Originally Posted by
godisawesome
I think “Outlaw” is the right word for her, but I also think it’s important to recognize that the personality that we associate with Catwoman is very much *not* a supervillain, and that the old “she and Batman are enemies!” idea is effectively long dead - as is, to a great extent, the “it’s a conflicted relationship because he’s too stodgy and a defender of the law!” idea of their chemistry.
Basically, almost the *entire* modern era has had Bruce either tacitly or specifically accept her activities as a tolerable part of Gotham’s night life, and as a predictable altruist when worst comes to worse - and often only broken up for very specific conflicts that are often resolved amicably, even without the romance angle. It’s also become just a fact of life that crooked cops and sleazy upper-clusters have risen in prominence since the 70’s - and a Bruce willing to pull the “None of you are safe…” threat has consistently been shown to treat apprehending Catwoman as more an optional and dubious strategy in his war on crime.
The “heart of gold” has been much more important to the character than her greed since the 70s - even when her 90s book was a heist series, she was still written where a Bruce could basically call her bluff on some amoral activity if it would kill or hurt others, and be proven right. And that was even true in appearances in other books at the time.
Spot on!
I think this also coincides, broadly speaking, with the trend of Batman becoming more of a 'vigilante' as opposed to the 'super-cop' ("Duly deputized officer of the law!") that he was for most of his existence prior to the late 1980's. When you do away with the more rigid 'law-and-order'-oriented Batman of the Golden Age and Silver Age, it opens the space for grey areas such as Catwoman (or, more recently, Harley Quinn...a far more extreme case).
I suppose it’s tied to her profile, though - if she’s strictly a supporting character making sporadic appearances, than making her more selfish and more bluntly a thief works (BTAS, The Batman cartoon, Batman Returns)… but if you make her a protagonist or deuteragonist, than she’s going to become more clearly a Robin Hood-like Chatoic Good anti-hero (The Batman Movie, her comics and most guest appearances in comics, and about half her cartoon appearances anyways.)