Catwoman #0

Issue Details

Synopsis

ZIP ME UP A few years ago, Selina Kyle was hired by the mayor's office to perform a rather specific duty, under the title of Mistress of Protocol and Invitation Management. This job required such skills as preventing the mayor's wife from being seen in public with someone in the same dress. In fact, she had recently been promoted, given the task of digging up bits of gossip and information for the mayor to use in casual conversation. This new job would give her more clearance, which Selina intended to take advantage of.   One year prior, Selina had tried her hand at burglary, and was caught. Someone had come to her, then, and invited her to join a second chance program with the mayor's office to help get street kids back on their feet.   Now, in the office, Selina was trying to gain more clearance in order to find out where her brother might have ended up, as they were separated into different foster homes. She convinced a coworker to help her, and they discovered that the name on file for Selina was different from the one she knew. It was a Russian name, but the computer crashed soon after, and they couldn't learn anymore from it.   When Selina was much younger, she had stayed in Oliver's Group Home, where Miss Oliver had trained the children in her care to steal for her. After each job, she would strip search them to prevent them from keeping anything for themselves. On one such occasion, Selina managed to secret a diamond away in her cheek, and promised herself that one day, everything she stole would be hers alone.   On the night she was found by her benefactor, she had tried preparing for the burglary by impersonating a pre-med student at a glamorous party. Unfortunately, her target realized that she was a liar because her hands were not a surgeon's hands. In tears, she ran away, and tried to drown her guilt by breaking into a different place. That was when she was caught. Afterward, her benefactor had promised her a job, promising that if she earned his trust, she could have a penthouse office.   The day after the computer crash, Selina was called up to speak with the man who put her in the second chance program. He noted that she was rising quickly, but warned that he would need to have more reason to trust her. He knew she was complicit in the crash. It was looking at her own file which triggered it. Selina admitted that she had seen that her identity was false, and demanded to know who she was. Desperately, the man warned her to forget she ever saw the name or the file, because it put her in danger to know it. Unable to convince her, he thrust her over the edge of the building. Expecting her death to be imminent, Selina didn't bother to scream.   As she fell, Selina wondered why anyone should have cared if she lived or died. Suddenly, her fall was broken by an awning, and she crashed down into an alley. Still alive, a swarm of the city's cats began to surround her and groom her. Selina realized then that this meant she was somebody important; somebody important enough to be wanted dead.   Months later, Selina had become Catwoman, having cut her first costume from the same cloth she tore through when she nearly fell to her death. Determined to find out who she really was, she broke into the office she used to work at, and stole some computer files. She took the stolen items to a computer expert, who claimed that all of the files on Selina Kyle had been wiped and scrubbed, and there was no record of the Second Chances program ever having existed.