author: Patrick Kubiak
The Best Superheroes Without Powers
Who is a superhero? It's not always a person with supernatural powers. Sometimes, strong will and desire to fight evil are enough, and heroes without special powers are often more interesting than unstoppable machines for fighting villains.
Table of Contents
- The Best Superheroes Without Powers
- Iron Man – Tony Stark
- Black Widow – Natasha Romanoff / Yelena Belova
- Green Arrow – Oliver Queen / Connor Hawke
- Batman – Bruce Wayne
- Catwoman – Selina Kyle / Patience Phillips
- Ant-Man – Hank Pym / Scott Lang / Eric O'Grady
- Batgirl/Oracle – Barbara Gordon
Catwoman – Selina Kyle / Patience Phillips
- Most popular acting performances: Batman Returns, Catwoman, The Dark Knight Rises
The Catwoman is a character that, like the Punisher, has great potential on paper to become an extremely strong brand. Especially since, until recently, the superhero cinema was dominated by men. In practice, however, many of the acting projects featuring Catwoman verged on the kitsch and focused mainly on rather immodest presentation of the actress' sex appeal.
What is the origin of Catwoman? The character's original alter ego was Selina Kyle. She debuted in Batman vol #1, as did another antagonist: Joker. Antagonist, because at the beginning of her journey she was created as one of Batman's opponents, only later evolving into his ally. And lover. Currently, her most common origin story is the one according to which young Selina was involved in prostitution. As a result of increasing reports about the activities of the masked avenger – Batman – she and her friend Holly Robinson decided to break away from their previous profession to take up crime. Catwoman's main strengths are sex appeal (right, we know that), acrobatic skills, and an uncanny knack for hand-to-hand combat – with particular emphasis on the use of unusual weapons such as whips.
Catwoman's best known acting roles are those of Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns (1992), Anne Hathaway in Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises (2012), or – perhaps most popularly, and most closely fitting the description in the first paragraph – Halle Berry's role in 2004's Catwoman. In this production, Catwoman is given a new identity – Patience Phillips – and a new story. The movie is extremely bad, though, so we won't dwell on it too much. Suffice it to say that it received four Golden Raspberries, including Worst Picture and Worst Female Performance. We're still waiting for a great title where Catwoman could spread her wings and not just fall on her four paws.