Who gave your favorite media portrayal as Catwoman?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Newmar and Kitt were Catwomen of their time and were subsequently restricted from being the kick-ass character that Catwoman eventually became. And the idea of Catwoman having henchmen to fight her battles whilst she just stands at the sidelines hissing and scratching the air... That's not for me.

Actually, I thought that was a smart strategy. Why dirty her claws when she had henchmen do all the heavy lifting? Meanwhile, Michelle Pfeiffer did nothing for me, and Anne Hathaway was even less impressive.

[Darrell D.]

I don't think you shoulf have included Pfeiffer the character she played was not Catwoman....

Yeah it was.

[CrimsonEchidna]

Michelle Pfeiffer with Anne Hathaway as a surprising second.

[Agent Z]

Anne Hathway and Michelle second.

Newmar and Kitt were Catwomen of their time and were subsequently restricted from being the kick-ass character that Catwoman eventually became. And the idea of Catwoman having henchmen to fight her battles whilst she just stands at the sidelines hissing and scratching the air... That's not for me.

Pfeiffer's Catwoman was good, but again was too much of a deviation from who I think Selina should be. The whole shy, quiet woman turning semi-homicidal after a near death experience and ultimately being defined by the two key men in her life pretty much takes away most of her agency.

Gotham Catwoman isn't Catwoman yet. And I quit watching after about 3 episodes anyway.

The Animated and Arkham Catwomen have probably been the most accurately 'comic-book', but I just don't really remember much about them from watching the show back in the day or playing the game(s).

With all that mind, I'd have to go with Hathway as the closest to my 'ideal' Catwoman. Not so much in terms of her performance (Although I did enjoy it), but moreso in terms of Selina's personality.

How good a fighter is Catwoman anyway?

[Jim Kelly]

Newmar and Kitt were Catwomen of their time and were subsequently restricted from being the kick-ass character that Catwoman eventually became. And the idea of Catwoman having henchmen to fight her battles whilst she just stands at the sidelines hissing and scratching the air... That's not for me.

I understand that you have some specific idea of how Catwoman should be played, but have you actually watched Julie Newmar? It's kind of like Heath Ledger in a way--Ledger didn't play the Joker we were expecting, he created his own interpretation of the character and that was so good that we went with it. Newmar creates a complete character--the way she uses her voice and her body, the way she can turn the most random line into something pregnant with multiple meanings. And credits to whoever put her in that catsuit--it's a wonder of modern engineering.

It makes sense to me that Catwoman has numerous thugs who do her bidding. She's a cat, not a dog. Cats are sneaky. It's a testament to her power, that Catwoman can lay in wait and allow the men to fight it out.

Also, the only model of Catwoman that existed before Newmar played the character was the Catwoman of the '40s and '50s. There hadn't been any new Catwoman stories in more than ten years, when Catwoman appeard on the 1966 BATMAN. The classic Catwoman didn't usually fight. She concocted schemes and often adopted disguises to pull of her thievery. She was apt to have a gang of thugs to do the grunt work.

I recommend doing more research and finding some scenes of Julie Newmar in action--there are plenty online. It's research that will repay you tenfold.

[Star_Jammer]

Michelle Pfeiffer, by the way.

[Surf]

I hadn't ever seen Hathaway in anything until DKR. The costume, her Selina, the fight sequence and the topper- her on the bat-cycle, in IMAX, was ahhh..moving.

Phieffer was it for me for over 20 years until I saw this newest one.
Nuff Respect to Newmar.

[Nyssane]

Michelle Pfeiffer, definitely. She was iconic for my childhood.

Eartha Kitt would be a somewhat close second, though.

[cam18]

I respect Eartha and her purrr was perfect as well all the others...but there is them and Then there is Michelle the furthest from the comics yet the most memorable and iconic....it was just on a different level for me comics accurate doesn't always equal great RDjr was a big depature from comic ironman in fact if anything the comics were adapted to make tony stark more like RDJR's performance and alot of Michelle was adapted in terms of look and other things in comic catwoman.

[j9ac9k]

Michelle Pfeiffer with the understanding that the whole "resurrected by cats to avenge her own death so she's like the Crow, but with cats" was a bad writing choice, but that wasn't Pfeiffer's fault. She played the character she was given and was awesome doing it.

Also, this:

[godisawesome]

I’m only voting now, and for “Other” because the poll is old enough to not include Zoe Kravitz, who I think finally got writing confident enough in the character’s iconography to only make one compromise (the “beanie-mask”) while covering more ground than Hathaway’s version, which has the second best writing, even if Nolan went a bit far in trying to excuse away her iconography.

Pfeiffer at times is the best, but is saddled with just a lot of unfortunate choices by Burton that really hurt the character, and I think has an interesting split legacy: where she aligns with the more a Bronze Age inspiration from the comics, she helped solidify them (and Barbeau’s version in BTAS is basically Pfeiffer’s “cleaned up”), but the success of the performance clearly confused Hollywood (and Anne Nocenti) that the character being a weird cat-magic woman was the key.

[Maestro 216]

Michelle Pfeiffer with the understanding that the whole "resurrected by cats to avenge her own death so she's like the Crow, but with cats" was a bad writing choice, but that wasn't Pfeiffer's fault. She played the character she was given and was awesome doing it.

Also, this:

I don't think the cats were confirned to be magic. Its implied after the fall she had massive trauma and brain damage hence her change in attitude

[godisawesome]

I don't think the cats were confirned to be magic. Its implied after the fall she had massive trauma and brain damage hence her change in attitude

They’re not confirmed… but Selina does seem to have 9 lives, which tips the scales a bit more towards magic. And also, the way she acts like a cat varies between okay and “Please, Burton, stop making her lick herself and eat live birds…” which is stupid regardless of whether it magical or not.

[From The Shadows]

Newmar, Pfeiffer, Hathaway

[Jim Kelly]

Michelle Pfeiffer with the understanding that the whole "resurrected by cats to avenge her own death so she's like the Crow, but with cats" was a bad writing choice.

I wouldn't call it a "bad" writing choice. That's a value judgement I'm not willing to make. I'm not really into pass or fail criticism anyway and prefer analysis instead. It seems to me it's a Burton writing choice--although Daniel Waters wrote the screenplay. If you look at all of Tim Burton's movies, this is the kind of thing that happens--it even happens with other characters in the same movie. It's how the Tim Burton universe works and might actually have some deeper meaning. In this universe, it's not a choice, it's fatal irony. The characters are bound by forces beyond their choosing to become what they are. The only thing they can choose is to make the best of it.