DC History Club: Huntress Topic for June 2020, with Polls Quiz Wiki & Discussions

Post 04 2020 June Huntress Research Wiki

Week 1 Helena Wayne

Week 1 Helena Wayne

The Co Creators of Helena Wayne Huntress

Paul Levitz interview

Paul Levitz Biographical Interview 2019 by Alex Grand & Jim Thompson | Comic BookHistorians - YouTube

Joe Staton interview

Joe Staton interview - YouTube

A very funny Deconstruction
Of Helena Waye Origin Story

Meet THE HUNTRESS - Helena Wayne - YouTube

Is Heena Wayne Bi?

Helena Wayne Huntress: Top 5 Times Helena Wayne Hinted She May Be Bisexual

The Infinite Crisis of Being a Helena Wayne Fan — Comics Bookcase

Week 2 Helena Bertinelli

Week 2 Helena Bertinelli

Double Date

10 Years Without A Justice League: Double Date - Nerdist

Justice League Unlimited (TV Series) Episode: Double Date | DC Database | Fandom

Helena Bertinelli

Birds of Prey 101: Huntress, from mob family origins to ass-kicking vigilante

Helena Wayne Huntress: Top 3 Reasons Helena Wayne And Helena Bertinelli Should Be Separate Characters

Helena Bertinelli

Oz and Ends: The Huntress as Successor to Jason Todd

Helena Bertinelli

The Five Best Catholic Superheroes

Huntress - DC Comics - JLA - Outsiders - Helena Bertinelli - Writeups.org

Huntress: 10 Things Fans Should Know About The Birds Of Prey Member

These videos are comprehensive

Lots of Spoilers

The Untold Truth Of Huntress - YouTube

The CONFUSING HISTORY Of THE HUNTRESS! - YouTube

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Readings

Post 10 2020 June Huntress Week 1 Readings

First Week Bronze Age Helena Wayne

Must Reads

Forward of Trade of late 1970s Solo Stories of Helena Wayne by Paul Levitz
(From bottom of Post 9 directly above this)

DC History Club: Huntress Topic for June 2020, with Polls Quiz Wiki & Discussions - #9 by TurokSonOfStone1950

1977 DC Siuper Stars 17
Helena Wayne Origin

DC Super-Stars

1986 Crisis of Infinite Earths
Issue 11 (12 optional)

Crisis On Infinite Earths

Suggested but Not Required

Interviews of Co Creators of Huntress

Paul Levitz interview

Paul Levitz Biographical Interview 2019 by Alex Grand & Jim Thompson | Comic BookHistorians - YouTube

Joe Staton interview

Joe Staton interview - YouTube

The Huntress in Action

1978 All Star Comic 71
Just after meeting Wildcat and Star Spangled Kid

All-Star Comics

Or

1978 All Star Comic 73
1940s Huntress against new Huntress
Now Tigress in Stargirl TV show

1980 Justice League of America
Issues 183 to 185
Crossover with JSA New Gods Against Darkseid by Conway Petez

Justice League of America (1960-1987)

Wonder Woman issues 274 to 276
Huntress Power Girl team up

Wonder Woman (1942-1986)

1983.Brave and Bold 197
Earth 2 Batman and Catwoman
Its last story of the issue

The Brave and the Bold (1955-1983)

Post 39 Second Week Post Crisis (MODERN AGE. (1986-2011)) Helena Bertinelli

Mostly Helena Bertinelli

What to Read and Watch?

To Watch

2003 Justice League Unlimited
Double Date
By Gail.Simone
Birds of Prey writer

On HBO Max

To Read

2000 Batman / Huntress Cry for Blood mini

Batman/Huntress: Cry For Blood

2003 Birds of Prey 56 to 59
From 1998 1-127 Birds of Prey

Birds of Prey (1998-2009)

Optional Read Watch

Birds of prey 104 108

Links Double Date

10 Years Without A Justice League: Double Date - Nerdist

Justice League Unlimited
Question Authority
Grudge Match

Batman; The Brave and the Bold
Mask of Matches Malone
On HBO Max

1997 JLA Grant Morrison 39 when
Batman fired her for trying to kill villian
Was member from 16 on

JLA

2002 Birds of Prey TV pilot
(Not available)

Helena Wayne in
2008 JSA Annual 1
Geoff Johns

JSA Annual (2008-) #1

1989 The Huntress 1-19
The Huntress (1989-1990)

1998 Huntress and Nightwing 1-4
Nightwing/Huntress

2008 Huntress Year One 1 6

Huntress: Year One

Post 55 Third Week New 52 (2011-2016) Two Helenas

Two Helenas

Must Read

2011 Huntress 1 to 6

Set in Sunny Italy, Not Gotham at Night, a Huntress contends against the Mob

Key Line on Page 1
“(I) Wonder how many corpses I’ll leave behind this time.”

