Birds Of Prey And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn Review

Title: Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn
Cast: Margot Robbie, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rosie Pérez, Ella Jay Basco, Ewan McGregor
Filmmakers: Cathy Yan (Director), Christina Hodson (Screenwriter), Margot Robbie (Producer)
Release Date: 07 February 2020
Available In: Cinemas
Rating: R (strong violence and language throughout, and some sexual and drug material)

It's Valentine's Day today, and the female-led Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (also known as Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey at some cinemas) has now been out for a whole week. While I originally intended to see the film today for the special occasion, I also had a bad day at the office last Thursday (long story) that I told myself I deserved to treat myself to something nice. I therefore decided to watch the film on opening night instead, and as for having a good time, the film does deliver on that front. (I'm actually going to go see it again at the cinema after work tonight.)

The Start Of A New Decade: My Plans For 2020

Today is the first day of a new year and also the start of a new decade. With the start of a new decade comes a new beginning, and of course, a lot of self-reflecting to decide what I want to do differently for the next ten years of my life. (Well, apart from the fact that I'll be turning 40 in six years time and I clearly need to start asking myself what I'm doing with my life.)

Having reflected on the last decade—which I described as polarising—I have to say I am quite displeased with the way I've been running this website, and I'm especially not happy about the way I've been conducting myself in the past 10 years. Having looked back on where I've made mistakes and where I need to make improvements, I've mapped out what I am going to do differently in this decade to improve the quality of my content and other people's experience starting with 2020.

The End Of A Decade: 2019 In Review

Here we are! Last day of the year, last day of a decade, last day of an era of DC as we prepare for the next DC reboot that's going to launch Earth-5G in 2020.

Batman Day 2019: What If Helena Wayne Survived Crisis On Infinite Earths?

The idea for this post was actually presented to me by another fan on Twitter who requested that I write about how Helena Wayne's life would've panned out from her last pre-Crisis appearance (Crisis on Infinite Earths) to now. Specifically, what would her status quo be? What relationships would she still have? Would she still have the same career? Live in the same location? Wear the same costume? Have unique gadgets and vehicles to assist her in her Huntress missions? Would her role in the Justice Society be the same or change?

Top 3 Reasons Helena Wayne And Helena Bertinelli Should Be Separate Characters

Today is the canonical birthday of the pre-Crisis Helena Wayne Huntress as established in the back matter pages of Infinity Inc #7. 1984 was a great year to be a Huntress fan because in addition to helping kickstart Infinity Inc which further explored the legacy of the Justice Society, she was central to Earth-2's main event for that year: America vs the Justice Society of America. DC was also starting to recognise the popularity of the Huntress by this time that they began the initial work to launch the character onto her own ongoing series.

Then Crisis on Infinite Earths happened in 1985.

Power Girl 40th Anniversary: JSA Classified #3 Review

Title: JSA Classified #3
Story: Power Trip
Characters: Power Girl (Kara Zor-L), Huntress (Helena Bertinelli), Flash (Jay Garrick), Mr. Terrific (Michael Holt), Psycho-Pirate (Roger Hayden)
Creators: Geoff Johns (writer), Amanda Conner (artist)
Publication Date: September 2005
Available In: Print | Digital

Summary: Power Girl has been having a tough time. Between destroying half a city block in New York and nearly letting an aeroplane to crash in Metropolis, she's in desperate need of a friend. Specifically a friend who will listen to what she has to say and offer her the comfort she needs. She needs the Huntress!

Five Reasons Helena Bertinelli as a Woman of Colour Matters and More

Earlier this month, creators Tim Seeley and Tom King announced that a New 52 version of Helena Bertinelli would be debuting in the new series, Grayson, which would see Dick Grayson rebuilding his life as a spy after the events of Forever Evil outed him as Nightwing.This week saw the official first appearance of Helena Bertinelli as both an agent of Spyral and as woman of colour in the final pages of Nightwing #30.

As was to be expected in this situation, the change to Helena Bertinelli's appearance in the New 52 didn't go unnoticed. Many people supported the change and there were just as many who didn't. Those who supported the change saw this as a positive development for the character, and those who didn't complained about the change for all of the wrong reasons. Unsurprisingly, most of the complaints were, at best, deeply rooted in ignorance over the diversity of people that exist in Italy, and, at worst, rife with racist rhetoric.

