Strong Women In Comics - Catwoman

Secrets revealed!

Selina Kyle has been a major character in the Batman universe since her first appearance in Batman #1. A fiercely independent woman, she’s always been displayed not as a psychotic, evil villain like most of the other Batman rogues, but a thrill-seeker, selfishly out for the fun and her own gain. She’s lithely danced back and forth across the line between hero and villain as the situation requires, depending on what would benefit her the most according to her own moral rubric.

In modern day continuity, Selina was introduced in Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One
as a prostitute and dominatrix who used her tools of the trade - her leather suit and whip - for her financial advantage. While this fits into Miller’s rather disdainful view of women that the only way they can be powerful is through their sexual freedom, it definitely caused a problem for later writers who weren’t sure they wanted to portray the character with that light. Some writers ignored it completely while others tended to downplay it. There’s one story arc that justifies her portrayal in Year One as Selina’s work under cover casing a particularly detailed heist. Most tend to have settled on the approach taken in the third (modern day) volume of Catwoman - that Selina grew up “on the streets” with all that would entail, but it’s in the past an not something that we dwell on. It’s even been used as the basis of most of the Catwoman book, as she returns to the East End of Gotham in an attempt to clean up her old haunts.

While sexuality and sensuousness have always been part of what makes Selina Kyle Catwoman, one of my favorite arcs staring the femme fatale takes her in a completely different direction. We’ve talked in the past about DC’s One Year Later event, where after Infinite Crisis every DC book jumped ahead one year, and then the events of the missing year were filled in during the weekly book 52. What’s the most dramatic and significant change that a woman can go through in one year? What’s the most radical departure they could make for a character defined by her sexiness? That’s right, Catwoman #53, One Year Later, opens with Selina Kyle in the maternity ward of Gotham General giving birth to her baby daughter Helena[^1]. Obviously, this dramatically changes the book as Selina retires from the Catwoman mantle to focus on a quiet life with her new daughter. Unfortunately, Selina’s former life comes back to haunt her as various enemies figure out her new secret identity and try to take advantage of her newest “weakness.” Its an extremely well written story as Selina struggles to protect he new daughternand ask herself what she wants for the rest of her life.

[^1]: this is a nice nod to the alternative Earth-2 (and Birds of Prey TV series) where Helena Wayne, Huntress, was the daughter of Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne.

Comics You Should Read!

There are so many great Catwoman story arches that it was really hard to find something to recommend that you should read. I finally decided to settle on the early days of Selina’s tenure as Catwoman with Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s Batman: The Long Halloween
and Catwoman: When in Rome. These stories take place early in Batman’s career, when the mobs still ruled Gotham City and the super villains were only beginning to appear. At this point, Selina has obtained enough stolen wealth to create for herself a life of leisure within Gotham’s privileged elite, where she meets the dashing millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne for the first time. Why her sudden interest in the Helping Batman against the Maroni family? What’s her secret agenda? Find out in these gorgeously drawn and well written stories.