The last few months we took a look at some stories that featured Helena Wayne as the Huntress. As we all know Helena Wayne was erased from continuity by COIE and to take her place as Huntress a new character was created.
This month’s session we will be taking a look at the second character to wear the mantle of The Huntress: Helena Bertinelli. Now to be perfectly honest with you all I was not really a fan of this version of the Huntress, in part because of the way Helena Wayne was erased from the DCU. I’m still not a real fan of the character but I have gained a appreciation for her over time.
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She was kinda being set up as a fill-in for the recently-Killing-Joked Batgirl (or perhaps a de facto new Batwoman?), but it never really seemed to come together.
Well, Helena Bertinelli is one of my favorite characters of all time, just behind my favorite, Stephanie Brown! That’s partly because I first met her in Birds of Prey by Gail Simone - one of the best books of all time, and Huntress is a huge part of why it’s so great!
My favorite Helena Bertinelli story and storyline is either Birds of Prey by Gail Simoner (#56-108) or Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood by Rucka and Burchett. I think my favorite artist to draw her is Nicola Scott.
Now that we’re in the discussion portion of the club, I want to say that while I think there’s clearly the DNA of a great character in the 89 Huntress series, the art feels really dated, though quite skilled, and the creepiness of the tone feels unnecessary and distracting. Dixon would keep that element but basically retell the story in Gotham in the mid-90s Huntress miniseries, and Rucka would completely remove it in Cry for Blood (which was then followed by Ivory Madison in Huntress Year One). I wonder if others think that Rucka’s surgery on Helena’s backstory was an improvement or a degradation?
It’s a degradation in my book, but I know that’s not a popular opinion. Her origin is undoubtedly reflective of the “shocking for the sake of shocking” style of the late 1980s, but I prefer for a writer to figure out a way to make a controversial idea work rather than retconning it away. And I’m generally not a fan of taking away from a hero’s traumatic past, even if that traumatic past was arguably in bad taste from the start. (Then again, I prefer Huntress as a Punisher type, too.)
Interesting! I know that many think Huntress was “neutered” or something by Simone’s work with her in Birds of Prey, but since I first fell in love with her in Birds of Prey, that’s how I prefer to see the character! I definitely feel like the 89 series falls into the “Dark Age” too much in dated and unfun ways, but it does have a lot of skill.
