Okay, so you all know about these pictures and videos of Anne Hathaway as Catwoman that have just been released/taken without permission, right? I don’t mean pictures of Selina Kyle, we got video of her a little over a month ago. I’m talking about Catwoman. No the title of the column doesn’t mean that they fight in The Dark Knight Rises, they’re actually the same person.

If you don’t know the difference between the two (or if you don’t know who Selina Kyle is), that’s okay. To speak of one is to essentially speak of the other. Selina Kyle is Catwoman’s alter-ego in the same way that Bruce Wayne is Batman’s alter-ego and Spider-Man is actually the mild mannered Peter Parker when he’s not wearing a mask.

Nevertheless, the arrival of these pictures have heralded a ton of internet backlash for using the dreaded C-word when talking about Selina Kyle’s burglar counterpart. Even a buddy of mine over at BelatedMedia responded to the fanboy confusion that hit almost immediately after the pictures.

Now, this is the first image that we have seen of Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. If you followed the link up there (or watched the embedded video below) of the video of Selina Kyle, you’ll see Anne Hathaway in plain clothes and fake rain talking to Bruce Wayne. No leather, no motorcycle, no thievin’ goggles. Selina Kyle.

To me this is Selina Kyle and the newly released pictures are, for all intents and purposes, pictures of Catwoman.

Trust me, I know the difference between the two (if you haven’t read my column yet I’ll take a few seconds to tell you that I’m an unforgiveable nerd and an unabashed comic-fanatic), but we don’t yet know the plot of the story so we don’t know if Selina Kyle will keep the name “Selina” while she’s in her tight fitting all-black ensemble or if she’ll adopt the moniker “Catwoman.” Frankly, I thought this was all settled when Hathaway herself called the role “Catwoman” a few months ago (and a few times since then).

Now, I’m not going to rain on the parade of those that hope that the phrase “Catwoman” is never uttered in The Dark Knight Rises, but I’m pretty sure that Selina Kyle will start the film as a skilled burglar and that the press will name her “Catwoman.” (Get it? Because she’s a cat-burglar!). I don’t think we’ll get Anne Hathaway standing on the edge of a building saying “I’m Catwoman”. I think it will present itself just as gracefully as Harvey Dent’s nickname (Two-Face) did at the Major Crimes Unit.

That being said, do we call her Catwoman or Selina Kyle? Nolan and Warner Brothers have been very careful about calling her Selina Kyle, but as some of you may remember, they pulled that same stunt leading to the release of The Dark Knight with Harvey Dent. When pictures of Dent’s disfigured face hit the internet, the internet was ablaze with “First pictures of Two-Face!” “Photos of Two-Face revealed!” or my own personal favorite “Gotham’s White Knight Shows His T(r)wo-Face!”

He was Two-Face. Production called him Harvey Dent because that’s who he was, but the actions throughout the course of the film turned him into Two-Face. Like I said, we don’t know how the story goes yet but when pictures of an all-leather Selina Kyle appear on the internet (complete with the goggles that we were promised to be on the Catwoman costume), it only makes sense to call them pictures of Catwoman.

So, in my world it seems that we’ll get both of them in the film. We’ll get Selina Kyle and then we’ll get the ass-kicking, bank-robbing, citizen burglin’, batman-befriending (or betraying!) Catwoman by the end. There’s no real reason for us to fight and squabble about whether or not she’s Selina Kyle (because that’s her character’s “real” name) or if she’s Catwoman (because she’s wearing a fairly traditional version of the costume) because in some form, we’re getting both of them in the same way we got Dr.Krane and Scarecrow as well as Harvey Dent and Two-Face.

Besides, I would only hope Selina Kyle doesn’t appear in a leather bodysuit while straddling the bat-cycle at her day job.

(P.S. And I can actually understand the view of those of you who keep saying that Michelle Pfieffer is “the only Catwoman”. I personally think that comic book movies should be treated a little differently since comics are renowned for having different universes and different re-tellings of the same character, but I can understand having an actor be “the only” version of something. I think it’s important to keep an open mind (remember when people said that Nicholson was the “only Joker”?), but if an actor ever tried to replace Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, I would be pissed, so I understand.)