Huntress

Optional

2012 Worlds Finest 1

Further Explanation of Mini, then a New Adventure

Worlds' Finest (2012-2015)

2012 Earth 2 1

Five years prior, the Trinity on this Earth embark on a final mission to eliminate the forces of Darksaid, leaving behind two teenage daughters

Earth 2

2014 Grayson 1

Status of other Helena

Grayson

Optional Long Arc

Earth 2 Superman Retuens as Weapon of Mass Distruction for Darksaid

Worlds Finest Return to Earth 2

Tom Taylor creates a great story where Thomas Wayne, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Aquawoman and a Zod who has never seen sunlight become the keys to defeat Superman and the other forces of Darksaid. They are aided by the returning Huntress and Power Girl in the last three issues of the arc.

You can go to the last three issues below to get the Huntress stuff as well as a summary of events on Earth 2 but you will miss all the nuances of the great new characters introduced in this arc and they will mean nothing to you.

2014 Earth 2 Titles
Issues
17 to 19
Annual 2 Thomas Wayne origin
20 to 26

Earth 2

2014 Worlds finest 25

Worlds' Finest (2012-2015)

2014 Earth 2 World’e End 1
This is next issue NOT Future’s End which is listed as next issue

Earth 2: World's End

Earth 2 27

Earth 2

Post 59 Fourth Week Rebirth (2016-) Two Huntresses

Both versions of Huntress appear in this era

Must Read

2016 The Hellblazer 19 24
Helena Bertinelli is ordered by a Cardinal from Rome to assassinate a woman under the protection of Constantine lest the forces of Hell come to Earth.

The Hellblazer

Optional

2015 2017 Earth 2: Society issue 22
Last issue of the New 52 Worlds Finest / Earth 2 Saga.

Learn the fate of Helena Wayne, Power Girl and the other nine remaining ‘Wonders’ formerly from.Earth 2

Everything ends on a optimistic note, as survivors from Earth 2 now guard and help out a wonderful new world.

Highly Recommendedfor for anyone who read several issues with these characters, such as the Tom Taylor arc suggested last week, as the Earth 2 super heroes fought against overwhelming odds under hellish conditions

Earth 2: Society

2016 Batgirl and the Birds of Prey issue 1

Batgirl and the Birds of Prey

2020 Birds of Prey and Harley Quinn Movie

The Movie’s Approach to Huntress

Acvtvss gives a Very Quirky Performance

Huntress - Fight Scenes (Birds of Prey) - YouTube

Birds of Prey - Best of "Huntress" (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) (1080p) - YouTube

Birds of Prey REVIEW - YouTube

Birds of Prey SPOILER Review - YouTube

Birds of Prey: 10 Huntress Mannerisms Mary Elizabeth Winstead Nailed

The Future of the Huntress

Doomsday Clock issue 12

shows several universes stoll existing
as well as future storylines
including the daughter of Batman

We have not see the last of Helena Wayne.

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Huntress Titles in Library

Post 06 2020 June Huntress Titles in Comic Book Library

Other Reading Orders

Comic Herald
Huntress
Reading Order

Huntress Reading Order! - Comic Book Herald

Birds of Prey Chronology by @Mae

Birds of Prey: The Complete Chronology

Reading Order for All Titles using Huntress as a character

1976 All Star Comics 58 on revival of Justice Society of America on Earth 2 Introduces Power Girl. By Conway Wood.

All-Star Comics

Helena Wayne is in the final panel of issue 69 of All Star Comics
Then is a regular character starting with issue 70

1977 DC Super Stars 17
Helena Wayne Origin

DC Super-Stars

All star Comics ends with issue 74
Then JSA Iin Adventures 461 466

Adventure Comics (1935-1983)

1978 Helena Wayne meet Earth 1 Bruce Wayne and Dick Gayson in Batman Family 17 which is NOT included in Helena Wayne Trade

Batman Family

See Post 9 for Huntress backup in Batman Fsmily and WonderWoman issues.

