Reactions to the announcement of Selina Kyle as one of the principal characters in what has to be one of the most anticipated CBMs to date, have been mixed. Many were ecstatic that one of the most iconic figures of the Batman mythos was being inducted into Nolan’s trilogy, others adopted a ‘We’ll see’ attitude, and there were those who were quite displeased.
The reasons for this displeasure vary, but the most reasons is that she is perceived as an anti-hero rather than a villain, incapable of posing a significant threat, offering nothing but titillation. They say she’s unworkable, unsuitable for Nolan’s take on the Batman mythos, and unrealistic; ‘How do you rationalize a woman dressed in tight leather and a cat-mask running around the city performing Cat-related crime?’ They’d say. And I say ‘Not so’.
Before justifying the ‘Not so’, I’d like to address a surprisingly common fan theory regarding the Cat-woman’s involvement in Rises. Due to WB announcing Anne Hathaway as having been cast in the role of ‘Selina Kyle’, rather than ‘Selina Kyle a.k.a. Catwoman’, many have taken this to mean she’s playing plain old Selina Kyle, socialite, streetwalker, stewardess or what have you, and that her role will be that of Bruce’s new love interest.
While the inclusion of a new love interest is quite understandable, I have a hard time believing Nolan would use Selina Kyle solely for that purpose. Strip away Catwoman, with all that entails of emotional baggage and character traits and you’re left with a character that is sufficiently different than Selina Kyle that she might as well be another Rachel Dawes. Have her retain all her characteristics but don’t go all the way and you’re left with a potentially overbearing, unlikeable character. I mean if you’re going to be a tease, you have to have a good reason for it.
Julie Madison, Silver St. Cloud, Vicki Vale, Rachel Caspian… Batman has quite a lineup of love interests, and Nolan doesn’t need to completely derail one of the most interesting ones when he could use another. Or hell, make up his own. It isn’t catering to the pandering to the fans either, filmmakers only pander when they’re not confident in their project’s merits, and that doesn’t sound like Nolan.
Back to the ‘Not so’. It’s true that Catwoman is definitely an anti-hero that hasn’t been portrayed as being villainous is a significant way in a long time, or ever. She steals from those who can live with loosing with what’s been taken from them and is partially in it for the kicks. The thing is the same skill set she utilizes to steal can also be used for much more nefarious reasons. There’s nothing stopping from retooling characters while retaining what keeps them unique; for instance, Ra’s al Ghul wasn’t an eco-terrorist but an extremist vigilante, but he was still militant in the pursuit of his goal. Imagine if you will a Catwoman who would steal not for the money or even the thrill, but to further some sort of agenda. A bit more on that later.
Ultimately Catwoman isn’t the type to burn Gotham to the ground by any stretch of the imagination, but she wouldn’t have to be. Between Bane and the entire city out to get him, Batman will have his hands full. The threat Catwoman could pose is an emotional and existential one. He identifies with her, both of them having an upbringing marked by parental absence as a result of rampant crime, but their circumstances were different, so while one went on to challenge the wretched nature of the system, the other adapted to it. She might not divulge her past when they meet, but he’d still sense she was a kindred spirit, however warped her moral fiber is. Cut from the same cloth as he, he becomes smitten with her, thus her shades of gray begin to sully his black and whites, and unhinges him inwardly, knocking him for a loop.
Furthermore, while an anti-hero she is, such a character archetype is readily susceptible to being changed into an anti-villain. She usually commits morally unsound acts but without malicious intent, sometimes even with good intent, but it doesn’t take much to edge that into committing morally unsound acts to achieve evil ends that have a good outcome. Again, more on that later.
So hopefully that takes care of why her presence could work well. How Catwoman as an entity should be portrayed is another matter. Why would a woman dress in fetishistic cat gear and commit crime? How can the Catwoman persona come to be?
Very easily really, and possibly through no intention from Selina Kyle herself. She uses certain equipment that possesses a coincidental cat motif to them while on the job, such as her infra-red goggles that vaguely resemble cat eyes.
She wouldn’t even need that. In a town where nutjobs in burlap masks and clown makeup spread chaos until a man dressed like a bat stops them, they’d be dolling out sobriquets like they were going out of style. All she’d have to do is be seen in her cat burglar gear, fleeing a crime scene by free running (I think parkour would suit the character well), the media would take care of the rest.
Her reaction to the bestowed moniker could be annoyance, in which case it’d be just a continuity nod and she would continue to operate as usual, or else she could be amused and run with it, fully embracing the cat-motif, adding little ears to her cowl and so on.
The suit I see them using is the Darwyn Cooke design seen above, introduced for Ed Brubaker’s excellent run on her series. At once visually stunning, practical and suitable for the Nolan verse. It dispenses with the purple spandex and tight black leather in favor of a dark gray, form-fitting thought not skin-tight jump suit, a stylized cowl and infra-red goggles.
Dark Victory is the sequel to The Long Halloween from the same team. While it is quite well written and beautifully drawn, it didn’t feel nearly as essential as its predecessor. However, one plot line that piqued my interest pertained to Selina Kyle. In it, and in the parallel mini-series ‘Catwoman: When in Rome’, Selina believes she is the daughter of Carmine Falcone, abandoned soon after birth for her gender.
The following is a sample of how I think Catwoman could be handled based upon the above storyline as well as various others. Some aspects of it may contradict certain ideas posited above, and indeed itself, but it’s just a scenario I though of as a sample of the direction I imagine working well.
Selina Kyle is the illegitimate daughter of Carmine Falcone, born out of wedlock, and thus ostracized from the family all her life. As a result she had to develop a hardened personality to survive on the unforgiving streets of Gotham, she started out as a petty thief and from there went on to expand her horizons, traveling the world and learning the criminal arts.
At the time of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, she’d been recently in Europe, robbing and conning idle aristocrats. Learning of the happening in her old hometown, she makes a return, confronting the dwindling remnants of her rejecting family. She knows they’re being picked apart by both the cops and the newly emerging breed of criminal exemplified in the Joker, so she offers them a deal. She would use her formidable experience and skill to stop the tide tearing into them, perhaps even help them reclaim the station they once held. In return, she wants to be acknowledged as a member of the Falcone family and all else that entails.
Thus she steals and plants evidence, intercepts drug shipments, entraps police officers all in the name of benefiting the mob, becoming the Falcone family’s very own Batman.
Her motivation would be to reclaim an identity, which runs counter to Bruce’s adoption of a new one. Another motivation would be trying to restore the old mafia which she views as a lesser evil preferable to the unpredictability of the new breed of criminals. Alternatively, she sould don the Catwoman identity to keep the 'Falcones' relevant, for lack of a better term.
And that’s what I think and hope for regarding Selina Kyle in
The Dark Knight Rises.