Catwoman

• 1. The Cat Appears

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  Catwoman first appeared in Batman #1, published in the spring of 1940, and in that issue she did not wear a costume at all. She was called only "the Cat," a mysterious burglar and jewel thief. For most of the story she was disguised as an old woman who had been hired to commit a robbery.

  Only at the end did readers learn the truth. The thief was a young, attractive woman, and the story never gave her a name. Batman had chased her, and as she fled, he blocked Robin when the boy tried to leap after her. The implication was that the hero had let her go on purpose.

  That small gesture set the tone for a relationship that would run for decades. Three questions follow from it. Who dreamed up a thief that Batman could not quite bring himself to catch? Why did she vanish from the page for more than a decade? And how did a character who debuted without a name end up with so many conflicting pasts?

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• 2. The Friendly Foe

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  Bob Kane loved the movies, and that love helped shape several Batman characters, Catwoman among them. For her, he drew on the actresses Jean Harlow and Hedy Lamarr. He also named his own cousin, Ruth Steele, as a source of inspiration.

  Kane and Bill Finger wanted their comic to have sex appeal. They also wanted a character who might draw in female readers. Their answer was a "friendly foe who committed crimes but was also a romantic interest in Batman's rather sterile life." The plan resembled a game of chess, with Batman trying to reform her.

  The Joker was the obvious point of contrast. Unlike him and other Batman villains, Catwoman was meant never to be a killer and never to be truly evil.

  Kane's explanation for the cat imagery was short. He said that he and Finger saw cats as "kind of the antithesis of bats." A rule that she never kills is easy to state and hard to keep, and later writers would test it.

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• 3. Vanishing Act

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  Batman #2 brought her back in a story that also featured the Joker, and again she escaped Batman in the end. In Batman #3 she wore a fur mask and got away once more. Her early run was a string of clean getaways.

  In December 1950, Batman #62 handed her a new backstory. She was an amnesiac flight attendant who had turned to crime after a blow to the head in a plane crash. She revealed this in the Batcave after a piece of rubble struck her head while she was saving Batman during a chase. In The Brave and the Bold #197, from April 1983, she admitted she had invented the amnesia story as a way out of her past life of crime.

  A reformed Catwoman helped Batman in Batman #65, from June 1951, and in Batman #69, from February 1952. Then came Detective Comics #203 in January 1954. A newspaper published stories of Batman's past adventures, some crooks mocked her about it, and she went back to crime. Even so, she stopped her thugs from murdering Batman when he was found knocked out. She quickly insisted she only wanted him as a hostage.

  Batman #84, from June 1954, and Detective Comics #211, from September 1954, were her last appearances for years. The cause was mostly the Comics Code Authority, whose rules for portraying female characters were taking shape in 1954. She returned in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #70-71, dated November-December 1966, and then appeared across the Batman titles.

  Several stories in the 1970s showed her committing murder, something neither the Earth-One nor the Earth-Two version of her would ever do. That darker version was assigned to Earth-B, an alternate world for stories that could not count as canon.

  The Earth-Two Catwoman had a gentler fate. She reformed in the 1950s, married Bruce Wayne, and gave birth to Helena Wayne, who became the Huntress. The Brave and the Bold #197 added that Selina had been in a bad marriage. Her husband kept her jewelry in his private vault, so she broke in to retrieve it. She enjoyed the experience so much that she became a professional burglar.

  Years later, a former underling known as "Silky" Cernak blackmailed her back into action. One of his henchmen shot her, she fell from the fourth floor, and she died. Helena then took up the Huntress identity and brought Cernak to justice. A far more drastic rewrite of Selina's story came in 1987.

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• 4. Many Origins

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  In 1987, writer Frank Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli published Batman: Year One, and Catwoman's past changed with it. In their version, Selina worked as a dominatrix for a pimp named Stan in order to survive. She also sheltered a girl named Holly Robinson who worked for him. A disguised Bruce grabbed Holly, Selina fought him, and she was knocked out.

  Selina then decided to leave that life and took Holly with her. She turned to burglary and began robbing the rich and powerful men of Gotham, wearing a catsuit on her heists. While trying to rob Carmine Falcone, she was rescued by Batman. She was irked that the media treated her as his sidekick.

  The 1989 Catwoman limited series, written by Mindy Newell with art by J.J. Birch, expanded on Miller's version in a story called "Her Sister's Keeper." It gave Selina a sister, Maggie, who is a nun. Stan abducts and beats Maggie, and Selina kills him to save her. She gets away with it.