DC History Club: Huntress Topic for June 2020, with Polls Quiz Wiki & Discussions - #9 by TurokSonOfStone1950

1980 Justice league of America
ssues 183 185 JLA JSA NEW GODS

Justice League of America (1960-1987)

1983 Brave and Bold 197
Earth 2 Batman and Catwoman
As last story in issue

The Brave and the Bold (1955-1983)

1984 Infinity.Inc.

Infinity Inc. (1984-1988)

1985 Crisis on Imfinite Earths
Issues 11 12

Crisis On Infinite Earths

1989 The Huntress 1-19

The Huntress (1989-1990)

1992 Robin III: Cry of the Huntress 1-6

Robin III: Cry of the Huntress

1994 The Huntress 1-4

The Huntress (1994)

1996 Birds of Prey Manhunt 1-4

Batman/Huntress: Cry For Blood

1998 Huntress and Nightwing 1-4

Nightwing/Huntress

1998 Batman Huntress Spoiler Blunt Trauma

Batman: Huntress/Spoiler - Blunt Trauma

2000 Batman / Huntress Cry for Blood
1-6

Batman/Huntress: Cry For Blood

2003 Birds of Prey 56 to 60 and afterwards

Birds of Prey (1998-2009)

2008 Huntress Year One 1 6

Huntress: Year One

2008 Justice society Annual 1

JSA Annual (2008-) #1

2010 Birds of Prey 1-15

Birds of Prey (2010-2011)

2011 Huntress 1-6

Huntress

2012 Worlds Finest 1-32

Worlds' Finest (2012-2015)

Batman superman 2013 8 9

Batman/Superman (2013-2016)

Order

Batman Superman 8
Worlds Finest 20
Batman Superman 9
Worlds Finest 21

Worlds finest Issues to read 0.25 26

2012 Earth 2 issues to read from 17 on

Earth 2

2014 Earth 2 world end

Earth 2: World's End

2016 122 Batgirl and the Birds of Prey

Batgirl and the Birds of Prey

2015 2017 Earth 2: Society

Earth 2: Society

2016 The Hellblazer 19 24

Adventure Comics (1935-1983)

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Huntres Collectables

Post 07 2020 June Huntress Collectibles

Bombshell

Crossbows

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Earth 2 Huntress Stargirl

Post 08 2020 June Huntress Earth 2

Earth 2, Justice Society of America and Stargirl TV Series

Basically Earth 2 is the parallel’, alternate Earth where the original 1940s Golden Age of super heroes resided. The super hero team on Earth 2 was called the Justice Society of America or JSA.

Other Links

If you are interested in delving deeper into the JSA then you may be interested in joining the JSA Book Club.

JSA Book Club

Recent DC Universe News Article for the JSA

https://www.dcuniverseinfinite.com/news/where-to-start-reading-justice-society-comics/

Key Comic Book Issues for Earth 2 and the JSA are covered next

1956 Showcase 4 First Appearance of Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash. Barty shown reading a 1940s Golden Age Flash comic book, who he believes is a fictional character

Showcase (1956-) #4

The Flash

The Flash (1959-1985)

1961 Flash 123 Flash of Two Worlds Earth 1 Barry.Allen meets the Original Flash Jay Garrick, Earth 2 parallel world introduced. Schwartz Fox Infantino.

Flash 129, has some pages reenacting scenes from All Star Comic’s 57 from 1951, the last All Star Comics until issue 58 is published in 1976, 25 year later which debuted Power Girl.

Flash 137 ends with JSA coming put of retirement

Justice League of America

Justice League of America (1960-1987)

Justice League of America 21 2 the JLA and JSA meet in the beginning of yearly crossovers

Stargirl and Earth 2 in comic books

Stargirl was a Justice Society of America member but always lived on the main Earth

The Untold Truth Of Stargirl - YouTube

The three teenagers at her lunch table are versions of Earth 2 characters created by Roy Thomas for the Infinity Inc series

Infinity, Inc. is a team of young superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The team is mostly composed of the children and heirs of the Justice Society of America, making them the Society’s analogue to the Teen Titans, which was originally composed of sidekicks of Justice League members.

