The character was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, partially inspired by Kane’s cousin, Ruth Steel,as well as actress Jean Harlow. The original and most widely known Catwoman, Selina Kyle, first appears in Batman #1 (Spring 1940) in which she is known as The Cat. She is usually depicted as an adversary of Batman, known for having a complex love-hate relationship with him. In her first appearance, she was a whip-carrying burglar with a taste for high-stake thefts. For many years Catwoman thrived, but from September 1954 to November 1966 she took an extended hiatus due to the newly developing Comics Code Authority in 1954. These issues involved the rules regarding the development and portrayal of female characters that were in violation of the Comics Code. Since the 1990s, Catwoman has been featured in an eponymous series that cast her as an antiheroineclassy cat burglar rather than a traditional villain. The character has been one of Batman’s most enduring love interests.