  Catwoman (vol. 2) #69 reached back further, into childhood. Her mother, Maria Kyle, was a distant parent who preferred the company of cats and took her own life when Selina was very young. Her alcoholic father, Brian, was cold to Selina because she resembled the wife he resented for dying. He eventually drank himself to death. Selina took to the streets, then landed in an orphanage and later a juvenile detention center.

  When she was 13, Selina discovered that the detention center's administrator was embezzling funds, and she confronted her. The administrator put Selina in a bag and dropped her in a river to drown, like a cat. Selina escaped and went back to the orphanage. There she stole documents exposing the corruption and used them to blackmail the administrator into erasing "Selina Kyle" from the city's records. She also took the administrator's diamond necklace.

  Selina ended up in Alleytown, a network of cobblestone streets forming a small borough between the East End and Old Gotham. Mama Fortuna, the elderly leader of a gang of young thieves, took her in and taught her to steal. Fortuna treated her students like slaves and kept their earnings. Selina ran away with her friend Sylvia, but the two struggled to survive and drifted apart. Sylvia came to resent Selina.

  In Catwoman: Year One, the adult Selina trains under the Armless Master of Gotham City, who teaches her martial arts and culture. A client gives her a cat o' nine tails, which she keeps as a trophy.

  Batman: Dark Victory, the sequel to Batman: The Long Halloween, implies that Selina suspects she is the illegitimate daughter of Carmine Falcone. She finds no definitive proof. The miniseries Catwoman: When in Rome adds circumstantial evidence, establishing that the Falcones' second-born daughter was put up for adoption in America. It too offers no proof.

  Later eras told yet other versions. In the DC Rebirth period, Selina's parents die when she is young, and she hardly remembers them. She is sent to the Thomas and Martha Wayne Home for the Boys and Girls of Gotham. Even after being placed in foster homes, she keeps escaping back to it. Her revised origin in Catwoman (vol. 4) #0 draws from Batman Returns. That orphanage would later sit at the center of one of her darkest stories.

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• 5. Her Own Series

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  In 1993, Catwoman received her first ongoing comic book series. It was written by an assortment of writers and primarily penciled by Jim Balent. It portrayed her as an international thief, and occasionally a bounty hunter, with an ambiguous moral code. Story lines included her adoption of a teenage runaway and former sidekick named Arizona. The series also showed her training with Ted Grant.

  Selina moved to New York City, where she became corporate vice president of Randolf Industries, a company with Mafia influence. She then blackmailed her way into the role of CEO. She planned to use that position to run for Mayor of New York City. Her hopes ended when the Trickster inadvertently connected her to her criminal alter ego.

  Back in Gotham during the "No Man's Land" storyline, she helped Batman against Lex Luthor in rebuilding the city. Commissioner Gordon arrested her, and she escaped from prison. During the "Officer Down" storyline she was the chief suspect, though she was later cleared. Her behavior grew increasingly erratic. Her series revealed that exposure to the Scarecrow's fear gas had given her a form of personality disorder. She began acting as herself and as an identity that appeared to be her sister Maggie pretending to be her.

  Soon afterward she disappeared and was believed killed by the assassin Deathstroke the Terminator. That ended the series at issue #94.

  Detective Comics #759-762, from August to November 2001, carried a back-up storyline called "Trail of the Catwoman." Writer Ed Brubaker and artist Darwyn Cooke sent the private detective Slam Bradley looking for what had really happened to Selina. That led into a new Catwoman series in late 2001, written by Brubaker, first with Cooke and later with artist Cameron Stewart. Joined by new supporting cast members Holly and Bradley, Selina became protector of the residents of Gotham's East End while still working as a cat burglar.

  Then came a shock. Selina learned that her apparent reformation was the result of a mindwipe by Zatanna. Zatanna had acted with the consent and aid of five of the seven JLA members who had helped her mindwipe Dr. Light and Batman. Selina's answer was unequivocal. She gagged Zatanna with duct tape, which left her powerless, and pushed her out a window.

  In issue #52, Black Mask threatened the people closest to Selina, from Slam Bradley to Holly. He had also tortured her sister Maggie in a way that drove Maggie insane. Black Mask learned Selina's identity through his alliance with Sylvia, who still held a grudge. Believing Selina held to a strict no-kill rule, he was caught by surprise when she shot him in the head. The act haunted her through the "One Year Later" storyline, and it may have been the first time she directly took a life.

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• 6. Mother and Sirens

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  After Infinite Crisis and the jump forward to "One Year Later," Selina Kyle was no longer Catwoman. She had left the East End and given birth to a daughter named Helena. Batman showed great concern for the child, and at one point asked to have her stay at his mansion. Holly Robinson took over as Catwoman, while Selina lived under the alias Irena Dubrovna. That name was inspired by the main character of the 1942 film Cat People.

