When Selina Kyle got her first series…
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UPDATED 6/11/25: Time to dig deep into the cavernous 13th Dimension vaults! Every so often I like to reprint a story that was popular the first time around, just for the hell of it. This is one of those, from June 2021. Dig it! — Dan
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The other day I posted a piece about a cool ad in Batman #345 that showed off a slew of DC back-issue prices in late 1981. You can lose yourself in it, so click here to check it out if you want nifty insight into what was driving the market 40 years ago.
But in the same issue, I also came across a rad full-page ad for a Catwoman back-up series, featuring some now-classic stock art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez:
From Batman #345. Released December 1981. Pub date March 1982.
The layout isn’t the greatest, I admit, but it certainly caught me off guard when I came upon it as part of a lengthy re-read I’m doing. And the most interesting aspect is that it led right into the series’ first story, as opposed to hyping it for a couple of months. (Makes me think that perhaps it was a rush job.)
DC at the time was trying to figure out Catwoman’s direction. Writer Len Wein a few years before had brought back Selina Kyle as a woman trying to stay on the right side of the law and, naturally, she fell into a serious love affair with Bruce Wayne. This was the first time the two had an extended romance (not counting the alternate-reality Earth-Two versions).
The tension in the relationship wasn’t a Sam-and-Diane “Will they or won’t they?” It was “Will she or won’t she relapse to a life of crime?” Letter columns were filled with opinions and ultimately, DC kept her on the right side of the law, even as Selina’s relationship with Bruce hit the rocks.
But then the natural question was what to do with her next. And so DC took a flyer on a back-up series — her first — written by Bruce Jones with art by Trevor Von Eeden.
She’d had a back-up story before, but this was really her first test as a solo character — across a handful of issues, she was depicted more as a hard-edged hero than the antihero she would become in future interpretations. The stories are pretty solid but they’re most notable for Von Eeden’s evocative art and offbeat layouts.
All in all, it was an interesting experiment before Selina would be completely rewritten in Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One about five years later.
Either way, I really dig that house ad — though its promise that “YOU CAN DECIDE” makes me wonder whether a phone-in poll would have been more fitting here than when DC killed off Jason Todd years later.
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MORE
— DC Plans New CATWOMAN Retrospective Collection. Click here.
— SUCH A DEAL! Dig This Rad 1981 DC COMICS Back Issue Price List. Click here.
June 11, 2021
I absolutely hated Miller’s take on Catwoman. Jewel thief yes….. hooker never.
June 11, 2025
I thought, according to Batman#1 that she was a stewardess! That Miller! Make him stop saying these nasty things!
June 11, 2025
Between the Von Eeden back-up series and Miller’s “Year One,” Mike W. Barr and Alan Davis did a story in Detective Comics that promised the “re-villainization” of Catwoman. It was another sinister plot by the Joker—and I believe he succeeded in returning CW to her former criminal status for a while.
June 11, 2025
DC says the Barr/Davis run before “Year Two” is post-Crisis, but I tend to think of them as the last hurrah of the pre-Crisis Earth-1 Batman and Robin. Jason is too happy-go-lucky to be the post-Crisis version.
And then there’s Selina. If I were a betting man, the Catwoman story was supposed to be part of the abandoned Crisis on a Captive Earth/Crisis of the Soul, where Catwoman was supposed to have a major role. But Frank Miller came along, and the origins of Jason and Selina changed (for a while, in Selina’s case).
June 11, 2025
Thanks for your reply Kevin. DC is welcome to parse internal continuity however they like. But in terms of *publishing* chronology, the Barr/Davis Catwoman stories were definitely first, appearing in ‘Tec #569-570, cover dated Dec. ‘86 and Jan. ‘87.
Miller’s “Year One” came right on its heels, in Batman #404-407, with cover dates Feb.-May ‘87.
I think returning Catwoman to her classic (and classy) villain status was DC’s editorial intention at the time; but Miller’s novel take on the character derailed that intention, and (as you say) became the new “canon” going forward.
June 11, 2025
I think Gerry Conway made her a villain again some time around 1982, and it never felt right to me after the Bruce-Selina relationship. I agree with Buck. Catwoman always had an air of class about her even if she was a villain. Not that some women don’t gravitate into that occupation because of their circumstances. It just doesn’t seem like it would be in Selina’s nature.
June 11, 2025
Left field observation (and borderline non sequiter), but the Catwoman lost to history is Camren Bicondova, who portrayed Selina Kyle in the Fox series Gotham. Haven’t read enough latter day Batman -themed titles to know if she was a hybrid of subsequent Catwomen or a direction the TV show decided to take.
June 14, 2025
This version of Catwoman was a return to her golden age roots. Irv Novick rendered her in Batman#266 with the slit skirt and cowl mask of her earlier days, getting away from the body stocking look that had been her attire since Julie Newmar portrayed her.
June 14, 2025
It appeared earlier as had the pirate look. But, I do agree Irv was playing heavy off the classic look which to the eyes’ of an 8-yr old fan was more normal than not. If not the green dress of The Cat, this is my preferred version of her.