Given the mixed bag of reactions the new Helena Bertinelli got, I decided to compile my own list of reasons for why this change actually works in her favour. Not just to enlighten the unenlightened, but also to express my own excitement for this development as well as address any concerns about where this could go given DC's awful track record with women in the New 52. But first, the positives!

02 Marcus To | Top 10 Favourite Huntress Artists

Undoubtedly one of the best talents to surface in recent times, Canada's very own Marcus To is a well known name in DC Comics fandom for his work on Red Robin, and more recently the Huntress miniseries, Batwing, and Cyborg 009.

Admittedly, To was off to a very bad start with the Huntress, not because of any creative decisions he made as an artist being tasked with reintroducing the character in the New 52, but because of the uneven ground that exists between the character's staunchly devoted fanbase and DC Comics' own treatment of the character.

To be very specific, there is a tendency on DC's part to subject the Huntress to drastic origin changes following a major continuity-shifting reboot. Worse yet, they even have a history of deceiving fans of one particular version of the character into buying a book that features a character that looks like the one they want to read about, but isn't. This first happened in 1989 when fans of the original pre-Crisis Helena Wayne character bought the first iteration of a Huntress solo series expecting to see their beloved character again, only to quickly learn that the Huntress fronting that book was a new character named Helena Bertinelli. The same thing happened again in 2011 when DC Comics reintroduced the character via another Huntress series, only this time DC Comics delayed explicitly outing the real identity of the Huntress until they felt the timing was right.

As you can imagine, both incidents have led to massive shake-ups within the fandom to point where there is considerable division between fans of both Helena Wayne and Helena Bertinelli in the year 2013. Given all that was put on the plate there, I can't that I envied Marcus To's position as the guy who had to deal with the constant fandom bullshit despite just doing his job. Nevertheless, To did remarkable work on a character that started off as Helena Bertinelli and was eventually revealed to be Helena Wayne of Earth-2. So remarkable was his work on the Huntress miniseries that it landed him the #2 spot on this list.

Let's start with the first thing I noticed about To right away: he had a ridiculously good handle on the character despite being (initially) in the dark himself over whether the Huntress he was drawing was Helena Wayne or Helena Bertinelli. One of the things I noticed immediately from the first issue was that the Huntress looked a lot like Helena Bertinelli in appearance but possessed the personality traits of the original Helena Wayne character. The fact that he was able to capture the distinct traits of two characters into one person was in itself pretty fascinating. Though at the time, I was more fascinated by the revelation that this was supposed to be the Earth-2 Helena Wayne, a character I recalled being a lot more merciful than this current version, which gets me to my next topic:

His Helena Wayne is layered, but she is also cunning and brutal in her methods. When she is alone and the Huntress mask is off, she is often shown to be very pensive and at times demonstrates thoughts that border on sociopathic. When she is around other people, she presents herself with a charming personality, she's flirty, and is even idiosyncratic in her behaviour. But once the Huntress mask comes back on, her personality transforms to that of a relentless crime-fighter who harbours no sympathy for sex traffickers and is very casual in the way that she hurts and even kills them. Long story short, this is a Helena Wayne who doesn't give a shit for established law and will enforce her own version of it as she sees fit. This is obviously a very huge change from the previous version of her, enough to possibly even horrify the pre-Crisis Helena Wayne if she was see to how her own future turned out. But the bottom line here is that To never misses a single character beat with her, and nails each one flawlessly.

On the front of art style, To also has a very clean and crisp look to his pencil work. Like many of the previous artists discussed, he has a very good sense of lighting and knows when to use shadow and when not to use it. As such, he doesn't overdo it on the line work and maintains a very good balance between light and dark. He adds shadows where needed, but leaves enough room for the colourist to fill in the rest of the details that a scene requires without making the images look too heavy.

On anatomy, To definitely strives for anatomical correctness but doesn't go for the same level of perfection that some of the previously discussed artists strive for. This isn't a bad thing of course, and it does add to the unique look of his art style. His human bodies look natural and don't look too ripped or exaggerated in anyway. On that note, he also doesn't sexualise the female body to appeal to the male gaze and always treats his female characters with respect. His Huntress is always drawn with a natural athletic-looking body for a young woman who is physically active and is never drawn in any cheesecake poses. This is true even in the scene where she beats a pimp unconscious in her lingerie in the first issue of her miniseries. Occasionally he'll give the reader a glimpse at Helena's butt and only once did he actively draw a butt shot of her, but for the most part, To is respectful of her character and doesn't try to sexually arouse the reader with her posing, which is always great to see.

