- For the vigilante of Earth-1 who operated under the alias "Huntress", see Helena Bertinelli.
- For her Earth-1 counterpart, see Helena Kyle.
- "I'm the Huntress, and you're the prey."
- — Helena Kyle to Jerry
Helena Kyle is a female Human who is a bartender and a vigilante known as the Huntress. She is also the daughter of Bruce Wayne and the late Selina Kyle. After her mother's death, Barbara Gordon became her legal guardian. She later joined the Birds of Prey.
Biography
Original multiverse
Early life
Helena was born to Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne. Growing up with her mother, Larry Ketterly lived nearby. When she was just an adolescent, Helena witnessed as her mother was stabbed by an assailant she believed to be the Joker. Following this, she went to live with her father's old associate, Barbara Gordon. Over the years, Helena honed her meta-human abilities and began operating as a vigilante known as the Huntress.
In high school, Helena was best friends with Sandra Woosan.
Establishing her name
Founding the team
While chasing down a bad guy, Helena disregarded the road rules and jumped some curbs, hitting a hydrant. Being caught for this, she was mandated to visit a psychiatrist, Dr. Harleen Quinzel , for anger management. While she saw it as pointless, she still obliged.
One night, while working at her bar tending job, Helena complained about the state of her life to Barbara. Following her shift, Helena prowled the streets as Huntress, coming across Jerry harassing a young lady. He put up a little fight, before fleeing. She told the girl the location of a nearby shelter, before fleeing herself.
She headed back to their lair, decidedly hungry, but with no food in the cupboard. Helena and Barbara were stopped by a sudden alarm, their perimeter having been breached. Helena went to investigate, knocking out Dinah, their intruder. When she awakened, Dinah explained she'd got the door pass code from Helena, using her meta-human abilities. They scanned her brain to confirm this fact, yielding overwhelming results. When Dinah asked to stay and help them, Helena objected to Barbara, before the latter likened her situation to Helena's right after her mother's passing. The morning after, Helena headed to therapy, where she discussed the circumstances of her mother's death, since it was the seven-year anniversary, and how Barbara had taken her in. That night, having discovered a pattern of murders, Huntress was sent to watch a businessman who they believed to be their next target. However, she arrived too late, finding him hanging. At the same time, Detective Jesse Reese appeared, handcuffing her to a statue.
She quickly took the handcuffs off, however, and jumped from the ledge, into the night. Finding some more intel, they sent Dinah to the dockyards, while Helena went to look for Larry Ketterly, the last potential victim and an old neighbor of Helena and Barbara's. Helena attempted to sneak in, but was caught by Larry, who invited her inside for tea. Ultimately realizing that she knew of his plans to eliminate the rest of his business partners, he took control of her with his own meta-human abilities. She was found by the rest of her team, who were able to enter the dream world he'd created, stopping her from stabbing herself in both worlds. Barbara came to, killing Larry in the dream world, and thus leaving him brain-dead in the real world. Back at the lair, Helena warmed to the idea of Dinah, before she and Barbara went outside the clocktower to look over the city, Barbara reminiscing over her vigilante days.
Helena attended her last court-mandated session with Dr. Quinzel, who urged her to come back if she wished to. The following morning, she walked around the clocktower as Dinah got ready for school, expressing her distaste of what she was wearing. When Dinah lied that she had no personal records anywhere, including a birth certificate, Helena urged Barbara to do a background check, feeling suspicious. Later, after Dinah tried on Helena's favorite sweater, Helena went to attack her, but Barbara talked her down, taking her for a walk and making her see reason, asking her to give Dinah a chance. Later that night, they received news of a SCIS officer being killed under suspicious circumstances, planning to get to the bottom of it. Helena headed to work, where she was met by Dinah, who tried to make Helena see reason, but Helena simply tried to get the truth out of her. After another police death, Barbara connected the two to Silas Waters, informing Helena and Dinah of this. Discovering the potential third victim to be Detective Reese, Helena went to find him, discovering him in the police precinct's pool. They were suddenly attacked by Slick, and after a brief altercation, Helena forced Slick back into a solid form with a fire extinguisher, before the two were forced into the sauna.
