Nine lives? That’s nothing. Catwoman’s had at least twice that many.
Her first one began in 1940 as a glamorous jewel thief known simply as The Cat. She didn’t even have a costume then, nor any of her trademark accessories, though they would soon follow. In the six decades since, from the printed page to television to film, she has continued to change.
As with any great mythological figure, her tales are legion and, sometimes, contradictory: She steals for selfish gain, or only to help the disadvantaged. She plans insidious deathtraps, or follows a strict code against killing. She’s a flight attendant who survives a plane crash with a case of amnesia, or an abused prostitute who escapes a life on the streets.
One thing remains constant: Whether feline foe, feminist defender or irresistible lover, she’s clearly captured the imaginations of audiences.
5 actresses
Though she began as a simple drawing on cheap paper, she secured a place in America’s cultural pantheon through flesh-and-blood incarnations. Leaping from comic-book pages into live-action portrayals, no fewer than five women have worn the cat mask over the years. They make up a diversely gorgeous, highly credentialed litter — among them Miss America, a Tony winner and, now, an Oscar-winning best actress.
“Catwoman” began, of course, as a Batman villain. Today she supports her own monthly comic book and headlines her own almost-$90 million film starring Halle Berry — with no bat-ears in sight.
What’s the secret to her timeless allure?
“Catwoman is very sensuous, she’s very intelligent, she’s very charming, she’s very conniving,” says Eartha Kitt, who lent her singular voice to the part in 1967, for the classic “Batman” TV series. “And she can be as evil as she wants to be, and she can be as loving as she needs to be — so she encompasses all of these facades of women.”
That’s clearly what her creators, the late Bob Kane and Bill Finger, were going for.
“We needed a female nemesis to give the strip some sex appeal, so we came up with a kind of female Batman,” Kane said in last year’s tongue-in-cheek tome “Catwoman: The Life and Times of a Feline Fatale” by Suzan Colon (Chronicle Books). “Cats are hard to understand,” he added. “They are as erratic as women are.”
She’s not so hard to understand today. “The appeal is that she’s a bad girl, but she’s not that bad. She’s a good bad girl,” says Bob Schreck, group editor of DC Comics’ various “Batman” titles, which includes a monthly series starring the reformed Selina Kyle, once known as the “Empress of the Underworld.” These days, “she’s a bit of a Robin Hood,” he says, explaining her role in Gotham City’s rough East End, where she protects society’s underdogs and outcasts with the tacit blessing of the caped crusader.
Now that she’s moved — permanently, it seems — from villain to flawed hero, “Her psychology invites the reader in: `If I just cut one corner here, all these people would benefit,’ ” Schreck adds. “She sustains her own book because she does toe a certain line of good against evil.”
Some fans unhappy
That spirit is the one element of the 2004 film that holds true to the comic. Otherwise a far cry from Cat-gospel, the Berry version defines the icon with a new alter ego, new costume, new city and even supernatural abilities. Irate comics and TV fans have taken to calling the film “CINO,” for “Catwoman In Name Only.”
But Berry’s Catwoman connects to the legacy in another way beyond the comic book: She’s the second African-American actress to crack the whip. Color-blind casting might not seem daring today, but it was surely an unconventional choice for the late-’60s TV program, whose producers chose the mixed-race Kitt to follow in the high heels of the statuesque Julie Newmar.
“I’m very glad that Halle Berry has been chosen to play the Catwoman,” says Kitt, who worked with Berry 12 years ago in the comedy “Boomerang.” In a bit of foreshadowing, Kitt says, “She came to my dressing room and thanked me, in her words, ‘for blazing the trail.’ “
The shape-shifting cat continues to reinvent herself for the times — from the kitsch of the old TV series, when Kitt tooled around Gotham in her pop-art Kitty Car, to the crime noir stylings of her monthly book, pitting an athletic anti-hero against the mob.
“People understand that Batman and Catwoman are icons and we can play with them to a certain degree,” Schreck says. Selina’s new style, which debuted in the comics three years ago, appeals to a modern reader, he adds: “She’s a little sleeker and wears much more sensible shoes than those high heels.”
