Absolute Selina Kyle (Catwoman) is a world-class master thief, childhood friend and sometimes lover of Bruce Wayne (Absolute Batman).
She was born in Cuba and sent to the United States alone as a baby refugee. She grew up knowing nothing about her biological family, her only clue being a single postcard marked with ten names she doesn’t recognize.
Growing Up in Gotham’s Shadows
Upon arriving in the states, Selina entered the foster system. She ended up in Crime Alley, one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in Gotham City. Her foster homes viewed her primarily as a paycheck from the state, driving her to learn parkour across the city’s rooftops to escape the abuse. She stole whatever she needed to survive and built a personal refuge on a roof where local stray cats gathered.
Despite her difficult upbringing, Selina formed a close circle of friends with Bruce Wayne, Ozzie Cobblepot, Harvey Dent, Eddie, and Waylon Jones. Their friends constantly teased Bruce and Selina about having a mutual crush, though both denied it.
Everything changed when they were ten years old. During a school field trip to the Gotham Zoo, Bruce’s father, who was also their teacher, was killed in a shooting. A grieving Bruce shut himself in his room and refused to see anyone. That night, Selina climbed through his window and told him to follow her across the rooftops. She gave him a piece of advice that would stay with him. Act like a cat and focus only on the step right in front of you, never looking down at how far you could fall.
She led him to the Monarch Theater, where Bruce’s parents had planned to take him before his father’s death. They snuck inside to watch an old Zorro movie his dad had wanted to see. When Bruce panicked and tried to run, Selina stopped him. She told him he possessed unique gifts and could channel his grief into something meaningful if he pushed past his fears. At that moment, the rest of their friend group revealed they were waiting inside, and the group watched the movie together.
The Calicos
When Selina was thirteen, she saw a young runaway named Holly Robinson fleeing from the police after trying to sneak a screwdriver to her incarcerated mother. Selina hid Holly in a rooftop alcove and lied to the officers to send them away. Bonding over their shared struggles, the two quickly became close friends.
Together, they formed an elite thieving crew called the Calicos, recruiting tech genius Victoria Sage and Helena Bertinelli, a runaway from a wealthy family. The Calicos targeted Gotham’s corrupt elites, but at Holly’s insistence, they donated all their stolen proceeds to charity. As leader, Selina had one rule: if anyone got caught, they were on their own. Holly would ignore this rule whenever it suited her.
Seven years ago, a wealthy client hired the Calicos to steal a secret list of names hidden inside an office clock in the penthouse apartment of David Cain. The crew broke in and retrieved the document, but right before a bomb detonated in the office, Selina noticed a young girl peeking out from behind a desk chair.
The blast destroyed the penthouse and the girl (David Cain’s daughter, Cassandra Cain) was reported dead. Selina was wrongfully convicted for Cassandra’s murder and sent to prison, causing the Calicos to break up in her absence.
Burglaries, Boxing Fixes, and Falcone
Selina was released from prison as a young adult and reconnected with Bruce Wayne, who had dropped out of high school. They began dating and pulled off high-stakes burglaries together, becoming so successful they were able to move into a luxurious penthouse apartment.
Around this time, Waylon Jones received an opportunity to challenge Bibbo Bibbowski for the AFC Championship and asked Bruce to serve as his trainer. Bruce agreed, even though he and Selina doubted Waylon could win.
To capitalize on the situation, Bruce and Selina stole expensive goldwork from apartments owned by Bibbo’s manager, mob boss Carmine Falcone, and approached Falcone on a golf course. Falcone assumed they wanted to pull Waylon out of the fight, but they offered a deal instead. Fix the match so Waylon would lose after lasting several rounds. This allowed everyone to make money by betting against the odds on how long Waylon could survive. However, Waylon refused to throw the match and won the championship outright.
Furious at the outcome, Falcone had corrupt cops arrest Bruce for their burglaries. Judges on Falcone’s payroll set Bruce’s bail out of reach, and even though his friends raised money, the court repeatedly increased the amount to keep him locked up, where Falcone’s thugs attacked him. Falcone eventually released Bruce but forced him into servitude, threatening to go after Selina if he refused to comply.
Becoming Catwoman and Fighting Bane
Selina and Bruce eventually broke up, prompting Selina to leave Gotham. She traveled the world, evolving into the master thief known as Catwoman. She earned a reputation that caught the attention of spy Alfred Pennyworth. She maintained sporadic contact with her friends back home, who believed she was merely traveling. Somehow, Selina became aware that Bruce was operating as the vigilante Batman.
When Joker’s enforcer Bane arrived in Gotham, Bruce was captured and imprisoned for months in a secretive facility called Ark M. Distraught, Bruce’s mother Martha reached out to Selina for help. Returning to Gotham in Absolute Batman #13, Selina snuck into Bruce’s hideout and immediately fought his new ally, Alfred, who warned Bruce that Catwoman was untrustworthy.
