Zoë Kravtiz's Catwoman is The Batman's biggest villain challenge, as she has the biggest shoes to fill. Matt Reeves' reboot of the Dark Knight includes pitting Robert Pattinson's Batman against various foes from his extensive comics canon. The Riddler (Paul Dano) is The Batman's main villain, as he uncovers a dark secret about Bruce Wayne's past. The movie also includes Penguin (Colin Farrell) as another antagonist, while Catwoman blurs the line between friend and foe. Each villain presents The Batman with different challenges, but Selina Kyle is the biggest one facing the anticipated DC movie.
Thanks to Batman's popularity and place in cinema history, audiences have seen him battle Riddler, Penguin, and Catwoman before. Adam West's Batman featured its own campy version of Riddler, and Jim Carrey put his comedic spin on the character in Batman Forever. Meanwhile, Danny Devito brought Penguin to life previously in Batman Returns. Catwoman has been a big part of Batman's movie history, though. Her appearances include Lee Meriweather in Batman: The Movie, Michelle Pfeiffer's iconic Catwoman in Batman Returns, Halle Berry in Catwoman, and Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises. Reeves has to reintroduce each of these characters now as part of his franchise.
By utilizing multiple villains audiences are previously familiar with, The Batman is inviting comparisons to what came before. This is nothing new, as viewers will immediately compare Pattinson's Dark Knight to prior iterations. Zoë Kravitz's Selina Kyle will be similarly compared to what came before, specifically Pfeiffer and Hathaway's portrayals, and that is a big challenge The Batman has to overcome. Unlike the other villains she'll be surrounded by in The Batman, there are other versions of Catwoman that viewers regard highly. Kravitz's interpretation of the character will have to live up to a high bar that has been set before, which isn't exactly what the movie's other criminals have to do.
For both Riddler and Penguin, they've long needed to be reinvented after divisive or completely disliked interpretations. The goofiness of Carrey's Riddler in Batman Forever has been completely stripped away with The Batman. Dano's take on the character is so different, in fact, that many might have a hard time believing that they are based on the same comic villain. Devito's Penguin in Batman Returns does have its fans, but he is still a far cry from the crime boss known to comic readers know. Instead of a very Tim Burton-ized version of the character, The Batman appears to have found a way to bring Penguin to life more faithfully. As a result of their past iterations, Penguin and Riddler should surpass what came before them in The Batman.
Whether or not The Batman's Catwoman can also outdo what came before her is the question and challenge facing the movie's villains. The marketing has depicted Kravitz's Selina Kyle as a skilled fighter, talented thief, and cunning femme fatale. These characteristics mixed with teases of a romance with Batman could help differentiate The Batman's Catwoman from past versions. All of this can help set Kravitz's Catwoman apart, even if she doesn't become the definitive version of Selina Kyle on the big screen.
