When it comes to naming Batman’s most famous villain the undisputed winner would be the Joker. However, running the Clown Prince of Crime a close second – and scratching out such perennial trouble-makers as The Penguin, The Riddler and Two-Face – would be the sultry, seductive and decidedly dangerous Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman.

A virtual fixture in Gotham City since her debut in the Spring of 1940, Catwoman’s storied career has seen her fulfill a number of roles within the caped crusader’s world, but always with the same effect: Catwoman is trouble, but the kind of trouble that Batman needs.

Cooked up by Batman co-creators Bill Finger and Bob Kane as a mixture of 40s screen stars Hedy Lamarr and Jean Harlow, Catwoman’s initial incarnation was far less elaborate than the version we would eventually come to know.

Known simply as The Cat in her maiden outing, this early version of the character – as was the norm in the Golden Age of comics – was given no backstory, no real motivation and didn’t even warrant a civilian name.