Selina and Bruce spent the night together at his apartment, where she noticed the network of scars across his body from Ark M. Neither was willing to discuss their past, so they agreed to go on a “date” instead. Together, they broke into the abandoned Amusement Mile theme park to demand an audience with the Red Hood Gang.
The Red Hoods attacked them on sight using heavy firepower, damaging the structural supports of the Ferris wheel. Bruce subdued the attackers and spoke to the gang’s leader, Harley Quinn. He revealed he escaped Ark M and intended to destroy Bane, the facility, and everyone behind it. Inspired by his campaign, Harley and the Red Hoods joined forces with him.
Back at his hideout, Bruce issued a public challenge to Bane for a fight at Gotham’s old Veteran’s Arena. Knowing Bane relied on Venom, a super-steroid that gave him superhuman strength, Bruce worked with Selina and Eddie to extract Venom samples and load them into specialized hypodermic darts.
At Veteran’s Arena, Bane injected massive doses of Venom, mutating his body into an overgrown blob. Bruce fought him until Bane reached his physical limits, at which point Selina fired the hypodermic darts directly into Bane’s spine. The overload destroyed Bane’s body from within. With Bane defeated, Selina left Gotham once again though she managed to take a sample of Venom with her.
The Mystery of The Yarn
In her own series Absolute Catwoman, Selina had accumulated enough wealth to purchase a private villa in Sicily at twenty-five. On her birthday, she returned to her penthouse in London to pack up when Holly Robinson was there with a birthday cake after seven years of silence.
Holly tried to act casual, but Selina noticed a black eye hidden under her bangs. Holly asked for help with a job, but Selina declined. Holly left after promising she could handle her troubles. When Selina cut into the cake later that night, she discovered a mysterious metallic sphere hidden inside.
Hours later, five women wearing old Calico gear raided the penthouse. Selina suited up as Catwoman and fought them off, but the intruders stole the sphere and detonated a bomb. Selina parachuted out the window, breaking an ankle and dislocating a shoulder upon landing.
She pursued the gang on her custom motorcycle, the Wildcat, and spotted a sixth rider carrying both the sphere and a bound Holly. Selina caught up to the leader and fought her while balancing on their bikes at high speed.
Unbeknownst to Selina, the gang leader was Cassandra Cain, who’d survived that explosion seven years earlier and was left permanently mute. Cassandra was able to anticipate Selina’s moves and outmaneuver her. Recognizing she couldn’t win the fight, Selina intentionally took a fall into the street. She used the distraction to palm the sphere back before the gang escaped with Holly.
Unable to decode the sphere, Selina listed it on a secret dark web auction for $100,000,000, figuring that interested buyers would reveal its true nature. A buyer agreed to the price, arranging the exchange inside a hollowed-out mountain auction house in Switzerland. Before entering, Selina rigged a salt-water drip on a one-hour timer in the surrounding glacier to trigger a cave-in as a backup escape plan.
Inside, the buyer turned out to be Victoria Sage. Vic explained that Holly had initially approached her about a synthetic intelligence called “The Yarn”. It’s a system capable of creating unalterable reality and the sphere contains a map to its location.
Before they could leave, Helena Bertinelli crashed through the glass while fighting security, warning that the facility was under attack. Cassandra Cain and a squad of shadow assassins burst into the room. A shadow grabbed the sphere, but dropped it at Cassandra’s feet when Selina tripped him. Selina and Cassandra dueled again, with Cassandra maintaining the upper hand.
At that moment, Selina’s salt-water drip collapsed the glacier floor. Cassandra fell into the chasm with the sphere, while Selina chose to pull Vic and Helena into the ice caves below, where meltwater carried them to safety.
After escaping, the trio was attacked again by the shadow assassins. Selina used her helmet AI, Jonesy, to analyze their attack patterns and stabbed one through their throat, breaking the optical camouflage. Vic examined the dead assassin’s mask, discovering advanced fiber optics and an encoded symbol she recognized from David Cain’s penthouse.
The Calicos reunited at the Cat Cave, Selina’s underground base beneath her destroyed London apartment building. Vic recovered the sphere’s map data from Jonesy’s memory scans, pinpointing the Yarn’s location to Candia in Crete, Greece. Equipped with gear from Selina’s armory, the team boarded her private jet to rescue Holly and recover the Yarn.
Return to Gotham
Months after the mission in Greece, Selina returned to Gotham City in Absolute Batman #25.
Bruce had fought The Joker recently, barely escaping with his life. Selina tracked Bruce and Harley Quinn down to his hideout, stepping into the cave to reveal her return…and her visibly pregnant belly.
Whether she’s actually pregnant or an impersonator is using her likeness is unknown. But when it comes to Absolute Catwoman, you never know what to expect.
