Batman: Strange Apparitions

Silver is Bruce's main love interest in Batman: Strange Apparitions, reprinting stories from Detective Comics #469-476, 478, 479. Her character first meets Bruce Wayne following the Batman's defeat of new villain Dr. Phosphorus, in a battle that occurred at a nuclear power plant on the ocean. Soon she begins dating Bruce Wayne. She suspects from the start that Bruce is hiding something, citing his interest in crime reports and his encounters with Batman as evidence of a secret. When Bruce Wayne is captured and replaced by Hugo Strange in a prosthetic disguise, Silver quickly notices Wayne is not acting like himself and contacts Dick Grayson (Robin) to tell him about Wayne's strange behavior. Her insight and quick action leads to Robin rescuing Bruce.

Silver is one of the few characters to have discovered Batman's secret identity. Her relationship with Bruce was initially in trouble due to his repeated disappearances. However, over time she was able to piece together the clues and eventually recognize her lover in the Batman costume. Silver confirms her suspicions by calling out to Bruce while he battled the villain Deadshot, causing him to turn and allowing Silver to recognize Batman's chin as the chin of Bruce Wayne. The initial appearances of Silver also represent the first time that it is explicitly recognized that Bruce Wayne or even Batman has engaged in a sexual relationship.

Silver’s breakup with Bruce had repercussions in the following issues, where Batman takes out his frustration over the failed relationship on a couple of criminals. Most of his fury becomes concentrated on one criminal, whom he punches repeatedly. Bruce tells Alfred Pennyworth that he blames his crimefighting persona for driving Silver away, and for a time muses whether he should give up being Batman forever.^[2]

Silver witnesses Batman fighting the Joker. After defeating the Joker, Batman meets with Silver. She reveals to Batman that she knows his secret and that she still loves him. She says that she could not be with him because she could not stand worrying about him each night. She then ends the relationship, asking him not to see her again.

Siege

In the Legends of the Dark Knight story arc "Siege" (plotted by Archie Goodwin), St. Cloud briefly returns to Bruce Wayne's life while organizing a mercenaries' convention in Gotham, but is severely injured by the convention's leader when she discovers a plot to assault the city.

Batman: Dark Detective

Silver returns once again in Steve Englehart's story arc Batman: Dark Detective, a sequel to Batman: Strange Apparitions. In this series, her relationship with Bruce Wayne evolves further, to the point that Silver prepares to leave her fiancé, a campaigning senator, to be with him. However, her fiancé's arm and leg are cut off in Joker's booby traps, while he attempts to find her in Joker's house. Wayne instructs her to continue her relationship with the senator until his campaign ends, but she is angered by this and leaves Wayne's life again.

Steve Englehart has written another chapter to his trilogy to resolve it but DC has declined to publish that story.^[3][4]

The Widening Gyre

Her character also returns in the out of continuity miniseries Kevin Smith's Batman: The Widening Gyre,^[5] in which she and Bruce rekindle their romance on an island beach her family owns. When they come back to Gotham City, Catwoman/Selina Kyle is jealous. Shortly after the two become engaged Bruce invites the vigilante Baphomet into the Batcave and reveals his secret identity and fiance to Baphomet. The couple begin discussing lunch while an unmasked Baphomet is seen putting on a different mask, and as Bruce places his utility belt down with a "KA-KLAK", he hears Baphomet repeating the sound and turns around to see Onomatopoeia (who had made up the identity of Baphomet to get close to Batman) midway through slicing Silver's throat and mimicking the sound of the blade.

References