All in all, the Huntress miniseries continues to be my favourite Huntress story of the New 52 so far, and that is in part due to To's fabulous artwork on the book. Even though he's over at Marvel right now, I do hope he gets more opportunities to draw the Huntress (and Power Girl) in the future. I think out of my top five, he's definitely an artist I would like to see again!

Tomorrow....we finally get to discuss my number #1 favourite Huntress artist of all time. He or she may or may not be who you expected to be.

Stay tuned! ;)

04 Nicola Scott | Top 10 Favourite Huntress Artists

Hailing from Sydney, Australia, Nicola Scott is a fan favourite artist famous for her work on Birds of Prey, Secret Six, and currently Earth-2 for DC Comics.

Like DC legend, George Pérez, there are three things that stand out to me right away about Nicola Scott: DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS! To make a case about how detailed Scott is with her art, even when she draws a single character on a blank page, she doesn't leave out a single hair, let alone a single muscle and strives for anatomic perfection. You read that correctly. She doesn't strive for having correct anatomy, she takes it a step further: she literally strives to make the human body look perfect in a way that makes me think of Greek and Roman sculptures from times long past. This is most evident in the way that she draws men who are always bulking with muscle, they all have a six or eight pack, and Scott especially never leaves out the bulge if they are wearing skin-tight leather or spandex.

In addition to drawing some very gorgeous looking lads with perfect hair and nicely padded gluts, Scott also draws her women with athletic bodies. In huge contrast with the industry standard of making comic book women look either like supermodels or porn stars, Scott combats this standard by presenting her women with the same idealised bodies that are often reserved for male superheroes. They may not pack the same amount of muscle mass as their male counterparts, but the women are nevertheless presented with bodies that are feasible for women who engage in physical combat and perform manoeuvres that require a considerable amount of strength. On a similar note, Scott is also famous for reversing the use of cheesecake in order to appeal to the female gaze. In the same way that male artists often draw female superheroes in poses that often place focus on their more sexual parts (that is their breasts, butts, and vulvae), Scott herself applies those same kinds of poses to the men that she draws and often poses her women in the same kinds of majestic poses that are often reserved for men. For excellent cases in point, look no further than her work on Secret Six and Earth-2.

When it comes to drawing the Huntress, Scott has a considerably long history with the character. She has mostly drawn the Helena Bertinelli version of the character in both Birds of Prey and Secret Six, but she also got the draw the Helena Wayne version (as Robin) in the pages of Earth-2 #1. While it is unfortunate that it was decided at both the management and creative levels to inexplicably remove the Huntress from her native world of Earth-2 (or she would still be drawn by Scott), she has nevertheless seen great treatment under Scott's pencil. In the few panels that she got to draw the young Helena, we saw how confident and happy this teenage girl was to be able to work alongside her father before abruptly losing him from her life. In the scene where Bruce began to say his goodbyes to his young daughter upon realising (in advance) that he wasn't going to make it out of the Apokolips War alive, we saw how quickly Helena went from being the enthusiastic assistant to her superhero parent to a very scared child about to lose her father. In just three panels, Scott successfully captured Helena's emotional vulnerability and sorrow to the point where even those panels brought me to tears in a story I didn't even like.

Again the loss of Helena Wayne from Earth-2 is something I've strongly lamented in part because her removal did not help her narrative or character in any meaningful way, and also because Nicola Scott hasn't drawn her since. Drawing from her past experience with Helena Bertinelli (who in my opinion was characterised very similarly to the pre-Crisis Helena Wayne in Birds of Prey), I have no doubt that Scott would have continued to do her justice should she have been allowed to continue to draw her. In the same way that Scott was able to capture the emotional vulnerability of a child losing a parent, she could have similarly captured the fierceness and anger of a young woman who no longer feels like she has anything else left to lose in a world that's been broken beyond repair. She could've also easily captured Wayne's idiosyncratic behaviour and charming personality (when she's not being a dick to anyone that is), given her versatility and attention to detail.

