Caroline Keene "Carrie" Kelley

Caroline Keene "Carrie" Kelley is introduced in The Dark Knight Returns as a 13-year-old schoolgirl and scout who, during Batman's return from retirement, saves Batman's life after a confrontation with the Mutants. She purchases a Robin costume with her own money and, after rescuing and aiding an injured Batman (making a sling from part of her cape and a piece of pipe), is accepted by him as his new Robin and begins training and operating alongside him within Miller's Gotham.

At introduction she appears as a 13-year-old schoolgirl and scout who acquires a Robin outfit and uses simple equipment such as a cape, slingshot, and firecrackers. In The Dark Knight Strikes Again she adopts the identity "Catgirl," wearing a skin-tight, leopard-patterned cat costume and employing motorized roller-skates and an arm cannon that fires batarangs. In The Dark Knight III: The Master Race she is later presented in a green-and-purple Bat-themed outfit as a form of advancement/graduation. The Strikes Again volume also depicts severe combat injuries (lacerations to the lips and several broken bones) and later disfigurement from violent encounters described in the trilogy.

Carrie Kelley is a non-supernatural, highly resourceful adolescent operative: prior to formal training she is trained in gymnastics, and she demonstrates improvisational skill (e.g., fashioning a sling from her cape to assist Batman). Over time she receives combat training from Batman, uses an evolving arsenal from slingshot and firecrackers to batarangs and an arm cannon, and assumes leadership responsibilities—training and commanding a group of younger operatives (the Batboys/Bat Army). Behaviorally she is proactive, courageous, emotionally complex, and persistent in service alongside Batman.