Catwoman

For the star sapphire version, see Impassioned Catwoman.

Catwoman (Selina Kyle)
Selina Kyle, Ms. Kyle, The Cat, Catwoman, Feline Fatale, Princess of Plunder
Faction	Independants
Gender	Female
Race	Human
Location	Gotham City
Power	Gadgets
Origin	Tech
Movement	Acrobatics
Weapon	Martial Arts / Whip
Affiliations	Bat Family, Gotham City Sirens, Secret Society of Super Villains, Arkham Inmates, Birds of Prey, Outsiders
Episode(s)	Origin Crisis Amazon Fury Part I War of the Light Part II Episode 24 Episode 25 Episode 26 Birds of Prey

Selina Kyle, aka the Catwoman, is a morally ambiguous master thief whose goals range from pure self-interest to large-scale charity depending on her mood.

Never shying from a challenge, her stealth and agility as a world-class criminal, and her mastery of the martial arts, make her a formidable opponent. Although she began her career as an amoral burglar, she has since somewhat reformed and begun protecting the less fortunate in Gotham City's East End district.

Background

When she was a child, Selina Kyle’s brutalized mother, Maria Kyle, committed suicide and her violent father, Brian Kyle, drank himself to death not long after. Separated from her younger sister, Magdalene "Maggie" Kyle and remanded to the Sprang Hall Juvenile Detention Center, Selina opted instead to take her chances on the streets of Gotham City. While attempting to make a life through pickpocketing, Selina was adopted by a travelling carnival, the members of which taught her how to properly steal as well as sleight of hand, contortionist gymnastics and other performing arts that might help her survive. After her mentor died from a botched performance, she left the carnival at age 17 and returned to the streets in the East End district. Following various botched burglaries, she took to working as a dominatrix after an attempted burglary went sour; meeting and taking care of a 13 year-old prostitute named Holly Robinson in the process. After finding her beaten by her pimp one night, GCPD Detective George Flannery sends Selina to Ted Grant to teach her self defence.

One night, she stole a valuable totem from a museum when a hooded ninja interrupted her escape and took the valued item for himself. Selina followed the ninja into a warehouse, which turned out to be a secret martial arts academy. The ninja, a sexist man named "Kai", told his teacher, the Armless Master, that she was an intruder and a thief and must be severely punished. However, after seeing her fast reflexes, the Armless Master politely asked her to join the academy so that she could further harness her skills.

After witnessing a major confrontation between the vigilante Batman and the corrupt Gotham City Police Department, Selina was inspired to take up her own costumed-gimmick to assist in her burglaries. However, though successful, the majority of her jobs were blamed on the Batman.
Seeking to achieve her own identity, she took to scratching the faces of her victims as a way to identify herself from the vigilante; one of the more prestigious of her victims being Carmine Falcone, leader of the Gotham City Organized Crime Family, and another being the ninja "Kai", who had become the mercenary Hellhound.

While she and the Batman frequently crossed paths, she frequently managed to escape capture until one incident where she let herself fall into a fist-to-fist confrontation with the vigilante which finally resulted in her first capture. Escaping her police bounds not minutes later, however, the incident seemed to serve in igniting a deeply heated love/hate relationship between the vigilante and cat thief that would persist for the remainder of their careers.

Clawing her way to be amongst the top of the city's rogues gallery, Selina committed only the most audacious robberies; stealing only from the rich and corrupt, and made it a point of honour to never kill anyone unnecessarily.

Briefly trying her hand at super villainy, employing "minions", thematic equipment (such as a "Kitty-Car") and even going as far as joining the first incarnation of the Secret Society of Super-Villains, Selina soon lost interest in the whole affair and was considering returning to the simple work of a master thief. This decision was ultimately made for her when she was abducted (along with other unrepentant villains) by select members of the JLA so that Zatanna Zatara could magically alter her mind to become more altruistic.

Unaware of the mind-altering, Selina returned to Gotham and settled back into simple thievery. Getting into some misadventures along the way, such as confronting Catman (Thomas Blake) when she is blamed for deaths caused by his Siberian tiger, and being targeted by the white slave trade and meeting Sarah Essen and Vicki Vale while fighting them, defending herself from "Mister Handsome" (a man who has dedicated his life to destroying beauty).

Eventually settling into the Brideshead district of Gotham and sharing an apartment with a lost girl called Arizona (who reminded her of Holly), Selina enacts her first major act of altruism (aside from the occasional animal rights movement) when the neighbourhood is threatened by a crimelord named "Bracuda".

