Was Selina’s look relatively tame because DC was still going for a glamorous aesthetic for her rather than a sexy one? Could the heroines get away with being more daring in their wardrobe choices because they were still essentially “good,” while Selina’s villainous behavior combined with a little more gam would have been just too shocking? (Even Thorn was only the evil personality of the sweetly innocent Rose Canton.) Or were the Batman artists just too lazy or not pervy enough to innovate beyond “secondary colors, cat ears, let’s hit the links”?Įither way, Selina’s (sometimes) modestly covered knees didn’t save her from the Comics Code Authority. Look at some late ’40s Blue Beetle and Phantom Lady covers sometime.) DC wasn’t one of the leaders of this, uh, movement, but it’s still a little surprising to me that we didn’t get more covers with Catwoman’s cleavage spilling out while Batman handcuffed her or whatever. entered the post-war era, superhero comic sales started to flag, and a number of publishers started to put sexier art on the covers in order to entice readers back.
This latter was in part because as the U.S. There are very few Golden Age supervillains to compare her to, but certainly the Thorn (introduced in 1947) sported a much skimpier look, and even heroines like Wonder Woman were showing more skin, while over at Fox Comics, Phantom Lady was pushing the envelope in a way that’s startling even now. What I find most interesting about this look is that it’s remarkably sedate, especially considering the time. All those Party City Batgirl costumes with the little skirts trace their lineage to this! I guess.Įither way, the real Selina soon adopted a toned down version of this look that would become her first truly consistent costume: Meow! Check out that bare midriff! In 1946! Potentially more scandalously, those extremely high thigh slits, which mark the first time Catwoman’s wardrobe crosses over from “glam” to “aggressively sexy.” Technically, this isn’t Selina but a random seamstress in a costume contest, which means this might be the earliest example of someone wearing a sexy non-canonical version of a superhero costume to a party. I do love that you can see her overall silhouette changing here from the narrow shoulders of the late ’30s to the boxier ones of the mid-’40s. This Peter Pan collar is extremely charming but conveys more of a “good girl” vibe to my modern eyes than I typically associate with Catwoman.
This look had a few color variants, which I’m mostly chalking up to the slapdash coloring of Golden Age comics. Although this is the first time we see Selina in her distinctive purple. It sees into my soul and I don’t like it.ĮXTREMELY NO THANK YOU. You know, I said I wanted to make fun of it, but now that I’m looking at it it’s making me very upset. But a timelessly stylish dress isn’t enough in the fast-paced world of themed bank robberies, and for her third appearance, Selina stepped it up with…this…