49 Fun Facts About Catwoman

What kind of criminal was Catwoman when she first appeared in a 1940 Batman comic?

A jewel thief known only as 'the Cat', she had no cat costume yet: she spent the story disguised as an old woman to steal a necklace aboard a yacht.

Catwoman debuted as 'the Cat' in 1940's Batman #1, the same issue that introduced which villain?

The Joker shared her debut issue and seemed to die in it, stabbed in the chest, before a final panel revealed that he was still alive.

Who created Catwoman?

Bill Finger and Bob Kane wrote her as a temptation as much as a foe: at the end of her first story Batman appears to let her escape, getting in Robin's way as she jumps overboard.

What is Catwoman's signature weapon in the modern comics?

A bullwhip is her trademark, and in her modern origin she learns to fight from Ted Grant, the heavyweight boxing champion who is also the hero Wildcat.

What is usually blamed for Catwoman vanishing from print between 1954 and 1966?

The Comics Code Authority began policing comics in 1954, just after psychiatrist Fredric Wertham's attack on the medium had singled her out as 'vicious', and she sat out the next twelve years.

After twelve years away, Catwoman returned to comics in 1966 in a title starring which Superman character?

Lois Lane's own comic hosted the comeback: Catwoman hypnotises the reporter into becoming her costumed ally, then uses a magic wand to turn Superman into a cat.

Which 1987 story by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli rewrote Catwoman's origin?

Batman: Year One recast Selina as a woman scraping by in Gotham's red-light district, who takes in a young runaway and then quits to rob the city's rich and powerful in a cat costume.

Which mob boss does Selina suspect may be her father in Batman: Dark Victory?

Carmine Falcone is never proved to be her father in the comics, which leave it at circumstantial evidence, but the 2022 film The Batman settled it: there Selina is his daughter.

Which writer and artist relaunched Catwoman in 2001 with 'Trail of the Catwoman'?

Ed Brubaker and Darwyn Cooke began with Selina believed dead: their back-up strip follows private eye Slam Bradley, hired by Gotham's mayor to find out what became of her.

Which TV heroine's leather catsuit inspired Selina's 2001 costume, according to the comic's writer?

Emma Peel's catsuit from The Avengers was his wife's suggestion, the writer said, while the new flying helmet and goggles were borrowed from Snoopy's dogfighting gear.

What colour was Catwoman's catsuit in the 1960s comics?

Green was her colour on the page in those years, even though the hit TV series that had just made her famous again dressed its Catwoman in black.

Which magician did Catwoman push out of a window after learning she had mindwiped her into reforming?

Zatanna works her magic by speaking spells backwards, so Selina first gagged her with duct tape to stop her saying a word.

Which villain does Selina shoot in the head in a 2006 issue of Catwoman?

Black Mask had tortured her sister Maggie and promised to kill her friends one by one, certain that she would never break her rule against killing.

What is the name of the daughter Selina gives birth to after Infinite Crisis?

Helena did not stay long: deciding that life as Catwoman was too dangerous for a child, Selina had Batman help fake both their deaths and gave her up for adoption.

What does the villain Hush surgically remove from Selina in a 2008 Batman storyline?

Her heart is cut out by Hush, a surgeon, as a way to hurt Batman; Doctor Mid-Nite keeps her alive until Batman wins it back and it can be returned to her body.

With which two villains does Catwoman team up in Gotham City Sirens?

Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn move in with her at an abandoned animal shelter, after a weakened Selina suggests the three work together in a Gotham without Batman.

What is the vocation of Maggie, the sister Selina fights to protect in the 1989 series Catwoman: Her Sister's Keeper?

A nun at a Gotham mission, Maggie is abducted by the pimp Selina once worked for, and the story ends with Selina killing him to save her.

In the first episode of the TV series Gotham, what does the young Selina Kyle witness from a fire escape?

The Waynes' murder happens in the alley below her hiding place, and what she saw becomes her bargaining chip with Detective Gordon, who is hunting the killer.

Which writer had Batman propose to Catwoman in a 2017 comic?

Tom King had Bruce kneel with a ring in Batman #24 and Selina say yes eight issues later, then built towards a wedding that she walks away from at the last minute.

Why does Selina call off her wedding to Bruce Wayne on the day itself, in a 2018 comic?

Marrying would unmake Batman, she decides: a contented Bruce could no longer be Gotham's hero. Readers then learn that the doubt had been planted as part of a scheme by Bane.

In the 1966 Batman film, Catwoman woos Bruce Wayne while posing as a journalist from which country?

The Soviet Union's 'Miss Kitka' charms Bruce Wayne so thoroughly that Batman is heartbroken when her mask slips off at the end and his new love turns out to be Catwoman.

In the 1970s Earth-Two stories, the daughter of a married Bruce Wayne and Selina becomes which hero?

Huntress is born from her mother's death: Selina is blackmailed into one last job as Catwoman and killed, and her daughter puts on a costume to bring the blackmailer to justice.

Who designed Catwoman's revamped 2018 costume, trading goggles for a cowl?

Joëlle Jones drew the new look for a solo series she went on to write and draw herself; it launched the same day as the wedding issue and follows Selina out of Gotham.

Who first played Catwoman in the 1966 Batman TV series?

Julie Newmar reworked the costume herself, dropping its gold belt from her waist to her hips to show off her figure.

Who played Catwoman in the third season of the 1960s Batman series?

