As I did with "The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told" discussion, I borrowed the title from a tpb collection but I plan to go beyond the actual contents of the collection itself. Catwoman has the unique distinction of appearing in the first three consecutive issues of Batman.
BATMAN #1 - "The Cat" - Kids who bought Batman #1 certainly got their money's worth, and you can take it from me because I was one (if you count the Famous 1st Edition TE, which I do). Not only did it contain the first appearance of Hugo Strange and the first two appearances of the Joker, but it also had the first appearance of the Catwoman, known then as simply "The Cat." Mrs. Martha Travers is hosting a high society get-together on her yacht, the Dolphin, and she will be wearing her emerald necklace worth a half million dollars. Batman is busy on another case, but he uses his contacts as Bruce Wayne to get Dick Grayson a job as steward. Sure enough, the necklcae is stolen almost immediately. The suspects are...
- Denny - Mrs. Travers' nephew
- Miss Pegg - Denny's elderly guest who has a sprained ankle
- Roger - Mrs. Travers' brother
- Dr. Wallace - Mrs. Travers' doctor
All of these people (except Miss Pegg) have motive. Just prior to the theft being discovered, Dick recovers a note from "The Cat" implicating Denny. Just after the theft, the "Coast Guard" arrives, but it is really just another gang of thieves after the necklace. They are disappointed to learn the emerald necklace has already been stolen, but content themselves with robbing the rest of the guests and speeding away in their launch. But Dick had changed to Robin and sneaked aboard beforehand. By this time, the trail had gone cold an Batman's other case and he catches up with the criminals. He and Robin subdue them, and return to the Dolphin with the stolen loot.
They arrive in the midst of a costume party, and Batman wins the prize trophy cup. He dumps the recovered jewelry into it and reveals that he is the real Batman. then Robin sets off the ship's fire alarm, and Batman observes that "Miss Pegg" is running pretty fast for an elderly woman with a sprained ankle. He also notices her shapely legs. After he and Robin catch her, Batman removes her wig and make-up revealing a beautiful young woman: The Cat! She is wearing the emerald necklace beneath the badage wrapping her supposedly "sprained" ankle. then Denny arrives, pulls a gun on Batman, and is quickly knocked unconscious by a left uppercut. Batman and Robin personally take the Cat into custody, but Batman allows her to escape from the boat on their way back to the harbor.
"Lovely girl!" he muses. "What eyes! Say... mustn't forget I've got a girl named Julie. Oh, well... she still had lovely eyes! Maybe I'll bump into her again sometime..."
"Hmmm..." observes Robin.
BATMAN #2 - "Joker Meets Cat-Woman" - An item in the Gotham Herald reveals: "E.S. Arthur to Ship Priceless Pharaoh Gems to British Museum - Collection Valued at $10.000.00." Knowing that the Joker will be her primary competitor, the Cat, disguised as an old woman pedling gum, stakes out the hospital in which the he is recovering after accidentally stabbing himself in issue #1. Crime Syndicate, Inc. breaks the Joker out of the hospital and, as the Cat doffs her disguise, Batman scoops her up in his arms and whisks her into the Batmobile. Fearing that Batman will turn her in to the police, she offers to reveal all she knows about the Joker in return for her freedom. Batman agrees, and she tells him that the Crime Syndicate has taken Joker to Weasel's hunting lodge. Batman lets her go, but sends Robin to track the "radioactive substance" her shows picked up from the floor of the car.
Batman get to Weasel's hunting lodge just in time to witness the Joker betraying his men. Batman captures the other criminals, bit the Joker gets away. Meanwhile, Robin has followed the Cat to E.S. Arthur's castle. she had previously "won his affections," but she arrives to find him already dead, poisoned earlier by the Joker. As she is stealing the jewels, the Joker arrives. As he holds her at gunpoint, Robin swings through the window and disarms him. after a brief fight, the Joker knocks Robin unconscious. As the Joker is about to inject him with lethal Joker venom, the Cat offers him the jewels in exchange for the boy's life. Suddenly, Batman arrives, swinging an a chandelier. He and the Joker start to dual with two swords hanging on disply above the fireplace.
The Joker drives the him off the balcony, but Batman manages to save himself. By the time he climbs back to the balustrade, the Cat and the wounded Robin have barricaded themselves in the library, and the Joker has set it afire with burning arrows fired from a crossbow. The Batman knocks the Joker out and leaves him behind as he rescues the Cat and Robin using a rope ladder from the Batplane. As soon as they are clear of the fire, however, the Cat leaps into the water below with the jewel cask, but the Batman managed to slip the jewels out while they were still climbing the ladder. Is this "The end of the Cat-Woman?" Bill finger wants to know. Apparently not, because she's back again in...
