The following events are fictional in nature. This story is inspired by the book An Unauthorized
Detailed Account of Gotham (1919-1939) by GiantPandaKing. Viewer discretion advised.
For a few, life in Gotham was plentiful and reaped nothing but rewards.
For others, those rewards had to be snatched from the city's very claws.
Selina Kyle was one such person. Even from her early years, she had been known by the Gotham City
Police Department all too well. She never quite felt like she fitted where she was born. She had
lived in an abusive home and took it upon herself to run away late in her childhood. Her father had
been a drunkard and a small time criminal, and her mother was verbally abusive toward her.
She felt like the people who were supposed to provide her with protection and nurturing
had stolen away her childhood. It was no wonder that she truly felt at home out of that house.
It was here, on the streets of Gotham, where she was picked up by Miss Rose,
the most powerful madam in Gotham.
Selina became Miss Rose's right-hand woman, managing all of her establishments and taking care
of problems as they arose. With this came wealth, power, and in a sense of security for Selina.
Selina became a master manipulator, blackmailing many Gotham figureheads and representatives.
She would put them in compromising situations, then photograph them to use as leverage to
gain what she wanted. Aside from this, she was not opposed to also using violent force to get
what she wanted. As times changed and the years progressed, Miss Rose fell out of power in Gotham.
Crime lords like Falcone and Penguin took the center stage, their outfits
taking over many operations. Miss Rose was caught in the crossfire of their takeover,
killed by the gangsters. Selina found herself back on the streets of Gotham fending for herself.
Her safety and security had been ripped away once again.
This taught her an important lesson: to be just herself made her vulnerable; it made her a target.
If she was going to be somebody in Gotham, she needed to be a myth, a legend, untouchable.
She was of course enraptured by the Bat-Man. Here was someone who used his own myth to strike
fear into the hearts of criminality, someone who also didn't quite fit in. What if someone
were to utilize that in a different way? This would allow her to avoid being vulnerable again.
Even though she was inspired by the Bat-Man, that is where the likeness ended.
Choosing the cat as her model of persona, its feline attributes matched her personality greatly.
She had become the Cat-Woman.
She did not care for stopping crime; she sought freedom freedom from expectations,
freedom from the law, and freedom from the "flying rodent" as she often referred to the Bat-Man.
She wanted the freedom that, in her mind, only money could buy.
Utilizing her new persona, she became one of the greatest cat burglars in the world. She
would travel all over, increasing her reputation as well as her wealth. Although she practiced
her craft worldwide, her heart would always bring her back to Gotham. It was her base of operations
and she could not bring herself to abandon it. The other reason she frequently returned was
because Gotham was the one place where she felt challenged. The challenge came from the Bat-Man.
The relationship between the Bat and the Cat was a complex one.
They played many a game of cat and mouse, interchangeably seeking the other one out.
There is also evidence to suggest that, even though they were on opposing sides of the law,
they may have shared some romantic entanglement. Perhaps the similarities between the two of them
was a cause for allure, but they both realized there was a kindred spirit in the other.
Perhaps they realized that neither one of them quite fit in.
We may never know. During the Shadow War in Gotham City, the Bat-Man enlisted the
Cat-Woman's help in the fight. She was a major player in the combat that ensued.
After many years as a cat burglar, and many more adventures with and without the Bat,
the latter end of Selina Kyle's career took a different turn.
Gone were the days of wielding a whip and stealing jewels and other precious objects.
She now stole and traded in something that she considered to be more valuable: secrets.
Selina had become part of the wealthy society scene in Gotham through trading and secrets;
the secrets of the very people she would socialize with.
Some of the most rich and powerful in Gotham were held under her sway. The Bat-Man would
rely on her assistance from time to time on finding individuals or information,
but she often turned him down if the need arose. She might be a criminal, but she still
had a code as a professional criminal. Many years later, after the retirement of Bat-Man,
Selina Kyle used her amassed wealth to help out the poor and unfortunate women of Gotham City.
She went on to create and run a much-needed women's shelter in Gotham's poorer district.
She used her funding, and the shelter also acquired funding from the Wayne Foundation. Even
though her life was a complex web of burglaries, extortion, and other such crimes, Selina hid a
heart of gold beneath it. She fought for the right side when it really counted, and while she enjoyed
holding wealth and power, she ultimately used it to help others in the end. Some chalk it up to her
sometimes allying with the Bat-Man, but still more know it was because deep down she really
cared about Gotham and its people. Selina Kyle ended up being a force for good in Gotham.
They say that as you age, you become who you truly are more and more. That was the case for her.
With Selina Kyle's recent passing, some remember her as a thief and an extortionist, but many more,
especially the women of Gotham, remember her as having helped them in a time of need.
What she had snatched from the claws of Gotham City, she had given back to its people.