The more sites you go on the more common it gets. Criticism, whether fair or not, of the The Dark Knight Rises through a series of leaked photos and videos have become numerous of late and don't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Now I'm not one of those people that is saying that you shouldn't hate this movie, I haven't the right or place to tell you what you should or should not think. Think and say whatever you wish, free speech is a beautiful thing in my book. All this article is attempting to convey is that perhaps the suit Anne Hathaway dons in Christopher Nolan's last installment is a clever blend of many Catwoman looks over the characters 60+ year history.
The Casting: People started doubting Catwoman from the very moment Anne Hathaway was announced to play the feline themed rogue. Personally, I thought it was somewhat of a brilliant choice seeing as I thought of her to be pretty talented and an actress who isn't afraid to put herself out there. But, if you were like 80% of the population, and only saw her act in Princess Diaries, you most likely thought that she sucked and wasn't up for the role. I've seen her show some range in quite a few movies and I didn't panic at all. Plus, Mr. Nolan had allot of ladies audition for this role and Anne emerged on top, which has to say something to her doubters. She did beat out all the competition, and Nolan is known to do a good job casting roles in his movies. She must have impressed him and his cohorts/team with her screen test, but people seem to forget all about that. To each his or her own. Suffice to say, I didn't understand the reason behind the groan that echoed throughout the mighty interweb in response to her casting. I merely waited patiently to see what was in store.
The Costume: On August 5th, 2011 the first image of Anne Hathaway's Catwoman was revealed and it was met with anger, confusion, and skepticism by the online community. I myself was surprised to see that they went away from the current and well known cowl look of Catwoman in the current comics. To be more specific, the design Jim Lee drew from Hush storyline. Many people wanted the cowl. From my judging off the first official picture, I hated what I thought was a ponytail at the time and didn't understand why she was on the Batpod. It was just allot to take in at once. Then I saw these images....
Although I still was in the dark why she was mounting the Batpod, I saw that the pony tail was gone, and it seems they'll make use of Anne's flowing locks, a staple of Catwoman's look from her earlier days in the comics. Also if you look at the goggles closely you'll find that if she ever pulled the back onto her head they'd look like ears, in a more subtle way. Than I saw this leaked photograph of a stunt double holding a domino mask...
...And at that moment it finally hit me. They're combining older looks rather than going with the designs from the current comic and also completely avoiding the Halle Berry and Michelle Pfeiffer looks altogether. At that moment I was pretty impressed and relieved. Christopher Nolan and company were going with a more unconventional look inspired by the femme fatale's earlier appearances and sidestepping our expectations again, similar to the way they did with The Joker(and Two-face to a smaller degree); while also bringing their own spin to Catwoman. I think they've delivered, what I believe, to be a pretty well thought out and clever catsuit. It looks more practical rather than expensive and overly indulgent. This is a sort of makeshift suit that makes it plausible that someone of ordinary means developed this (sans the goggles), and I really like this suit because of that. That's of course if they choose to go with a Selina Kyle back story inspired from Frank Miller's Year One. Now if she does turn out to be a rich socialite my opinions will change. Checkout this image if you will.
Look at the thigh high boots and arm long sleeve. Now go back up and check out the stunt driver on the Batpod. They clearly lifted this from of Jim Balent's Catwoman. The domino mask is directly from Eartha Kitt and Julie Newmar outfit's from the 60s television show as well as some other early comics.
With the goggles and all black leather they still manage to put some modern Catwoman touches to round out their look of the character. Even though we haven't seen a clean shot of the suit, I really do approve of what I'm seeing. There are allot of influences in it that come directly from comic sources, and I wish the detractors could at least respect that even if they despise it. Nolan and his team aren't out there just coming up with random crap for the sake of realism, as far as Catwoman's concerned. They've been doing some digging and have formed a suit that definitely fits the character. He didn't go with what some expected and it seems people have a problem with it, and I can understand that to a degree, since we all had preconceived ideas of how we'd make the suit look in film. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever. He's done some of his tweaking with quite a few things in his series like with: the Batmobile, Batcycle, the Joker, Scarecrow, Harvey Dent's origin, Ra's(by giving him Henry Ducard's name as his alias and making him Bruce's mentor) and so far his tweaks have been embraced in the previous movies far more than have been hated. In my opinion, he isn't off base with his Catwoman suit either. In fact, it might be argued, even from the looks of these early images, that Nolan's Catwoman is far more inspired by comic book sources than any other live-action rendition of Selina Kyle. Which might not be saying much since his only competition is Tim Burton's version, whom we all know goes with his own style regardless of source material, and the abomination that Halle Berry painfully put us through. This aside, with this new Catwoman, I think we all just have to go back a little further in the comics to identify when and where certain the parts of the suit appeared.