The Dark Knight Rises – A Brief History of Selina Kyle

It’s entirely possible that they have a completely new take on the character, but to this point, the villains used have been remarkably consistent with their comic versions.  Yes, the Jonathan Crane of Batman Begins is a practicing psychiatrist who doesn’t wear a costume stuffed with straw, but movie Scarecrow and comic Scarecrow are recognizably the same basic guy.  It’s pretty hard to recontextualize Catwoman as anything other than a thief.  And there’s nothing wrong with that, but it doesn’t really fit with the stories that the movies are telling.

To my mind, using Selina Kyle as the female lead is a way to build mainstream anticipation.  Already, people assume that Anne Hathaway is playing Catwoman.  And after the Joker, she’s probably the most popular Batman villain.  The Dark Knight set the bar high, both in terms of quality and box office performance, and I can see why they’d want to start priming the pump now.  Your average moviegoer probably doesn’t know Bane and definitely doesn’t know Hugo Strange – Selina Kyle is a familiar name.  It’s certainly not going to hurt if people think Catwoman’s the villain in the movie, whether or not that’s actually the case.