BATMAN #3 - "The Batman vs. the Cat-Woman!" - In the story, the Cat (also referred to as the "Cat-Woman") wears an orage dress, red cape, and life-like cat-head mask. As the story opens, she is looting a penthouse. The public is up in arms, and Police Commissioner Gordon appoints McGonigle of the plainclothes squad to bring her in. When Bruce Wayne gest word of the manhunt, he too sets out after her, but pointedly leaves Robin behind. He soon comes upon three men attacking another in an alleyway. Two of the men flee, but he brings down the third. The victim is D. Calvert, secretary of the Diamond Syndicate. He is mortally wounded, but manages to relay a cryptic warning about an upcoming diamond shipment before he expires. He doesn't have any diamonds on him, so robbery wasn't the motive. While Batman is seeing to the dying man, his attacker recovers, knocks Batman out from behind, and is picked up by his tweo confederates.
When Batman awakens, he is wearing handcuffs, placed there by McGonigle. Batman knocks the detective unconscious, then frees himself. when McGonigle awakens, he decides not to mention anything about the Batman in his report. Bruce Wayne visits police headquarters just as Commissioner Gordon is about to leave to interview the managers of the Diamond Syndicate, Darrel, Blake and Hoffer. They are planning a show in which the diamonds are to be displyed by professional models. the night of the show, the first model wears a ruby necklace. the second models a diamond clip. the third is wearing an arry valued at close to a million dollars. Suddenly, the "model" reaches into her handbag and hurls a flashbomb at the stage.
In the confusion, she darts into the elevator. On the way down, she takes off her blonde wig reavealing herself to be the Cat(-Woman) in disguise. Then she puts on her cat-head mask (because there's noting less suspicious than a woman in an evening dress wearing a cat-mask). As soon as she is outside, however, she is forced into a car by four men who were expecting her. Then, out from behind, darts a miniature racer driven by Robin. Robin trails them and notifies Batman by wireless where they have gone. On his way there, Bayman stops off an Darrel's penthouse and forcibly takes him along. When they arrive, Darrel is surprised to see Hoffer holding a gun on the Cat.
"You rat!" accuses Darrel. "When you and I decided to hire the Cat to steal the diamonds because we needed money, I didn't expect you to double-cross me!"
"I suddenly decided you and the Cat would be taking too much of a cut!" confesses Hoffer. "I'm going to get rid of both of you!"
Before he has a chance to, though, Batman and Robin burst in and capture the whole kit and kaboodle of them. Unfortunatley he has to turn in the Cat as well, but she understand, and thanks him for saving her life by kissing him on the lips. Batman is so nonplussed that she is able to shove him away and dart out the door. She takes off in the gangsters car, but Batman stops Robin from following in his mini-racer, explaining that "she's too far away for you to catch up!" Later, Batman drops all of the stolen jewelry and the evidence in from of McGonigle, but it still doesn't win him over to Batman's side. Meanwhile, the Cat muses, "I sort of wish the Batman were driving this car -- and I were sitting beside him... and we were just another boy and girl out for a ride on a moonlight night. that would be sort of... of... nice!!"
Replies
Though there were other female criminals in DC/AA books like the Tigress fighting Zatara and the Witch battling the King, Catwoman was on top of that list almost from Day One as Batman was a bigger character. Superman never had a major female antagonist but he did have Lois Lane!
Obviously, the Cat realized that she had to up her game to keep Batman's attention, thus becoming the costumed Catwoman.
BATMAN #10 - "The Princess of Plunder"
"At the palatial home of society's popular party hostess, beautiful Marguerite Tone entertains Gotham's elite..."
In a situation such as this, one might expect the big reveal that Marguerite Tone is the Cat-Woman to be saved for the end, but we find out on page two (the first story page). She has changed her costume somewhat since issue #3. Her cat-head mask is now black (it had been grey), her cape is now purple, and her dress has been replaced by a tight-fitting leather outfit with gold piping across the chest. She now goes by "Cat-Woman" rather than "The Cat."
1st crime: She hosts a scavenger hunt, her own henchmen intermingled with the guests. Under that pretext, her men enter and loot rich homes. Batman & Robin confront two of her men breaking into the Rockpont residence. They use the scavenger hunt as an alibi. When Batman calls Marguerite Tone to verify, he recognizes her voice as that of the Cat-Woman.
2nd crime: She hosts a cotume party in which all of her guests are to come dressed as their favorite character. She herself attends dressed as Cat-Woman. Bruce Wayne attends dressed as Batman, but finds several other guests similarly attired, three of whom are Cat-Woman's men. Mistaken for a fourth, Duke, he receives orders that they are to enter places to rob on the pretext of "looking for a criminal." If they are caught, they are to use the "favorite character party" as an alibi and claim it's all a publicity stunt. Just then, the real Duke enters, late due to a flat tire. Knowing that one of the others must be an imposter, she orders them all to remove their masks. When Batman refuses to remove his, she knows he is the real deal. They fight, and Robin (who had been waiting outside) swings through the window to help. He unmasks Cat-Woman and knows for sure that she's Marguerite Tone, but having no evidence against her, is forced to leave without making an arrest.
