Batman Returns redefined what comic book movie villains should be

Catwoman

Eartha Kitt will forever be one of the best performers to portray Catwoman. She epitomized everything that makes the character was she is. She was powerful, clever, sexy and dangerous. She used Batman’s emotions against him and not even the World’s Greatest Detective was immune to her games. Decades later Michelle Pfeiffer added to this legacy with a dark twist.

Pfeiffer’s Catwoman was darker than Eartha Kitt, Julie Newmar and Lee Meriwether. Being thrown out of a window and left for dead will do that to you. This Catwoman showed audiences that women can be just as formidable and powerful as (if not more than) any male villain. We can go as far as to say she was the most terrifying character in this movie – and remember this is a movie with The Penguin in it (who certainly had his moments).

She was able to match Batman in the fight department, setting the stage for more female heroes and villains to shine in their own on-screen adventures. It’s a movement that is still growing to this day and hopefully we will see more complex characters like her in the near future.

Something else we’ve seen a lot of recently are the villains that aren’t quite evil. Batman Returns’ Catwoman was one of the first to do this. She did a lot of things that made her look bad (and she was) but there was compelling motivation behind her actions. She was out for revenge, broken and possibly a little bit unhinged because of what the twisted city (and, more specifically, her boss) had done to her. Again, you get thrown out of a window, die, be revived by cats and see how you feel.