There’s something about Selina: Why Catwoman still tempts Batman after all these years
From Batman '66 to The Dark Knight Rises, we examine the common link between on-screen Catwomen
Film Features Catwoman
Across 80 years, numerous variant covers, and more cat-eared headgear than we care to count, Catwoman clawed her way to a prominent place in the Batman mythos. Introduced as “The Cat” in Batman #1, she proved a unique foil. She doesn’t try to outsmart the hero, expose his secret identity, or bump him off. She makes him an offer: “Why don’t you come in as a partner with me?” Catwoman asks. “You and I, king and queen of crime!”
Batman, of course, refuses—it’s the first issue of his very own comic, after all. But he does give the offer some thought. “Your proposition tempts me, but we work on different sides of the law.” Two panels later, with an “oops,” Batman lets her escape. Maybe he’ll run into her again, he muses.
That prediction panned out: Now an indelible part of Gotham City’s rogues’ gallery, Catwoman ties Joker as the most recurrent villain in Batman’s filmography. Matt Reeves’ The Batman will be her fourth appearance, but she was also a pioneer in the field of villains headlining their own pictures. (So you can thank her for Venom.)
In her three previous live-action film appearances, regardless of actor or multiverse, Catwoman continues to reframe that initial meeting in issue #1. She challenges something else from issue #1: The oath Bruce Wayne made to spend his life warring on criminals. During her 56 years on screen, she’s steadily pushed Batman closer to hanging breaking his vow, hanging up the cape and cowl, and giving in to the temptation from their first meeting.
Lee Meriwether gives Batman some “POW!”
With director Leslie H. Martinson’s Batman: The Movie in 1966, Lee Meriwether became the silver screen’s first Catwoman. Rushed into production between the first and second seasons of ABC’s primetime Batman series, the movie wrapped at the end of May 1966 and was in theaters by August. Producers wanted to capitalize on the series’ breakout success—and the already-paid-for props, costumes, and Batcave set—but that speed cost their original Catwoman, Julie Newmar, the role. With Meriwether stepping into the spangly catsuit as one of the film’s four antagonists, the film cemented Catwoman as an iconic Batman villains in the eyes of the public.
“Thanks to the cultural impact of the 1966 Batman series and film, Joker, Penguin, Riddler, and Catwoman are the Batman villains,” Tim Hanley, comic book historian and author of The Many Lives Of Catwoman, tells The A.V. Club. “She’s the rare character who can so enrapture him that he momentarily sets aside his dedication to crimefighting.”
In the film, Catwoman poses as Soviet journalist Kitayna Ireyna Tatanya Kerenska Alisoff—Miss Kitka, for short—to seduce Bruce Wayne (Adam West). Meriwether teases the camera, staying one step ahead of Batman and exhibiting more power and control than any of the film’s other villains. It pays off: Wayne becomes infatuated with Kitka. But when she reveals her identity, Batman pauses. “Holy heartbreak!” youthful sidekick Robin exclaims. It’s an understatement.
In Lorenzo Semple Jr.’s screenplay, the scene then delves into Batman’s psyche:
His frozen face, with shimmering ghostly images, supered over to the sound of violins playing “Parlez—Moi D’Amour.” Images from that fabulous night of theirs: Bruce and Kitka dancing, having dinner, so close in the back of the hansom cab, lovely Kitka en negligee in her apartment. Suddenly there’s an effect of a shattered sheet of glass over the whole schmear, violin music ends in an awful discord. The dream is over.
The final cut forgoes such imagery for a lengthy close-up on West as his inner-radio tunes into “Parlez—Moi D’Amour.” “It’s just… one of those things in the life of every crime fighter,” he says mournfully. “It means nothing. Snap on the Bat-Cuffs.”
With the possibility of life and love with Catwoman running through his mind, West’s pause evokes the characters’ meeting in Batman #1. Though the unflappable Batman by Finger and Kane doesn’t get as mushy about it—West’s Batman is much more sentimental. Still, it’s not a difficult decision for this version. West’s Batman is too pure, and Meriwether’s Catwoman too diabolical. She does not love Batman in the way future Catwomen would. Twenty-five years later, Tim Burton gave these star-crossed lovers another shot.
