In "When We First Met", we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, "Avengers Assemble!" or the first appearance of Batman's giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that.
Today, based on a suggestion from longtime reader, Mik B., we try to figure out when Catwoman and Supergirl first met.
Mik was inspired while watching a Friends Halloween episode rerun where Monica dresses up as Catwoman and Phoebe dressed up as Supergirl, and Phoebe jokes, "Ah, Catwoman, so we meet again" and Mik was wondering, HAD they met before then?
As it turned out, yes, but, like, surprisingly close in time to that 2001 episode!
For decades, Supergirl only appeared in Superman's titles and Catwoman only appeared in Batman's titles. Heck, Catwoman didn't appear PERIOD for most of the 1950s.
Even as the two began to appear in more titles in the 1970s, they never crossed paths.
The first time that they appeared in the same comic book was in the early 1980s, when they both showed up in Detective Comics #508.
However, Catwoman was in the lead Batman story, as part of some Egyptian princess kidnapping nonsense...
while Supergirl rescued Batgirl in the backup...
Our answer MIGHT be in Crisis on Infinite Earths #5, as they were both among the heroes and villains called together as part of the crisis...
You can see Catwoman is there here...
So does that count? I think you could argue it does, but I think we should push for them being in at least the same PANEL, right?
And that did not happen again for that version of Supergirl, as she died a few issues later.
However, Post-Crisis, there was a new version of Supergirl. She and Catwoman both appeared in DC vs. Marvel #1, but not in the same part of the story, as Catwoman was selected to be one of the main events (she fought Elektra)...
while Supergirl just teams up with She-Hulk...
They are also both in Genesis #2, but Supergirl was involved in the cosmic aspect of the story...
and Catwoman was involved in how the crisis affected people down on Earth...
So it wasn't until the JLA/Titans crossover that the two first crossed paths, as Supergirl was among the former Titans members drawn together by Cyborg's mind and Catwoman just tagged along with the JLA...
She is in the same panel with Supergirl on this page (by Devin Grayson, Phil Jimenez and Andy Lanning)...
and they are right there facing off on opposite sides on the next splash page...
I'm totally counting that.
Thanks for the question, Mik! If anyone wants to figure out when Catwoman met the NEXT version of Supergirl, feel free. Drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com and I'll add it to the article.
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