When Bane entered Gotham and broke the Batman's back, he began uniting the city's criminal groups under his rule and attempted to threaten Selina into working for him, but when an assassin destroyed her apartment (knocking Arizona into a coma) in an attempt to kill Bane, Selina chased after the attacker to Santa Prisca to enact vengeance.

As Bane and his plans were eventually destroyed by the rise of the new Batman (Jean-Paul Valley), Selina's quest in Santa Prisca led to her saving the nation's dictator and disrupting Bane's power base in the country. Returning to Gotham as the original Batman returns to reclaim his mantle from his wayward acolyte, Selina is abducted by a federal espionage organisation and forced to steal items for them as a means to disrupt the power base of other countries. After blackmailing the organisation into wiping her criminal record and leaving her alone, Selina aids various individuals who hire her to steal various items and helps the Bat Family find possible cures for the Ebola Gulf A virus that breaks out in Gotham and again in preventing Ra's al Ghul from unleashing the plague globally (fighting Hellhound (Kai) again in the process).

After fighting off two other cat-themed felons (She-Cat and Cybercat) Selina is caught in the middle of a heist when the city is hit by a 7.6 earthquake. Encountering and thwarting Poison Ivy's attempt at spreading her plant hybrids amongst the devastated city, Selina is dosed by Fear Gas during an attack by Scarecrow and is attacked by the Joker in a failed attempt to corrupt her in Batman's eyes.

Moving to New York when the No Man's Land decree is issued over Gotham, Selina gets bored and decides to "steal Manhattan"; blackmailing her way into a CEO position at Randolf Industries and making a run for mayor, but her plans were ruined when the Trickster, now working for the F.B.I., connects her to her criminal alter ego.

Returning to Gotham and aiding Batman in thwarting Lex Luthor's plan to own Gotham following its rebuild, Selina becomes the target of a newly reformed Gotham City Police Department; who specifically set a trap and task force to capture her, successfully, without the Batman's intervention.

Following her capture, her incarceration at the Cinque Foundation Rehabilitation Center and her escape with the aid of Harleen Quinzel, Selina began exhibiting psychological issues brought on by Quinzel's psychological prodding and her previous exposure to the Scarecrow's Fear Gas which resulted in her attempting to kill Commissioner James Gordon for his role in imprisoning her. Blackmailing the city's new mayor to force Gordon to stop hunting her, Selina succumbs to a full mental breakdown that Scarecrow had set up since their encounter following the Gotham earthquake.

Barely surviving an attempted assassination by Deathstroke; who had been hired by the city's mayor to kill Catwoman, Selina lies low for six months while she reassesses who she was; convincing both Batman and Private Detective Slam Bradley to leave her alone while she did so.

Returning to the East End district and donning her costume once more, Selina decided to operate within the district as a psuedo protector; employing her friend, Holly Robinson, to aid her as a street informant.

However, her actions in freeing the district from drug traders and corrupt police officers earned her the ire of the Black Mask, who kidnapped Selina's sister, "Maggie" Kyle, and drilled out Maggie's husband's eyeballs and fed them to Maggie, which drove her insane. During a confrontation, Selina fought the crime lord to the edge of his apartment balcony where she let him fall to his presumed death.

While dealing with the guilt over the Black Mask's attack, Selina starts a sexual relationship with Slam Bradley but is soon turned away when he realises that she was using him. After being stopped by Batman from returning to her thievery lifestyle, she reconciles with Holly and goes on a month-long road trip; while Batman and Bradley end up fighting over who was the better man for her.

Returning to Gotham, Selina is entranced by Poison Ivy to act as part of a scheme by the Riddler and a new villain called Hush. During the incident, Batman and Selina's relationship finally culminates in the vigilante taking her into his confidence and revealing to her his identity as Bruce Wayne and giving her access to the Batcave.

Following the city-wide gang war and Black Mask's rise to power as head of the Gotham City Organized Crime Families, Hush enacted his revenge against Selina for her role in helping Batman by hiring several C-grade super villains, led by Hugo Strange, to attack the East End district. After successfully defeating them, Selina learns of the Justice League's mind altering and is later informed of her own mind being altered by Zatanna herself.