  A few days after the birth, Selina put on the costume for a run through the East End. It was tighter than before, and she was easily distracted by a common criminal. Holly arrived at an opportune moment, but video caught two Catwomen active in the city at once. The movie aficionado called the Film Freak deduced her alias, teamed up with the Angle Man, and grabbed Helena.

  After the rescue, Selina asked Zatanna to mindwipe both villains to protect her secret. The Angle Man turned himself in. The Film Freak went on a murderous rampage. Slam Bradley later deduced that Helena was the daughter of his son, Sam Bradley, Jr., though the story still strongly hinted that Bruce Wayne could be the father.

  Selina came to doubt whether she should raise a daughter while her life as Catwoman endangered the child. With Batman's help she faked the deaths of herself and Helena, then placed Helena with a new family. A month later she asked Zatanna to erase her memories of Helena and restore a criminal mindset. Zatanna refused, judging it would be cruel to both mother and daughter. She added that she could never reverse Selina's mindset, because Selina was already on the path to becoming a hero. Selina briefly joined Batman's Outsiders, quit quickly, and was replaced by Batgirl.

  In Gotham City Sirens #1, Selina met a new villain, the Bonebuster, and was saved by Poison Ivy. Fearing the dangers of a Gotham without Batman, she proposed that she, Ivy and Harley Quinn live together in an abandoned animal shelter. Ivy agreed on one condition. Using home-grown drugs to weaken Selina's resistance, Ivy demanded the identity of the true Batman.

  During Blackest Night, Black Mask returned as a member of the Black Lantern Corps and attacked Selina. Her sister Maggie awoke from a coma and fled into the sewers. Maggie told Selina that she had ruined both their lives the day she became Catwoman. Calling herself Sister Zero, Maggie tried to kill Selina and failed. She realized she could not murder her own sister, and decided to exorcise the "cat demon" from Selina's body instead.

  The Return of Bruce Wayne storyline brought a teenaged escape artist named Kitrina. She was Carmine Falcone's long-lost daughter. Kitrina broke into Selina's room and revealed that Selina had unknowingly stolen a map to the new Black Mask's underground bunker. Selina saw a chance to claim the 50 million dollar bounty on his head and left Kitrina bound in a locked room. Kitrina freed herself and stole the map back, despite what Selina called an "inescapable" knot that Bruce had once taught her. Impressed, Selina took Kitrina on as her sidekick, Catgirl.

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• 7. Batman and Selina

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  In Batman: The Long Halloween, Selina, out of costume, developed a relationship with Bruce Wayne, and she even saved him from Poison Ivy. It appeared to end on the Fourth of July, when Bruce rejected her advances twice, once as Bruce and once as Batman. In Batman: Dark Victory, after he stood her up on two holidays, she left him for good and left Gotham for a while. When they met at an opera during Batman: Hush, Bruce remarked that the two no longer had a relationship as Bruce and Selina.

  Her loyalties were tested elsewhere. During the Batman: Knightfall saga, Bane's henchmen approached her while she was robbing a house. Bane asked her to work for him. She refused, repulsed by the criminal who had "broken" Batman. In the Batman: Knightquest saga, Azrael masqueraded as Batman, and she was one of the few who recognized the impostor. When the true Batman returned and still tried to save even criminals, that willingness confirmed his identity for her.

  Batman: Hush eventually put them together again. The two worked together and had a brief romance, during which Bruce revealed his true identity to her. He ended it when he suspected the Riddler and Hush had manipulated the relationship.

  Detective Comics #848, from November 2008, brought a far more brutal chapter. Hush kidnapped Selina in her apartment and surgically removed her heart. She was delivered anonymously to a Gotham hospital. Batman recovered the heart, and Doctor Mid-Nite, considered the superhero community's chief doctor, returned it to her body. While she was still in a coma, Zatanna visited and apologized for not warning her about Hush. Bruce later entered the recovery room and, believing her unconscious, confessed that he would always love her. Selina opened her eyes and revealed that she had been awake the whole time.

  During Batman R.I.P., their romance lasted only one night, because Bruce had to keep posing as Jezebel Jet's lover to bring down the Black Glove. Selina pulled off one more heist and took revenge on Hush. With help from the Oracle, Holly Robinson, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn and Slam Bradley, she tapped into his assets and left him penniless.

  The New 52 relaunch of 2011 made the lovers explicit. Selina's inner monologue in the first issue reveals that she and Batman are lovers, and the issue ends with their first sex scene. Steve Trevor later offered her a spot on Amanda Waller's new Justice League of America. Selina learned she had been chosen specifically to take down Batman should the JLA ever need to defeat the original Justice League.