Huntrss and Powergirl were members for the first 12 issues

The new younger Dr Mid Nite and Hourman were introduced in Issue 21

The new Wildcat appeared in.issue 34

Infinity Inc. (1984-1988)

Dr. Midnight: 28 Days of Heroes (Black History Month) | SYFY WIRE - YouTube

Doctor Mid-Nite - Wikipedia

Hourman (Rick Tyler) - Wikipedia

Wildcat (Yolanda Montez) - Wikipedia

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Post 09 2020 June Huntress Trade

Stories Collected in The Huntress: Origins Trade That are in our Comic Book Library

Stories come from

DC Super Stars #17,

Batman Family #18-20,
(20 unavailable)

Wonder Woman #271-287, 289-290, 294-295 (Not available 271-273, 278-284, 294-295)

The Huntress Fact Sheet

PERSONAL DATA
Alter Ego Helena Wayne
Occupation Lawyer
Marital Status Single
Known Relatives Thomas and Martha Wayne (grandparents, deceased) Bruce and Selina Kyle Wayne (parents, deceased), Karl Kyle (uncle)
Group Affiliation Justice Society of America, Infinity Inc.
Base of Operations Gotham City
First Appearance ALL STAR COMICS 69
Height 5’ 10" Weight 127 lbs.
Eyes Blue
Hair Black

HISTORY
Helena Wayne was the only child of Bruce Wayne (Golden Age Batman) and Selina Kyle Wayne (Golden Age Catwoman) and grew up in the quiet household of Wayne Manor after her father’s semi retirement and her mother’s reformation. From birth Helena was trained to an extraordinary peak of physical and mental development, not because her parents had any special plans for her, but because they assumed such development was good for its own sake. At the same time she was exposed to the basics of crimefighting in stories her father told and watching the training he was giving to his ward, Dick Grayson.(Golden Age Robin)

Helena completed law school at the age most people graduate from college. She was about to begin her career when two tragedies ohanged her life. Cernak, a former Confederate of Selina Wayne surfaced and blackmailed Selina into one last crime. It was during this crime that Selina was killed by a bullet driven wild when Batman intervened. Bruce Wayne burned his cosume at Selina’s grave and a few days later Helena swore an oath of vengence and became the Huntress.

The Huntress captured Cernak and unknown to her father, she embarked on a heroic career with her father’s comrades in the Justice Society of America (JSA.) After Batman donned his costume one last time, and laid down his life to save Gotham from a super powered criminal, the Huntress, with the JSA, avenged Batman’s death.

Now alone, the Huntress became Gotham’s principal guardian and devoted far more energy to her secret udentity than to her conventional career as a lawyer. Helena worked for Cranston Grayson and Wayne, a public interest firm that counted Dick Grayson as a partner (although an inactive one). She later worked as a police liaison officer with the district attorney. Coincidentally Gotham DA Harry Sims was her lover.

POWERS AND WEAPONS
An Olympic level athlete , the Huntress is a master in many forms of physical combat, armed and unarmed. And is a skilled criminologist She also has an unusual ability to pick locks and other criminal techniques .

The weapons in her arsenal include a cross bow, dagger, and various items in her utilty bag or belt. Like her father, she has never used a gun.

The Forward To the Helena Wayne Huntress Trade:

Introduction by Paul Levitz

How about two introductions instead of one?

First, the contextual one:

In the seventies, comic fans turned professional had become, for the first time’ the dominant force in steering the destinies of their favorite characters. Ar DC Comics, that resulted in a lot of stories that experimented with continuity and the “Muitiverse” of worlds built up by that time: Earth-1 (where the heroes of the Silver Age had their adventures), Earth-2 (the Golden Age DC heroes), Earth-3 (where the super-villains ruled), Earth-S (with Captain Marvel and the Fawcett characrers), Earth-X (the Quality heroes) and even Earth-Prime (where heroes such as Julie Schwartz who along with Gardner Fox started this whole madness). Many of these stories were amazing explorations of alternate histories, opening up the imaginations of later generations to such an extent that in recent years Scientific America had a cover pay homage to the way the Schwartz titles depicted multiple Earths, and a horde of science fiction writers have made alternate history almost a separate genre. (many were, to be kind, a wee bit more self-indulgent.)

