Does Anyone Think Catwoman Should Return to Her '40s' Look?

[Timothy Hunter]

I am currently rereading Mike Barr and Alan Davis's run on Detective when I realized how Selina Kyle's classic, purple and green costume from the 40s / early 80s was vastly superior, in my opinion, to her more streamlined attire she sports now more or less popularized by Ed Brubaker and Darwyn Cooke. While the contemporary design is that of a generic, tastelessly sexualized, "bad girl art" femme fatales that we have seen throughout that 90s and beyond, this Catwoman design of note is more grandiose and creative.

This brings me to the main question of this thread: should the aforementioned costume worn by Selina, with the cape and everything, with maybe some modern touches, but basically intact, be brought back.

If you have no idea what I am talking about here is an image that hopefully will give you a vizualization:
https://usercontent2.hubstatic.com/7338631_f520.jpg

It's practically impossible for me to upload an image on this forum with the phone I have, so hopefully someone could be kind enough make that jpg visible on this site.

[Timothy Hunter]

In retrospect this should have been posted in the Batman forum, my bad.

[Lee Stone]

And, yes, my favorite costume for her.

[Agent Z]

I fail to see how the current costume is "generic and tastelessly sexualized" yet a costume showing off her cleavage and legs is classy and creative. In some images, she looks like she's a slight breeze away from flashing someone.

[Osiris-Rex]

I would love for Catwoman to at least have a cape. Just about everyone else in the Bat family has a cape still. I would accept a purple body suit with a green cape if the dress seems too retro or impractical.
But so what if Catwoman flashes once in a while while wearing a dress. I'm sure she will be wearing underwear. Even on TV Supergirl, who wears a very short skirt, flashes occasionally. It's just part of the body
suit under the skirt. You aren't seeing anything that a woman wearing just tights doesn't show.

[oasis1313]

CLASSIC look. Cover up the chest and legs more, though.

[Sutekh]

The green cape and purple gown do tug at the old nostalgia, and evoke words like 'elegant' or 'classy' more than the black leather sex-dungeon fetishwear she currently sports, but the S&M gear does seem a heck of a lot more practical (protecting her knees, for instance, while not having any loose flappy elements to snag on stuff when she's sneaking or leaping around, or to be grabbed and used to unbalance her when she's fighting).

A compromise could be neat. A detachable cape, that she drops when it's go time, and wears purely for the look (when making an entrance, for instance, and the bondagewear could be worn underneath and not be immediately obvious that she's ready to steal some stuff and kick some face underneath the fancy 'opera cape') might be one approach. Another would be changing her catsuit to include an overskirt, that also can be torn away from the leather leggings (so that if someone tries to 'grab the cat's tail.' all they've got is a handful of cloth, and the 'cat' is across the room and getting away).

[Agent Z]

I would love for Catwoman to at least have a cape. Just about everyone else in the Bat family has a cape still. I would accept a purple body suit with a green cape if the dress seems too retro or impractical.
But so what if Catwoman flashes once in a while while wearing a dress. I'm sure she will be wearing underwear. Even on TV Supergirl, who wears a very short skirt, flashes occasionally. It's just part of the body
suit under the skirt. You aren't seeing anything that a woman wearing just tights doesn't show.

She's a thief for one thing. They're not known for flashing people.

[Timothy Hunter]

I fail to see how the current costume is "generic and tastelessly sexualized" yet a costume showing off her cleavage and legs is classy and creative. In some images, she looks like she's a slight breeze away from flashing someone.

You're right. I guess that is a tad hypocritical. But I still stand by my views.

[adrikito]

And, yes, my favorite costume for her.

As a fan of Batman brave&Bold I am agree with this. I prefer her with Long hair and with a cape..

[Osiris-Rex]

I think if Julie Newmar had worn a cape on the Batman TV show Catwoman with a cape would be more acceptable now. Can you imagine Batman or Robin or Batgirl without a cape?
Catwoman's cape would have been legacy. But then we would have missed out on Julie's fabulous bottom, so good and bad.

[Agent Z]

I think if Julie Newmar had worn a cape on the Batman TV show Catwoman with a cape would be more acceptable now. Can you imagine Batman or Robin or Batgirl without a cape?
Catwoman's cape would have been legacy. But then we would have missed out on Julie's fabulous bottom, so good and bad.

Not everything from the Adam West show made it into other media.

[kjn]

I am currently rereading Mike Barr and Alan Davis's run on Detective when I realized how Selina Kyle's classic, purple and green costume from the 40s / early 80s was vastly superior, in my opinion, to her more streamlined attire she sports now more or less popularized by Ed Brubaker and Darwyn Cooke. While the contemporary design is that of a generic, tastelessly sexualized, "bad girl art" femme fatales that we have seen throughout that 90s and beyond, this Catwoman design of note is more grandiose and creative.

To me, both the Cooke design and the purple gown design are excellent ones, but they tell very different things about the character.

The purple gown emphasises the high society aspects of her character. She is a thief, but she moves in the highest circles and only steals what she wants to steal. She is an alluring and confident character, ready to move in and out of the shadows at any time.

The Cooke design emphasises is much more noir, and puts practicality first. It fits with the girl of the street origin and mentality that Brubaker perfected. It puts her as a character that works in the shadows, but also someone who looks out for others. As used by Cooke, it's not sexualised at all, rather it calls back to action girls like Emma Peel. In a way, it is much more of a uniform than it is a costume, and I think Joëlle Jones's design clearly calls back to those aspects of Cooke's work. Note that you need to look at Cooke's design and how it was used; the attempts to put a cleavage in it should be best forgotten.

In retrospect this should have been posted in the Batman forum, my bad.

You can ask the mods to move it (probably easiest via the "report post" function).

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I don't think capes and dresses are very cat-like. Batman's costume works because bats have wings. Cats are sleek and streamlined.

[Vampire Savior]

I do not like catwoman's current appearance. Not the suit or her short haircut. Actually, my favorite look for her is Jim Balent's take, which is a lot closer to the original.