Catwoman #81

Issue Details

Synopsis

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE Catwoman is locked in solitary confinement since the events of last issue, and she is refusing to eat. Her guards say that she'll probably be "leaving the program soon" remark on how they expected better from the great Catwoman.   Catwoman hallucinates scenes from her past: Her mother Maria is making dinner when Selina comes home from gymnastics, and Maria sends her daughter to go wake up her drunk and sleeping father Brian, who reacts violently. Maria sees and yells at him for hurting their daughter.  Brian says he doesn't want to eat what Maria makes for dinner, and Maria tells him there's no money for better food. Brian says it always comes down to money with Maria, and they argue about how Brian was disowned by his well-off family for marrying Maria. Maria asks Selina where her sister is, and Selina says she doesn't have a sister as Maggie fades from existence before her eyes.   Brian says that the only thing Maria has ever done for him is give him more mouths to feed, and he doesn't even know if Selina is his since she looks nothing like him. Maria says Brian doesn't have to worry about any more mouths to feed now that he can't even--   Brian punches Maria in the face and yells for her to "Shut up!"   Maria recovers and pulls Selina out of the room while dinner burns. She tells Selina to go visit Mrs. Albergina downstairs for a while and to take her sister with her. Once again, Selina claims she doesn't have a sister.   Selina returns home in her school uniform to find the kitchen a mess and her father passed out drunk. She calls out for her mother and looks around the apartment for her. She finds her in the bathroom, dead in the bathtub from an apparent suicide.   Maria comes to life then and asks, "Did you know she was dead?" When Selina admits she did, Maria asks, "And how did you feel?" The young Selina throws her hands up and says, "I hated them! My dad and... and.. and everybody. My dad's family."   "Hmmm... Okay. Now what do you do?" Maria asks.   Selina goes to get her father and tries to wake him up, but he won't budge. She calls the police.   The apartment is swarmed with officers and paramedics as one paramedic interviews Selina about how and why her mother killed herself. The paramedic says, "Uh-huh, okay. That was good. Now I want you to relax... and come back... When did your father die?"   Brian dies a couple of years later from his alcoholism. One day she goes to wake him up in his chair, and his body falls to the ground. Selina calls 911, then packs her backpack and leaves.   Selina's reflection asks, "What happened to your sister?" Selina again insists that she doesn't have a sister. She imagines seeing Maggie aflame as she runs away from her family's apartment building.   Selina is wearing the same clothes but filthy as she tells an older girl that stealing is wrong. The older girl says, "You're hungry, right?" Selina is grabbed by Mr. Cho, the owner of the grocery store she attempted to shoplift from, and she is sent to Seagate Juvenile Home for Girls.   "So they caught you?" another girl on the bus asks as they're processed by Seagate. "And then what did you do?"   "I escaped," Selina answers, and she wakes up in solitary confinement.   The next time the guards come with breakfast, Selina attacks them, and she strips one of her clothing to change into and then throws the other guard inside a second solitary cell, saying, "Here's some clothes for you."   "Thanks. Just give me a minute," another prisoner says.   Selina declares she's on her own and takes off down the hall where she runs into Sergeant Perez. Selina pulls the knife out of Perez's shoe and holds it to her throat, demanding that she take her to see Director Norsing.   Uniqua Roche sees what's happening and tells "Jane Doe" that she doesn't want to do this. To which Selina replies, "You're wrong, Uniqua--I'll do anything to get out of here!"