The storles in this book came about when DC relaunched Alll-Srar Comic, the traditional home of the Justice Society, the orginal Super-Team from tne 1940s. Gerry Conway instigated wrote and edited the relaunch but left after a few issues to briefly become editor in chief of Marvel. He left behind a style for the book, a cast of characters and a young assistant editor passionate about the JSA, would try to fill his more experienced shoes. The young man would take over as writer (with experienced vet Joe Orlando as editor), and procedes to add still more characters to the series,. largely because they were parts of the DC Golden Age mythology that he loved, and wanted to share with the readers.

Within a year, the young wrter was joined by two young artists who would both go on to have long and accomplished careers in the field. Joe Staton as penciler and Bob Layton as inker. Both were interested in the characters and prone to offer their own story suggesions as well. Layton argued for an Eath-2 Batgirl, Staton supported adding another woman to the team. Longtime colorist and then proofreader Anihony Tollin nudged the writer at a party and somehow the Hunress emerged. Staton added a sketch of the visual, and off she went into ation,

The stories in this volume were written over the four years that followed. After making a cameo in AIl Stor Comics #69. Her origin was featured in DC Super Stars i#17. and then the other short stories were serialized first in an anthology entitled Batman Family (don’t ask) and then as backups in Wonder Woman. The character gained a following and sustained her momenrum into the mid-1980s, when Crisis on Infinite Earths made her origin impossible as the Multiverse collapsed. and her then-series writer Joey Calvalieri shifted her to being a crime lord’s daughter instead.

Now, the personal one

When you read these stories. please remember that I began writing them when I was 20. Joe Orlando taught me many things over our years of friendship but the wisest was that readers can sense a storyteller’s sincerity (or lack of) and forgive many sins of craft on a sincere work. That certainly seemed to be true three decades ago when these stories came out. I had much more sincerity than craft, yet people seemed to enjoy the work, The Huntress became my most lasting contribution to the DC Universe, and remains a favored child. I write these words with Joe Staton’s painting of her staring down at me (a house warming gift for my first solo apartment, long ago), and the page of Helena swearing her oath still hangs on the wall opposite

I’ve learned many things in the decades since I wish I knew when I wrote these stories: craft, skills of writing, knowledge of human behavior, understanding of how men and women differ ( I simplified my approach in those early days by assuming that being a superhero was so much different from ordinary humanity than the mere differences that gender offered), and more. And I even had a daughter of my own,’ whose now is grown and gone to work for a real-world group that advocates in the public interest. But I also learned that Joe was right about sincerity and its importance and I hope you still can feel that youthful passion as you read these stories.

Welcorme Back

Paul Levitz
October 2006

Paul Levitz was DC’s youngest editor and contributed to the company as a writer, editor, and, ultimately, as its president and publisher

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Post 10 2020 June Huntress Week 1 Readings

First Week Bronze Age Helena Wayne

Must Reads

Forward of Trade of late 1970s Solo Stories of Helena Wayne by Paul Levitz
(From bottom of Post 9 directly above this)

1977 DC Siuper Stars 17
Helena Wayne Origin

1986 Crisis of Infinite Earths
Issue 11 (12 optional)

Suggested but Not Required

Interviews of Co Creators of Huntress

Paul Levitz interview

Joe Staton interview

The Huntress in Action

1978 All Star Comic 71
Just after meeting Wildcat and Star Spangled Kid

Or

1978 All Star Comic 73
1940s Huntress against new Huntress
Now Tigress in Stargirl TV show

1980 Justice League of America
Issues 183 to 185
Crossover with JSA New Gods Against Darkseid by Conway Petez

Wonder Woman issues 274 to 276
Huntress Power Girl team up

1983 Brave and Bold 197
Earth 2 Batman and Catwoman
Its last story of the issue

3 Likes

Post 11 2020 June Huntress Week 1 Discussions

How familiar are you with
Helena Wayne Huntress
Justice Society.of America
Earth 2?

Earth 2 is discussed more in Post 8 above.

Discuss

Paul Levitz and Joe Staton material

Comic Books Selected. Since a lot of her solo stories in the Trade are unexceptional and many issues are missing from our comic book library, it was very hard to find a Huntress story where she had morr than a few scenes, given that All Star Comics involved a team with many members.