Waiting Slick out, they took their shirts off as they got hotter. Realizing that Slick would be going after another armored truck, the two raced for the truck, Slick having already hijacked it. They entered into a fight, during which Reese began being choked by Waters, while Huntress was held at bay by two thugs. She quickly grabbed one of the thugs' flamethrower, the other thug occupied by Dinah, using it to boil Slick in his liquid form. He attempted to reform into human form, but simply evaporated. She showed appreciation for Dinah, before Reese attempted to find out her identity, a fact she wasn't willing to give up. Helena and Dinah headed back to the clocktower, where the latter revealed her real name and past (which the two women had already discovered prior). The two girls went to see what was for dinner, but not before Barbara reminded Dinah she was still grounded, much to Helena's amusement. The following evening, Helena and Barbara discussed Slick's plans, figuring that someone was behind him pulling the strings. Helena then went back to see Dr. Quinzel, deciding to open up about a guy she'd met.
The Huntress stopped a mugging, throwing off the thug. The man promptly spat acid at her, but she knocked him out and threw him into a garbage bin. He was suddenly thrown back out, with his entire chest covered in acid, dead, much to Helena's shock. Looking for information, she went to talk to Detective Reese. He refused any information, and expressed how he wish she'd tell him her name. As a compromise, she told him to call her "Huntress". He didn't believe it to be enough, but Helena had already left. She headed back to the clocktower, where Barbara had been trying to dig up information on multiple meta-humans with the same power, but she'd found nothing, and so she suggested Helena go to No Man's Land Collectables. She arrived at the store, greeting its owner Gibson Kafka, who had missed her since her last visit. They went downstairs to the store's secret meta-human bar. She greeted the bartender Frosty, before asking what she'd come for. Gibson hadn't ever heard of anything of the sort, but urged her to stay for another drink. While there, Dinah showed up, despite having to be at school. Helena pulled her aside and told her off, explaining how everyone felt like an outcast when they were new, not just her, and they left.
With another meta-human dead, this time Frosty, Huntress arrived at the crime scene, quizzing Reese on what information they had, but he once again refused to tell her anything. She went to leave the scene, but was met in an alley by his new partner, Detective Claude Morton. The two entered into a fight, he duplicating her powers, but Helena was able to throw him in front of a car, causing him to lose the powers with distance and give her a chance to run away. She immediately called Reese and warned him, but he wouldn't believe her. Trying to find something to do, Barbara suggested they wait for more information on Morton and his killings, but Helena was upset, as her own kind was being killed. She headed to the streets to confront Morton, who was with Reese. When she pinned him up to a wall, he didn't retaliate, causing Reese to draw his gun. Huntress let go of him, trying to make Reese see that she wasn't a threat, but this gave Morton enough time to draw his own gun, firing it at Reese, giving the Huntress only a split second to knock the gun as it only barely grazed Reese's arm. Helena made a run for it, being followed by Morton. She made it to a rooftop, where he joined her and once again duplicated her powers, starting to fight. They eventually found themselves on a ledge, both ready to jump, but not before being joined by a group from No Man's Land. With the large number of meta-humans in his vicinity, Morton's senses were overwhelmed, causing him to willingly jump from the edge to his death. Helena went to visit Reese in the hospital, emphasizing how she hadn't killed Morton. He agreed that he knew, and went to apologize, but she'd once again vanished. The Birds of Prey convened atop their clocktower, discussing the recent events surrounding Morton. They then agreed to cap off the night with a trip to Gibson's.
Raising her "nephew"
Prowling the streets, Huntress came across a group of thugs harassing a woman and baby on a fire escape. She beat up some of the thugs, making it just in time to catch the baby as it fell. However, as she went to check on the woman, she realized that she was too late and that the woman had been killed. Helena took the baby back to the clocktower, where the team looked after the baby, deciding to name him "Guy". Helena left on a mission to ID the prior woman's corpse, also picking up diapers for Guy. While in the morgue, she ran into Reese, who was confused by the diapers. They had a brief exchange as Helena removed a chip she found underneath the woman's skin. She returned back to the clocktower, where the other two were in disarray. Helena took over, nursing the baby before putting him in a crib. They examined the chip, finding it to be from Simcron Labs, where the woman and baby had presumably been linked. They were suddenly interrupted by Guy, who had rapidly aged. Barbara examined his neural mesh, determining that he was a meta-human. The following day they took Guy to Simcron Labs, outside which he began to age again, much to their shock. Barbara and Dinah went in first, but when they were ambushed, Helena joined, making Guy stay in the car. They managed to fight off a number of the lab's thugs, but Guy intervened, accidentally killing Dr. Lewis Melfin.
