Recent events found Selena Kyle empowered with the nine lives of a cat. The latest issue of Catwoman by Tini Howard and Carmine Di Giandomenico confirms the source of this blessing. What’s more, it also gives Selena Kyle a rare chance to tap the same divine power as Shazam.
Catwoman 62 opens with a flashback to when Selena Kyle tried and seemingly failed to steal from Amanda Waller. Somehow, Selena got “The Wall” to agree to let her go in exchange for running a mission for the Suicide Squad at a later date. With her newfound extra lives enabling her to die another day, Selena approached Waller about paying off her debt.
Selena was dispatched from Egypt as part of a Suicide Squad taskforce. Their goal was to infiltrate Khandaq and steal a priceless Egytpian artifact from the palace of Black Adam. This brought Catwoman into contact with a statue of the cat goddess Bastet and sent her soul to meet the goddess herself.
Catwoman is Blessed by Many Gods
Bastet confirmed that she was responsible for Selena’s nine lives power, while admitting her exposure to the same meteor that empowered Vandal Savage helped things. Bastet also revealed that the gods Sobek, Hut, Ankh, Zoser, Aten, and Mau wished to offer Catwoman a gift. By remembering their names and saying “the magic word,” Selena could gain their power for a brief moment.
That moment came at the issue’s end when Catwoman sought to settle matters with Amanda Waller. Unsurprisingly, “The Wall” had no intention of honoring their bargain and activated the bomb she’d placed in Selena’s brain. Beyond being too independent, Waller felt Selena was now too prominent a hero to be dismissed as a rogue operative, like most Suicide Squad recruits.
Thankfully, Selena’s extra life saved her. However, she was still sealed up in Amanda Waller’s bunker. This normally would have been enough to trap even Catwoman, but the power of Shazam got Selena to safety and freedom.
Catwoman #62 is now available at comic shops everywhere.