Eartha Kitt took over the part in 1967; the next year her blunt criticism of the Vietnam War at a White House lunch sent her American career into a long decline.

Which former Miss America played Catwoman in the 1966 Batman film?

Lee Meriwether was Catwoman on the big screen only: when she joined the TV series a year later it was as someone else, Lisa Carson, the woman King Tut kidnaps to be his bride.

Which shimmering fabric was the catsuit of the 1960s TV Catwoman made from?

Black Lurex, a fabric woven with metallic yarn, is what made the suit shimmer on screen; one of the costumes is now in the Smithsonian.

Who played Selina Kyle in Batman Returns (1992)?

Michelle Pfeiffer did the film's strangest stunt for real: offered fake birds for the scene where Catwoman pops one into her mouth, she chose the live one.

In Batman Returns, Selina Kyle is the secretary of which corrupt tycoon?

Max Shreck shoves her through a high window after she discovers that his proposed power plant is a sham, built to drain and hoard Gotham's electricity.

Which actress was first cast as Catwoman in Batman Returns but had to withdraw when she became pregnant?

Annette Bening bowed out just before shooting began, setting off a scramble for the part in which Sean Young reportedly turned up at the studio in a home-made Catwoman costume.

Who directed the 2004 film Catwoman?

Pitof, a French visual-effects specialist born Jean-Christophe Comar, was making his first film in English, and it won him that year's Razzie for Worst Director.

Halle Berry's Catwoman in the 2004 film is not Selina Kyle but which other woman?

Patience Phillips, a shy graphic designer, took the role because the heroine 'couldn't be Selina Kyle because of an insane rights issue', said one of the film's writers, who was fired from the project.

What breed of cat revives the heroine in the 2004 film Catwoman?

An Egyptian Mau called Midnight does it, as a messenger of the goddess Bast; less mystically, most of the cats on screen were recruited from California animal shelters.

Which actress plays the villain Laurel Hedare in Catwoman (2004)?

Sharon Stone's cosmetics queen has used the company's toxic face cream for so long that her skin is as hard as marble, which is why Catwoman's blows barely hurt her.

Accepting her Catwoman Razzie, Halle Berry sarcastically thanked which studio?

Warner Bros. got her mock thanks for casting her in what she called a god-awful movie; the film took four Razzies that night, Worst Picture among them.

What did Halle Berry famously hold while accepting her Razzie for Catwoman in person?

Her Oscar came on stage in one hand with the Razzie in the other, and she faked a full minute of sobs to send up her own tearful Academy Awards speech of three years before.

Which Bond spin-off's cancellation led Halle Berry to take Catwoman?

Jinx, her agent from Die Another Day, was meant to get a film of her own; Berry later said nobody was ready to put that kind of money behind a Black female action star, so she tried a superhero instead.

Which actress was attached to lead the Catwoman spin-off in 2001 before dropping out?

Ashley Judd left after two years of slow development; the studio then rushed the film out with a new star to fill the summer slot left empty by a shelved Batman-versus-Superman film.

Who played Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises (2012)?

Anne Hathaway prepared by studying the films of Hedy Lamarr, the 1940s screen star who had been one of the models for the comic-book original.

The Dark Knight Rises' Catwoman actress went into her audition believing she was up for which other character?

Harley Quinn was her guess because the auditions were run in such secrecy that the actors were not told which role they were reading for.

Who played Selina Kyle in The Batman (2022)?

Zoë Kravitz had been turned away from auditioning for The Dark Knight Rises a decade earlier, told she was too 'urban'; by 2022 she had already voiced Catwoman in The Lego Batman Movie.

In The Batman (2022), Selina works at which nightclub?

The Iceberg Lounge is the Penguin's club: Selina waits tables there, and it is where Batman first notices her while he follows a clue from the mayor's murder.

Who played young Selina Kyle in the TV series Gotham?

Camren Bicondova played her for five seasons, then asked that an older actress take over for the finale, which jumps ten years ahead to a grown-up Selina.

Who voiced Catwoman in Batman: The Animated Series?

Adrienne Barbeau's Selina was drawn blonde at the studio's request, to match that year's film Batman Returns, and written as an animal-rights activist as well as a thief.

Who voices Catwoman in the games Batman: Arkham City and Batman: Arkham Knight?

Grey DeLisle's Catwoman opens Arkham City as a prisoner of Two-Face, about to be executed until Batman steps in; later the player takes control of her for a heist story of her own.

Which villain took Catwoman's planned seat in the Legion of Doom on Super Friends after a rival studio claimed her?

Cheetah was the stand-in: a rival studio held the animation rights to Batman's best-known foes, so one big cat replaced another and Captain Cold likewise filled in for Mr. Freeze.

Which hero first captures Selina and then fights beside her in the 2022 animated film Catwoman: Hunted?

Batwoman knocks her out in the middle of a jewel heist, then offers a deal on behalf of Interpol: help trap the crime ring she robbed and her record is wiped clean.

Which actress from his earlier films did director Zack Snyder name in 2020 as his choice to play Catwoman?

Carla Gugino, of his Watchmen and Sucker Punch, never got the part, but she is in his DC films all the same: she voices a Kryptonian computer in both Man of Steel and Batman v Superman.

In The Dark Knight Rises, Selina Kyle takes pearls from Bruce Wayne's safe, but what is she really there to steal?

His fingerprints were the real prize: her buyers used them to push through fake stock trades that bankrupted him, and her promised payment was a program to wipe her criminal record.