That night Helena and Guy played on a swing set, while the former explained that what he'd done was wrong and to never be done again. They returned home to the clocktower, where Guy fell asleep. Alfred provided some clothes for Guy and advice for Helena, reassuring her that Guy would be okay on his own. She then went outside to talk with Barbara, discussing their hypothesis that he'd been bred to have an "attack mode". Guy overheard, getting angry at Helena and running off. Wishing to bring him back home safe, Helena sought Reese for help, claiming her "nephew" had gone missing. They caught reports of a riot at Club Slippery, so they headed there. When they arrived, Helena found Dinah, who told her that Guy had fled. She eventually found him in a park, having aged again. She reassured him, but suddenly felt a sense of danger coming. Unawares, Guy knocked her down, his attack mode having been properly triggered. Guy attempted to attack Helena again, but she talked through his programming and got him to stand down.
They were suddenly ambushed by some thugs after Guy, who they easily fought off. They headed back to the clocktower, where Guy began rapidly aging, first to middle age and then into an old man, thanking Helena for everything. She produced a cupcake with a candle in it, allowing him to have a birthday as he'd always wanted, before he finally passed on. Helena went back to the swing set, thinking back on the past few days. Reese tracked her down and she revealed that her "nephew" had been found. He apologized for his previous actions, before leaving her to her thoughts. Back at the clock tower, the three women shared a candled cupcake in memory of Guy.
A new threat emerges
When training at the Clocktower with Dinah, Helena easily managed to deflect her blows. Reminding her to focus until she was suddenly taken down by a surprise attack by a misplaced set of nunchucks. She made a realization that the nunchucks were launched by Dinah using telekinesis. However, before she could get the news of this to Oracle, she had found out that Dinah was related to Carolyn Lance AKA Black Canary. Oracle wishes for Helena to leave this to the Lance family, however as Dinah faces her own problems of abandonment, Helena defends her making her own choices against her mom's wishes of getting her out of the crime fighting business. However Helena discovers that Carolyn had problems with Helena's mom.
Helena later investigates a case when surprising Reese at a crime scene. However he brushes her off of this one, not wanting her involved. She leaves confused of why he would do this. Once again, she returns to the Clocktower to catch up on Dinah and Carolyn where they find out that Hawke is the one behind the murder, and is after Carolyn. Dinah leaves leaving everyone else to look for her while Helena once again tries to convince Reese to work with her on this case and give her some info on what he knows. He spins it back to her on the fact that he knows nothing about her and shouldn't give her anything. She's later caught off guard when Carolyn is taken and she needs a location for where. She confronts Reese one more time. Declaring that she can't tell who she is, but by her own example, has shown what kind of person she is and that it's one that will help him do good. He gives the location of a warehouse and Helena leaves to save Carolyn.
Helena arrives with Dinah to save her mom, but is then outnumbered and can't take down Hawke's men and save Carolyn at the same time. However Reese comes in to save her and allow her to help Dinah. Once Carolyn breaks free and uses the Canary Cry to take down Hawke, Helena, Dinah, and Reese clear out. Leaving Carolyn to die in there. She later shows up at the New Gotham SCIS Department when nobody was there to give Reese a special ring to contact her. Signifying their trust and to allow him to be more of an ally. She later grieves Carolyn's demise with Barbara and Dinah.
Anti-Monitor Crisis
In New Gotham, pink hue completely engulfed the sky and all surrounding areas, as far as the eye can see. Helena is running from rooftop to rooftops while trying to speak with Barbara through her earpiece. She is desperately trying to get a hold of Oracle, who through the static communication insists she is sending all relative information.
A brilliant white light begins to consume the city, taking over a tall building. Helena is devastated to lose contact with her friend before she is incinerated by antimatter.
