Huntress

Miss (Title)

Hel (Nickname)

Tomaso Bertinelli (Uncle/Guardian)

Santo Cassamento (Biological Father, Deceased)

Birds of Prey (Founding Member)

The Titans (Alumna)

The Society (Member)

Outlaws (Member, Mole)

ARGUS (Brainwashed, Freed)

## **History**

### **Helena Bertinelli: 1994 - 2009**

Helena was born the daughter of Franco Bertinelli, a Mafioso that ran Gotham’s Lower East Side, and Franco’s wife Maria. Helena was eight on the night that Carmine Falcone and Sal Maroni were arrested, things forever changed for the Bertinellis. The family became a prominent family in Gotham, having seized much of the territory and operations once controlled by both Falcone and Maroni families (which were now mere shadows of their former glory). A year after that, Tony Zucco was killed and the Bertinellis were the unchallenged masters of Gotham’s underworld. Helena was placed in the best private schools in Gotham. Helena took self-defense classes so she would not have to rely on her bodyguards alone.

On Helena’s fourteenth birthday, a dozen masked men broke into the Bertinelli home. Helena was held captive by the masked leader as he forced her to watch the massacre that followed. When Maria Bertinelli managed to break away and use an antique crossbow to injure the leader’s leg, she paid for that act with her life. Helena recognized the purpose of her mother’s sacrifice and used the opportunity to free herself, knock off the leader’s mask, and pull the bolt from the man’s leg. Before she repeatedly stabbed the man’s face, Helena recognized it as belonging to Roman Sionis, the power-hungry son of a minor Mafioso once sworn to the Falcones. Embarrassed, Roman Sionis had his men capture Helena, intent on taking her with them. But the Batman arrived and, at the cost of letting Sionis and his men escape, rescued Helen; something which would forever upset Helena. After that, Helena was sent to live with family in Italy.

She would not remain there long when a blood test revealed it was impossible for Franco Bertinelli to be her biological father. Determined to reach the bottom of this mystery, Helena returned to Gotham City. So she requested that Franco's drunk brother Tomasso be made her legal guardian as he was Helena's last remaining connection to Gotham. In order not to jeopardize her placement in Tomasso's care, Helena had herself enrolled into Brentwood Academy and there Helena was an outcast among the elitist children that surrounded her. In time, Helena became good friends with the school other pariah, Jason Todd.

Utilizing her skills at manipulation, Helena began a romantic relationship with Jason Todd and threatened to report his recurring injuries to social services. In order to keep Helena quiet, Jason agreed to help her with her investigation and it, Helena was able to get her first break on the case of her true father’s identity. The investigation led the two to suspect that Helena’s fathers was Santo Cassamento, one of Falcone’s men who was then working for Black Mask...

### **Batgirl II: 2009 - 2012**

As it turned out, Cassamento was also a suspect serial rapist. The next morning, Helena was shocked to have learned that Santo Cassamento fell to his death from a rooftop the night before.

After breaking a few more laws, Helena found a security tape that showed the Batman’s boy wonder, Robin, chasing Cassamento shortly before the man’s death. It did not take Helena long for her to connect the clues and come to the conclusion that Jason Todd was Robin. When she confronted him later, he admitted it and even took her to the Batcave (knowing Jason it was most likely an attempt to get in her pants.) Alfred caught them… and the made for a really long, awkward dinner at Wayne Manor that night, Barbara know because she was there… After a really long and brutal conversation, Helena somehow managed to convince Bruce to let her join our Bat-Club… on the condition that Barbara train her. All said, she was a good Batgirl… at first.

### **Huntress: 2012 - 2020**

Helena lasted as Batgirl for just a few months after finishing her training. She had the misfortune of taking on the mantle at a difficult time. She witnessed the death of her close friend Jason Todd, Gotham fell victim to a massive terrorist attack, and the breaking of the city’s guardian, Batman, at the hands of Bane. To her credit, Helena kept with the gig, maintaining her patrols and picking up the slack from Batman’s absence. I don’t think it was the burden of fighting crime that go to Helena; I think it was the stress of working with Bruce.

After the break-up between her and the Bat, it was mere nights before the Huntress showed up among the ranks of the nascent vigilante group known as the Birds of Prey. With Canary and Oracle, Huntress played a big part in winning back Gotham from the criminal element that had consumed it. When the city was stabilized once more, Helena used her inheritance to attend college by day and continued to rough up criminals by night. When Bruce returned to patrol, Oracle had to do by best to keep the two across town from one another whenever possible.

After she gave a few more scars to Roman Sionis, she cooled of a little (“little” being the keyword). Nowadays, when she’s not hopping rooftops or busting heads, Helena spends her days correcting history exams and teaching Italian to inner city kids at Cameron Kane High School. I doubt many students believe me if a I told them that their teacher, Miss Bertinelli, moonlights as a leggy vigilante archer in short shorts.

