Catwoman

Catwoman is perhaps known best for her strange love-hate relationship with Batman. Before her identity as the feline felon was revealed, she lived under the identity of Selina Kyle, a wealthy animal activist among the aristocrats of Gotham City, dedicating her life and her money to protecting wildcats from the greedy owners of corporations that threatened to destroy their habitats. While the enigmatic Ms. Kyle was getting closer to Bruce Wayne, ironically, the same attraction was budding between Catwoman and Batman on her nightly thievery runs. Catwoman operates under a policy of assertiveness bordering on (and often crossing into) aggressiveness. She has no qualms about doing whatever she can to get what she wants, even if it means breaking the law or breaking some bones. Abiding by her own set of rules has landed her in jail many times in the past, but not without landing her in the arms of Batman first. Their love is one forbidden by their differing codes of honor, but one that compels each one to be ever-waiting to catch the other in case of a fall. Indeed, Catwoman has saved Batman from certain death several times, just as he has gone to great lengths to do the same for her. Love, it seems, can just as easily develop between two people from different "catwalks" of life. COMIC ORIGINS: In the current comic series, the origins of Catwoman are considerably darker. Selina Kyle was the only child to a dyfunctional family. Suffering from heavy depression, her Hispanic mother slit her own wrists to commit suicide, and her father drank himself to death soon afterwards. Selina found both their bodies on both occasions, and after reporting the death of her father to the police, was sent to a orphanage where she was abused time and time again by the corrupt schoolmistress for asserting her independence and strong will. It wasn't long before Selina sought her revenge, uncovering and then reporting the schoolmistress's long history of embezzelement. She escaped before the authorities came to shut the orphange down. Now a young teen, she spent some time on the streets, perfecting her skills in thievery as a matter of survival. In her mid-to-late teen years, she joined a circus where she learned acrobatics, body contortion, and slight-of-hand from the performers. She was forced to leave her "family", however, when the manager of the circus died in an unfortunate accident during a show and the circus was forced to close and disband. Taking to the streets once more, Selina was now a young woman. She made her money as a prostitute until a dark and mysterious vigilante named "Batman" began to grace the streets of Gotham. Inspired by his noble brand of costumed justice, she began to don her own suit so that she could prowl the streets, taking from the rich and affluent as she pleased. Though she is primarily a thief, she has been known to right the wrong whenever a situation that required her skill has arisen. In the comics, she stands as one of the sexiest and most notorious of the anti-heroes.