[JSA Book Club] Week 17: Dark Knight's Daughter[Oct. 17-31]

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Hello fellow JSA Club Members. We’ve been doing a lot of readings in recent months that have dealt with various teams connected with the JSA as well as the JSA itself. This week I thought it was time to change things up a little and concentrate on a single character who is connected to the JSA. I will be doing this periodically just for a change of pace and there are a lot of potential characters out there we could take a closer look at.

This week we are going to be taking a look at a character who is the daughter of one former JSA member and a member of the team herself: Helena Wayne otherwise known as The Huntress. Her father may be the Batman but her mother is none other than Selina Kyle. To see how this came to be lets call this meeting to order and get reading!

The Roll Call

Club Leaders

Standing Members

Abrax, AggressiveIntellectual219, bbzo24, bigblock66, Brenticus_Rex, CassTheStreet, CrazyQuilt, Daffern, dave_worrell, DCUniverse, Deathstroke’s.Punisher, december360, dj.ganon, DocterFate1, Don-El, fawsid, frankie.lacy79, Frostbite30, ganaoque, harrist, HombreDeMaiz, hotstufflouie, Jay_Kay, Jflow, jlevin, kaliym73, lunalane, MatthewHecht, mbpbinder, _meegs, Meisaj, mgeiler, Midnitehour, MisfitCMJ, mitchellbpearson ,msgtv, OldBoyWonder, PaintEater, parzival27, ProActress, ralphsix, Ravenrifft, Remember5NovEveyHammond, RickTylerHourman, rlynchfamily, rspezzano, rm, TheCosmicMoth, TK52, TurokSonOfStone, YolandaMontezz, ZacharyLee1995.

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Readings for this week

* DC Superstars #17

* All Star Comics 69-71

* Batman Family #17-19

  • “Horoscopes of Crime” (Batman Family#17)
  • “Choice of Destinies” (#18)
  • “Gotham Town is Burning Down” (#19)

For discussion

  1. Helena has quite a legacy to live up to. How would you handle such a legacy?

  2. Like father like daughter. Helena takes up the mantle of The Huntress because of her mother’s murder. Heroes oftentimes have some tragedy or other that is the catalyst for their creation. Do you think this theme is completely necessary for a hero?

  3. So what did you think of Commish. Bruce Wayne? Do you think he’s qualified for the position and that he’s a good choice?

  4. Overall what did you think of these stories? What about Helena’s trip to Earth 1?

And that’s all we have for this week.

Join the JSA BOOK CLUB

For Next Month

Aurora is taking a break from the JSABC for personal reasons but the club will continue as it has been.

Next time we will spend the first half of the month taking a look at 1987’s Young All Stars and the second half we will cover issues from 2006’s Justice Society of America.

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It’ll be interesting to compare this Huntress with some of the later versions of her.

She’s been showing up as a back feature to the newly digitized Wonder Woman comics from the early eighties.

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The DC History Club
Did a month on.the
Various Huntresses

Including
Wiki reference
Links and videos
Which might be useful

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If I had that legacy I would live up to it by learning the amnesia kiss from Superman II. Since nobody will be able to remember Batman I will have no trouble living up to him at all. What could possibly go wrong?

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She was a back feature in WW for a bit, which was where I first encountered the character. I was glad to see those issues being digitized finally.

Thanks for the link @TurokSonOfStone1950.

:rofl:

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Re the Huntress backup

The DC History Club had Roy Thomas as a topic

“You took over Wonder Woman. Because you’re a guy, what was it like to come up with good stories for her?”

“No problem. I’d been reading WONDER WOMAN since I was at least five or six. But I talked things over, and to some extent co-plotted with, my girlfriend and soon wife Dann to get more of a female perspective. I’m happy with the short-run Gene Colan and I had on the magazine, but DC (without deliberately trying to) kind of double-crossed me in various ways and reduced my enthusiasm for doing the heroine, so I left.”

Turok here

When Roy entered into a three year contracts with DC Comics He was to write 100 pages a month.

The Huntress backup reduced the number of pages he could write each month for Wonder Woman as well as potentially reducing his income. He had to find other titles to compensate for that loss of income

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I have that trade as well. Though it doesn’t include those All Star Comics issues it does include some of the Wonder Woman backups that featured Huntress. Lots of familiar characters there including a team up between Robin and Huntress.

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@msgtv

When we did Huntress
He suggested the wedding
Of Earth 2
Batman and Catwoman

https://www.dcuniverse.com/comics/book/-/bf54eead-803d-4acb-b922-49cf260d5956

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Thank you for putting this together! I love stuff like this, but I have a hard time finding collections put together like this. :sweat_smile:

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Is Batman Family #20 on DCU? I only see up to 19.

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It is missing in the library

Here is my post on the trade
It includes all the backups
Missing in the library

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

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Sorry about that. I realised after making this post that Batman Family #20 was the continuation of the story started in #19 but I failed to check that it was available on DCU. I’ll edit the original post to correct that.

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Well I do have this bookmarked for a nice Saturday leisurely reading. The missing Batman family 20 just brings up why I still buy occasionally the older physical comics, because so many still aren’t digitized from the Silver and Bronze ages.

Most aren’t that expensive, not that I want to have a bunch of boxes of old comics again. 12 short boxes instead of 20+ long boxes is really really nice,so much easier to deal with.

I wonder if the Superman family and Batman Family comics are in archive or trade paperback format somewhere?

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All the Huntress backups
Are in the Huntress trade
Available on Comixology

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Thanks.

I was just searching for what Batman Family #20 would cost… luckily most of the series is digitized here unlike the Superman Family 70s series.

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Thanks @TurokSonOfStone1950.

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For the first selection in DC Superstars #17, seeing the Earth 2 married couple of Batman and Catwoman was very satisfying. Having them become older and having a daughter who’s possibly in her early twenties again made really good fictional sense. And having Catwoman’s past creep up on her in an unexpected way that eventually causes her accidental death, again all ties together really well.

What didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me with this first selection is how Helena can go from being a pampered rich daughter to suddenly putting on a uniform and fighting crime. Nowhere in the story is there even a hint that she’s had any training in this sort of life and the story really leans heavily into the idea that her parents would have dissuaded her from that, at least from what I can see in this one story.

So an interesting read in spite of what I consider a slight plot hole, great to also review Mike Grell’s super artwork for the Green Arrow story in the same volume.

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@Don-El

She had no.training

From her fact sheet
In the trade edition

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 aas exposed to the basics of crimefighting in stories her father told and watching the training he wad giving to his ward, Dick Grayson.(Golden Age Robin)

And

Watch

For a very funny
Deconstruction
Of the Origin Story

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Thanks. It makes sense that they would clean this up years later, that is a pretty big gap in the story with her training not being mentioned and she just throws on some superhero clothes and goes to work.

What I really enjoy about the All-Star Squadron and Infinity Inc is exploring the idea of current superheroes having kids and what would that be like.

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  1. It’s kinda odd that she is hiding her legacy from her father. You would think she would use the valuable resources her father had to help her continue it.

  2. It isn’t necessary to be a hero. Some people just want to do good things but the law prevents them from taking those measures.

  3. I think as Commish he could use his resources of being Batman to take down criminals just as well as Batman. Although now he is confined the laws. He can’t carry out a war on criminals like he did as Batman.

  4. I enjoyed these stories but I find it funny how characters seem to change clothes into their alter ego. Where were you carrying those clothes?? Her trip to Earth 1 was different. It was weird seeing the Batwoman and not another magic character to counteract Madame Zodiac. For me these were a little dated but not the worst comics.

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