No longer certain of whether she was a hero, or a villain that had been mind wiped into acting like a hero, when Black Mask re-invigorated his vendetta against her by capturing and torturing Slam Bradley, she confronts the crime lord once again and this time ends his threat by shooting him in the head.

Following the Infinite Crisis incident, Selina quit operating as "Catwoman" after discovering that she had fallen pregnant after a one-night-stand with Slam Bradley's son, undercover cop Sam Bradley, Jr.

Moving to live in the Gotham Arms Apartments as "Irena Dubrovna" while Holly Robinson became the new Catwoman, Holly was soon forced to go on the run and Selina became Catwoman again. After Selina posed as an Amazon agent to take down a rogue faction of Amazons during the Amazons of Themyscira's attack on the United States she realised how dangerous her life was for her child and tearfully gave up her baby to adoption.

Returning to the rooftops, Selina continues to straddle the line between hero and villain as her whims suit her as well as continuing her cat-and-mouse relationship with the Batman.

Combat Statistics

Catwoman (Legends PvP) Catwoman (Vendor) Catwoman (Gotham Warehouse) Catwoman (Gotham University Warehouse) Catwoman (Batcave: Inner Sanctum) Catwoman (Family Reunion) Catwoman (Gotham Under Siege) Catwoman (Harley's Heist)

The Catwoman Impassioned Catwoman Bombshell Catwoman (Legends PvP)

Involvement

• New players can select a pre-made character template inspired by Catwoman.
• Catwoman is a playable character for Legends PvP and Legends PvE.
• Catwoman (Vendor) can be found selling Legends Avatars at the south edge of The Pit (Hall of Doom).
• Catwoman can be found in an alley way talking to one of Falcones men near the East End.
• Catwoman makes a cameo appearance in the Batcave: Inner Sanctum raid where she had visited the cave to see Batman only to encounter an army of OMACs instead. After fighting the attacking OMACs alongside the raid party she leaves the rest of the cave to the players.
• Catwoman has been caught and needs to be freed in the Iceberg Lounge.

Heroes

• Players must stop her from stealing Gotham cat artifacts from Gotham University Warehouse. She then forces the players to get the Cat's Eye Diamonds back to their places in order to prevent all of Gotham City from becoming a "wild kingdom" of cat-like creatures.
• Catwoman is an iconic enemy for heroes in Gotham Under Siege (Amazon Fury Part I DLC).
• Catwoman is an enemy for heroes in Harley's Heist.

Villains

• Catwoman can be found in the Gotham Tap Room Safehouse.
• As Tech Villains, your first mission is to "assist" the Falcone crime family in Gotham City. You will arrive at a warehouse the Gotham City Police Department have infiltrated and face off against the Huntress. Catwoman will assist in the ensuing battle.

Associated Equipment

• Catwoman's Claw
• Catwoman's Goggles
• Whip Belt
• Catwoman Emblem
• Enhanced Catwoman Emblem

Trivia

• Catwoman first appeared in Batman #1 (1940)
• Catwoman is voiced by Kelley Huston.
• While she has many bolt-holes and stash-houses, Selina kept her most personal "trophies" in the basement of the building where her mother grew up. Amongst these keepsakes was her childhood diary, some toys, pictures of her family, five thousand dollars in emergency cash and the golden doll house of the Egyptian Queen Anunaki.
• Krypto, the super-powered canine companion to Superman, has taken a liking to Catwoman, much to her immense displeasure.
• The motto Selina lives by "Never quit. Never let them see you're afraid. Never let them see you're hurt. Never let them see you cry. Never." was taught to her by her mentor in the traveling carnival before his death.
• Selina and Bruce Wayne first encountered each other when Wayne attempted to start his vigilante career in East End but, after attacking a pimp, he was attacked by various prostitutes (one of whom was Holly). Selina attacked Bruce for hitting Holly but was quickly defeated by the superior trained rookie vigilante.
• Selina has a habit of sheltering stray cats, seeing in them kindred spirits from her own time on the streets.
• Catwoman has a unique Martial Arts style in Legends and can somewhat confuse a player who uses the normal Martial Art fighting style.
• Catwoman is a big fan of jazz music. Amongst her music collection is John Coltrane and Don Cherry.
• Catwoman has a cat named Isis.

Gallery

Production Head Shots

Production Body Poses

Rendered Poses

(Original Avatar)

Catwoman Gallery Page

See also

• Cat Avatars
• Gotham City Sirens

External links

• Catwoman Wikipedia
• Catwoman DC Database