  In Batman (vol. 3) #9, Selina is imprisoned in Arkham Asylum for the alleged murders of the Dogs of War, a terrorist group that had bombed her childhood orphanage and killed all 237 of its occupants. Batman made a deal with Amanda Waller to get her off death row, in exchange for her help on a mission to Santa Prisca. He later deduced that Holly Robinson had committed the murders after the terrorists burned down the orphanage where she and Selina were raised.

  Bruce proposed to Selina at the end of Batman (vol. 3) #24. In issue #32, Selina asked him to propose again, and this time she said "Yes." Batman Annual (vol. 3) #2, from January 2018, flashed forward to Bruce and Selina as a married couple in their golden years. Bruce receives a terminal diagnosis, and Selina cares for him until his death.

  On the day of their real wedding, Selina called it off. She realized that marrying Bruce would take away what makes him Batman. Later it was revealed that Holly had manipulated her, on instructions from Bane, to break Batman's spirit. Selina left Gotham and started over in Villa Hermosa, California, where she faced the power-hungry Creel family and First Lady Raina Creel.

  She returned in the "City of Bane" storyline. She reunited with Bruce, and they went to Paris so he could recover from his defeat by Bane and his own father, Thomas Wayne, from the Flashpoint reality. The two reconciled and discovered they remembered their first meeting differently. Batman believed it happened on a boat, under their alter egos. Catwoman believed it happened in the streets, as their true identities, much like their meeting in Batman: Year One. Together they defeated Bane and Thomas, using Scarface and the Psycho-Pirate.

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• 8. Claws and Costumes

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  The Cat-illac, a custom cat-themed car, belonged to the Silver Age, when Catwoman like most Batman villains used a range of themed weapons and vehicles. The 1960s Batman television series carried on that tradition. In her Post-Crisis appearances, her favored weapon became the whip. She handles both a standard bullwhip and a cat o' nine tails with expert skill. She chose it because a whip must be learned, so it cannot easily be taken from her and used against her. If it is taken, she can fall back on a pistol.

  Caltrops serve her as an anti-personnel weapon, and bolas entangle opponents at a distance. She also carries rope for binding hands and feet, and a roll of duct tape for gagging her targets. On television she often used sleeping gas or knockout darts.

  Her outfit changed as much as her story. After the cat mask came a hooded dress with ears, and later a catsuit with attached boots and either a domino mask or glasses. In the 1960s the catsuit was green, which was typical of villains of that era. In the 1990s she usually wore a mostly purple, skintight suit. She then switched to a black one similar to the costume Michelle Pfeiffer wore in Batman Returns, though not haphazardly stitched together.

  Writer Ed Brubaker, behind the 2001 revamp, has said that her current look was inspired by Emma Peel's leather catsuit in The Avengers television series. It added domino-shaped infrared goggles on her cowl. Many versions include retractable metal claws in the gloves and sometimes in the boots. On the 21st of May 2018, DC Comics unveiled a redesign by writer and artist Joëlle Jones. The black costume has openings under the arms and shoulders for mobility, a cowl in place of goggles, and sleeker gloves and boots. Holly Robinson wears the costume Selina used before Infinite Crisis.

  Catwoman made her live-action debut in the 1966 Batman television series, played by Julie Newmar. Lee Meriwether played her in the film adaptation, and Eartha Kitt took over in the third season. In that series the name Selina Kyle was never used. Michelle Pfeiffer played her in Tim Burton's Batman Returns, and Halle Berry starred in the 2004 film Catwoman. Anne Hathaway played her in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises. Zoë Kravitz voiced her in the 2017 animated film The Lego Batman Movie, then played her in Matt Reeves' The Batman in 2022. On the television series Gotham, which ran from 2014 to 2019, Camren Bicondova and Lili Simmons played her as a teenager and adult.

  IGN ranked her 11th on its list of the top 100 comic book villains of all time, and Wizard magazine placed her 51st among its greatest villains. IGN also ranked her 20th on its list of the top 100 comic book heroes. In 2021, DC announced Batman '89, a comic continuation of Tim Burton's first two Batman films, written by Sam Hamm and illustrated by Joe Quinones. It brings back Pfeiffer's version of the character.

  A newer version appears in the Absolute Universe, first in Absolute Batman. She is a childhood friend and later girlfriend of Bruce Wayne who left Gotham to travel the world. In 2025, DC announced a limited spin-off series, Absolute Catwoman, due in 2026.

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