Saturday, 3 May 2014

Catwoman


There have been many versions of Catwoman's origin over the years but details of her possible storyline suggested that Selina Kyle was born to Brian and Maria Kyle in the slums of Gotham City. Her mother was never close to Selina or her sister Maggie and would often rather spend time with her cats then her children. Her father was an abusive and drunken man who would always quarrel with Maria, a homemaker. In her spare time, Selina took gym lessons not just as an extra curricular but to sometimes avoid the domestic violence at home. One day, as she returned home from school, Selina found her mother lying in the bath tub filled with blood. Apparently, Maria had committed suicide by cutting her wrists with a razor blade. Selina’s father hated Selina because she looked like her mother, eventually he drank too much and was subdued to alcohol poisoning. Selina called the police but as soon she hung up the phone, she packed her bag and ran away from home.


Selina lived on the streets while Maggie was taking to an orphanage right away.She became a petty thief who would steal food at grocery stores. Eventually Selina was caught and sent to an orphanage. She caused so much trouble that she would be sent to Juvenile Hall. When Selina was 13 years old she was sent back to an orphanage, but she soon discovered that the place was embezzling money. They would confront her and attempt to cover it all up by drowning Selina in a bag dropped into the river. Selina escapes and returns to the orphanage. She steals documentary proof that they were embezzling money and also stole money to live on her own, she sent the documents to the police to expose them.

As Selina grew older, she became a prostitute but she was quietly a cat burglar by night, stealing jewelries and diamonds from museums and rich people's homes. One night, she stole a valuable totem from a museum when suddenly a hooded ninja interrupted her escape and took the valued item for himself. Selina followed the ninja into a warehouse, which turned out to be a secret martial arts academy. The ninja, known only as Kai, told his Sensei that she is an intruder and a thief and must be severely punished. However, after seeing her fast reflexes, the Sensei politely asked her to join the academy so that she can harness the martial arts skills, in which she accepted.


Several weeks had gone by and Selina's fighting abilities improved dramatically but her relationship with her senior Kai was far from nice. He despised Selina (who was nicknamed "Nehko-Chan" in the academy) and would deliberately hurt her during training. It gave Kai even more grief knowing that the Sensei favored Selina more than the other pupils. A few nights later, a news broke up on television stating that Batman was last seen at Robinsons Park. Curious, Selina walked to the park and caught a glimpse of the Dark Knight in action who glided out of sight moments later. She noticed that Batman was bleeding when she saw a trail of blood and it immediately triggered something in her mind: if someone can don a costume and have everyone either be happy or terrified to see him, she can do the same too. The Batman became her omen and Selina decided to become a costume character as well. She bought a cat costume using all of her savings and resumed her stealing profession using her brand new costume and ability. As she was attempting a robbery at a local store, she was stopped by a group of security guards and one of them called her "Catwoman." Selina loved the name and thus, the Catwoman persona was born.

Creation:


The Cat
Catwoman made her first debut in January 1940 in Batman #1. She was created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, partially inspired by Kane's second cousin by marriage, Ruth Steel. Both she (first credited as simply the Cat) and the Joker were Batman's first two enemies although she was not considered to be an adversary of Batman. She was a very popular character but from September 1954 to November 1966 she took an extended hiatus due to newly developing Comic Book Authority in 1954.

Major Stories:
Early Life finally Revealed
Faces of Evil
Final Crisis
Gotham City Sirens
Blackest Night
Road Home: Catwoman
Night of the Owls
On the Trail of Dollhouse
Return to Gotham
Batman R.I.P

Powers and Abilities:

She has been taught stealth, athletics, hot-wiring, lock-picking, thieving, acrobatics and the martial arts. She was trained by the Armless Master in martial arts and by Wildcat in boxing and street-fighting. She excels at low- and high-tech heists and is the best cat-burglar in Gotham. Catwoman has a good affinity for cats. They often help automatically if she needs it and instantly know that she is a friend. Additionally, Selina was an effective seductress, a talent she employed to remove herself from treacherous situations.

Equipment:
Catwoman has had many different looks over the years. In her first appearance, wore no costume or disguise at all, and it was not until her next appearance that she donned a mask, which was a theatrically face-covering cat-mask that had the appearance of a real cat, rather than a more stylized face mask seen in her later incarnations. Her weapons include her trademark whip, bolas, and an american derringer model 1, a pistol she keeps as a backup.

Costumes:
Later, she wore a dress with a hood that came with ears, and still later, a bodysuit with attached boots and either a domino or glasses-mask. In the 1960s, Catwoman's bodysuit was green in color. In the 1990s, she usually wore a skintight purple bodysuit. Her current costume has a more high tech look, with domino-shaped infra-red goggles on her cowl. Many of her costumes have been shown to incorporate retractable metal claws on the fingertips of her gloves and toes of her boots. They can shred a bullet-proof vest and be used to climb with.

Like all Batman villains, Catwoman has had many themed weapons and gadgets.In her early years cat-themed car called the "cat-illac". Catwoman's favoured weapon is a 12 foot long bullwhip carried on her person either in her boot or in a small backpack, she has a cat-o-nine-tails, elastic ties for binding hands and feet, and a roll of duct tape used to gag her targets.


Source:http://www.comicvine.com/catwoman/4005-1698/








No comments:

Post a Comment