Curious as it may seem, but both the Joker and Catwoman not only debuted in the same comic (Batman #1, June 1940) and they both were introduced as jewel thievesā¦ Although how they went about their crimes reflected different character archetypes of the time, as well as heavily influencing their modern interpretations.
Selina, first introduced as āthe Catā, was introduced as a gentlewoman thief, who doesnāt wear a costume, but is a master of disguise, is exceptionally smart, charming, and is played, if not sympathetically, then is provided with a āworseā villain to make her look better in comparison.
Selina is somewhat influenced by more the charming, roguish kind of thief character, instead of someone who is more overtly villainous. So from the start she shares similarities with the French pulp character Arsene Lupin (who Lupin the 3rd of anime famous is descended), Leslie Charterisā the Saint, Raffles etc. etc.
The Joker, meanwhile, is also a jewel thief and also targets the rich, but while Selina uses disguises and schemes to make off with the shinies, the Joker is played more along the lines of the diabolical mastermind character type.
His schemes are smart, sure, but not only do his plots tend to involve murder as a piece of the puzzle (he wonāt just steal your stuff, heāll poison you horribly too),Ā heād tell his future victims in advance that heās coming to get them just to terrorise them more before he gets them.
This also include killing the Police Chief with a boobytrapped phone, just because.
Here the Joker is also influenced by a criminal stock character, but in this case heās influenced more by the likes of French pulp supervillain Fantomas, Sax Rohmerās Fu Manchu and others. These guys tend to be kind of āset pieceā villains, who would engage in some elaborate means of carrying out their plans which tends to play more on the theatre of villainy than efficiency.
Moriarty, Sherlock Holmesā archenemy (although he admittedly only appeared in like two or three stories, tops), started out as more of a realistic villain, being a man who publically presents himself as a celebrated mathematician while secretly running a huge criminal empire, but has since transformed into more of a traditional supervillain like the other examples Iād mentioned.
Moriarty from the books wouldnāt go in for death traps, for example, heād just have people investigating him die in mysterious āaccidentsā, this is contrasted with, say, everything that Sherlockās version of Moriarty does, which is very much for the spectacle (Elementary and the RDJ versions of Moriarty get it right, FYI).
Likewise, Holmes character Irene Adler started as an exceptionally smart woman (who also happens to be a master of disguise) who manages to outwit Sherlock and provides him a lesson in humility. Later versions tend to make her into a more of a Catwoman-ish character, despite Ireneās story being how SHE was the target of thieves instead of vice versa.
Ironically, as time progressed the Jokerās bite was lessened as tighted regulations in comics made him more overtly comic, removing him from his pulp supervillain roots, while those same regulations made Catwoman MORE villainous before phasing her out entirely for over a decade (her ambiguity and general nature contradicted the rules about āglamorisingā crime, so she was shelved between September 1954 to November 1966).
Strangely, in the current era weāre sort of back to where the characters started. Selinaās a mostly heroically aligned thief who is willing to break the law to help people (the Saint would approve), while the Jokerās back to murdering people random peopleā¦ although admittedly, there is less actual motivation behind it these days in his case, being just for the sake of murdering people instead of a) being for profit, and b) to show how smart he is compared to the cops/Batman.
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