What is your impression of the
Helena Wayne character?

What sbout her costume? I liked how she used the colors of both her parents. But wouldn’t thigh high boots hamper her mobility? And the crossbow was invented to kill people. It is hard to see another use for it, foreshadowing her succesor as Huntress.

Anything else you want to discuss?

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Started with the reading by checking out Helena Wayne’s “Secret Origin.” The bones of the story are good, but Levitz really does have a heavy hand with the narration. I’ll read what he has to say about Huntress later, but did want to point out another issue I read recently that treads some of the same ground but focuses entirely on Batman and Catwoman. @Applejack posted stories of hope, and I’ve made it about half way through the list. One of those is The Brave and Bold #197 which sees Catwoman freed from prison and eventually saving Batman from a Scrawcrow induced nightmare. It’s this final page that gets to me though. It carries the emotional weight that Levitz couldn’t at that point in his career. It’s just very nice.

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Adding The Brave and the Bold 197 to Week 1 as an Optional Read and also adding it to. Titles in. Our Comic Book Lbrary (Post 6), which is in Year Order.

Paul Levitz also wrote the 2011 Huntress Mini Series, which will be covered in Week 3, the New 52 Era. His writing style improved dramatically in those 34 years. He was only about 20 when he began writing about Helena Wayne and was a business major at New York University, without only minimal writing experience.

Thanks @msgtv.

4 Likes

@msgtv
And anyone who read the
Huntress Origin Story

Watch

For a very funny
Deconstruction
Of the Origin Story

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Huntress Fact

The DC Implusion

caused the cancelation of both titles Huntress appeared in

All Star Comics and Batman Family

The DC Implosion is the popular label for the sudden cancellation of more than 24 ongoing and planned series by the American comics publisher DC Comics in 1978.

History

The name is a sardonic reference to the DC Explosion, a 1978 marketing campaign in which DC touted its increasing number of titles and increased story pages in all of its titles, accompanied by higher cover prices.

The Explosion itself lasted three months from its debut in comics cover-dated June 1978 until the revamp in comics cover-dated September 1978.

Since the early 1970s, DC had seen its dominance of the market overtaken by Marvel Comics, partly because Marvel had significantly increased the number of titles that it published (both original material and reprint books). In large part, the DC Explosion was a plan to overtake Marvel by using its own strategy. DC’s expansion actually began in earnest in 1975, when the company debuted 12 titles in the spring and summer, followed by four more titles by the end of the year. DC added 14 titles in 1976 and four more in 1977.

However, DC experienced ongoing poor sales from the winter of 1977 to the winter of 1978. This has been attributed in part to the North American blizzards in 1977 and 1978, which both disrupted distribution and curtailed consumer purchases.

Furthermore, the effects of ongoing economic inflation, recession, and increased paper and printing costs, led to declines in both the profitability of the entire comic book industry and the number of readers. In response, company executives ordered that titles with marginal sales and several new series that were still in development be cancelled] During these meetings, it was decided that DC’s long-running flagship title Detective Comics was to be terminated with #480 — until the decision was overturned following strenuous arguments on behalf of saving the title within the DC office, and Detective was instead merged with the better-selling Batman Family.

On June 22, 1978, DC Comics announced staff layoffs and the cancellation of approximately 40% of its line. Editors Al Milgrom and Larry Hama were two of the employees laid off.

Cancelled titles

As a result of the Implosion, 17 series were cancelled abruptly. Fourteen other titles were cancelled in 1978, for the most part “planned” cancellations announced in DC promos and in the final issues of the comics themselves.

The following Huntress titles were cancelled due to the Implosion, with the following as their final issue:

Huntrese/ JSA Tltles

All Star Comics #74 (Sept. cover date) — issue #75 later published in Adventure Comics #461 (Jan.–Feb. 1979) and 462 (March 1979); the feature continued there until #466

Batman Family #20 (Nov.) — merged into Detective Comics as of issue #481 (Dec. 1978–Jan. 1979)
The Huntress stories moved to Wonder Woman

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There’s a book about the oral history of the Implosion that I’ve got buried here somewhere, interesting behind the scenes at DC and the trends across the industry

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@TurokSonOfStone1950, sorry if you may have already said and I missed it, however do you know where in the Levitz interviews in the podcast from Week 1 that he begins talking about the Huntress?

