Catwoman

Catwoman (real name Selina Kyle) is a DC Comics character created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane. She first appeared in Batman #1 (Spring, 1940), where she was initially known as "The Cat". more...

Selina Kyle

Her name "Selina" derives from the ancient lunar deity Selene.

There have been many versions of Catwoman's origins and backstory seen in the comic books over the decades.

Golden and Silver Age versions

In Batman #62, it was revealed that Catwoman (after a blow to the head jogged her memory) was an amnesiac flight attendant who had turned to crime after suffering a prior blow to the head during a plane crash she survived (although in the final issue of The Brave and the Bold, she later admitted that she made up the amnesia story because she wanted a way out of the past life of crime). She wound up reforming and stayed on the straight and narrow for several years, helping out Batman in Batman #65 and #69, until Selina decided to return to a life of crime in Detective Comics #203. Selina appeared again as a criminal in Batman #84 and Detective Comics #211, her final appearance for many years (until 1966).

In the 1970s comics, a series of stories taking place on Earth-Two (the parallel Earth that was retroactively declared as the home of DC's Golden Age characters) revealed that on that world, Selina reformed in the 1950s (presumably after the events of Batman #69) and had married Bruce Wayne; soon afterwards, the couple gave birth to their only child, Helena Wayne (the Huntress). In Brave and the Bold #197, the Golden Age origin of Catwoman given in Batman #62 was elaborated on, after Selina revealed that she never actually had amnesia. It was revealed that Selina Kyle had been the wife of an abusive man, and eventually decided to leave her husband. However, her husband had kept her jewelry in his private vault, and she had to break into it to retrieve the jewelry. Selina enjoyed this experience so much she decided to become a professional costumed cat burglar, and thus began a career that would repeatedly lead to her encountering the Batman.

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