Helena Bertinelli

## Background

### 1986 - 1998: Helena Bertinelli

Franco & Maria were in for surprise when she went into labor during their Valentine's Day celebration. Helena was born into the Bertinelli family, the infamous Sicilian crime family that ran the East End District of Gotham.

While her father doted upon Helena, he did not care much for her mother. He emotionally & physically abused her but was careful to never hit her face. Her mother eventually fell in love with Santo Cassamento, a mob boss of a rival gang. Cassamento would be the one to order the hit on the Bertinelli family so that he could be with Maria. Telling the hit man "to spare the sister" meaning Maria, he misunderstood & left Helena alive to witness the murder of her whole family when she was only twelve.

### 1998 - 2007: Helena Bertinelli

Following their deaths, she was taken in by Uncle Tomasso & Aunt Graziella in Sicily, where the Bertinelli family originated from. Sicily was the safest place for her so she remained there, raised with her cousins. Though the family was much stronger in Sicily then they were in Gotham, her uncle & cousin still taught her hand to hand combat & how to operate weapons for her own safety. Though the training helped her, her nightmares of her family's & her own eventual death continued to haunt her. Her cousin told her the best way to get over the nightmares was to put an end to those who murdered her family. He then began to teach her how to use a crossbow among other weapons. She continued training until the fall of 2000 when she was sent to a Switzerland boarding school to keep her away from the Sicilian authorities cracking down on her family.

During her time in school, she realized that the mob was not what she grew up to believed it to be. The mob was the source of corruption & evil as well as the reason of her family's murder. It was then Helena began to plot her own revenge. After graduating from high school, Helena returned to her uncle's house in Sicily though it had been abandoned for some time due to her family getting arrested. She took her old crossbow & a number of other weapons then headed back to Switzerland for college.

Helena graduated a year early with a degree in criminology while learning everything she could about the mafia. After finishing college, she went back to Sicily for a short time as she got all the necessary equipment making her own costume. Thinking of herself as a nun, she was devoted to her quest & returned to Gotham in pursuit of vengeance as the Huntress.

### 2007 - 2008: Huntress

Shortly after beginning her days as a vigilante of Gotham, Helena began her hunt for the mob. Her first lead was through the gunman, an assassin by the name of Omerta the Silencer. She also knew that her father’s eyes & hands had been removed from his body & kept in a separate place. She often met with Omerta but was unable to apprehend him, nor was he able to kill her. She eventually discovered that Donald Campbell, her family’s consiglieri was in fact Omerta. While on the trail of Omerta, she is captured by him & taken to Cassamento. It is revealed he kept the eyes & hand to gain access to a vault in addition to some of Helena’s blood. Soon after Cassamento asks Helena to join him & even kills Omerta as a sign of his intent. Instead, she fights him & lets him fall to his death.

Batman was aware of Huntress as a vigilante but upon discovering Cassamento's death, he saw her as a killer. She was able to evade him for months, continuing as an agent against organized crime. She soon learned of a corrupt police officer with connections to the Mafia & began investigating him. Her mission led her to cross paths with Nightwing who was investigating the same officer, believing him to be the killer of two men in Blüdhaven. The two began a brief romantic relationship while working together on the case, leading to him offering her a position on The Team. However, she was at constant odds with Nightwing despite their relationship. This romantic/sexual tension became a recurring theme between the two.

### 2008: Batgirl

During No Man's Land declaration in Gotham, she was one of the few heroes that stayed in the city. Deciding that the city needs a Bat themed hero in the absence of Batman, she took on the identity of Batgirl to better inspire fear into the criminals. She coninued operating as Huntress, making the public & criminals believe there was more heroes in the city. She made a habit of marking territories in No Man's Land, all of which would be adopted by the criminals & GCPD.

Upon Bruce's return, he made it clear to her that he knew it was Huntress under the cape & cowl but allowed her to operate as both vigilantes. After she let Two Face gain territory in the area controlled by Batman & GCPD, the two eventually had a heated conversation with Bats ordering her to give up the mantle. He gave the Batgirl mantle to Cassandra Cain, who was operating as one of Oracle's agents & Helena went back to being Huntress.

### 2008 - Present: Huntress

Her confrontation with Batman set Helena slightly off her game as she ended up in showdown alone against the Joker & his army. She learned his plan of killing hope in Gotham by killing all the babies born in the city that year. With only Helena standing between him & the group of families, she refuses to back down despite being greatly outnumbered. Helena was severely beaten & had to be checked into the hospital. Though she would be out of the game for awhile, Helena fully recovered from the encounter & earned Batman's respect. She also receieved a surprise visit from Dick, who kissed her upon realizing she was alive despite the fact that he was dating Kori at the time.

Impressed, Oracle invited Huntress to become a founding member of the Birds of Prey with her & Black Canary. She was against it initially, due to her difficult relationship with Barbara but agreed when Black Canary required backup to deal with Black Mask. She formed a strong partnership with Dinah & the two even became friends, something Helena felt she has not experienced in awhile. The partnership helped Helena in the field but her violent rage was still present.

After finding a member of the mob pulling a gun on a child, she violenlyt attacked him & would have killed him had Batman not arrived. To help curb Helena's violent attitude, he nominated her for a position in the Justice League. He hoped that being around more heroes might set her on the straight & narrow. Instead, a series of murders pointed to her as the killer, with Huntress became wanted by Batman & Nightwing. She ended up developing a close friendship with Red Robin who believed it wasn't her & tried to help clear her name. She went on the run, even ending up in Star City at one point before she was rescued by The Question. Though meeting for the first time, she went along with him. He took her to Canada, where she was trained by him for three months. After Tim was able to clear her name, she traveled back to Gotham with Question.

