TheHuntress, also known asHelena Wayne, is asuperheroine appearing inAmerican comic books published byDC Comics. Thecharacter is the daughter of theBatman andCatwoman (Selina Kyle) of analternate universe established in the early 1960s andreferred to as "Earth-Two", where theGolden Age stories took place. A modern-day predecessor (andretroactivenamesake) of Helena Wayne as Huntress with no blood-relation to Batman or Catwoman,Helena Bertinelli, was additionally co-created by the character's co-creatorJoe Staton in 1989, originally intended as a reinvention of the character following the events ofCrisis on Infinite Earths, before beingretconned as different characters.

The Huntress
Huntress (Helena Wayne). art byJoe Staton.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	DC Super Stars #17 (November/December 1977)
Created by	Paul Levitz Joe Staton Joe Orlando Bob Layton
In-story information
Alter ego	Helena Wayne
Species	Human
Place of origin	Earth-Two
Team affiliations	Batman Family Infinity, Inc. Justice Society of America Justice League
Partnerships	Power Girl Batman (father) Robin Damian Wayne (half-brother) Terry McGinnis (half-brother) Matt McGinnis (half-brother)
Notable aliases	Robin
Abilities	Highly skilled gymnast Highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant/martial artist Expert markswoman

ActressAshley Scott portrayed Helena Kyle / The Huntress in the 2002 television seriesBirds of Prey and reprised her role in theArrowverse crossover "Crisis on Infinite Earths".

The Huntress was created as a response toAll Star ComicsinkerBob Layton's suggestion that a revampedEarth-TwoBatgirl be added to the lineup of theJustice Society of America.^[1]PencillerJoe Staton recounted how the character was designed:

AfterPaul [Levitz,All Star Comics writer] had described the origin to me, I worked up sketches combining elements ofCatwoman andBatman, and went in seeJoe [Orlando, editor]. The short version is that Joe and I had a fine meeting, featuringVinnie Colletta in his role asart director snoring away at full volume on the couch in the back of the room. Joe touched up the bat-elements in my original sketch, particularly the cape, giving it the scallops, and he made the belt emblem a bit more bat-like. Joe opened up his sketchpad and used my sketch as the main element in the cover design forDC Super-Stars, and I went home to pencil the final cover.^[1]

Staton also admitted that the character's costume was heavily inspired by theBlack Cat.^[1] The titleHuntress was borrowed from "relatively obscure Golden Age villainess"Paula Brooks.^[2][3]: 60 Helena's first appearance was inDC Super Stars #17 (November/December 1977), which told her origin,^[4] and thenAll Star Comics #69 (December 1977), which came out the same day,^[5] and revealed her existence to theJustice Society of America. She appeared inBatman Family #17-20 when it expanded into theDollar Comics format for its last few issues.^[6] The bulk of her solo stories appeared as backup features in issues ofWonder Woman beginning with issue #271 (September 1980).^[6][7] These stories, almost all of which were written by Levitz and pencilled by Staton, tended to a noir style, with the Huntress typically combating street-level crime rather than costumed supervillains.^[1]

Following the character's death and erasure from history inCrisis on Infinite Earths #12 (March 1986), DC created a new Huntress (Helena Bertinelli) to serve as her successor.

Following52 (2007), DC Comics superheroes' fictional world was newly established as a collection of 52 parallel-world "universes". An alternate rebooted version of the Helena Wayne character now resides on post-Crisis Earth-2 and has appeared inJustice Society of America (vol. 3) in issues set on the parallel world of Earth-2.

A new Helena Wayne is reintroduced following DC'sFlashpoint (2011) crossover inThe New 52 reboot as part of a storyline where she andPower Girl are refugees from the world featured in the comic bookEarth 2 (2012–2015), taking the name Helena Bertinelli as her alias on Earth 1. Together they headline the seriesWorlds' Finest. The character is later featured in the storyline of the multiverse crossover eventConvergence and theEarth 2 follow-up seriesEarth 2: Society (2015–2017), in which she takes over her father's title asBatman. She isn't seen again followingDoomsday Clock (2017–2019) which reversed some of theFlashpoint event's changes to the timeline.

Following theDark Nights: Metal crossover, another incarnation of Helena Wayne is introduced byGeoff Johns as Batman and Catwoman's time travelling daughter from the future in the pages ofThe New Golden Age (2022–2024) andJustice Society of America (vol. 4) (2023–2024), in which she supports the JSA to defeatPer Degaton but becomes stranded in the past after her future timeline is erased. She supports the team by helping them recruit villains to their ranks who became heroes, hoping to accelerate their paths to reform. In the series' conclusion, she travels with theLegion of Super-Heroes to the 31st century, where she joins that era's incarnation of the Justice Society.

Helena was born in 1957 toBruce Wayne andSelina Kyle Wayne, and grew up enjoying the benefits of being in a wealthy household. As a youth, she enjoyed a thorough education, as well as being trained by her parents, Batman and Catwoman, to become a super-athlete. As a young girl she was amazed to learn that her father was the Batman and embracedDick Grayson as her older brother. She also looked up to Alfred as a second father. AfterYale College andYale Law School, she joined thelaw firm of Cranston and Grayson, one of whose partners wasDick Grayson, aliasRobin.

In 1976, criminal Silky Cernak blackmailed his old boss Selina Kyle into resuming action once again as Catwoman, an act which eventually led to her death. Helena, deciding to bring Cernak to justice, created a costume for herself, fashioned some weapons from her parents' equipment (including her eventual trademark weapon, acrossbow), and set out to bring him in. After accomplishing this, Helena decided to continue to fight crime, under the code name "the Huntress".

