Athena (Comics)

Real Name: Celia Kazantkakis Aliases: Athena Occupation: Criminal MAstermind, Former CEO of Wayne Enterprises Marital Status: Widowed Base of Operations: Gotham City Height: 5ft. 7 in. Weight: 125lbs Eyes: Blue Hair: Gray Relatives: Nicholas Kazantkakis (Tracker; son, deceased), Lucinda Delmont (mother, deceased), Costas Kazantkakis (father, deceased), Porter Endicott (husband, deceased) Affiliation: Batman Villains; The Network First Appearance: Detective Comics #775 (December, 2002) Created By: John Francis Moore; Stefano Gaudiano

Thus far, few details have been released regarding the female criminal who calls herself Athena. It is known that she was once married and had a son named Nicholas.

Likewise, how she entered the world of crime is also not clear. It is known that she is now the head of her own highly specialized crime family, the Network. She displays a keen head for business and organization, and is somehow able to command fierce loyalty in her operatives. It is possible that this is more through fear than anything else, given her propensities for using arson as a tool for revenge.

At one point, she had taken as a lover the mobster Lorenzo Rossetti, and from all appearances, she truly did love him; as a consequence, when Lorenzo was slain by other members of the Rossetti family, Kazantkakis…who by now had taken the name Athena from the Greek goddess of wisdom, vowed to get revenge. This pursuit led her to Gotham City and her encounters with the Batman and his team of operatives.

During her time in Gotham City, Kazantkakis also tried to infiltrate the Wayne Enterprises corporation and take it over from within, sensing that Bruce Wayne was weak and disinterested in the business. She almost succeeded in doing so, until Batman discovered the truth about her and opposed her. It was during this same time that Kazantkakis lost her son Nicholas, who died in a battle with Batman. Blaming Batman for this, she tried to use her Network to destroy him by attacking Batman through his allies, but ultimately this gambit failed; in the end, several of the Network operatives were captured, and much of its equipment and funding were intercepted. Athena herself escaped, and fled Gotham City, but the operations are currently considered to be severely crippled, and whether or not they will ever recover fully is open to question.

Athena currently remains at large, and should be considered very dangerous. It is presumably only a matter of time before she resurfaces with a new plan of attack.

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Athena has not appeared in any other form of Batman Media.

Character Profiles: Batman Villains