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Jan. 10th, 2019 09:37 pmSelina Kyle was born in Gotham.
This is true, no matter where she was actually born.
She has some vague memories of her mother before she was abandoned on the streets at the age of five. Technically, it was in front of an orphanage; technically, she was placed into foster care soon after, but what Selina remembers is the street. It was to the streets that she returned, over and over again, at first looking for her mother and then because of the freedom they offered.
It wasn't because she thought the streets were safe. The streets of Gotham were as metaphorical as they were literal - hard lines and sharp edges - they weren't safe, but at least they didn't lie about it. She learned quickly. It hurt, but pain was a good teacher, and hunger was a good motivator.
Survival was her priority.
Selina learned how to steal what she needed. She learned how to claw to keep it. When she was in her late teens, she joined up with a master thief and elevated her trade to the next level; it was with him that she first left Gotham, left it for years.
When she came back, Gotham was a new city, and she was a different woman. The demands of what she'd set out to do required that she walk on both sides of the law. So as Selina Kyle took the upper world of Gotham's social circles by a storm, Catwoman snuck into Carmine Falcone's study and emptied his safe - only to be interrupted by Batman. This began a long and circling dance of weaving in and out of each other's lives, over the course of which they both quickly determined the other's alternate identity. Events unfold very similarly to Batman: Dark Victory, Catwoman: When in Rome, and The Long Halloween.
But eventually Selina returns to Gotham to continue to chase down the trail of her family, looking for definitive proof and determining to gain retribution for what had been taken from her and others like her. She stole from the criminals, she stole from the elite, and she circled Batman.
It wasn't enough to make her stay, but after Bane broke Batman's back and Dick Grayson took the cowl to cover, things... changed. She'd... seen the impact having a protector made to the people in the Narrows and the East End. She'd... seen the way criminals were now afraid, when they'd been the ones making others afraid.
She didn't want it to go back to the way it before. The people saying 'Batman had made things worse' just had real short memories, or had never been touched by the fear of consequences before. So she stuck around, not to nurse Bruce back to health (though she spent more time in the manor than in her own apartment), but to help pick up the slack. And then... things shifted further. Trust built between her and Bruce, trust which complicated what they already had and made it so that when she left Gotham, when she returned... there was a place for her.
She continued her activities as a master thief, as Dick left for Bludhaven, as Bruce took in Jason. It wasn't something she gave much thought to, it just sort of happened that eventually her trips out of Gotham became more business than pleasure, that although she retained the deed to her apartment building in the East End, that she spent more and more of her time in the manor. Until Jason died, and Bruce fell apart, and nothing she could do changed anything.
She left. She didn't go back to the United States. She made reckless decisions, taking on big jobs and dangerous customers. After the formation of the Justice League made news, after seeing Bruce look so much better, she had to go back just to see him. One thing led to another and now Selina is back in Gotham, familiar with the League even if she's certainly not a member, she consults, and for a little while... things just might be almost happy.
This is true, no matter where she was actually born.
She has some vague memories of her mother before she was abandoned on the streets at the age of five. Technically, it was in front of an orphanage; technically, she was placed into foster care soon after, but what Selina remembers is the street. It was to the streets that she returned, over and over again, at first looking for her mother and then because of the freedom they offered.
It wasn't because she thought the streets were safe. The streets of Gotham were as metaphorical as they were literal - hard lines and sharp edges - they weren't safe, but at least they didn't lie about it. She learned quickly. It hurt, but pain was a good teacher, and hunger was a good motivator.
Survival was her priority.
Selina learned how to steal what she needed. She learned how to claw to keep it. When she was in her late teens, she joined up with a master thief and elevated her trade to the next level; it was with him that she first left Gotham, left it for years.
When she came back, Gotham was a new city, and she was a different woman. The demands of what she'd set out to do required that she walk on both sides of the law. So as Selina Kyle took the upper world of Gotham's social circles by a storm, Catwoman snuck into Carmine Falcone's study and emptied his safe - only to be interrupted by Batman. This began a long and circling dance of weaving in and out of each other's lives, over the course of which they both quickly determined the other's alternate identity. Events unfold very similarly to Batman: Dark Victory, Catwoman: When in Rome, and The Long Halloween.
But eventually Selina returns to Gotham to continue to chase down the trail of her family, looking for definitive proof and determining to gain retribution for what had been taken from her and others like her. She stole from the criminals, she stole from the elite, and she circled Batman.
It wasn't enough to make her stay, but after Bane broke Batman's back and Dick Grayson took the cowl to cover, things... changed. She'd... seen the impact having a protector made to the people in the Narrows and the East End. She'd... seen the way criminals were now afraid, when they'd been the ones making others afraid.
She didn't want it to go back to the way it before. The people saying 'Batman had made things worse' just had real short memories, or had never been touched by the fear of consequences before. So she stuck around, not to nurse Bruce back to health (though she spent more time in the manor than in her own apartment), but to help pick up the slack. And then... things shifted further. Trust built between her and Bruce, trust which complicated what they already had and made it so that when she left Gotham, when she returned... there was a place for her.
She continued her activities as a master thief, as Dick left for Bludhaven, as Bruce took in Jason. It wasn't something she gave much thought to, it just sort of happened that eventually her trips out of Gotham became more business than pleasure, that although she retained the deed to her apartment building in the East End, that she spent more and more of her time in the manor. Until Jason died, and Bruce fell apart, and nothing she could do changed anything.
She left. She didn't go back to the United States. She made reckless decisions, taking on big jobs and dangerous customers. After the formation of the Justice League made news, after seeing Bruce look so much better, she had to go back just to see him. One thing led to another and now Selina is back in Gotham, familiar with the League even if she's certainly not a member, she consults, and for a little while... things just might be almost happy.