When Selina Kyle was severely injured by Hush, and with Bruce Wayne missing, Selina came to Helena for help. Helena used her questionable connections to arrange discreet transport for Selina and also arranged a meeting with Talia al Ghul that allowed Selina to recover from her grievous injuries using League of Assassins resources. For Helena's aid, Selina decided to name her daughter after her.

### **Huntress: 2020 - Present**

Recently I have become aware of Helena's outings with Andrea Beaumont (first one when Thomas Elliot started impersonating Bruce after shooting him in 2016) as the two have been investigating the "Court of Owls" (believing they are responsible for her parent's death). When I discovered that she willfully lied, sabotaged my equipment, and put Dick Grayson in danger to further her investigation, she sided with Red Hood and his Outlaws, gaining their aid in fleeing Gotham. Her whereabouts remain unknown.

## **Personality**

Helena Rosa Bertinelli is a strong and hardened woman, who buried her fears and personal traumas under her hate and her determination. As the Huntress, she’s a violent and implacable crime fighter, who believes that only death can cure the evil inside human heart, and systematically hunts down and kills the members of the Mafia families in Gotham. This policy brought her to divergences with her mentor, Batman, and his sidekicks **Robin** and **Nightwing**, but, having a common cause to pursue, they sometimes get along long enough to bring down some criminals (she also had a brief romantic relationship with Nightwing). A devoted Catholic, the Huntress thinks of herself as some sort of nun with a holy mission: to eradicate Mafia from the world, and she’s ready to do anything to accomplish her goal.

## **Trivia**

* After a night of heavy drinking, Barbara Gordon learned that Helena lost her virginity to Jason in the Batcave of all places. Though, she does not know if she can believe this as she has heard at least four other stories about how Helena lost her virginity, two of which don't involve Jason. Yes... Helena is as promiscuous as that makes her seem.
* Helena used to wear a much more modest costume, but made some changes when she heard Jason Todd was alive.
* Helena was prone to flipping off paparazzi and using crass language on television during her time with the Titans.
* Helena's best friend is Karen Starr. The two take frequent vacations together, often with Donna Troy as well.
* Helena is an honorary Amazon warrior, having been given the honor by Queen Hippolyta herself.
* Helena is a heavy drinker but does not seem to be an alcoholic as she seems fully capable of being sober for weeks at a time if she is working on an important case.
* After Jason died, Helena became the first official dropout from the Titans. Her membership was reinstated later as Victor Stone understood her reasons for having quit. Eventually coming back and graduating the program.
* Her mother used an antique crossbow to save Helena's life. Helena uses a crossbow as a heroine now as a reminder of that night.
* Barbara listed Helena's sexual orientation as "straight-ish" because Helena admits she can become "lesby-like" if you put a few drinks in her. Having been on the receiving end of my former roommate's drunken affections, she can verify this. Apparently, someone told Hal Jordan about this and he tried his best to hook up with Helena and Zinda for a threesome. Helena and Zinda both say it didn't happen, Dinah is convinced it did.
* Helena's favorite non-alcoholic drink is desert pear lemonade from Chicken Whizee. It's a seasonal beverage so that means that at least once a year, Helena comes home utterly depressed when she finds out it's been discontinued for the remainder of the year. This usually means some poor thug that night gets put in the hospital with an extra injury... or five.
* Helena has a not-so secret crush on Captain Atom. She denies it, but she forgets I can hear her giggle like a schoolgirl through her comms whenever he sits next to her at a Justice League meeting.
* Helena refuses to admit her mask's design was inspired by Dinah's old mask. What both of them failed to remember is that Barbara gave Helena her first mask after she quit being Batgirl and she took the mask from a chest in Dinah's closet. she just spray-painted it before she passed it on to Helena. Their constant arguments over this subject continue to serve as an endless source of entertainment for me.
* Helena is a devout Catholic. She goes to confession usually about twice a week when she is in Gotham, having revealed her identity as Huntress to a particular priest.
* As a member of the second generation of Titans, Helena was considered to be a member of the "New Generation", a clique among the Titans where the Titans were became incredibly famous after saving the world from a demon invasion.
* Huntress joined the Justice League in 2016 nominated by Wonder Woman.
* The first version of Helena's Oracle File stated she was 130 lbs., in the deluxe edition it says she is 168 lbs... Oracle is obviously very angry at her.
* Helena was captured October 31st 2020 and brainwashed by SPYRAL. Her cooperation with ARGUS might be involuntary, but she might have been persuaded by Andrea Beaumont, who promised to find her parent's killers.
* In 2017 Helena joined the Society.