It is of course still possible for Nicola Scott to draw this version of Huntress (and Power Girl) again in the future if returning to Earth-2 is in the cards for this character, and if Scott plans on staying on the Earth-2 title for a lengthy period of time. Since the Worlds' Finest characters are already set to appear in a crossover with Batman/Superman starting next month, the possibility for an Earth-2 crossover is starting to look very likely. Given the tease that we got with the latest solicit for Worlds' Finest #21, I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing them on future solicitations for Earth-2.

Tomorrow: Emanuela Lupacchino!

05 Amanda Conner | Top 10 Favourite Huntress Artists

While she is most accurately described as 'The Best Power Girl Artist' DC Comics has seen, Amanda Conner did have a very good handle on her best friend as well, even if she was just a hallucination pulled out of Power Girl's memory by Psycho-Pirate.

In something of a departure from the artists we've discussed so far, Amanda Conner has a considerably more cartoony art style that brings a different kind of energy and momentum into the characters she draws. As such, the motion in her action sequences tends to appear more fluid and a lot less static, which helps to make the imagery feel more lively and engaging to me as a reader. A lot times (to me anyway) I don't feel like I'm reading a comic book but an animated series.

Another thing that stands out to be about Conner's art is her perfect balance between her use of expressive body language while keeping the characters anatomically correct. A lot of times her characters will display very explicit emotions but at the same time she doesn't exaggerate their facial features to get the point across. Similarly, her characters' body language will complement what they're feeling as well, but she also avoids exaggerating their posture and will often keep them posed in ways that are feasible for a human body. Conner also excels at drawing different body types, which is something of a rarity in the industry. She draws a muscular and busty Power Girl and Wonder Woman, she draws an excellent Ma Hunkel who has a larger body type, and she draws a very athletic-looking Huntress. She can also draw lanky-looking lads in their early 20s, as well body-builder looking men, and somewhere in between.

On her use of contour and shadowing, Conner is also very clean and crisp in their use and doesn't saturate the page with excessive line work. This is actually how she achieves the very fluid look of her action sequences. She similarly has a very good handle on lights and shadows, and particularly, she knows when to use them and when not to use them. For the most part, she leaves the lighting and shadowing up to the colourist, which helps to maintain a very clean look for her characters and objects. Even when Conner does the shadowing and lighting herself, she always achieves the perception of depth through the use of colour as opposed to using hatching techniques to achieve the same effect. This is especially useful in an era of photoshop, particularly because it keeps the images from looking too heavy.

While Conner has only drawn the Huntress (both Wayne and Bertinelli) in issues #3 and #4 of JSA: Classified, I felt that she had a very strong handle on both versions of the character. In just the two issues that she got to draw them, she successfully illustrated how these two women were similar and how they differed. Her rendition of Helena Bertinelli is that of someone who is very tough as nails, doesn't waver easily, and maintains a strong front, never appearing weak to anyone. When she was encountered by Power Girl (who at the time vaguely mistook her for her best friend, Helena Wayne) she was very confused about why this person would think of her as 'a friend' despite their non-existent relationship and Conner captured that emotion from the character to a T. As the story progressed, Bertinelli reluctantly agreed to help her, but also maintained her distance from her. She similarly demonstrated something of a negative/indifferent attitude towards her that showed even her body language, which was something Power Girl found unusual from someone she associated with friendship. But when Bertinelli felt vulnerable about the idea of friendship, Conner successfully captured that as well.

When she got to draw Helena Wayne (or rather a hallucination of her from Power Girl's memory) in the following issue, her rendition of her was that of someone who died tragically and was full of sorrow and regret. She was drawn as longing for and reaching out to Power Girl the way an old forgotten friend would, and it was an image of her that haunted Power Girl to the point of tears at the end of the issue. Even those images brought me to tears when I read them, and a lot of that was due to the way Conner illustrated those scenes in addition to the strong script by Geoff Johns. They were just very powerful and moving. As much as Conner is known for her humorous depictions of characters, there's no denying she's very versatile in her depiction of emotion that can range anywhere from cartoony and funny to very serious and heartfelt. That latter one gets me every single time.