So when Catwoman appears sometime down the line, in whatever medium, sporting yet another new life, well — what else would you expect?
“If you were to watch a cat, which I do all the time, they’re very tricky,” says the aptly named Kitt. “You never know when they’re going to pounce on you. And you never know what kind of game they’re playing. I think it’s wonderful; I love cats.”
Story goes back to drawing board
TV and film aside, Catwoman’s most reliable lair remains in comic books. In addition to her own monthly title, published in one form or another for the past 11 years, many of her best appearances are available from DC Comics as graphic novels.
Hastily assembled to hit bookstores and comic shops in time for the new film, “Catwoman: Nine Lives of a Feline Fatale” provides a fun overview of a character who evolves almost as often as her costumes.
Featuring tales from six different decades, the collection includes her spring 1940 debut as The Cat from “Batman No. 1”; especially delicious ’50s artwork from Lew Sayre Schwartz and Charles Paris; a hilarious ’60s tale from the pages of “Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane” (complete with cameo by LBJ); and a late-’90s story by Ty Templeton, “Claws,” with Catwoman avenging animals abused by a cosmetics CEO.
In “Batman: Year One,” Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli revisit not only the early days of Bruce Wayne’s masked career, but Selina Kyle’s as well. This still-popular 1987 classic first explored her past as a prostitute with a flair for S&M. In the more recent, two-volume “Hush” (soon available in softcover editions), the bat and the cat finally go a little further than flirting.
DC Comics editor Bob Schreck says of Batman and Catwoman’s relationship: “There’s an attraction. I mean, he’s a guy running around dressed in black leather with a cape, and she’s a girl running around dressed in black leather, and they go to the same parties, so to speak.”
Three years ago, writer Ed Brubaker and artist Darwyn Cooke (among others) reinvigorated Catwoman as a conflicted protagonist — often tangling with the mob or crooked cops, no Batman in sight, and never once referring to anything as “purrrfect.”
The series’ “Crooked Little Town” fleshes out Selina’s supporting cast, particularly Holly, her lesbian roommate, and hard-boiled detective Slam Bradley.
— W.B.
Portrayals not always purr-fect
Julie Newmar
The first and best. A classically trained dancer and Tony winner — who stands anywhere from 5 foot 11 to 6 foot 1, depending on the source — poured herself into the skin-tight black outfit for two seasons of the “Batman” TV show in 1966-67. The result? “Puberty kicked in for much of an entire generation of men,” observes Suzan Colon in her recent pop-culture history, “Catwoman: The Life and Times of a Feline Fatale.” Grade: A
Lee Meriwether
This former Miss America took on the part for the feature film that spun out of the TV show. A few inches shorter than Newmar, her portrayal comes up a bit short too. Toning down the sexuality, Meriwether manages a bit of fun as a phony Russian diplomat, Kitanya Irenya Tatanya Karenska Alisoff, who naturally romances Bruce Wayne. Grade: C
Eartha Kitt
Kitt added some wicked moxie during the show’s third and final season. According to A&E’s “Biography: Catwoman,” producers nixed an episode marrying Batman and Catwoman due to fears about interracial mingling. Still, they took full advantage of the singer’s patented purr: “When I got the scripts, there were more R’s in all of those words than you would ever see in your life,” Kitt laughs. “Even in words that didn’t have R’s! It was hysterically fun.” Grade: B
Michelle Pfeiffer
If the Catwomen of the ’60s hinted at the character’s S&M penchant, Pfeiffer’s 1992 version (in “Batman Returns”) left no room for doubt. In shiny black latex even tighter than the costumes of her pre-decessors, Pfeiffer cracks the meanest whip of all. Best moment: When Catwoman climbs atop Batman, goes in for a kiss, and licks his face instead. Grade: B
Halle Berry (left)
Playing a woman who becomes part cat — as opposed to playing Catwoman — Berry rubs her face in catnip, devours tuna and hisses at dogs. (Not even the writers of the old TV show pulled those stunts, and they were trying to be funny.) Any further cat connection here comes entirely from computer-generated effects. And though the amount of bare flesh might launch puberty for a new generation, that absurd costume’s for the dogs. Grade: D — W.B.
