Happy 80th Anniversary Selina Kyle!

Hey there fellow fans of fantastic fiction, and welcome to Precinct1313’s comprehensively capacious celebration of the capricious, captivating, and cunningly contradictory – Catwoman!

Cat burglar, criminal, anti-hero and lover of grim surly men who like to dress as giant bats, Selina Kyle has been liberating loot from the rich, powerful and undeserving for the past eight decades! Catwoman made her dynamic debut in Batman #1 which released unto the general populace on April 24 in 1940 courtesy of Batman’s bodacious birthers – Bill Finger and Bob Kane.

Introduced in her origin issue as “The Cat” she was originally posited a super-villain and antagonist to the Caped Crusader, yet her identity and personality have evolved over the long decades to anti-hero status, but even more significantly, partner, lover and catty confidante to the Dark Knight Detective himself.

Over the eight decades since her initial conception Selina Kyle has flourished as a much beloved female icon, a strong independent woman with her own agenda and ideology, and aside from a ten year hiatus from print from 1954 to 1966 due to the unswerving and at times creatively unfair ruling of the then Comic Code Authority, Catwoman has been in continuous print, whether as a major character in many, many DC Comics series or in her very own frequent comic book runs.

The Bat and the Cat… Forever!

Selina also holds the crown for most portrayed female character outside of comic print media, with more live action variants than any of her fictional female peers. Beginning her real life feline felony career with a recurring role on the classic sixties Adam West starring  Batman series, delineated through the exquisite talents of Julie Newmar, Lee Meriwether and Eartha Kitt.

Michelle Pfeiffer put in an impassioned performance in Tim Burton’s 1992 Batman Returns, whereas Halle Berry’s take in the 2004 standalone Catwoman movie proved to be a huge box office flop due to a rather lacklustre (and at times completely ridiculous) plot, and the fact that Halle’s version had virtually nothing to do with the original comic-book heroine, bar the titular name itself, holding up much better, and with a more definitive feel was Anne Hathaway’s performance in the 2012 Dark Knight Rises. Lili Simmons and Camren Bicondova both played Selina on the small screen in the 2014 Gotham TV show, rounding out with the most recent casting of our fave female Felis-Catus, who will be championed by Zoe Kravitz in the upcoming Matt Reeves’ epic – The Batman.

Precinct1313’s Fave Live Action Catwomen (so Far)

In celebration of Catwoman’s ongoing octogenarian outings, DC Comics had planned a one hundred page super spectacular dedicated to the Princess of Plunder, due to release this week. Unfortunately owing to the current crisis affecting the planet, the print version has been put back until mid May at the earliest. But what we can share with you are a selection of the many oustandingly gorgeous variant covers commissioned for the delayed tome, with some of comicdom’s most accomplished artists coming together to celebrate one the longest running and important fictional females in history, puuuurfect!

Happy 80th Birthday Selina, and with her nine lives still intact, you can be assured she’ll thankfully be with us for a loooong time to come… Cat-tastic!!

Catwoman is Copyright: DC Comics.

Comics’ Greatest Love Stories: The Bat Loves The Cat…

Grim, gritty, surly, sullen, stern, morose, brusque… all these terms define the infamous vengeance driven creature of the night known as The Batman, and why wouldn’t they? I mean, he’s not exactly had a great time of it overall, let’s be honest. He lives in the cesspool of a city known as Gotham, watched his parents gunned down before his innocent eyes at the tender age of 12, and has spent the past eight decades abusing both his mind, spirit and body as he seeks redemption for his parents death by dressing as a giant bat and pulping bad guys to within an inch of their miserable lives… where’s his silver bat- lining, huh? Well, that’s embodied by an equally traumatised, but resolutely more positive minded costumed creation who goes by the name of Selina Kyle, better known as Catwoman.

The Bat and The Cat have been dancing around (probably to the Batusi!) each other emotionally since their first ever encounter in Batman #1 in March of 1940. That’s close to eighty exquisite years of puurfect passion procrastination, though the Dark Knight Detective has had other fleeting love interests over the decades (the most significant obviously being that of Talia Al Ghul, R’as Al Ghul’s daughter) none have had the emotive impact on his melancholic life more than one Selina Kyle.

Their lives have been irrevocably romantically intertwined since that first meeting in 1940 and their devotion has continued throughout their many dalliances to this very day, even culminating with a recent wedding proposal from The Bat himself, though in typical Batman fashion, it definitely did not go as planned as Batman’s notorious rogues gallery stepped in to ruin the one shining light that could of led Bruce into new and unfamiliar territory… happiness!

I love Batman and Catwoman, have done since I first discovered the characters from the tender age of six, and have always rooted for their eventual sanguine intimacy. But have always understood that any kind of inherent contentment would ultimately end the crime fighting career of Batman… it’s the pain and loss that life has served him that ultimately makes him the Batman, yet, even the sullen stern alter ego of the masked manhunter deserves some relief from his disconsolate existence and fortunately there is Selina Kyle. So, why not join us as we embark on a visual tour through their long and (mostly) loving courtship that has had Batfans the world over holding their Bat-breaths for almost eighty years. The Bat (most definitely) loves The Cat…

The Bat/Cat affection has stood the test of time for almost eight decades… is this the longest courtship in fictional history?