Batman Returns’ Catwoman is split right down the center
Catwoman is an outsider in Batman’s extended family. She’s not a villain, just a woman with a penchant for burglary. She’s an antihero who allows Batman to step outside of roles as “father figure or rescuer,” according to professor Steven Leyva, who teaches a course in the evolution of Batman at the University Of Baltimore. Batman doesn’t have to protect Catwoman. He also doesn’t want to catch her, creating an internal conflict between Batman and Bruce Wayne.
“Who is Catwoman really interested in: Bruce Wayne or Batman?” professor Leyva says. “Particularly in Batman Returns and earlier presentations, stemming from the ’70s and ’80s, it’s very clear: She wants Bruce to be the Bruce he is while he is being Batman. Put the mask back on.”
Catwoman offers Bruce a place to “relax,” Leyva said. “It might be better to think of their relationship as a romantic comedy.” The couple engages in a will-they/won’t-they relationship; they always have some sort of meet-cute—usually on a roof. It’s with Catwoman that Batman can “cease to be humorless.” They’re the Sam and Diane of Gotham.
While Michelle Pfeiffer’s Batman Returns performance references and pays homage to Newmar, Meriwether, and their fellow ’60s Catwoman Eartha Kitt, she rounds out the character, imbuing her with a tormented, conflicted soul and a sense of humor. Likewise, she has her canonical alter ego this time around: Selina Kyle, who in this telling is the meek assistant of billionaire Max Schreck (Christopher Walken). Burton’s film would update Catwoman’s costume, too, transforming her into BDSM-inspired dom to Batman’s sub.
He may come away with her nails stuck in his abdomen, but “meow,” Bruce (played by Michael Keaton) likes spending time with Catwoman in Batman Returns. They share a common interest in heights and flirtatious banter about the relative dangers of mistletoe and kissing. Batman thinks she could be a mate.
This Batman indulges the fantasy more deeply than his ’66 counterpart. At the end of the film, in an unlikely twist, he rips off his mask to appeal to Selina as Bruce, suggesting the two leave together and bring Schreck to the cops.
Bruce: Let’s just take [Schreck] to the police. Then we can go home… together. Selina, don’t you see we’re the same. Split right down the center.
Selina: Bruce, I would love to live with you in your castle forever, just like a fairy tale. I just couldn’t live with myself. So don’t pretend this is a happy ending.
Catwoman’s suggestion that their life together would be like living in a fairy tale castle, again, conjures their initial encounter when Catwoman suggests they be “king and queen of crime.” Regardless of the era or medium, their ideal partnership has the air of the fantastical. They could never be together, but if they could, it would be like dream. Maybe in the Nolanverse, things will be different.
Dark Knight Rises and Batman hangs up the cape
Batman Returns all but promised an encore via an expensive, reshot-at-the-demands-of-test-audiences ending that leaves Catwoman, alive and well, staring up at the Bat-Signal. Unfortunately, as Joel Schumacher took the reins and rounded out the first generation of Batman sequels, Selina was replaced by lesser love interests Dr. Chase Meridian and Julie Madison (Nicole Kidman and Elle Macpherson, respectively).
In 2005, audiences backed off Catwoman and demanded that Bruce Wayne’s parents die again. They got their wish via director Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. While Nolan hadn’t devised the film as the first entry in a trilogy, by 2012, Warner Bros. was pitching his third Bat-film as his last. The Dark Knight Rises linked the three films with a retconned arc: Batman was always looking for a way out. The movie was telling the final Bruce Wayne/Batman story. The one where he finishes his job. To do so, Nolan brought in a ringer: Catwoman.
Oscar-winner Anne Hathaway plays Selina with a sense of purpose. She’s not out for vengeance, like Pfeiffer, or to turn diplomats into dust, like Meriwether. Instead, her Catwoman wants to escape her life of crime via a data-scraping program called “Clean Slate.” Batman, it turns out, wants a blank slate of his own.
Glen Weldon writes in The Caped Crusade: Batman And The Rise Of Nerd Culture that Nolan commits heresy by exploring the “notion of a Batman who gives up his cape for good.” Previous renditions of Batman may find the thought of quitting alluring, but they never give in to it. Like Batman: The Animated Series creator Paul Dini says in The Caped Crusade, “We did not want to ever have Batman tempted to give up his costume for a normal life. The costume is his normal life.”