It is unfortunate that Conner can no longer due monthlies as a consequence of feeling burnt out, but she remains, nevertheless, my favourite Power Girl artist who also had the privilege to draw the second most important person in her life right after Kal.

Tomorrow: Nicola Scott!

09 Joe Staton | Top 10 Favourite Huntress Artists

If there is one Huntress artist in the world that you absolutely cannot have this list without, it is Joe Staton. He is, simply put, the quintessential Huntress artist. He was the first to draw Helena Wayne in her first two appearances in 1977, and he was even the first to draw Helena Bertinelli when she made her debut in 1989 following the Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot. In fact, he's so important to the character's history, I could not wait to talk about him that he's showing up on this list a lot sooner than he actually should. So let's talk about Joe!

The first thing that stood out to me about Joe was how perfectly his pencil work captured the personalities of both Helena Wayne and Helena Bertinelli, which are most certainly not depicted the same between the two. During his tenure with Helena Wayne's Huntress in the pre-Crisis days, he often depicted Wayne as very optimistic, happy, and snarky (which made sense for her character), but he could also draw her feeling sad, pensive, angry, and serious when the script demanded it. She was also something of oddball in the pre-Crisis days, which he captured so flawlessly as well. In addition to being very versatile in his ability to capture the essence of Helena Wayne, his work on the Huntress also complemented Paul Levitz' scripts very well. I'd even go as far as to say their synergy as a creative team goes unparalleled, even today.

On the front of Helena Bertinelli, Joe worked equally well with then Huntress writer, Joey Cavalieri. To add to Joe's versatility as an artist, the tone that he captured in the Huntress 1989 series is considerably darker and moodier than his work on the Helena Wayne Huntress stories, which were considerably brighter. As such, you definitely don't get the same feel reading Helena Bertinelli's story that you do reading Helena Wayne. To begin with, Bertinelli's story in the 1989 series is a lot sadder and far less optimistic to the point where you find yourself pitying the woman far more than you find yourself anticipating the next issue. At least that was my experience.

In huge contrast with the version of Helena Bertinelli that is popular with most fans (that being the Greg Rucka rebooted version that was further developed by Gail Simone), the original version of Helena Bertinelli was not nearly as empowered as she would later be known. In her earlier incarnation, she split identity between 'Helena Bertinelli the six-year-old victim of sexual assault and later the sole survivor of her family's brutal murder,' and 'Huntress the avenger.' When she had the Huntress mask on, she could easily forget who she was and could focus on busting the mafia at night, which was something of an outlet for her. Once the mask came off, Bertinelli would once again become haunted by her past memories and regress back into the mind of the six-year-old Helena Bertinelli. The important thing here is that Staton captured every single character beat to a T.

In terms of art style, Staton's art has changed considerably since the 1970s and early 80s. Originally he had a very realistic-looking style (which was the standard in those days) and has since evolved into a more stylised look. When drawing the Huntress he gave both Wayne and Bertinelli very distinct looks: Wayne had a more anglo-saxon appearance whereas Bertinelli had more ethnic look to emphasise her Italian background. Anatomically, Staton also strived for a realistic-looking human body. Helena Wayne was drawn with a sexy body but was also made to look natural and not sexualised. She was also drawn in poses that were (for the most part) physically feasible for a normal human, even if the manoeuvres she performed defied the laws of physics. Also despite being drawn with a sexy body, Helena Wayne was not shown to have stereotypically feminine features. Like her father, she had a squared jaw and her body had a bit of a build to it, which is realistic for someone who 'exercises' regularly and for a lengthy period of time. The same equally applied to Helena Bertinelli, though admittedly she did have more feminine facial features than her predecessor.

Now that we've had the chance to talk about the man who co-created and drew both versions of the Huntress himself, we now get to see how the rest of this list holds out to the Master himself! I will say, they definitely have some very big shoes to fill. Joe is after the ultimate bar to raise the others to in any discussion about Huntress artists.

Tomorrow: Barry Kitson!

I ♥ Huntress, Day One: The Origin of Helena Wayne

Between the pre-Crisis and the New 52 continuities, there have been two different versions of Helena Wayne's origin, both established by Huntress co-creator, Paul Levitz.

In the first version of her origin, both Batman and Catwoman hung up their capes and cowls for good in 1955 and settled for a normal life as a newly married couple. In 1957 they welcomed a fortunate baby girl into the world who would later become the Huntress as an adult.

