Warning! Spoilers ahead for Batman: The Knight #2
Thanks to the latest issue of DC Comics' Catwoman began long before Bruce Wayne became the Dark Knight (and even before he met Selina Kyle). While this new series has been detailing Bruce Wayne's earliest years training to be a vigilante, it's also revealed much more beyond the skills and knowledge he learned to one day become the Batman. Likewise, Bruce's inner struggles and even early romances are being explored as well.
In this new series from writer Chip Zdarksy and artist Carmine di Giandomenico, Bruce Wayne has decided to focus and channel his rage into fighting crime and bringing the worst the world has to offer to justice. As such, Bruce has envisioned himself as a modern-day knight (the Bat inspiration coming later). Leaving Gotham in search of the best teachers to help him learn the multitude of skills Bruce will need to become an effective vigilante, the newest issue of The Knight revealing Paris as his first stop. However, the City of Love also serves as a fitting location for Bruce to form a very particular attraction.
In Batman: The Knight #2, the young vigilante comes across a cat burglar the papers call "The Gray Shadow". While she easily evades and ghosts Bruce to his shock and awe, the woman (whose real name is Lucie) finds Bruce in the morning, offering to teach him what she knows so he can one day catch people just like her. Surprisingly, Bruce s her in her thieving escapades, justifying his actions with the belief that he needs to get inside the minds of criminals and how they operate, even if that means becoming a criminal before becoming Batman (however briefly). Following several days of Bruce learning from Lucie, he gets shot in the leg while attempting to steal from a corrupt CEO. While tending to his wound, Lucie encourages Bruce's crusade in the midst of his fear of what he'll become in the future. Bruce then kisses the cat burglar to her surprise (proving that the future Batman has always had a type).
While the young Wayne can't be blamed for misreading the situation given the circumstances and ions being shared, kissing Lucie is very telling for his future such as Batman's relationship with Selina Kyle's Catwoman. It seems as though the French thief was a very formative first crush, seemingly motivating his ongoing romance with Selina in the present, a cat burglar herself who's also one of the few people the Dark Knight confides in.
At the very least, "The Gray Shadow" of Bruce Wayne's past proves his unique attraction. That being said, the comparisons between Lucie and Selina aren't hard to miss. It seems as though Catwoman likely reminded Batman of Lucie the more encounters he had with Selina, eventually leading to their relationship and romance in Gotham City going forward in DC Comics.
