Selina Kyle: Catwoman Appreciation 2018

[Atlanta96]

The only similarity I see is colour. You do realize Selina wore black suits before Cooke right? In any event Newmar is the obvious influence not Cooke. Bale and Nolan are fans of that show and it does have a reputation for inspiration.

All 3 suits are similar, but the Hathaway suit reminds me more of the Cooke suit because of the more professional design. Newmar was clearly done on a '60s TV budget, the other suits look more realistic and comparatively more functional.

They're the same basic design so I'm just splitting hairs I guess.

[vitaminbee]

All 3 suits are similar, but the Hathaway suit reminds me more of the Cooke suit because of the more professional design. Newmar was clearly done on a '60s TV budget, the other suits look more realistic and comparatively more functional.

They're the same basic design so I'm just splitting hairs I guess.

If you put Anne's look next to any of the ones mentioned, the average person would say it resembled Julie Newmar's look the most. That's the thing with Catwoman's look, it's been designed down to the "staple" look. From her introduction many many years ago, till around Batman Returns, she had some interesting looks. Most of them fell into the color scheme range of black, purple and green. There was that odd Blue one in the late 60's...

[Huntsman1117]

No.. please we don't need that. Adapt Darwyn Cooke's look and you have a good look for the screen. The photo above is just bad.



You are literally describing what a straight male reader would like their Catwoman to be. You do realize that a sexy female character doesn't make girls want to read comics, right? Look at the Batgirl comic that Stewart and Tarr did. That made so many girls /women interested in comics. As for some of the stuff, boots aren't heavy, they are more practical. If you think they are too loud, have you never heard stilettos? They are probably louder than boots. The skin tight suit is enough to keep the sex appeal without going overboard.

When I said Catwoman was created to add both sex appeal, and to get girls interested in the comics, I was basically quoting Bob Kane. She was meant to be a sex symbol. She is supposed to be feminine and sexy. You can't take that away from her.

I'm gay. Most of my friends are either gay men or hetero females (or something in between). But I have a lot of straight male friends too. All of them know I'm a huge Catwoman fan. I talk about her a good bit. Everyone I've talked to says they don't like her in work boots, and most dislike the goggles as well. I dont give people my opinion of Catwoman until I ask them first, so that I don't sway their initial thoughts. So, it's not just straight males that dislike the work boots, and it's not just straight males that prefer her in heels. From what I've gathered from many other people, most people prefer heels.

When the new Batgirl design by Cam Stewart came out, I posted the image on Facebook. It got nothing but negative comments. And I saw recently that Batgirl's current titles are not selling near as well as everyone else's. So you can't say Batgirl's work boots are doing her any favors either. If Batgirl's new utilitarian look is attracting women, it's a small group of women. And Batgirl isn't really supposed to be seductively sexy anyway. That's not what she's out to accomplish in life; whereas Catwoman uses her sexiness as a weapon.

[Huntsman1117]

I myself would prefer neither stilettos nor work boots, but soft soles like she wore in 90's. These also work just fine for everyone else including similar characters like Black Cat, Black Widow, Psylocke, Elektra, etc. They don't need work boots. Why should Catwoman. They are almost more active than she is. Hell, Psylocke jump kicks robots in the head without work boots, and no one complains.

[Atlanta96]

I liked her shoes from Arkham City. They had stiletto heels, but they were a moderate length and not distractingly long like some other heels I've seen. Have I mentioned that I really like the Arkham Games design yet?

[Atlanta96]

When I said Catwoman was created to add both sex appeal, and to get girls interested in the comics, I was basically quoting Bob Kane. She was meant to be a sex symbol. She is supposed to be feminine and sexy. You can't take that away from her.

I'm gay. Most of my friends are either gay men or hetero females (or something in between). But I have a lot of straight male friends too. All of them know I'm a huge Catwoman fan. I talk about her a good bit. Everyone I've talked to says they don't like her in work boots, and most dislike the goggles as well. I dont give people my opinion of Catwoman until I ask them first, so that I don't sway their initial thoughts. So, it's not just straight males that dislike the work boots, and it's not just straight males that prefer her in heels. From what I've gathered from many other people, most people prefer heels.

