Bat-Vember #20: The Bad and the Beautiful

Getting into the final leg of this. By this point I'd expected to stumble, miss days, and just plain get bored and give up but clearly I either have the passion to see this through or the good ideas keep on rolling through me.

BATMAN RETURNS has the reputation of being so-so when compared to the game-changer of 1989's BATMAN, but only due to the fact that this time Tim Burton put more of a passionate interest on the freaks (i.e., Penguin and Catwoman) than he did on Keaton's Batman, a motif that depends on your vested interest in the story (loosely based by the way on a pair of episodes from the Batman TV series that showcased the Penguin running for Mayor of Gotham). But the biggest criticism on BATMAN RETURNS may very well be the not very family friendly atmosphere that Burton cultivated, with the most grotesque version of the Penguin ever seen to Michelle Pfeiffer's gothic inspired Catwoman. Her portrayal is very similar to that of Clark Ketn's disguise as Superman, in that he has to be mousy and incompetent in order to hide how powerful he really is. Selina Kyle in this incarnation, only realizes her inner strength after being resurrected from a near death experience, and transformed from a mousy and nerdy secretary to tertiary villain Max Schreck into an anti-hero, like Jane Fonda turned up, not to 11, but more like 21 in taking back her life and discovering her own identity through chopped up leather and a feline predilection. Its quite debatable if she was even a villain in the film, as she was primarily devoted to getting vengeance on her former boss and showcasing her strength as a woman than trying to steal jewels and cultivate a posh lifestyle. Its very likely Burton borrowed some elements from Frank Miller's "Year One" by taking the cat burglar aspect out of her origin and replacing it with a streetwise tough for a more rounded personality that viewers could sink their teeth into (an idea that worked, especially the following year when Selina made her debut on Batman: The Animated Series and the cat burglar and the strong independent woman were merged as one coherent character to match wits with Batman).

Funny that with this piece I've done all three iconic live action portrayals of Catwoman with Julie Newmar, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Anne Hathaway.