It's understood that she had a rough, isolated childhood spent largely in and out of foster care or orphanages, where she learned to lie, cheat and steal through the day to survive.

As she grew older, she perfected her skills until she finally begin crafting her alter ego Catwoman. Selina's family history had always been a mystery to her, until she began pulling at threads that lead her to uncover the truth: she was actually the daughter of one of Gotham's most notorious crime lords, Rex Calabrese. Calabrese attempted to have Selina killed by having her shoved off a roof, but she managed to not only survive the fall but slowly follow the trail of clues that lead back to her heritage -- all while becoming one of the most accomplished thieves in Gotham.

Selina has no true metahuman abilities and instead relies on her peak human reflexes and agility to aid her in her schemes. She is a master burglar, gymnast and acrobat with a mastery of both hand-to-hand and weapon based combat. She is deadly with a bullwhip, which she usually keeps tied around her waist as part of her costume -- which also includes razor-sharp, retractable claws as part of the gloves, allowing her to cut through glass.

Selina was introduced in BATMAN 1 known only as "The Cat," a burglar and master of disguise who Batman would begin to recognize as a repeat offender in Gotham City -- though her antagonistic relationship with the Caped Crusader always painted her more as a femme fatale than a proper villain. She was given her first proper backstory ten years after her introduction in BATMAN 62 which established she was an amnesiac who had worked as a flight attendant during a flight that had crashed.

The story, however, was later proven to be a lie Selina had made up in order to garner sympathy for her life of crime. Later, in the mids, Selina briefly "reformed" from her life of crime, but her stories didn't pick up on this new leaf for several years.

In the mid-'70s, following the formal establishment of the Multiverse, Selina's reformed, Golden Age self was revealed to have entered into a committed, loving relationship with Batman in the alternate reality of Earth She had Bruce had a daughter named Helena Wayne who eventually became a vigilante in her own right, Huntress, and continued to fight side by side in wedded bliss.

Meanwhile, on the "main" Earth, Earth-1, Selina and Bruce continued their flirtatious but often contentious relationship and endless game of cat-and-mouse. Her mysterious past was solidified to reveal that she had been a sex worker at the mercy of an abusive pimp. The violence she had endured just to survive taught her to fight while simultaneously instilling a fiercely protective streak in her, prompting her to take in and defend fellow battered women. During her time on the streets, she met a young woman named Holly Robinson who would become one of Selina's chief motivations for her turn to burglary.

To protect and provide for Holly, Selina began crafting her identity as a masked thief, taking what she and Holly needed to keep themselves safe and fed. Alfred Pennyworth. Red Hood. The Joker. Harley Quinn. Poison Ivy. Mister Freeze. Black Mask. Victor Zsasz. Killer Croc. Carmine Falcone. Powers: exceptional martial artist , gymnastic ability , combat skill , master thief and cat burglar , customized weapons.

Base of Operations: Gotham City. Real Name. Selina Kyle. The Batman It's not just a call Carlos Alvarez for help, despite the fact that he had been trying to catch her - but because he was the only clean cop she knew. Selina tracked the kidnapper to a mansion and discovered Matilda Mathis - calling herself Dollhouse - had been keeping her victims and harvesting their organs before turning them into lifelike dolls.

Batman soon interrupted their fight, allowing both Catwoman and Mathis to escape and making Selina question her fitness for vigilantism. After a puzzling run-in with the Joker , [11] Selina received a new job from Trip Winter to steal the contents of a safe in A. Disguising herself as a cardiologist, Selina gained access to the room and tricked a scientist to open the safe the safe for her, revealing the black diamond inside it.

Before long, she returned to Trip and passed off the diamond, warning him not to give her any more creepy jobs like that one. Afterwards, Selina decided to rob the Cobblepot Family crypt, drawing the ire of the Penguin, who declared war on her. While in the Gotham Underground, Catwoman ran afoul of Doctor Phosphorus , who requested she deliver his daughter Princess Tinderbox to the rival colony's leader's son for a political marriage. Catwoman and Phosphorus' daughter were captured by the gang - the Warhogs - who had been developing a biotoxin to release on the world above them.

The gang refused Phosphorus' offer of peace, and, before leaving, Catwoman stole the biotoxin to prevent it from being used. With a war between Charneltown and the Warhogs bound to cause trouble for Gotham, Rat-Tail and Catwoman sabotaged the battle between the two colonies, escaping to the surface and leaving the others to perish or survive as they would. When Amanda Waller decided that there needed to be a new Justice League of America to act as a counter-balance to the Justice League , Steve Trevor suggested that Catwoman be included on that team as a foil for Batman.

He located her and convinced her to join by promising that he would give her the name of a woman who had stolen her identity. After witnessing the death of Dr. Light at the hands of Superman , Catwoman followed her heart and joined Batman in his search for a scientific explanation that would exonerate his friend.

This search led to the discovery that Pandora's Box was a gateway between universes, and the attack by the Crime Syndicate - which only she and Batman managed to escape intact. Batman felt responsible, and Selina accompanied him to search for his friend. While searching for supplies, they encountered Lex Luthor and his followers, and reluctantly allied with him in a plan to save the world and Nightwing.

After Nightwing was rescued, Batman successfully saved the League, and Luthor successfully subdued the Syndicate, Selina confronted Batman, suggesting that they follow through on the promise of their relationship.

He refused, however, and she left him in anger. The Scarecrow attacked Gotham with a gas that made everyone believe that the city had become a utopia, protected by the Batman and his sidekick Selina, who, in this delusion, was known as Catbird. However, Batman's will allowed him to have glimpses through the delusion, which made Selina assume he was the crazy one.

In the meantime, Selina looked into the criminal Steeljacket , a villain that had attacked her and also had been convinced their reality was an illusion, and tracked him down. He explained that the suit he'd been wearing was keeping him alive, and he needed her thievery skills to get him the money to repair it.

Selina helped Steeljacked, finally awakened to her real identity as the master thief Catwoman. Despite the fact that the toxin had shown them both what they wanted to see, his denial soured her. Tiring of seeing her life ruined by her role as Catwoman, Selina burned her catsuit. But this bold move meant absolutely nothing because, after being contacted by a woman named Roulette about a competition of thieves that threatened the lives of children, Catwoman was given another suit and joined the race to save them.

After completing several challenges during the Race of Thieves, Catwoman realized that there never were any children in danger and that Roulette had actually been hired by a man named Hunt Stone to steal evidence that implicated his ancestors in a famous murder - unaware that he was actually destroying evidence that bequeathed him a huge fortune.

Wanting to get back at obsessive-compulsive Roulette for tricking her, Selina began systematically sabotaging every aspect of her strictly regimented and planned out day, until Catwoman forced Roulette to declare her the winner of the Race of Thieves. When a mysterious malefactor came to Gotham with a yearlong plan to ruin Batman's life, Catwoman became entangled in the plot when she began investigating into the turf war between the Penguin and the newly returned mobster Carmine Falcone.

When she had the chance to get revenge on Falcone and finally kill him, Catwoman was stopped by Batman, arriving just in time. Sometime later, while trying - and failing - to stop a deal to sell a baby snow leopard for its fur, Selina was located by a street kid named Jade, who - at the request of Selina's father - had come to escort her to Blackgate Penitentiary for a meeting.

Her father was, in fact, Rex "The Lion" Calabrese - the crime boss from whom Falcone had taken power.