• Carrie Kelley E31's Gallery
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  • Artist Info: History<br />
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    Carrie Kelley was a thirteen year old schoolgirl and girl scout on Earth-31 who was attacked by muggers one night, but was saved by the recently returned and grizzled elder Batman on his first night out of retirement. soon she would spend her lunch money on a Robin costume and hunted down some petty con-men to find Batman again, using a slingshot loaded with firecrackers as weapons.<br />
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    In a major difference to the two previous Robins, Carrie does indeed have parents, but they aren't seen much. They were very neglectful of her and through their dialogue were hinted to be activists and yippies during the nineteen-sixties and had become apathetic stoners. In the story, Jason Todd's death during his time as Robin was the reason behind Batman's retirement and when Carrie became the new Robin after saving his life from an enemy, Bruce threatened to fire her numerously for disobeying orders. But since she showed immense talent, he allowed her to stay. When She and Batman found the City Dump lair of ruthless street gang that numbered in the thousands, The Mutants, Batman and the Mutant Leader engaged in hand-to-hand combat. The leader nearly kills Batman but is narrowly defeated by the battered cape crusader. Carrie then attends to him while on the way back to the Batcave and he fully accepts her as the new Robin. fierce Batman critic Ellen Yindel, the new Commissioner, sees this as child endangerment to his growing rap sheet when she sees them on patrol saving a hang-glider.<br />
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    Despite being imprisoned, the Mutant Leader still threatened to unleash the Mutant army during negotiations with the Gotham City mayor. He kills the mayor by ripping his throat out with his teeth. Batman and Carrie infiltrate the Mutants' ranks and spread a rumor of the leader ordering an assembly and get Commissioner Gordon to release him from jail. Batman lures him to a mud-pit and defeats him brutally. With their leader defeated, a number of the Mutants accept Batman as their new leader and name themselves "The Sons of Batman" while several splinter into new groups. Carrie played a major role in the defeat of Batman's resurfaced arch-nemesis, Joker who, after killing the audience at of a late night talk show, forced former Batman flame, Selina Kyle (New Earth) to plant mind altering lipstick on two female escorts who are in Selina's employ and hired by a congressman and the governor of Gotham City. the lipstick makes the congressman commit suicide but Commisioner Yindel saves the governor thanks to Batman's warning, only to be beaten by Joker and dressed in a Wonder Woman costume. He then runs off to a fairground and kills 16 Cub Scouts and plants a bomb on the fairway, which Carrie defuses. When Joker's henchman Fat Abner attacks her, Abner falls and dies instantly and Carrie, shocked, cries.&nbsp At the book's finale, the US government calls upon Superman to take down Batman for good. Carrie delays his arrival with the Batmobile and Superman asks if it's a school night. When Superman engaged Batman in combat, Batman had an arsenal of Green Kryptonite, and various weapons and finished the fight with having Alfred Pennyworth detonate a bomb in the batcave, killing himself and Batman and destroying Wayne Manor and the Batcave in the process. In the end, during Batman's funeral, a "relative" of Bruce Wayne comes to the procession to claim the body. Superman, attending the funeral, hears the heartbeat of Batman in the coffin and recognizes the "relative" as Carrie, winks at her, and flies away. Carrie unearths Batman after everyone leaves and Batman, Robin and Green Arrow go literally "underground" and establish a new Batcave with the Sons of Batman to fight on.    <br />
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    The Dark Knight Returns<br />
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    Kelley's first appearance was in the critically-acclaimed graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns. Kelley was a thirteen year old schoolgirl and scout whom Batman saved from a sadistic group of gang members on the night of his return from retirement. Idolizing the Dark Knight, she then spent her lunch money on a Robin outfit, set out to attack petty con-men and to find Batman in the hope of becoming his partner. Kelley used a slingshot and firecrackers as weapons. She also wore green-tinted sunglasses.<br />
    Unlike the previous Robins, Kelley is not an orphan, but she appears to have rather neglectful parents who are never actually seen — one of them mutters "Didn't we have a kid?" while their daughter is witnessing the fierce battle between Batman and the street gangs known as the Mutants. It is hinted through their dialogue that they were once activists and possibly hippies during the 1960s, but have since become apathetic stoners.<br />