New multiverse
After the Paragons and the Spectre created a new multiverse, Helena and her Earth were restored.
Personality
- "Half meta-human, she has taken up her father's mantle and under cover of the night, fights to protect the innocent and helpless."
- — Alfred Pennyworth
Helena was deeply traumatized by witnessing the death of her mother, Selina Kyle, seven years later, she was sent by the court to Harleen Quinzel for talk therapy and anger management, although she barely talks during her sessions, she also had practically no relationship with her father, Bruce Wayne and thus; refused to accept anything connected with his money, her issues also caused her to not let Barbara Gordon in on her personal matters, she also partly blamed him for not saving her mother. Helena gradually developed the mentality that she loses everyone she cares about, leading her to be emotionally distant.
Helena admits to Quinzel that she has trust issues, cementing her difficulty with letting individuals in, she trusted her father even less when he refused to locate and kill the man who killed her mother, therefore; Helena chooses to rely on no one but herself, however, Helena soon learned to trust in Dinah when she had her back. This led Helena to decide to continue her therapy sessions with Doctor Quinzel, accepting the idea that a little help is not so bad. She expressed that she "invented" the idea of only counting on oneself, and thus urged Jesse Reese to not go up against Al Hawke by himself. She also admits to him that she has difficulty with asking for help.
Helena has a dry sense of humor.
Helena is offended by the pejorative use of the word "freak" to describe Meta-humans. She also dislikes when other individuals wear her clothes, particularly her favorite sweater, and became defensive when Carolyn Lance badmouthed her mother for being a thief. According to Alfred, she also hates to get her shoes wet.
Powers and abilities
Powers
- "She's really worried. Is Helena okay?"
- "Oh, Miss Helena is remarkably capable. She can take care of herself."
- —Dinah Redmond and Alfred Pennyworth
- Meta-human physiology: Helena inherited the meta-gene from her mother, Selina Kyle, granting her superhuman powers.
- Superhuman senses: Helena's senses are much more highly fine-tuned than the average human, with her eyes becoming cat-like whenever they are peaked. She is able to sense danger when it's nearby.
- Superhuman reflexes: Helena has superhuman reaction time. She was able to push Claude Morton's phaser offline to prevent him from shooting her or Reese, resulting in a mild phaser shot wound to the latter's arm. She was also able to catch a falling baby Guy, and later claimed to Reese that she is known for her response time.
- Superhuman agility: Helena is able to jump large distances, both up buildings and off of ledges. She has implied to be able to dodge phaser fire from point-blank range.
- Superhuman durability: When she jumps from large ledges, Helena does not sustain any injury, indicating a greater durability than the average human. She landed from a height of several stories when greeting Jesse Reese. Her resilience was further demonstrated when Claude Morton mimicked her powers and survived being hit by a shuttle. She also managed to remain conscious for a few moments after being tasered by several thieves at once, as well as when she was tranquilized by Malcolm Lagg.
- Superhuman strength: Helena was able to toss around Arnie Graves and lift Claude Morton from the ground by his throat, showing little effort in doing so with both grown men. She was able to knock Reese out cold with a single punch when she infiltrated a gang of thieves.
- Accelerated healing factor: While she can injure herself, Helena has shown to be able to heal much quicker than typical, being completely fine within a few hours.
Abilities
- "I am the weapon."
- — Huntress to Jesse Reese
- Peak of human physical condition: Beyond her powers, Helena is in prime physical conditioning, allowing her complete mastery of her powers. Alfred Pennyworth has described Helena as "remarkably physically capable". As she stated to Claude Morton, Helena doesn't "kill easy."
- Acrobatics/Free-running: Since becoming the Huntress, Helena has developed free-running skills and can fall from a height of several stories without hurting herself, as seen during her confrontation with Jerry. Her superhuman agility coupled with her durability allow her to accomplish this. Her experience with scaling tall buildings allowed her to evade Claude Morton when he mirrored her meta-human powers. During the Anti-Monitor Crisis, she was seen running across rooftops with ease.
