The Huntress, also known as Helena Rosa Bertinelli, is a fictional appearing in published by. Based on the , she is one of several DC characters to bear the name. The character was also one of the incarnations of and was a longtime member of the. In DC Comics continuity, Helena Bertinelli is an alias used by Helena Wayne while the real Helena Bertinelli is an agent of the spy organization Spyral. Huntress Textless cover of 123 December. The character will make her cinematic debut in the upcoming film , portrayed by. Helena Bertinelli was introduced in her own Huntress series, written by and drawn by , co-creator and long-time artist of the Helena Wayne Huntress. In this iteration of the character, she was kidnapped as a child aged 6 and raped by a rival mafia don purely to psychologically torture her father, and is a withdrawn girl. Her parents, Guido and Carmela, send her to a and assign a bodyguard for her protection where she learns all forms of combat. After she witnesses the mob-ordered murder of her parents at the age of 19, she crusades to put an end to the Mafia. She travels, accompanied and trained by her bodyguard Sal, before returning to Gotham to make her debut as the Huntress. Helena Rosa Bertinelli witnesses the murder of her entire family in their home when she is aged 8; a young Helena Rosa Bertinelli believes Franco Bertinelli to be her father, but her father is actually Santo Cassamento, the don of a rival mafia family, who was carrying on an affair with Helena's mother, Maria. Helena is framed for two murders, which puts her in direct conflict with Batman and Nightwing. In an extended retreat with and Vic Sage , she tries to achieve better emotional balance, returning to Gotham to confront her true father and learn more about her family's murder. Huntress: Year One Huntress starred in her own six-issue biweekly Year One miniseries from May to July 2008 by and. The story recounts and expands upon the beginning of Helena's vigilante career. She is in , days from turning 21 and receiving the inheritance from the murder of her family, which occurred before her eyes when she was eight years old. Learning more about her family's murder, Helena adopts a costume disguise and weaponry to seek revenge, confronting not only the men who ordered her family's death, but the assassin himself. In the process, she establishes herself as angrier and more violent than a standard costumed hero, foreshadowing the conflicts with more mainstream heroes, predominantly Batman. She crosses paths with destined, as Oracle, to be a close friend and colleague , , and Batman, who will become partial mentor, partial antagonist during her subsequent career as a Gotham superhero. She states that her compulsion derives from the moment before her family was murdered, when she believes she could have acted to save them. Relationship with Batman Cover of 18 Sept. Others in the Batman family feel differently; for instance, has a good relationship with her. Early in his career, he works with the female vigilante, and later clears her name in a murder case. Huntress is briefly involved with the when she happens upon a brainwashed attempting to murder. The League is impressed, and asks her to join. Although League members help her on one of her own cases and she gets a tour of the group's embassy, she never officially joins the team. During the League's restructuring following the Rock of Ages crisis, Batman sponsors Huntress' membership in the , hoping that the influence of other heroes will mellow the Huntress, and for some time, Huntress is a respected member of the League. Under the guidance of heroes such as , Helena grows in confidence, even playing a key role in defeating during the storyline; inspired by the time capsules students in her class had been making, she realises they had over 800 centuries to set up a plan that would result in Solaris's defeat in the future. She also helps the League defeat foes like and encourages to fight the 's hypno-pollen during her invasion of Earth. She is later forced to resign after Batman stops her from killing Prometheus while he is incapacitated. Career in Gotham No Man's Land In the 1999 storyline, an levels. To bring order to the city, Huntress assumes the mantle of , and she discovers criminals fear her more as Batgirl than they do as Huntress. Batgirl fails to protect Batman's territory from and his gang of more than 200 criminals, leading to an argument between her and Batman. Huntress refuses to follow Batman's exact orders and gives up the Batgirl costume. Huntress teams with former police officer Petit and his men, who had broken off from the group led by former commissioner. Petit believed that extreme force was the only way to survive No Man's Land. Batman intentionally drove Huntress to join Petit, knowing she could keep Petit in line and prevent him from hurting innocent people. On Christmas Eve, attacks Petit's compound. Petit is killed and the Huntress stands her ground, barely surviving the attack as the Joker and his men overrun the compound. Batman and Nightwing intervene in time and Huntress is taken to a field hospital operated by forces who want to rebuild Gotham City. Birds of P
