Selina Kyle was a lonely, frustrated woman pushed over the edge into obsession and crime after her boss, tycoon Max Shreck, tried to kill her to keep her from revealing his plot to build a power plant that would steal Gotham's electricity.
Batman Returns[]
Selina before becoming Catwoman.
Selina Kyle worked as a secretary for the powerful and ruthless Max Shreck, owner of a business empire and the department store Shreck's. Despite being a secretary, Selina fancied herself as more as an executive assistant, since she helped out in more ways than a mere secretary. On Christmas Eve, Shreck forgot his speech and Selina tried to take it to him, but the city came under attack by the Red Triangle Gang and she herself was taken hostage by one of the clowns. Batman intervened and saved her by knocking the clown out. Selina instantly became fascinated with Batman, who took his leave. She took her defeated clown captor's taser home as a self-defense weapon. At her flat, things were no better. Selina listened to unpleasant messages on her answering machine: the first from her parents, who express disappointment at Selina not going home for Christmas; the second from her boyfriend, who had decided to go on a Christmas holiday on his own on advice from his psychologist; and the third from herself, reminding her that she has to go back to work and prepare documents for Shreck's meeting with Bruce Wayne, something she herself had anticipated she would forget. As she went through the files, Selina inadvertently discovered that Shreck's proposed Power Plant would suck power from Gotham City and store it, effectively bringing Gotham under control of the Shreck family. Shreck himself appeared and confronted her about this information, and though Selina swore that she would not let it slip, Shreck pushed her out of the window to silence her. Though she apparently died, she was mysteriously revived by alley cats and returned home in a daze. When
"Meow."
her answering machine gave an advert on a perfume sold by Shreck, Selina appeared to suffer a psychotic break: ransacking her apartment, destroying some of her possessions, and sewing a homemade cat costume in preparation for her revenge on Shreck. Calling herself Catwoman, Selina became a vigilante in her own right; on her first night, she brutally beat a mugger for trying to rape a helpless woman, but then chastised the woman for being unable to defend herself. The next day, Selina appeared in Shreck's office while he was speaking with Bruce Wayne, covered in bandages and sporting a more confident and assertive attitude, somewhat impressing Shreck. Selina feigned amnesia and an instant attraction developed between herself and Bruce. A few days later, during an attack on the city by the Red Triangle Gang, Catwoman blew up the bottom floor of Shreck's store, bringing her into conflict with Batman. In the ensuing fight, Catwoman stabbed Batman in the abdomen (not severely), while Batman napalmed Catwoman's arm and knocked her into a truck of kitty litter, killing her a second time. In response, Catwoman joined forces with The Penguin to destroy Batman, and the two came up with a plan to frame him for kidnapping the Ice Princess and killing him by turning his Batmobile into a bomb. Meanwhile, whilst in the city, Selina came across Bruce and the two talked for a while before Bruce invited her for an early dinner at his house. Over dinner, Selina and Bruce spoke about Bruce's personal life, and Bruce revealed that he had trouble with his previous girlfriend, Vicki Vale, over his apparent difficulty with duality. Once Bruce makes it clear that he and Vicki were finished, Selina lept on him and the two started kissing passionately. Their attempts to become more intimate resulted in almost exposing the other's injury and they abruptly stop.
Batman Forever[]
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