Catwoman is one of the most fascinating, controversial and mysterious comic book characters ever. Heroine and anti-hero at the same time, she has the privilege of being placed 11th in the ranking of the 100 most evil comic characters by IGN, but at the same time, also appearing in position 20 in the ranking of the most important comic book heroes , from the same San Francisco company. The origin of this figure, so present in mass culture since the first appearance in 1940, is even to be found in ancient Egypt where the link woman / cat it becomes “viral” to this day.
The goddess Bastet: woman with a cat’s face
The character of Catwoman was born from the creativity of Bob Kane and Bill Finger in 1940 under the supervision of the parent company DC Comics. Not everyone knows, however, that Selina Kyle, real name of Catwoman, in her first official appearance did not show any reference to the cat in her clothing: the idea, in fact, was only implemented from the second appearance onwards, creating the icon that we all know.
But let’s take a slight step back and let’s discover the origins of the transformation in this character’s look. The inspiration for the completion of the character comes from the Egyptian goddess Bastet, who was depicted as a woman with a cat’s face. And the association is not trivial: the role of the goddess, according to the beliefs in ancient Egypt, was in fact to protect women, and here is the similarity with Catwoman, Batman’s enemy who instead represents the male universe. Bastet’s mythology is truly vast, with a divine charm of the character that has not waned at all. We recognize its appearance even in a virtual slot machine on a online casino: the game that features over 40 reels and whose name is Cat Queen, from the English “cat queen”, between pharaohs and pyramids, shows the most coveted winning symbol in the cat face of the goddess.
Catwoman in her famous story has not only changed “role”, passing from thefts to works of solidarity and then finally returning to being a thief, she has also gone through the transition from analog to digital, from comics to films, to TV series, but also video games , Facebook memes, GIFs, and more.
In addition, she has experienced changes in her clothing like perhaps few other icons born with comics, while in the cinema her character has been interpreted by many actresses as famous and fascinating as completely different from each other, among which we mention Michelle Pfeiffer, Halle Berry, and Camren Renee Bicondova, protagonist in the Gotham series aired on Fox from 2014 to 2019. There is a lot of anticipation to see the “new” Catwoman in the film instead The Batman to be released in Italy in March next year and which will be played by Zoe Kravitz, daughter of the well-known rock star and already protagonist of the dubbing in the 2017 animated film, LEGO Batman.
The cat, in mass culture, is associated with the female figure perhaps more than any other animal. To confirm this hypothesis, in addition to the aforementioned Catwoman, there are other references in cinematography such as the famous red cat by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, or the witch’s Siamese cat Kim Novak, then a character also in the saga of Dylan Dog, and to conclude we mention the iconic Salem, the talking cat who dispenses advice and even some tricks in the series Sabrina the Witch’s Life. Undoubtedly this strong bond used and emphasized on several occasions by cinematography, comics and games is largely attributable to the influence that the goddess Bastet, protector of women, has had over the centuries.
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