Catwoman Megapost Part 2 : Classic Costume

Ok continuing with the  Catwoman Tributes. It was a little difficult to figure out how to cover Catwoman's comic book incarnation since she appears in over 1000 issues. I wound up dividing the comic book images I collected into multiple sets. This one is dedicated to Selina's original purple costume and variations of it.

Catwoman's Classic purple costume would debut in 1947. The character herself actually appeared much earlier in Batman #1 but she didn't start wearing the costume until later. She actually looks really good in this outfit. I love that it shows off her legs. I'm well aware that it is probably impractical for a Cat burglar to wear a cape but it still looks pretty stylish.

Catwoman dons the Purple outfit again in a Birds of Prey one shot team up with Batgirl. 

I'm not sure why the wrinkles of Catwoman's soles are so easy to view under this footwear. Maybe she's just wearing nylon. Regardless...props to the artist for taking time to draw the details.

This costume would become used as the basis for her Brave and the Bold Costume Counterpart

In the series Catwoman was voiced by Nika Futterman, 

Brave and the Bold takes a much more lighthearted approach to Batman mythos. In this version Catwoman is definitely a villainess but she has a really playful flirtation with the Caped Crusader that is painfully apparent to anyone around them. :-) It's a lot of fun. 

I really have to reiterate how awesome it is that this costume shows off her legs. :-) As a sidenote...the above cap is from one of the series most surreal moments. A musical number she sings with Black Canary and Huntress

Catwoman would also wear her purple costume in one of her ongoing series. The artwork for the series was drawn by artist Jim Balent for most of the series run,

These are posted somewhat in order with the above image being from Issue 0.

3 images from Issue 1

He really did a really amazing job making Selina look as sexy as possible.

A towel and swimsuit set from Issue  3

A bathrobe series of images in Issue 8

A nightgown scene from issue 14 the Zero Hour issue.

Selina also kicks a lot in this series. :-D

Selina Kicks a lot. I did try to keep images depicting her doing that together so we could keep a good count going. 

I'll keep a Kick Count going. 

So far we are up to 7.

I'm hoping to do a special extra later showcasing Selina's ripped costumes. It happens quite a bit in the series.

Kick Count = 9.

The above 2 are from Issue 1

10

11

12

13

14

More from Issue 14

The Story Arc of Issues 15 to 18 was pretty fun one.

Selina was forced stealing for a secret government organization. She doesn't take to it very well.

More of a Trample than a Kick

Kick Count = 18

19

While we are on the subject of Selina kicking, Let's talk's talk a little bit about Selina's boots in this series a bit.

Selina's boots have retractable claws that allow her to climb better and give her a sharp advantage in a fight.

She activates them by tapping the heels of her boots. One of the questions asked in her comics letter column was (paraphasing) "where do her boot claws retract to?". According to the editor of her comic, her claws retract to the side of her leaving Selina's feet quite safe in them when her claws are not extended.

As you might imagine a kick delivered from her boots while her claws are out can be pretty brutal,

Ouch. ^_^; This brings the Kick Count so far to a whooping 20.  

The was a Bathtub Catfight during the climax of the arc in issue 18. Selina was barefoot the entire time.

Kick Count = 22.

She also winds up talking vacation in the arc too. ^_^

Kick Count = 25.

(These are from the comic one-shot Birds of Prey Batgirl Catwoman, Batman Issue #355 and Catwoman Volume 2 issues 0-20.)

While Catwoman primarily guest appears as a prominent villain and love interest for the Dark Knight in the Batman comics, Selina has also received top billing in a few series of her own. They are divided up into 4 volumes:

The first volume was a mini series released in 1989. It provided an Origin story for Selina based heavily on Frank Miller's Batman Year 1 comic book mini-series. It was 4 issues long. (More on this in a later tribute this week.)

The second volume (which the bulk of these images are from) was a  full length series released in 1994. It ran for 96 issues including and was written by multiple authors. For most of the series the primary artist was Jim Balent.

Vol 3 was another full length series with the character redesigned by Ed Brubaker and Artist Darwyn Cooke. Of the 4 Catwoman series, this is the one that I haven't read yet so I'm not going to be able to cover much of that series in this mega-post. Maybe in the future.

Vol 4 was an ongoing series released as part of the new 52. (There will be more about this one in my next post).

Ok let's get back to talking about Volume 2.  Of the 4 Catwoman series, this one was my favorite. I love Jim Balent's artwork and the storylines are a bit more lighthearted than a lot of Selina's other comic series (at least in the beginning). We get to see Selina participate in some cool heists and balance the fine line anti-hero line between being a villainess and heroine. The series was also written in the 90's a time period where making female comic characters look as sexy as possible was encouraged way more than it is today so we were able to get a lot of panels involving Catwoman that could raise the temperature of a room by several degrees. Rrowr!!

All right guys, that will do it for this set It's worth noting that I wasn't able to cover all 96 issues of volume 2 in this post so you'll still see more of this version of Catwoman in the future. Tomorrow though we'll be covering another incarnation of the character.

See you next time

-KSC