The time they spent together sparked a relationship. The two remained on & off for years, even after the birth of their son Jacob Sage. They made their relationship official around the time Jacob turned the age of two. Shortly after, Vic was beaten nearly to death, shot in the head with a pellet gun & thrown into the river to drown. Everyone believed him to be dead but he had in fact survived.

Helena played the role of distraught girlfriend well, fooling even the best investigators she's known. Though she knows Vic is alive, she's had no contact with him due to his & Jacob's safety.

## Romantic Relationships

* Dick Grayson: Lover (2008)
* John Constantine: Fling (2011)
* Rene Ramirez: One Night Stand (2012)
* Jason Todd: Fling (2015)
* Vic Sage: On & Off (2012 - 2016); Boyfriend (2016 - )

## Powers & Abilities

* **Above Average Human Condition:** Huntress works hard to keep her body in peak physical condition. She stated her costume change to include more skin was a result of her 300 crunches a day.
	+ ***Hand to Hand Combat/Martial Arts*:** She is street fighter & is skilled in various styles of martial arts. She spent many years getting into intentional fights just to prove & test her mettle. She is skilled in Boxing, Dragon Style Kung Fu, Karate & Muay Thai.
* **Learned Intellect:** Helena is both street & book smart. She graduated a year early from college & not only studied criminology but spent her whole childhood around criminals.
	+ ***Criminology***: Huntress grew up in a criminal environment & would spend years surrounded by gangs & criminals.
	+ ***Investigation*:** Batman, himself, has mentioned Huntress's prowess during investigation situations. She is credited as the "Batman" of the Birds of Prey.
	+ ***Multilingualism*:** Helena speaks fluent English, Italian & Calabro-Sicilian.
	+ ***Pedagogy***: In her civilian life, Helena works as an English teacher to young children.
	+ ***Tactical Analysis*:** She is very intuitive, as she was able to repeatedly anticipate her enemies plans & deceive them with misdirection.
* **Weaponry**
	+ ***Archery***: Huntress carries her trademark crossbows on her at all times. Whether they're dual mounted mini-crossbows or one large crossbow is up to her as she has proficiency to use both. She's once used a single bolt to split a bullet in two.
	+ ***Firearms***: Over the years, Huntress realized that firing and reloading bolts at armed individuals may not be the most effective even if they were the most non-lethal. She's adapted her arsenal over time to include various firearms.
	+ ***Stick Fighting*:** When she is not using her martial arts or hand to hand combat, her go to is her Battle-Staff, especially when taking on multiple enemies.
* **High Powered** **Crossbow**: Helena keeps a small sized high-powered crossbow mounted on either or both of her forearms.
* **Battle-Staff:** When taking on multiple enemies in close quarters, she prefers her Battle-Staff.

### Weaknesses

* **Santo Cassamento:** The man who ordered the killing of her family.

### Ratings

* **Intelligence:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Strength:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Speed:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Occult:** 1 - Nonexistent
* **Weapons:** 6 - Expert / Advanced
* **Range:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Strategy:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Combat:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **TOTAL:** 110 - Threat Level 3 / General Threat

## Trivia

#### General

* Helena has spent majority of her life growing up around gangs & criminal organizations, which has made her very smart on how they function.
* Dinah & Barbara think the reason she became a teacher was to help other kids.
* She takes more pride in being a teacher than a crimefighter.
* She once drove over a semi-separated bridge with no problem.
* Cynthia Lance gave her the nickname Spinster.
* Helena is very religious & carries a gold cross with her everywhere. Her mother gave it to her as a child.
* She can be reckless at times when she becomes determined or clouded by emotion (i.e. finding out Santo Cassamento put out the hit on her family).
* She states that she had no regret over killing Cassamento.
* Batman has voiced his dislike over Helena's willingness to kill. Over time, she has become more accustomed to conventional methods of crime-fighting.
* Helena is probably one of the biggest flirt you'll meet. It is usually harmless as it never goes anywhere but it gets the other girls mad.
* When she is not working with the Birds or teaching her students, she spends her time solving cold cases, especially when the mafia is involved.
* Following the end of the Cataclysm, Batman supplied Helena with a new uniform & her own bike.
* She joined the Justice League on January 9, 2012. She was nominated by Batman.
* At one point, Helena was willing to go to great lengths to achieve her goals by using sex, threats & even physical violence.
* During Gotham's gang war, she went after Black Mask despite Batman forbidding her too. Luckily, she was saved by Dick before any damage was done.

#### Relationships

* After her & Dick stopped hooking up, she continued to flirt with him to the annoyance of Zatanna & Kori. She stopped doing it when she began dating Vic.
* It's been implied that she had a threesome with Lady Blackhawk & Hal Jordan.
* Dinah Lance is her closest friend. Despite their distinct personalities, they get along well. They frequently work together in the field.
* She is also best friends with Barbara Gordon. The two initially had a very uneasy friendship due to Helena's romance with Dick & Barbara's crush/former relationship on him. She initially brought Helena to the team to keep an eye on her but the two formed a genuine friendship.
* Helena is good friends with Kate Kane, Renee Montoya & Beatriz de Costa.
* She considers Kara Kent to be like a sister.
* She is close to Nikki Nemzer, seeing a lot of her younger self in her.

## Notes

* Her birthday was February 14 on the *Batman: The Brave and the Bold.*
* She is listed under dating & single characters because to the public, she is single.