Fri Mar 14, 2008 — by Aaron Rosenberg

On This Day: Catwoman

One more year, nine more lives!

The daughter of Brian and Maria Kyle, young Selina had an unpleasant childhood. Her mother loved cats more than her own children and eventually committed suicide, while Selina's father was an angry layabout who drank himself to death a short while later.

Selina wound up on the streets of Gotham City, in an orphanage, and then in juvenile hall in rapid succession. At 13, she discovered that the hall administrator was embezzling funds, and almost died when she threatened to expose the woman. Escaping the trap, however, Selina stole enough evidence to incriminate the woman and enough money to keep herself going for a while, and then disappeared.

Mama Fortuna, who ran a gang of young thieves in Alleytown, took Selina in and taught her to steal properly. Selina grew up and became an accomplished thief, but had to lay low after a burglary went wrong. A pimp named Stan offered her a job posing as a dominatrix and conning information out of her “clients.” Selina accepted.

It was while she was at this job that she first saw Batman and, inspired by him, created her own costume to become the renowed masked, cat burglar, Catwoman.

Since then, Selina has vacillated between villainess and heroine, and has had an off-again, on-again relationship with Batman himself.

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