Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman has my vote, of course. To any thinking Michelle Pfeiffer's Selina Kyle was that character in name only: Well, Pfeiffer's is intentionally not the hooker of Miller's Batman: Year One and that was a post-Crisis reboot. In Fantazone #26 (1992) writer Daniel Waters explained, "My interest stems from the fact that they told me were going to be doing the Catwoman character and she was not going to be the Julie Newmar prototype of the [Adam West Batman] TV series or the hooker of the comic books."
Batman- The 1989 Film: Vintage Magazine Article: "Fantazone" Issue #26 Summer 1992
Burton was interested in the original Golden Age era comics versions for inspiration. Golden Age comics Selina Kyle suffered from amnesia due to a head injury when she crashed [Waters and Burton changed the crash from a plane crash to shoved out the window of a building] from Batman #62 (1950) "The Secret Life of the Catwoman" written by Bill Finger, art by Bob Kane and Lew Schwartz [reprinted in The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told #2 (1992)]! Catwoman sets out to frighten the superstitious into believing that she possesses the nine lives of the proverbial cat, Catwoman says, "The underworld is superstitious - so I will prove to them that I can't be killed!" Her black cat says "Purr-rr-rr! Purr-rr!" from Batman #35 (1946) "Nine Lives Has the Catwoman" written by Bill Finger and art by Bob Kane and Ray Burnley [reprinted in Batman: The Dark Knight Archives vol. 8 (2013)].
But she has nine lives? She claims she does in the movie and in the first Burtonverse Batman movie it's claimed by the terrified superstitious criminals that Batman is a giant bat that drinks blood and can't be killed. Neither claim is true, but there is fear in the unknown, both Batman and Catwoman want to be feared. Waters explained, "To me, the whole nine lives thing was just a piece of dialogue and vague artistic license. It was never something I considered literally."
'Batman Returns' at 25: Stars Reveal Script Cuts, Freezing Sets and Aggressive Penguins
Burton explained, "The ambiguous nature of the Catwoman. You start out when you see the creation with the cats coming around and it's not supernatural but we feed into the mythology of cats and nine lives and all of that sort of thing, so in the same way with Batman, wanting to keep him sort of mysterious, we sort of treated the same idea with Catwoman a little bit and not come right out with it. It's not supernatural."
But she was brought back to life by magic cats? No, she falls through awnings which slows her fall and lands on snow and cats revive her by biting her fingers. She suffers from loss of consciousness, a temporary catatonic state [coma], and temporary post-traumatic amnesia, which are concussion symptoms of brain injury.
But she has kitty cat powers? In the Batman Returns script written by Daniel Waters it is explained that Michelle Pfeiffer's Selina Kyle had had physical training - in karate, and she obviously took gymnastics, but she was too timid before the head injury. "SELINA: 'I won some karate lessons. Radio thing. I'd been calling for Grateful Dead tix... anyway, I take the course. I was a most serious failure. The instructor kept chanting 'Your mind isn't clear, your mind isn't...' (disturbingly) It is now...'"
And "GRUFF WOMAN: 'Selina ... We've missed you at the rape prevention class ... It's not enough to master martial arts. You must stop seeing yourself as a victim--'" That's not explained in the movie because Burton wanted to make it a mystery. I don't need all the answers to be in the movie. If I had all the answers in the movie, I'd have grown bored.
But she's blonde *gasp*! So, Selina Kyle was portrayed with a blonde wig in Batman #3 (1940) "The Batman vs. the Cat-Woman!" written by Bill Finger and art by Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson and George Roussos [reprinted in Batman: The Dark Knight Archives vol. 1 (1992), Batman Chronicles vol. 2 (2006) and Batman: The Golden Age vol. 1 (2016)], Selina Kyle was portrayed with actual blonde hair in Batman #35 (1946) "Nine Lives Has the Cat" written by Bill Finger, art by Bob Kane and Ray Burnley [reprinted in Batman: The Dark Knight Archives vol. 8 (2013)], and Selina Kyle was portrayed with actual blonde hair in Batman #39 (1947) "A Christmas Tale" written by Bill Finger and art by Bob Kane and Ray Burnley [reprinted in Batman: The Golden Age Omnibus vol. 5 (2018)] and Selina Kyle was portrayed with a blonde wig again in Batman #47 (1948) "Fashions in Crime" written by Bill Finger and art by Bob Kane and Charles Paris [reprinted in Batman: The Golden Age Omnibus vol. 6 (2018)]. Bob Kane said that the creation of Catwoman/Selina Kyle was based on blonde bombshell Jean Harlow. Selina Kyle is also blonde in Batman: The Animated Series and Camren Bicondova's Selina Kyle is blonde in the Gotham TV show.
And the licking herself bit was Michelle Pfeiffer's own idea. Michelle Pfeiffer explained in Starlog #183 (1992), "The scene in the film when I would lick and clean myself where ideas I came up with, and Tim [Burton] said to go for it. And it's pretty risky stuff when you stop and think about it. I knew I was in good hands with Tim [Burton] in that scene, but with a lesser director, it would have been a gamble. You don't meow for just anybody."
www.1989batman.com/2013/09/vintage-magazine-article-starlog.html