After her mother's death, Helena moved out of Wayne Manor and into aGotham City apartment. She soon found herself involved with theJustice Society of America (her father's old team) and formally joined the group inAll Star Comics #72. Helena was also briefly associated with the superhero groupInfinity, Inc., a team made up of second-generation superheroes, mostly the children of JSA members.

Helena also struck up a friendship with fellow new superheroinePower Girl, who was also a part of both the JSA and Infinity Inc. In addition to Power Girl, Helena frequently worked with Robin and with a new hero named Blackwing. Some of her foes were theThinker,Joker, Lion-Mane (one of her mother's embittered former minions), Karnage, Boa, and theEarthworm. Her lover for a time was Gotham District Attorney Harry Sims. Despite the fact that she proposed a partnership ("I nail'em, you jail'em"), their relationship grew difficult in that he knew of her secret identity and was constantly worrying about her safety. She briefly flirted with Robin who, cited her father's choice in looking for a wife, told her that a normal man would not be able to satisfy her.

She made several visits to Earth-One. Her first was inBatman Family #17, where she met the Earth-OneBatman,Robin,Batgirl, andBatwoman, and fought the Earth-One Catwoman,Poison Ivy andMadame Zodiac. Seeing in him her father returned to her, she took to calling the Earth-One Batman her "Uncle Bruce", and built a familial relationship with him. As a member of the Justice Society, she participated in several of the annual JLA/JSA meetings, most of which took place on Earth-One. She also participated in the battle against the Adjudicator^[8] as part of the female force of multiple Earths led by the Earth-OneWonder Woman. Other heroines involved in this adventure includedZatanna,Supergirl,Phantom Lady,Madame Xanadu,Power Girl,Black Canary,Wonder Girl,Raven, andStarfire.

Despite the fact that she did love her mother and became the Huntress to avenge her death, she secretly feared that she might follow in her mother's footsteps. Either fighting a demonic version of her mother in a drug-induced haze^[9] or fighting her mother's Earth-One counterpart (who had never reformed),^[10] Helena had a difficult time coming to grips with her mother's criminal career, even going so far as to seek therapy. Looking at her mother's Earth-One counterpart, she secretly hoped that one day that the Earth-One Catwoman would reform.

InCrisis on Infinite Earths, theAnti-Monitor destroys Earth-Two. Huntress is rescued from the destruction and is later killed battling the Anti-Monitor's Shadow Demons.

Following the events ofInfinite Crisis and52, Earth-Two and Huntress are restored. Additionally, a version of Helena appears in the main universe as the daughter of Selina Kyle and an unknown father.

The Helena Wayne incarnation of the Huntress returns in the wake of DC'sThe New 52 relaunch with a six-issueHuntress miniseries that was released in October 2011. Alongside Power Girl, she later starred in a revival of theWorlds' Finest series, written byPaul Levitz and drawn byGeorge Pérez andKevin Maguire.^[11][12]

In the 2016–2019 run ofBatman penned byTom King as part of theDC Rebirth era, Selina and Bruce reconnected and fell in love once more, with the two almost marrying. In the possible futures of the story called "Last Rites" (inBatman (vol. 3) Annual #2)^[13] and the seriesBatman/Catwoman, Selina falls pregnant with Bruce's child whom they name Helena. After Bruce's death in a flash-forward she helps her widowed mother come to terms with it and ends up becoming the new Batwoman.^[14]

A version of the character is reintroduced in a flashforward depicted inGeoff Johns' one-shotThe New Golden Age, which deals with never-before-seen characters being returned to history after having been removed from existence. AfterPer Degaton is defeated, Huntress' timeline is erased and she joins a 31st-century version of the Justice Society.^[15][16]

The Huntress is a highly skilled gymnast and is also skilled at hand-to-hand combat, martial arts, and stealth. In addition, she is an expert markswoman, and archer, with her trademark weapon being a crossbow.

The Huntress is also skilled ininvestigating,law, and is fluent in English and Italian.

In January 2020, coinciding with the filmBirds of Prey, DC Comics publishedThe Huntress: Origins (ISBN 978-1-77950072-4), a trade paperback which was a re-release of 2006'sHuntress: Darknight Daughter under a new title.

• Helena Wayne / Huntress appears inLegends of the Superheroes, portrayed by Barbara Joyce.
• Helena Wayne / Huntress was considered to appear inBatman Beyond as an alternative to having a "Batgirl Beyond".^[17]
• Helena Wayne / Huntress, renamedHelena Kyle, appears inBirds of Prey, portrayed byAshley Scott. This version is based primarily on her Bronze Age comics counterpart and is themetahuman daughter of Batman and Catwoman, the latter of whom raised Helena without revealing who her father was until Catwoman was murdered byClayface andBarbara Gordon took over raising her. Having inherited her mother's powers, such as enhanced agility, strength, healing, and a sixth sense for danger, Helena forms the titularBirds of Prey with Gordon andDinah Redmond to fight crime in Batman's stead.
• Helena Kyle / Huntress makes a cameo appearance in "Crisis on Infinite Earths", portrayed again by Ashley Scott.^[18]

Helena Wayne / Huntress appears inJustice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, voiced byErika Ishii.^[19]

Editor Paul Levitz justified the creation of Helena Wayne by a wish to bring more diversity into the comic books, for the ALL-STAR JSA group, and to give Power Girl (the only female in the groups at the time) someone to contrast with and befriend.^[3]: 111

ReviewersMichael Eury and Gina Misiroglu found the character of Helena Wayne "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", leading to the creation ofHelena Bertinelli as the next Huntress.^[2]

• JSA Fact File: The HuntressArchived 2010-02-12 at theWayback Machine
• Earth-2 Huntress (Helena Wayne) Index