| Huntress | |
|---|---|
.png) Helena Wayne as Huntress inWonder Woman (vol. 1) #299 (January 1983), art byJoe Staton (pencils) andBob Smith (inks), andAdrienne Roy (colors). | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Sensation Comics #68 (August1947) |
| Created by | Mort Meskin |
| Characters | Paula Brooks Helena Wayne Helena Bertinelli |
| The Huntress Huntress | |
 | The Huntress #1 (April 1989), featuring the Helena Bertinelli version of the character, art byJoe Staton. |
| Series publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | (vol. 1) Ongoing series (vol. 2) Limited series |
| Genre | |
| Publication date | (vol. 1) April 1989 – October 1990 (vol. 2) June – September1994 |
| Number of issues | (vol. 1) 19 (vol. 2) 4 |
| Main character(s) | Helena Bertinelli Paula Lian Brooks |
TheHuntress is the name of several fictional characters appearing inAmerican comic books published byDC Comics, commonly in association with thesuperheroBatman. The two best-known women to bear the Huntress name areHelena Bertinelli andHelena Wayne, the latter being from an alternateuniverse. Although Helena Wayne and Helena Bertinelli are both superheroes, the Huntress of theGolden Age was asupervillain.
TheGolden Age Huntress was asupervillain with the real name ofPaula Brooks who battled thesuperheroWildcat, first appearing inSensation Comics #68. She joined the secondInjustice Society of America and stolePlymouth Rock. She married fellow supervillain theSportsmaster.
The character was laterretroactively renamed theTigress in the pages ofYoung All-Stars. These stories took place prior to her villainous career. At this point, the young Paula Brooks was a superheroine, and fought both Nazis and criminals as aYoung All-Stars member.
TheBronze Age Huntress wasHelena Wayne, the daughter of theBatman andCatwoman ofEarth-Two, analternate universe established in the early 1960s as the world where the Golden Age stories took place.[1]
Created byPaul Levitz,Joe Staton, and Bob Layton, her first appearance was inAll Star Comics #69 (December 1977) andDC Super Stars #17, which came out the same day[2] and revealed her origin.[3] She appeared inBatman Family #17-20 when it expanded into theDollar Comics format for its last few issues.[4] The bulk of her solo stories appeared as backup features in issues ofWonder Woman beginning with issue #271 (September 1980).[4][5]
Helena's parents trained her to be a superb athlete. After finishing school, she joined thelaw firm of Cranston and Grayson, whereDick Grayson, aliasRobin, was a partner.
Helena began her superhero career when a criminal blackmailed her mother into resuming action once again as Catwoman—an act that eventually led to her death. Helena, deciding to bring the criminal responsible to justice, created a costume for herself, fashioned some weapons from her parents' equipment (including her eventual trademark, acrossbow), and set out to bring in the criminal. After accomplishing this, Helena decided to continue to fight crime under the codename "The Huntress".
InAll Star Comics #72, Helena formally joined theJustice Society of America where she struck up a friendship with fellow new superheroinePower Girl. As a JSA member, she participated in several of the annual JLA/JSA meetings, most of which took place on Earth-One. Helena was also briefly associated with the superhero groupInfinity, Inc.
During the 1985 miniseriesCrisis on Infinite Earths, Helena was killed while attempting to save the lives of several children. AfterCrisis ended, Helena Wayne's existence, like that of her parents and Earth-Two's Dick Grayson, wasretroactively erased from the remaining Earth and the world no longer remembered her.
