In the first issue of Absolute Catwoman, Selina Kyle’s best friend from childhood, Holly Robinson, was kidnapped by a masked, shadowy group led by Cassandra Cain. Before Holly disappeared, she secretly gave Selina a strange metal orb, hidden inside a birthday cake. Now, Selina is trying to figure out what the orb is and whether it will lead her to Holly.
A Flashback: When They Were Kids
The issue starts looking back nine years ago, back at the Calico Club’s hideout in Gotham. The Calicos are a crew of four girls, Selina, Holly, Helena and Victoria.. They’re running late for a heist, and Selina is stressed about it. The job they’re planning could land them 15 years to life if they get caught. Holly tells her to lighten up, but Selina says she’ll go it alone if she has to.
Present Day: Selina, Hurt and Undercover
Selina is at a doctor’s office dealing with a grade-two concussion from her fight in the last issue with Cassandra Cain. The doctor wants to keep an eye on her for 48 hours.
While she recovers, Selina reflects on friendship. She thinks about how easy it is to become friends with someone at 13, back when you barely have any history together. But that history piles up over the years, and eventually you’re stuck living a version of yourself that might not be authentic to you. Selina said she’s never liked being cornered, which explains a lot about how she operates.
She’s recovering on a yacht called the Wandering Rose, a floating safe house for people who don’t want questions asked: mercenaries, data brokers, and other folks who live in the shadows. Selina earned her spot in this world three years ago, and it’s clear she uses her time there to become someone else when she needs to.
The Mystery Orb
Selina has the metal sphere that Holly gave her, and she has no idea what it is. It doesn’t look like it’s made of anything valuable. She figured it might mean something personal or sentimental. Her plan is simple: if she can’t figure out what the sphere is, she’ll figure out who wants it instead.
She lists the sphere at an invite-only auction for the ultra-wealthy, using a private forum she keeps an alias for. The auction house is a playground for people who want things like state secrets or pre-market technology. Actual weapons are off-limits, but almost everything else is fair game.
Selina isn’t doing this for the money. She’s using the auction as bait to draw out whoever took Holly. Once someone bites, she’ll have a lead.
And someone does bite. The buyer says to themselves: “Just like old times.”
Back Nine Years, Meet the Calicos
As kids, Selina and Holly looked around Gotham and mostly saw empty glass towers owned by corporations and rich people avoiding taxes. They started heisting, and after about a year, Holly had the idea to bring in two more girls, or “strays,” as Selina calls them.
The first stray came from money on the east side of Gotham, but she hated the upper class she grew up in. She knew the ins and outs of building security, like when the cleaning staff would leave for the night. She became the crew’s inside information.
Selina, meanwhile, was the one smooth enough to lift an ID badge off someone without them noticing, which is how the crew actually got into buildings.
The second stray was the genius of the group, brought in because street smarts only gets you so far when you’re dealing with high-tech security systems. They needed someone smart with tech systems on their team.
Selina reflected on how naturally the group fell into roles: the tough one, the smart one, the sly one, and Holly holding it all together as the heart of the team. She also realizes once you settle into a role like that, it’s hard to break out of it.
Their biggest heist targeted the accounts of some of Gotham’s richest families. Falcone, Thorne, Elliott, Bertinelli and Crowne. With a few smart, key strokes, Holly suggested they donate the money to Gotham charities that actually needed it. Even with everything stacked against her, Holly always had a soft spot for helping people.
Switzerland: Digging Into the Past
Selina’s now in Switzerland, and she can’t help but think about how the ice in the mountains there holds centuries of history, frozen and hidden. Foreshadowing, because there’s clearly more buried in these mountains than snow.
The Auction House
At the auction house, Selina is going by the name Ms. Payne (a reference to Doris Payne, a real-life, very famous jewel thief). Her AI assistant, Jonsey, feeds her information on who’s likely bidding on the sphere.
Someone meets her asking price in full, and the deal is set. Once the sphere is verified, the money lands in her account.
As she’s handing the sphere over, a familiar voice says, “Hey, stranger.” It’s Victoria Sage, the second stray, the genius from her old crew. Selina hasn’t seen her in years, not since the Calicos went their separate ways.
Victoria isn’t happy. She calls Selina out for selling something that Holly gave her to the highest bidder, saying she hasn’t changed a bit. Selina fires back that she was trying to figure out what the sphere is, and asks how Victoria knows it’s connected to Holly.
Victoria said Holly came to her last week, completely out of nowhere, going on about some wild plan to steal it and track down something called “the yarn.” Victoria turned her away. Afterward, out of curiosity, she did some digging, and the sphere Holly had showed up at auction.
Selina explains her side: Holly found the item, hid it in a birthday cake, and basically dumped the problem on her.
Everything Goes Sideways
Selina realizes they need to leave immediately, because she’d secretly set the ice beneath the building to melt as a backup escape plan. Before Victoria can respond, Helena Bertinelli comes crashing through a window shouting that they need to get out. She freezes when she sees Selina. It’s a reunion nobody planned.
As they run, Selina admits to herself how easily the three of them slipped back into old habits, like no time has passed at all. That’s the tricky thing about a shared past: it pulls you right back into the person you tried hard to leave behind.
Outside, they discover people are hurt or dead. Helena explains she heard gunfire, ran in, and fought off the auction house guards trying to stop her, but she never saw who or what caused all the damage.
Then Selina notices something is very wrong. There are shadows in the room that shouldn’t exist, moving on their own. First copycat thieves, now living shadows. Selina realizes she’s underestimated whoever she’s up against, and now Helena and Victoria are tangled up in the danger too.
One of the shadows tries to grab the sphere from Selina, and drops it right in front of Cassandra Cain, the person who kidnapped Holly in the first issue. They start fighting.
An Old Rule, Broken Again
During the chaos, Selina remembers a rule she set for the crew back in the day: if someone gets caught, the others leave them behind, no looking back. But then we see a flashback to nine years ago, when Selina herself was the one who got caught. Instead of abandoning her, the others came back and saved her.
In the present, Selina does the same thing for Helena and Victoria. She’s honest with herself about why, though. It’s not really about old friendship. She knows she’s going to need backup to get through what’s coming.
What the Sphere Actually Is
Victoria finally explains what the sphere is for. It’s a key that unlocks a map leading to something called “the Yarn,” an incredibly advanced, synthetic intelligence powerful enough to build a convincing fake reality. Hackers always assumed the Yarn was an urban legend.
How It Ends
The issue closes with Selina reflecting on everything. She’s spent a lot of energy trying to steal back her old life and reclaim her story. She realizes she doesn’t have to reclaim anything. She can write a new one instead.
The final panel shifts to Cassandra Cain, using the sphere to open up a glowing digital map of the entire globe. She’s not alone. Someone is standing beside her, but we don’t know who it is.