- Master hand-to-hand combatant/Martial artist: Helena has practiced for years before being sent into the field by Oracle as the vigilante Huntress. Her fighting style is very flexible and acrobatic, as she is often seen incorporating complex gymnastic maneuvers in her fights. According to Harleen Quinzel, she was able to knock out a security guard, despite merely shoving him and barely even touching him. As the Huntress, she was able to defend Dinah Redmond from Jerry's attack. She was also responsible for detaining the Hermez shooter and the Dorsett kidnapper. Inside a dream world, she was able to defeat and kill a knife-wielding Larry Ketterly. She defeated two muggers during one of her sweeps, and defeated Silas Waters in his solid form, forcing him to retreat. Alongside Reese, she dispatched two corrupt SCIS officers attempting to rob a military weapons shipment. Helena was even able to maintain a conversation with Barbara while body-slamming Arnie Graves, and fight against Claude Morton when the latter mimicked her meta-human powers and fighting abilities. She later fought against several men while holding an infant Guy. Lewis Melfin described Helena as "quite lethal" and "very impressive" when she took down his mercenaries. Helena also defended herself from Guy, who was genetically designed with combat expertise. Alongside Guy, she defeated a group of mercenaries attacking them. Helena later trained Dinah in martial arts, and effortlessly defeated her while holding back. She easily took down Frankie Spitz's men when rescuing Carolyn Lance. Helena was even able to disarm and defeat several thieves with her hands bound over her head. She easily kicked a perpetrator in the face and knocked him down, but Reese called her out for using excessive force. Soon after, she beat up 4-5 men robbing a store, and was joined by Darkstrike. Reese later admitted to her that he understands that "(she) can hold (her) own in a fight just fine." She defeated the super-strong Crawler in a duel as well. Helena even quickly defeated the extremely dangerous Lady Shiva in combat. Together with Reese, she defeated the Specialist. Alongside Dinah, she brought down Malcom Lagg. At her high school reunion, she prevented Cam from killing a third alumni. She also single-handedly defeated Chris Cassius and Clayface, even when the latter was armed with a switchblade, and fought against Barbara Gordon when she was hypnotized by Harley Quinn.
- Skilled markswoman: Helena has been trained by Barbara on how to use Batarangs as projectile weapons to incapacitate targets.
- Stealth: Helena was able to covertly incapacitate Dinah when she followed her to the Birds of Prey's headquarters. She claims that no one else has been able to follow her. She later infiltrated the home of an owner of Phoenix Industries, and easily escaped from a pair of handcuffs without Jesse Reese noticing. When she revealed her codename to Reese, she was able to quickly disappear from his line of sight. Gibson Kafka was unable to hear her enter No Man's Land, but he was able to recognize her scent.
- Expert deceiver/Manipulator: Helena claims to be a better liar than Dinah Redmond, and often lied to Barbara when the latter took her in.
- Expert thief: Mick has stated that Helena is a natural-born thief as "Cat".
- Mixologist: Helena is a bartender by day, making her a capable mixologist.
- "You have an exceptionally strong mind."
- — Larry Ketterly to Helena Kyle
- Indomitable will/High pain tolerance: Helena is a woman of great mental strength. She was able to resist Larry Ketterly's auditory-neural connection for longer than most people, which impressed him. Furthermore, Helena displayed no reaction when Ketterly mind-controlled her into stabbing herself. She is an extremely persistent woman, as she was determined to stop Claude Morton from killing meta-humans and was willing to sacrifice herself by facing him alone to result in both of their deaths, in order to prevent more meta-human lives from being lost. She is very responsible with her abilities, as she fights her impulses to kill bad guys on the daily, and refused to give up on finding a way to save Guy. She also resisted the impulse to kill Clayface, despite the fact that he killed her mother.
Equipment
- Huntress suit: Helena uses a protective suit as the vigilante Huntress.
Appearances
The Flash
Season 6
- "Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Three"
Trivia
- Helena uses lime mandarin soap.
- Helena's drink of choice is vodka on the rocks.
- Helena's alter-ego during her work undercover might be a reference to the original alias of Cat that Selina Kyle had before being Catwoman.
Behind the scenes
- Helena Kyle is based on Helena Wayne, the daughter of Batman and Catwoman on Earth 2. She took up the identity of the Huntress to catch her mother's killer and later succeeded her father as Batman.