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In the final issue of52, a new Multiverse is revealed, originally consisting of 52 identical realities. Among the parallel realities shown is one designated "Earth-2". As a result ofMister Mind "eating" aspects of this reality, it takes on visual aspects similar to the Pre-Crisis Earth-Two, including the Huntress among other Justice Society of America characters. The names of the characters and the team are not mentioned in the panel in which they appear, but the Huntress is visually similar to the Helena Wayne Huntress.[6] Geoff Johns confirmed that it is indeed the Earth-2 Batman's daughter, the Huntress.[7] As prefigured by comments fromGrant Morrison, this new alternate universe is not the original/Pre-Crisis Earth-Two and ensuingJustice Society of America exploration disclosed that this Helena Wayne/Huntress was a member of the Justice Society Infinity, Earth-2's merged JSA andInfinity, Inc. and was in a relationship withDick Grayson/Robin in this world. SincePower Girl briefly visited that world, there has been no subsequent depiction of the new Helena Wayne/Huntress of Earth-2.[8]
In September 2011,The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, the Huntress is re-established in 2012 in the ongoing seriesWorlds' Finest, along with Power Girl. In this series, the Huntress is in reality Helena Wayne from Earth 2. She and Power Girl, who is Superman's cousin on Earth 2, were mysteriously hurled to the mainstream DC Universe after a battle withDarkseid's minions.[9] A retrospective prequel to the series disclosed that her mother was the formerCatwoman (Selina Kyle).
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Following the 1985 miniseriesCrisis on Infinite Earths, the Helena Wayne version of the Huntress was removed from continuity. DC Comics introduced a new version of the Huntress with the same first name and physical appearance, and with a similar costume, but with an entirely different backstory and personality.
The Pre-New 52 Huntress wasHelena Rosa Bertinelli (in some early appearances,Helena Janice Bertinelli), the daughter of a powerful Gotham mobster and sole survivor of a mob hit that wipes out her entire family. Swearing revenge, Helena dubs herself the "Huntress" and trains from childhood to become a ruthless vigilante. During the "No Man's Land" story line, she temporarily assumes the role of Batgirl, but not alongside Batman (whom the citizens believe abandoned them).
Batman considers her to be too unpredictable and violent. Others in the Batman family feel differently;Nightwing had a brief romantic fling with her, while she andTim Drake share a good professional relationship. Early in his career he worked with the female vigilante, and later cleared her name in a murder case. Batman sponsors Huntress's membership in theJustice League,[10] and for some time, Huntress was a respected member of the League. Under the guidance of heroes such asSuperman, she grew in confidence, but was forced to resign after Batman stopped her from killing the villainPrometheus.[11]
The emergence of Bertinelli as the Huntress has not kept DC from occasionally paying homage to the Helena Wayne incarnation of the character. During a Post-Crisis JLA-JSA team-up, Bertinelli was so impressed with the skill and prowess of theFlash (Jay Garrick),Hippolyta, andWildcat, stating humbly, "I wanna join the Justice Society . . . "[12] Additionally, Power Girl sought her out for someone to talk to, even though the two have never really interacted.
The character was featured in the comic book seriesBirds of Prey from 2003 onwards as a member of the eponymous team. Although she is still depicted as prone to excessive violence, she became a valuable member of the team.
In the alternate timeline of the 2011 "Flashpoint" storyline, the Huntress joined with theAmazons'Furies.[13]
Michael Eury and Gina Misiroglu characterized the original Huntress Paula Brooks as "a relatively obscure Golden Age villainess".[19][20] When that title was borrowed next for Helena Wayne, the reviewers found her "intriguingly distinguished by her parentage". This incarnation of the Huntress "so enthralled DC readers fascinated by the heroine's lineage and motivation" that she was spun out into her own successful series. When the character was eliminated by DC'sCrisis on Infinite Earths series, it "was too popular to fully jettison from the DC universe". Consequently, the Huntress incarnation of Helena Bertinelli was introduced in her own series, and also used in a number of other media.[19]
Gladys L. Knight remarks that the Huntress Helena Wayne starts her career fighting criminals to avenge her mother's death, but unlike Catwoman she "fights on the right side of the law and is indeed distraught over her mother's criminal past". Knight found the Huntress' storylines thrilling.[21]
DC Super Stars #17 (November–December 1977): While writer Paul Levitz and artist Joe Staton introduced the Huntress to the JSA in this month'sAll Star Comics #69, they concurrently shaped her origin inDC Super Stars.
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