3rd crime: this time she mans the Ace Employment Agency with her own men to be hired out as butlers and wait staff to the rich and famous. Bruce Wayne happens to recognize "Silky" Davis at a diiner party thrown by a friend, knocks him out, takes his place (using the make-up kit he always carries with him), and stops the others from within the operation. He learns from one of them that Cat-Woman herself is at the Richmore Mansion. He notifies Robin and confronts her there, but she gets away. Batman learns that she is also running a "Lost and Found Bureau" which "finds" the merchandise she herself stole for a fee. They track her down, and one of her men blames her and tries to shoot her, but Batman saves her life. she is so grateful that she whips off her mask and kisses him on the lips. He is so flustered that he allows her to escape... again.
Later, Dick suspects that he let her escape on purpose, and Bruce replies, "Why, dick, how can you say a thing like that! She's clever and beautiful, yes... and it's a shame that we both work on opposite sides of the law, but I hope -- I mean, I know we'll meet again -- soon! And then it will be my round!" The one thing I wonder about is why Batman didn't recognize "The Cat" as Marguerite Tone the first two times he encountered her, when she wasn't wearing a mask...? I guess they hadn't met yet, socially.
BATMAN #15 - "Your Face is Your Fortune!"
The story opens with 'a day in the life" of hairdresser Elva Barr. By the end of the page it is revealed that Elva is... the Catwoman! Waitaminute... I thought Marguerite Tone was the Cat-Woman...? (Catwoman, Cat-Woman... whatever.) A few days later, Bruce Wayne is one of the judges of a beauty show for beauty salon operators (whatever). He immediately recognizes Elva Barr as the Catwoman. She wins the contenst, Bruce introduces himself, and she falls in love with him at first sight. The next day, Elva applies a mud-pack to the face of Grace Arnold, the society editor of the Globe. Little does Miss Arnold know that the mud-pack has a "special ingredient" that allows it to harden so that Elva can make a cast of her features.
At the end of the day, Batman and Robin follow Elva. On her way home, she buys puppets of Batman & Robin from a street vendor. Batman notices that she slips the hawker a note, so they follow him instead, to a bowling alley. Pretending a case of mistaken identity, Batman roughs the [pitchman up a bit, picks his pocket and slips the note to Robin. While Robin goes off to "check the description" of the perp they're supposedly looking for, Robin actually reads the note, then slips it back in the guy's pocket. The message indicated that something was set to go down at the Maypoint wedding tonight.
That night, Elva attends the wedding disguised as Grace Arnold. Her men saw to it that the real Miss Arnold would have car trouble, and they got in to the wedding posing as "Arnold's" photographers. The "cameras" have guns concealed within them, and Elva dons her costume. The cat-head mask in grey again (with a white muzzle in some panels), and her leather outfit has been replaced by a green dress with an orange cape. Batman and Robin were waiting, of course, and quickly put a stop to the robery. Unmasked, Elva confesses to Batman that she is in love with Bruce Wayne, and that if she only had a chance with him she'd give up her life of crime. Expectedly at this point, Batman lets her go (no question of it being "accidental" this time).
Over the course of the next few days, "Bruce Wayne courts beautiful 'Elva Barr' in a whirlwind romance! and then, one morning, newspapers announce the engagement of society playboy to beauty contest winner!" At the Catwoman's hideout, she disbands her gang. Meanwhile, Bruce's erstwhile girlfriend, Linda Page, reads the news in the society colume and decides to pay Elva Barr a visit in her beauty salon. But Elva recognizes Linda and decides to make a cast of her face. Later, Elva, masquerading as Linda, has luch with Bruce Wayne. He confides in her that he's going with Elva only as "a favor for the Batman" and that the engagement "won't be for long." Then "Linda" leaves in a huff.
When Bruce gets home, Dick tells him that Linda called while he was having lunch. She said that she went to the beauty salon earlier to get a look at his "fiancee" and she offered her "congratulations." Bruce realizes that the "Linda" he had lunch with must really have been the Catwoman, and that now she knows his engagement is not sincere. Soon after that, Elva Barr disappears. Dick decides to investigate on his own, goes back to the bowling alley where they shook down the street vendor and gets a job as a pinboy. He soon finds out the Catwoman's next job. He pretends reluctance to tell Bruce about it, though, until Bruce turns him over his knee and threatens him with a spanking.
We'll skip ahead a bit to the Fairview Pet Show. Catwoman attends in her "Miss Pegg" disguise (see Batman #1) aoccompanied by her men. Again, she finds Batman & Robin waiting for her. she tries to run away but, "irony of ironies," her flight is cut short by clowder of cats miling about her feet which trip her up... "literally" (also described as "poetic justice"). This time, for once, Batman turns her over to the police, leaving Bill Finger to pose the burning questions: "How long will the Mistress of Menace remain behind those bars? How soon again before Crime's Beautiful Queen will be free again to gather a new ring of rogues?"