Batman: Hush was a compelling treatise of Bruce and Selina’s long and storied entangled relationship, and is a must read to all.

Michael Keaton’s Dark Knight got to grips with Michelle Pfeiffer’s puuurfect Selina Kyle in Tim Burton’s classic ‘Batman Returns’

As did Adam West with Julie Newmar in the sixties camp show and Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Rises.

Long Live The Bat And The Cat, And May They One Day Finally Find The Time To Truly Be Together… Forever.

 

Batman and Catwoman are copyright: DC Comics.

Comic Cover Of The Week: Batman Rebirth #35

This weeks captivating cover celebrates an astonishing 800 issues of Batman! For those not especially versed in comic-book lore, allow me to elucidate that even though this magnificent milestone in the Caped Crusader’s long and tumultuous history as Gotham’s very own grim guardian is a significant landmark, he has actually been the titular star of its sister comic “Detective” for an even more astounding 942 issues, since his first appearance in the May 1939 issue of Detective Comics #27!

Batman Rebirth #35 is the lucky recipient of the honour of the 800 issues award, and finds the two most significant women in the Dark Knight’s life duelling for his affections, as Selina Kyle, better known as Catwoman, and the daughter of the demon – Talia Al Ghul face off in a splendidly savage sword fight.

As a background for why these two classic characters would be crossing blades for the intimate endearment of the pointy eared vigilante, their actual romantic entanglement with Batman spans many, many decades in the comics.

Bruce Wayne and Talia (daughter of Batsy’s nemeses – R’as Al Ghul) produced a son together (Damian Wayne, the current holder of the title of The Boy Wonder – Robin) and have a long and convoluted fervid history. Though, even their lengthy and tumultuous relations is eclipsed by Bruce and Selina’s even more protractedly intimate involvement. As a testament to the Bat and the Cat’s everlasting dalliance, Bruce recently proposed to Selina, and the two costumed creations are now seemingly on a one way trip to marital bliss (and most probably, considering this is the world of The Baman – conflict and contention.)

“Part three of “Dream Of Me” finds the Dark Knight past the point of no return. It turns out he’s definitely going to need a little help from his friends, but this help comes with a significant downside: Batman’s true intentions will ultimately be exposed!”

Writer Tom King once again proves his worth as one of DC’s greatest current creators with yet another fantastic issue, he is a sensational scribe of almost unparalleled level, and I for one would be more than happy if he continued to write Batman’s ongoing quest for revenge and redemption forevermore! Interior art by Joelle Jones is also great, with the sword fight between Selina and Talia being a particular highlight, flowing beautifully with King’s concurrent dialogue.

Batman Rebirth #35 is available at your local comic-book emporium right now.

Who is your Favourite Catwoman?

Selina Kyle has been portrayed in film and television more often than any other female comic-book character in history, her first ever live action portrayal was by Lee Meriwether in the 1966 Batman movie. The second actress was Julie Newmar who played Catwoman in two seasons of the Batman tv show in 1966 through 1967. In the third season of Batman, Eartha Kitt was brought in to replace Miss Newmar, who was unable to reprise the role due to other acting commitments. With the second in the Tim Burton Batman films…Batman Returns, Selina was played fantastically by Michelle Pfeiffer.

Then in 2004 came the film that most Catwoman fans (including us!) are desperately trying to erase from memory…simply called Catwoman, Selina was played by Halle Berry, who is an amazing actress…unfortunately the film was rather awful and despite Halle’s character being called Selina Kyle/Catwoman it had very little to do with the actual character herself. 2012 brought a new Selina to the big screen…in the Nolan movie: The Dark Knight Rises, Selina was played by Anne Hathaway and is to date the closest any actress has got to the original comic character. So who is your favourite….cast your vote below for the greatest Selina Kyle.

Precinct1313’s all time favourite comic-book characters..daily countdown.

The top 3 are here, beginning with…

NUMBER 3 is: Catwoman.

Catwoman.. real name Selina Kyle was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, her first appearance was in Batman#1 in 1940. Selina is the epitome of the anti-hero type of character having been both a villain and hero in the seventy plus years since her insertion into Batman lore. There have been many revisions of her backstory over the decades but throughout all of them the core character has been left fundamentally unchanged, she is a cat burglar but with strict moral codes, she only ever stole from the wealthy (sometimes even distributing the wealth to those in need) and would also take time out to stop violent crime. Another constant in Selina’s changing origins is her love and respect for Batman, they have been in an on/off relationship since they were both introduced to each other over seven decades ago. Selina is a master of several fighting styles, possesses almost supernatural agility and is an expert at stealth and infiltration.

An interesting side note is that when Bob Kane invented Catwoman he was heavily influenced by the actress Jean Harlow, more recently she has been styled more like the actress Audrey Hepburn. Catwoman has been featured in more live action television and films than any other female comic-book character in history, and has been played by several different actresses including..Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt, Michelle Pfeiffer and more recently Anne Hathaway..here’s to another seventy years in the company of the lovely Selina Kyle.