Catwoman has always been a threat to Batman’s oath. As recently as 2018, DC attempted a publicity stunt that ended with Catwoman jilting Batman at the altar because Catwoman couldn’t deprive the world of its Caped Crusader. But Nolan allows Catwoman to live up to her promise.
Selina is not the only woman to win Bruce’s heart in the Nolanverse. Idealistic defense attorney Rachel Dawes (played by Katie Holmes in Batman Begins and Maggie Gyllenhaal in The Dark Knight) was Bruce Wayne’s original light at the end of the tunnel. When his mission was accomplished, he promised, he would be with her. “I’m sure the day won’t come when you no longer need Batman,” Rachel Dawes writes in “Dear John” to Bruce in The Dark Knight. “I hope it does.” Her death puts the light out, and Catwoman rekindles it.
The Dark Knight Rises ends with a bit of wish fulfillment. Not for the audience, but for Alfred, Dawes, and the people Bruce wears a mask to protect. Batman fakes his death, saves the day, and he and Selina start over in Europe. Nolan lets Batman break the oath. Now he’s living the fairy tale life in Florence. He probably should’ve done this years ago.
Catwoman makes Batman’s life a little less dark
Throughout her history, Catwoman has paved new avenues for Batman by allowing him to relax for a second. For a character that alternates between extremes, from brooding vengeance seeker to Day-Glo optimist, Catwoman unlocks a third Bat scenario, where he can simply be a guy having a weird romantic comedy moment on the roofs of Gotham.
The will-they/won’t-they isn’t the only reading of Catwoman. She contains multitudes, challenging Batman in different ways throughout their relationship. Catwoman is his friend. Unlike Alfred or Commissioner Gordon, Catwoman is not another person “related to the completion of a mission in some kind of Machiavellian way,” Levya says. She’s someone “you could stand on a rooftop with and, you know, be.”
Batman is a lot of things. To Robin, he’s a father. To Alfred, a son. To Gordon, a colleague. But to Catwoman, he’s an equal. Someone to relate to. He can rest his wings and finally lean into the “man” part of his name. It does sound tempting, doesn’t it?
65 Comments
Julie Newmar is the best Catwoman, I will not be taking any questions thank you. Although I wouldn’t say anyone has done a bad job outside that one film that need not be said.
Newmar and Meriwether for me, with a huge gap to the third (probably Michelle Pfeiffer).
An episode of the 60s show ends with Batman and Catwoman holding hands, as that is all that propriety will allow, and Robin saying “holy mush!”
It’s truly a shame Newmar didn’t get to do the movie. With no offense meant to Ms. Meriwether, my first reaction to when she showed up was very much “Who the fuck is this??” (She did a good job though)
And why doesn’t Batman dance anymore?
Permanently damaged knees.
We allowed it once in the 80s and peoples heads exploded
Because “DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARK!” heroes don’t dance, or sing.
Know who liked that one film? My cat. He was crazy about it.
Surely nobody on 60s US TV was as sexy as Julie Newmar as Catwoman. I’m surprised they got away with her wearing that catsuit at the time.
1960s did have Barbara Eden and Donna Douglas but I’d probably agree, Julie was sure something.
Don’t forget Elizabeth Montgomery.
Funny you mention her, I believe Matel put out a limited edition run of Barbie dolls based on popular 1960s TV female characters. It was Donna Douglas as Ellie May Clampit, Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha Stephens, Barbara Eden as Jeanie, and Julie Newmar as Catwoman.
oh, that’s true for sure. Barbara Eden’s genie outfit was quite racy for the time as well.
Yup! If she was in Batman 66 that movie would be like 80% better! She was awesome and young me watching the reruns in the late 70’s and early 80’s loved her so much!
I like all of these performances. But, Julie Newmar
Back when all of that was 100% natural. Rowr.
I was secretly hoping you’d post that gif…
I’ll be in my bunk
I think she gets my vote too.
“Dad, move out of the way, you’re blocking the screen.”“Shut up, son!”
Camren Bicondova hands down. The relationship between her Selena Kyle and the young Bruce Wayne in Gotham was the most complex, most emotionally resonant of any screen CatBat.
Newmar for the win!Gorgeous in the suit, luxurious hair, perfect voice.She remains my dream Cat. Michelle is a worthy successor.
Boy, what a depressing article to have to write.