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Paul starts talking about All Star Comics at around 45 minutes 50 seconds

But everything before that is incredible

The interview is
Comic Book History 101
Comic Book Economics 101
Comic Book Publishing 101

I would love to be in
One of the classes he teaches.

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His gentle criticism of Carmine Infantino as publisher really made me curious what he would have to say about Dan.

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So, read the article suggesting the Helena Wayne might be bisexual. While my first reaction was to say that the writer’s evidence was very thin, I find myself defending their perspective. I’ve said before, the meaning of any piece of art is a combination of what the creator puts our there and what the individual consumer sees in it. What any piece of art says to us is going to depend to some degree on our perspective and life experiences. One person’s deconstruction of American capitalism is another person’s tragic tale of toxic family relationships (The Godfather). What to me, and I would guess most people, are expressions of deep platonic love between Helena and Karen appear to be hints at a deeper romantic feeling to the article writer. If that’s what they take from these stories, good for them.

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Re the article

I like the articles because it has many panels showing the deep relationships between Helena Wayne and Power Girl

We will encounter some of these panels again, at least in.the optional readings

But there is author’s intent

Paul Levitz, looking back at what he wrote in his twenties said;

I’ve learned many things in the decades since I wish I knew when I wrote these stories: craft .skills of writing, knowledge of human behavior, understanding of how men and women differ ( I simplified my approach in those early days by assuming that being a superhero was so much different from ordinary humanity than the mere differences that gender offered), and more

He grew tremendously in the following decades, writing a lesbian relationship between Shrinking Violet and Light Lass in the Legion of Super Heroes in the 30th century. Also the Legion contend against Darkseid in his greatest work, The Great Darkness Saga

In his New 52 panels of the early 2010s, Levitz was trying to portray the following situation

Both had seen their mothers murdered, Catwoman and Lois Lane, a little over 5 years earlier.

Five years ago, they were sucked into a space hole, which transported them to the main.New 52 Earth. Just before that, they had heared, through their communication’ devices, the death of their fathers, Batman and Superman, along with Wonder Woman, the only other Super Heroes on.Earth 2, as they defeat the forces of Darkseid in a suicidal mission

During those five years, Helena found a home on.this new Earth, while Power Girl put a lot of their we3slth that.Helena stole from our Bruce Wayne to build a machine to take them home to Earth 2

The machine is ready and they are living their last few days on this alien Earth. Power Girl is confident they will defeat any remaining forces of Darkseid. But Helena has no super powers and thinks she will likely die after they go home, likely a few minutes afterwards.

They have been together, alone, in secret, on.this alien earth, just the two of them.

So they have a deep.bond.and will show strong emotions as they approach the main crisis of their lives.

Another Panel is from Geoff Johns in his Justice Society series. Power Girl has been sent back to another Earth 2 where her Superman.and herself have been missing for several years. Their Huntress, acting completely out of character, is an emotional wreck. She was about to break up with her boyfriend, because she loves some one else, maybe Dick Grayson maybe not, when said boyfriend’s face is disfigured by acid and is barely alive in the hospital. And then her best friend, missing for many years, suddenly shows up

Again maybe strong emotion is called for.

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I have read the Secret Origins and the JSA book. I still have Crisis and the Justice League crossover. One thing I have noticed about Helena Wayne is how one dimensional she is. I can’t help myself but compare her to Helena B. and the difference is glaring. Granted, the JSA book was a Huntress story that featured all action and no real character work. However, the origin story wasn’t bad but it often fell flat. At least, to me. I have the Huntress trade that has Paul Levitz stories collected and I have been reading that as well.

It is interesting that they created Huntress because Batgirl was boring. The one thing Babs has over Helena Wayne is at least keeping the secret from Jim Gordon. It should also be noted that the Birds of Prey TV show’s Helena is the closest we will get to a modern live action Helena Wayne, as the Helena in the show was the daughter of Bruce and Selena. However, it feels like Selena had powers like Patience Phillips from Catwoman (2004) and that where Helena had her powers?

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Paul at that time had minimal writing skills and personal experience as he admits in the forward to the Trade which I included in my Trade Post, Post 9.

In the Birds of Prey TV series Helina Selina Dinah and her mom were metas.

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