Huntress

The Question, one of the gracious visitors to this website, has offered to sort out the twists and turns of Helena's life (post-Crisis). Read on!

The debut of this character was in April, 1989 in Huntress #1. This story tells of how Helena Bertinelli was kidnapped and molested when she was very young by a person known only as the Smiling Man.  Years later, while at home from college during spring break, her family was murdered by an assassin called Omerta.  Enraged and yearning for a way to execute her vengeance, she left for Sicily with her bodyguard, Tony Angelo, and started training to become the Huntress. During this time she also finished her education to become a school teacher.

In Rucka's origin story, Helena Bertinelli is the only surviving member of the Bertinelli crime family.  Her parents and brother were murdered in their home when she was very young.  For her protection, her extended family (also branches of Gotham's mafia) sent her to live with relatives in Sicily. There, under the guidance of her cousin Salvatore Asaro, she learned how to use the crossbow and mastered many martial arts techniques. When she learned her family was cosa nostra, or mafia, she started despising her family for its cruel way of life; she wanted a way to fight back, to end the crime wars that had stolen her parents and brother from her.  She returned to Gotham at the age of 16. During a Christmas Eve party that year, Batman paid Helena and her family a visit.

She saw how afraid her uncles and cousins were of him and, in that fear, found the perfect way to strike back at them: she would become a vigilante like Batman, hunting criminals in the night.

This part is the same, no matter the origin: Helena then went to New York City on sabbatical, where she took on the name and costume of the Huntress.  She soon discovered it was her father's lawyer that hired the assassin that killed her family to get her family's riches. The identity of the assassin remains unknown. During her time in the Big Apple, she teamed up with Batman to stop a city-wide gang war and captured the leader of a Colombian drug cartel. Then she got a job as a high school teacher and moved to Gotham City, in the hopes of becoming accepted by Batman, which to this day has not occurred.

Not long after moving to Gotham, Helena's secret identity was discovered by Robin (Tim Drake) while taking down King Snake's counterfeiting operation. Shortly after that, she became the target of crimelord Tony Bressi, who hired an assassin named Redzone to kill her. Bressi later ended his agreement with Redzone, resulting in his death, as well as Redzone's and the Smiling Man's.

Months passed, and although Batman invited her to join the Justice League of America (JLA), he still refused to sanction her operations in Gotham City. Shortly after her induction into the JLA, while Batman was out of town, she worked with Nightwing to solve a cop killing.  She used this opportunity to try and break into the "Bat-circle." It didn't really work, though Nightwing did learn her secret identity by looking through her daily planner at her apartment, after they'd spent the night together. It was not long after that when she, while working with the JLA, figured out a way to prevent Vandal Savage from killing Superman.

Then a devastating earthquake struck Gotham, destroying most of the city. Helena was riding on a subway when it hit. She was about to be killed by a wanted fugitive, but the first aftershock saved her. Not long afterward, she teamed up with Spoiler at the Westerberg Mall to recapture escapees from Blackgate Prison. Then she returned to the fractured streets to keep order, and fought a group of thieves trying to rob the safe of a dead drug dealer. Batman and Nightwing intervened to stop her from using a sledgehammer on the leader of the thugs.

Within a week of the quake, Gotham had been closed off from the outside world by the U.S. government. The city became referred to as "No Man's Land." Batman had apparently left town. With no one to defend the innocent, Huntress took it upon herself to become the city's new saviour and assumed the identity of Batgirl. (For more on Helena as Batgirl, click here .)

When Batman returned, three months after the quake, he stripped Helena of the name and costume of Batgirl and gave the honour to someone he felt was worthy of it. Helena once again became the Huntress. On New Year's Eve, she helped Batman rescue the kidnapped children of Gotham, and was severely wounded and nearly killed by the Joker.

Not long after her recovery, the Huntress became Batman's prime suspect in a murder case. While trying to prove her innocence, her crossbow misfired and hit Batman. After escaping him and Nightwing, she was knocked unconscious by the Question and taken to Canada where she found some peace through the art of tai chi and the teachings of the enigmatic martial arts master Richard Dragon.

Three months passed before Helena returned to Gotham to put her life back in order. Batman was waiting for her. He gave her permission to find out who was framing her, but warned her not to kill anybody. Shortly thereafter, the Question caught a private investigator spying on her apartment. The P.I. gave them a picture of Santo Cassamemto and Maria Bertinelli embracing, as well as the phone number of the man who hired him.  The Question traced the phone number to Santo Cassamemto. Huntress confronted Santo and discovered that he is her real father, who has blackmailed her into working for him. The next day, she attended her cousin's wedding and asked her uncle Tomaso to set up an ambush for Santo when his next drug shipment came in. She then scared off his lieutenants when she and the Question ambushed a gambling club, forcing Cassamemto to show up at the docks to oversee the shipment, with Huntress as his back-up. In the warehouse, Tomaso's men killed Santo, just as Helena had arranged. After achieving her revenge, she threw her Huntress costume into the water. Now the search for who she really is begins.

Thanks for answering all our questions, er, The Question! The more I read about the Huntress, the more I like her. She's rough-edged, hard as nails, and yet still yearns for approval, for a family to replace the one she lost, and the one that betrayed her. Unlike the oh-so-smooth operators of the inner "Bat-circle," Helena lets her emotions bubble and boil to the surface, and even (gasp!) influence her actions. A good foil for Batman if I ever saw one. Maybe she lacks Oracle's investigative skills, or Nightwing's people skills, but one thing Huntress does not lack is passion for her job.

To see her struggle with her moral principles and with her identity is to see important questions brought to light. How far should I go in the pursuit of justice... or vengeance? When is it right to sacrifice a life for the greater good? What IS the greater good? How much should I change my own principles and ways in order to gain acceptance? Or should I refuse to change them, even if it means being at odds with everyone else? Instead of being so quick to condemn her, perhaps the Bat-family should take her example as a prompt to re-evaluate their own motives and ethics.

To stop asking the tough questions of yourself, to stop struggling with your identity and purpose, is to stagnate. But the Huntress is a character constantly at odds with herself and with the people around her. If she keeps up that struggle, she'll remain a kinetic and exciting woman to read about for a very long time.

No doubt you do. As The Question mentioned, the Huntress enjoyed the spotlight in Greg Rucka's six-part mini series, Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood. This is one of my favourite comic book series, period. And before Rucka's revamp, Huntress had a gritty and grim monthly series for a short time in 1989. If you can find it in the bargain or back issue bins, it's worth it. But if you don't want to wait to get to the comic shop, and want your Huntress fix now, I recommend these two websites:

To my eyes, the best Huntress site around. Colourful, with a great picture gallery (that's where I got the kicking picture you see above) and a lot of in-depth information on Helena's life. Two thumbs up! Click on the banner above.

• The Huntress Unofficial Webpage Curious about the pre-Crisis Huntress, Helena Wayne? Her wacky, wonderful world is lovingly detailed in this fantastic website.

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Huntress, Batman and all related characters and images are copyrights of DC Comics . Don't even think about reprinting or republishing anything off this site without my permission , or Huntress will give you some new orifices with her crossbow. Yeah.