Cissie was raised by her obsessive stage mother, Bonnie King, the original Miss Arrowette, who told her that her father was "Bowstring" Jones, although it is possible that Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) is her biological father; Bonnie is believed to have had an affair with Queen at approximately the right time.

Bonnie, unable to practice archery herself due to carpal tunnel syndrome, grooms Cissie to be a superhero from an early age, having her intensively train in archery, the martial arts and other relevant skills. When Cissie is first introduced by her mother to the superhero community in a gaudy costume, Max Mercury has Bonnie declared an unfit mother for endangering a minor, and Cissie enters a boarding school.

She later (in a costume of her own choosing) joins Young Justice for a time. When her mentor at the school is killed, she nearly murders the killer; shaken, she retires from superheroing and eventually becomes an Olympic gold medalist archer. Although no longer Arrowette, she remains close friends with several of her former teammates.