One character that is often caught in the crossfire of Batman’s iconic status quo is the original Huntress herself, Helena Wayne. That entirely boils down to one of her greatest assets as a character (being the daughter of Batman and Catwoman) also being her most frustrating curse – a problem that was exacerbated by her death and erasure in 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths. Since then, Helena Wayne was reworked with a mafia origin (as Helena Bertinelli) to keep her active without changing Batman’s iconic status quo, and this is who she’s been for most of her near-50-year-old history.
Whilst Helena Wayne’s death and erasure from 40 years ago remain a major source of grievance for her immediate fans to this day, it also can’t be denied that DC Comics has attempted to restore some version of the character as part of its main post-Crisis canon in the last 20 years. The problem, however, is that DC has consistently used the wrong approach to restore her instead of going with the more obvious solution of resurrecting the original character and picking up her story where it left off.
If anything, exploring how the original Huntress confronts the trauma of death, resurrection and erasure, and how she chooses to rebuild her life under those circumstances would create a stronger emotional hook. It would also result in a far more impactful story than any attempt to reboot Helena Wayne with a new origin. So why hasn’t DC gone this route? It seems like a simple enough solution to restoring Helena Wayne back into the main DC canon, especially since it would keep her original history intact and would not alter the post-Crisis Batman in any way.
The answer seems to be that today’s DC Comics editors and creators are simply out of touch with who the character is due to the long passage of time and because Helena Bertinelli has functionally taken her place in the main DC canon. What may be needed is a reminder of what made Helena Wayne a breakout character the first time in order to figure out a path forward.
Far from being the Huntress who happens to have Batman and Catwoman for parents, Helena Wayne did a lot more to carve a unique core mythology for herself that deserves far more recognition and respect. Even more so since her larger contribution to DC lore is much more significant than what is currently acknowledged.