Batman “retiring” in The Dark Knight Rises really bothered me. I think because the first episode of BATMAN BEYOND presented such an eloquent reason for Batman to ‘stop’: His age is against him, so in a last ditch attempt to stop a villain he picks up the villain’s gun. Realisation quickly sets in that, if this is now his only recourse, he can’t be the Batman Gotham needs.So, he hangs up the cowl to become a mentor, meaning he technically retires but his mission can continue ie. There will always be criminals that need to be stopped by someone with the skills/myth of Batman.
I think the reason Batman retiring didn’t bother me at the time, was because the alternative was that the film had just killed him off, and that would have infuriated me, lol. So in a way, thanks to a well-placed swerve, TDKR cleverly side-stepped fan outrage, presenting, what I considered at the time to be a satisfying goodbye that movie superheroes simply hadn’t been afforded. This would be several years before Logan, which ironically, did kill off its star. (**Spoilers**Along with No Time to Die, I have a thing about this as Hollywood’s go-to answer for ending long-running stories, that I find bothersome ). But as the years have gone by, Bruce and Selena’s ‘happily ever after’ has gnawed away at me. The article makes some great points about why that is. How they test each other, and what their dynamic means for Batman’s life mission is super important. Giving up his crusade, in a way is theoretically no different than picking up a gun- they are both about going back on his promises. I agree that Batman Beyond has a really fantastic take on how to handle Batman’s retirement.
Well, there’s also a new Batman at the end of the movie. Who can fight whatever new villains emerge. I was never bothered by it because Christopher Nolan talked about wanting to tell a complete story with Rises and give his Batman an ending. Also, Batman is an ultra popular character that will always have new stories told and one movie giving Bruce a happy ending free from fighting crime forever is pretty nice.
But Rises does the same thing, with Bruce handing the job off to whatever Joseph Gordon Levitt’s character was named.
The cartoons will always be better written than the movies.
Bruce’s retirement at the end bothered me less than the notion that he (seemingly) stopped being Batman after escaping the cops at the end of THE DARK KNIGHT and didn’t start up again until the events of RISES. That seemed to fly square in the face of the romanticizing voiceover at the end of TDK about how he’s the hero the city needs, he can take it, etc.
But Nolan/Bale’s Batman retiring after it was established as something he yearned for in the prior film, and after everything he went through in this one (plus Anne Hathaway as a motivating “gold watch”)? I can see it. . .
Right. Nolan’s Batman was only Batman for, at most, a cumulative nine months across nine years before retiring.
Not super inspiring!
I disagree, I think he did do some Batmaning between Knight and Rises. At the end of Knight he seemed to be more or less physically fine but by Rises his knees were completely shot. He was clearly doing something in those years.
Of course Catwoman keeps coming back. It’s a sexy woman in a form-fitting outfit that spends most of their time being sexy and usually wear cat ears. And usually wields a whip. Of course she would come back in most adaptations.
I rewatched Dark Knight Rises last night and Hathaway brings so much to the movie as well as dragging both Batman and Bruce out of his isolation. I love how she is able to switch her personality completely between innocent and badass with just some facial expressions, no need for a Selina with a bad demure wig.For me Pfeiffer’s scene turning into Catwoman at her apartment is one of the more iconic cinematic moments out there.
The little peak around the corner like “did they buy it?” Hathway does after ending her damsel in distress charade is just perfection.
I haven’t seen Batman Returns in decades when it was in the theaters. But man, does it look bad in that clip up there. Not bad quality or looking, just bad in general. The suit looks awful, and he tore his mask off like it was made out of a fruit roll-up. And Christopher Walken was so off on his shots that he could’ve used real bullets and not hit them.Let this be a lesson, kids. Things you remember as being cool when you were young were probably pretty awful. Never revisit them, especially Chuck Norris and the Karate Kommandos.
You should watch it again. It’s fantastic and one of the best Batman movies and best Tim Burton movies.
I know it is. Which is why I can never watch it again. My memory of it as a 12yo is better than any actuality.
Okay, it’s great as an adult too. The movie is very horny and has weird shit a kid would not pick up.
Oof. Hard disagree.
this isn’t the take honey, this movie stands up even better today. there is nothing formulaic about it, and in some ways still feels a lot more inventive than most superhero blockbusters today.
Like most Tim Burton movies, it doesn’t hold up at all.
I don’t know…any movie that has that Walken line read of “Bruce Wayne…what are you doing dressed up as BATman?” has at least one redeeming feature.