    In the series, Jason Todd's death had led to the Dark Knight's retirement, but Batman accepted her as Robin when she saved his life just as he was on the verge of being killed by an enemy. He often threatened to fire her but she showed considerable ability and improvisation which impressed him enough to give her a stay of dismissal even when she disobeyed his orders.<br />
    The police, now led by newly-appointed Commissioner Ellen Yindel, took a very poor attitude to Batman and his methods and issued a warrant for his arrest. When she saw Batman with a young child leaping in mid-air and barely catching a passing hang-glider, Yindel added child endangerment to the growing list of charges against Batman.<br />
    As Robin, Carrie played a crucial part in tracking down and confronting the Joker who, at a fairground, had poisoned several children and planted a bomb on a roller coaster. While Batman went after his age-old nemesis, Carrie managed to dispose of the bomb but got into a tangle with Fat Abner, the Joker's accomplice. As they grappled together, Abner suddenly fell and was killed, driving Carrie momentarily into shock and tears, but recovering enough to rescue a seriously injured Batman from capture by the police and help heal his wounds with his faithful butler Alfred Pennyworth.<br />
    Unnerved by Batman's activities, the US government sent Superman to bring him down. As the big battle was about to start, Carrie delayed Superman's arrival using the tank-like Batmobile and a slingshot, to which the Man of Steel simply replied "Isn't tonight a school night?"<br />
    Using a variety of powerful weapons, including self-made Kryptonite, Batman managed to defeat Superman but died in the process. It later emerged that he had faked his own death and Carrie unearthed him from his grave soon after he revived. They then went underground to the Batcave where, with Green Arrow, they set about training various teenage street gangs into an army that was to deal with "worse than thieves and murderers."    <br />
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    The Dark Knight Strikes Again<br />
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    In The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Miller's sequel to D.K.R., Kelley was sixteen and called herself Catgirl. She still remained Batman's able second-in-command. She wore a skin-tight cat costume with a leopard pattern, and was now trained extensively in combat. Her equipment included motorised rollerskates and an arm cannon that fired batarangs.<br />
    Catgirl's main duty was to oversee an army of "batboys" to help save the world from a police-state dictatorship, led by Lex Luthor and Brainiac. She led them into battle, liberating imprisoned heroes such as the Atom and Flash. But she also caused serious injury to a Batboy who had exceeded her orders by maiming and killing a couple of police officers. She beat him up and told the others to treat him but not bother with anesthetic. Once she was alone however she broke down in tears but was offered a comforting hand by Batman — Dick Grayson refers to her as "The daughter (Batman) never had" but also as "jailbait", a term used to describe a potential sexual partner who is underage.<br />
    Carrie attempted to kill the new Joker with arrows, thermite, acid and C4. However he still returned to make an attempt on her life, turning out to be a now homicidal Dick Grayson, who resented her because he had been shoddily treated and dumped by Batman. Her lips were badly lacerated in the fight. Thinking that she was about to die, she told Batman that she loved him, with Batman later reflecting that he felt the same (Frank Miller clarified in an interview in the book Batman through the Ages that Batman saw Carrie as a daughter).<br />
    She was rescued by Ralph Dibny while Grayson was killed by Batman.    <br />
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    Powers and Abilities<br />
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    Talented in acrobatics and can fight efficently in hand-to-hand combat. She is also skilled in first aid, as she was seen splinting the arm that Batman broke after fighting the Mutant gang's leader. In addition, like the other Robins and Batman himself, she is able to think quickly and cleverly at the tensest parts of fights, since she successfully evacuated Batman with his helicopter while disobeying his orders. With Batman safe from getting caught by the new commissioner, Bruce took back his decision to fire Robin.<br />
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    (taken from Wikipedia and the Batman Wikia)
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