When the new Batgirl design by Cam Stewart came out, I posted the image on Facebook. It got nothing but negative comments. And I saw recently that Batgirl's current titles are not selling near as well as everyone else's. So you can't say Batgirl's work boots are doing her any favors either. If Batgirl's new utilitarian look is attracting women, it's a small group of women. And Batgirl isn't really supposed to be seductively sexy anyway. That's not what she's out to accomplish in life; whereas Catwoman uses her sexiness as a weapon.

I remember when I brought some of my (early) New 52 comics to high school in 10th grade, and the one my female friends were most interested in was Guillem March's Catwoman. Out of the 4 girls who saw it only one complained about it being over-sexualized, and she was the one who thought Aquaman was part fish and Spider-Man's webs had no useful applications so, yeah.

A few weeks later another friend brought in some freaking Balent era Catwoman stuff, and again, the girls didn't hate it. I think most readers are fine with sexualized content in media until they start hearing that it's evil and objectifying and degrading. It's not the default belief for most people.

[Huntsman1117]

Exactly. I mean, this is Catwoman we're talking about here. The original Feline Femme Fatale. She's supposed to have a tremendous sexuality about her that is both feminine and cat-like. I'm all about feminism and women's rights. But if a person has a feline feminine sexiness to them, and they own it, and are proud of it, there's nothing wrong with that. Catwoman owns it. It's a big part of who she is. She shouldn't have to be masculinized, de-sexualized, and made to look more utilitarian to appease people who look down on her sex appeal. If you don't like seeing seductive women like Catwoman sexualized in comics, then maybe you shouldn't read comics because these women are prevalent.

[Atlanta96]

90s Catwoman was so badass

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It's sad that her character is so toned down nowadays, they tried to intensify her with the Winick run but that didn't work out and backfired.

[LimeBright]

As a straight woman, I would love Selina back with longer hair^.

Heels I can do with or without, I like Balent's depiction more. It's the most sensible for a thief than both the heels and work boots.

[Frontier]

I wonder if long hair could still work with the current look...

Telltale!Catwoman had long(ish) hair, though she wore it in a ponytail 90% of the time and I'm assuming while she was in-costume.

[vitaminbee]

I'm curious, why did people get so mad with Nolan and his choice to have his Catwoman with her hair out and but don't get mad with Balent's look? It still leads to the same issue, DNA left behind while trying to steal something. Realism is not a reason to hate the former and applaud the latter as both universes use that sort of stuff to solve crime.

[Atlanta96]

I'm curious, why did people get so mad with Nolan and his choice to have his Catwoman with her hair out and but don't get mad with Balent's look? It still leads to the same issue, DNA left behind while trying to steal something. Realism is not a reason to hate the former and applaud the latter as both universes use that sort of stuff to solve crime.

Because unlike Balent's run, the Nolan films were intended to be realistic. Comparatively realistic, that is. 90s Catwoman threw practicality to the wind and gave us purple spandex, long flowing hair, and giant knockers with zero support. It was over the top and stylized, Anne Hathaway's Selina Kyle wasn't.

[Huntsman1117]

Because unlike Balent's run, the Nolan films were intended to be realistic. Comparatively realistic, that is. 90s Catwoman threw practicality to the wind and gave us purple spandex, long flowing hair, and giant knockers with zero support. It was over the top and stylized, Anne Hathaway's Selina Kyle wasn't.

Agreed. I always thought realism was a key factor in Nolan's movies. Hathaway's "Catwoman" costume was anything but that.
Jim Balent's Catwoman was a throwback to her Silver Age + a nod to Michelle Pfeiffer's sleek, glossy black catsuit, and drawn with a body shape similar to Jim Lee's X-Men. It was never supposed to be realistic. It was existing in a time when Jim Lee's X-Men inspired everything.

[MosSuperman]

[SneakyLookingSort]

She looks so different with brown eyes.