I guess the writer only focused on movie catwomen. so what about Halle Berry and Eartha Kitt?
Berry’s Catwoman didn’t interact with the Caped Crusader, and Kitt, in addition to appearing only on TV, is clearly the best Catwoman ever and would have overwhelmed the conversation.
Last time I watched Returns, what really struck me was how effectively Keaton conveys just how lonely Batman is. A lot of recent adaptations have stressed how on the edge and ready to snap Batman is, but Keaton gets at just how soul-draining and isolating being Batman must be, how deep down desperate he is to make a connection with someone on his wavelength.Which I’d say is the real reason that Catwoman works as a romantic foil. It’s not so much that she risks getting Batman to retire and settle down; it’s that she also understands the allure of the life they’ve both chosen.
“We did not want to ever have Batman tempted to give up his costume for a normal life. The costume is his normal life.” Well, Paul Dini is a liar then, because Mask of the Phantasm directly challenges his oath. As he sits on his knees in the pouring rain, in front of his parents’ tombstone, he begs his mother and father to let him go back on his premise, because he “never counted on being happy,” and “it doesn’t hurt so bad anymore.”
“Maybe they sent me,” she says from out of nowhere, umbrella in hand. Andrea Beumont is his way out. He proposes to her, and seems ready to move on from crime fighting. Andrea, ultimately, is forced to flee to Europe with her father. What a different world for Bruce Wayne if Andrea could stay.
Why Catwoman still tempts Batman after all these years Yes, I wonder Why?
I really liked Camren Bicondova as Selina on Gotham, she was very intense & graceful & her performance matched well with the Batkid from that, there was no question why he would have been into her.
Where’s Eartha Kitt?
On a television show. This article is only about movies.
“The Dark Knight Rises linked the three films with a retconned arc: Batman was always looking for a way out.”
I don’t think this arc is a retcon; I think it naturally develops throughout the three movies:
Batman Begins: Bruce begins on a quest for vengeance, but eventually finds a way to channel his energy into justice instead. Since he’s just “beginning” as Batman, he obviously doesn’t want to stop just yet.The Dark Knight: Having Batmanned for some time, Bruce is beginning to want something else. Both because he’s in love with Rachel and knows that being Batman prevents them from being together, and because in Harvey Dent he sees a way to accomplish systemically what he’s been trying to do one mobster/villain at a time. The death of Rachel and maiming/heel turn of Dent kill his chances for a truly happy ending for himself, but he’s able to salvage one for Gotham through the lie that Batman killed Harvey. His semi-retirement is both personal resignation and serving the greater good (these ideas mutually reinforcing each other.The Dark Knight Rises: Bane (and Talia, ultimately) force Bruce out of retirment for “one last ride” as they dismantle the Harvey lie (and all that had been built upon it), Gotham City itself, and even Bruce’s own company and body. Batman saving Gotham, and inspiring the city in the process, revives the idea that Gotham can have a happy ending (with a new Robin/Batman whatever), and Selina revives the prospects of a happy ending for Bruce himself.
The song is Plaisir d’amour.
That is a lot of words for an easy answer, Skin tight cat suit.
I had sex with Eartha Kitt in an airplane bathroom.
Well that came up organically.
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Haven’t read yet. Is there a reason besides, “Ass looks great in a catsuit?”
Catwoman ties Joker as the most recurrent villain in Batman’s filmography. Matt Reeves’ The Batman will be her fourth appearance
Hasn’t been in 6 theatrical releases? Batman ‘66, Batman Returns, Catwoman (though this isn’t Selina), Dark Knight Rises, LEGO Batman and now The Batman.
Joker, for that mater, has been in 8. Batman ‘66, Batman, Mask of the Phantasm, Dark Knight, LEGO Batman, Suicide Squad, Justice League (Snyder Cut) and The Joker. He also appears in archive footage in Birds of Prey but I don’t know if I’d count that.
If you don’t count animated stuff then I guess it would be 6 (Joker) – 5 (Catwoman), but she hasn’t caught him yet.
It’s all about the pussy. Batman v. Catwoman is just Dick v. Pussy. It’s decades of kink.
It’s all about the pussy. – Andrew Cuomo
She’s a hot woman in a skin tight costume.Of course she’s always going to have the predominantly male comic industry writing her a certain way