For the next twenty years, Bruce and Selina Wayne enjoyed the full perks of a normal family life without any of the hazards that came with their costumed lives. Their daughter, Helena Wayne, similarly enjoyed the full benefits of growing up in a wealthy household alongside two badass superhero parents. In addition to being trained mentally and physically to her utmost peak, she also attended the best schools in Gotham and even graduated top of her class from Harvard University with a law degree.

Just when Helena was beginning her career as an attorney, tragedy struck the Wayne family for the first time in decades when a former henchman of Selina's blackmailed her into committing one last crime as Catwoman--a final crime that resulted in Selina's death. Both Bruce and Helena were distraught by the loss of Selina, though Bruce did not feel inspired this time to pick up the cape and cowl again, leaving his daughter Helena to pick up the pieces.

Standing in front of her mother's grave in her newly designed Huntress costume, Helena made a similar promise to her mother that the ten-year-old Bruce Wayne made to his parents decades prior: a commitment to avenge her death and to spend the rest of her days fighting crime in Gotham. With that, Helena spent her first case as the Huntress tracking down Silky Cernak (the man responsible for her mother's death) and sabotaging 'a business deal' he was scheduled to finalise that same night. Upon his capture, Helena did in fact commit to fighting crime both as a lawyer and as the Huntress from that point forward.

In the New 52 version of her origin, she lived a very different life from the one she had previously, though some of the essential kernels remained the same.

In the newer Earth-2 continuity, neither Bruce nor Selina gave up being Batman and Catwoman upon marrying and raised their young daughter to become a skilled crime-fighter like themselves.

In huge contrast with the pre-Crisis Helena Wayne who had a social life growing up, the New 52 version of her appears to have been socially isolated with very little opportunities for interaction with other kids her age outside of Superman and Wonder Woman's families. She was trained from the moment she was old enough to walk to her physical and mental peak and confirmed to a college student at a 'Take Back the Night' rally that she had been home schooled.

She made her debut as Robin in her early teens and successfully stopped a mugging from taking place under her mother's supervision. Sometime shortly after this first outing, Helena lost her mother during an Apokoliptian attack that wounded her father and killed her mother, traumatising the young Helena in the process. In a fit of rage, Helena assaulted her mother's killers only to discover she was up against an entire army with very powerful weapons. She is rescued by Kara Zor-L (Supergirl) after answering a distress call from Batman, leading to the first meeting between Robin and Supergirl. Together, the two teenage heroines wiped out the soldiers that took the life of Helena's mother and discovered the existence of boom tubes and other Apokoliptian technology in the process.

The two heroines spent the rest of their years on Earth-2 fighting off the forces of Apokolips until a plan from Batman ended the war on Earth-2, but resulted in the deaths of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. Following the loss of the Earth-2 Trinity, Robin and Supergirl were then transported to the mainstream DC Earth via a boom tube where they started their lives over as Huntress and Power Girl. Kara Zor-L became Karen Starr, a successful entrepreneur and CEO of Starr Industries, and Helena Wayne took on the identity of Helena Bertinelli, the deceased daughter of a crime family.

The exact details and reasons that factored into Helena Wayne's decision to become the Huntress in this continuity are currently unknown beyond the fact that she could no longer live the life that she had on Earth-2. What is known is that just like before, Helena designed her Huntress costume as an amalgamation of both her mother and father's costumes and added a cross as part of her costume's design this time around. Whether or not the cross is a part of her Helena Bertinelli identity or her way of staying close to her parents in spirit is yet to be explored.

I ♥ Huntress, Day Zero: Why I Love Helena Wayne

If there is one character I wish I had growing up in the 1990s, it is definitely the Helena Wayne version of the Huntress.

Aside from the fact that Helena Wayne is the canonical daughter of my unsinkable DC ship, she is, to me, more than just the daughter of Batman and Catwoman taking on a rich legacy. She is also an empowered heroine who brings attitude to her work, is highly intelligent, athletic, quirky, and very passionate about the what she does. She could hold her own in a fight without needing to be rescued and she was a very prolific lawyer in her civilian identity.

While I definitely didn't practise law as a little kid, these were, nonetheless, traits I could easily identify with. They were also traits I wish I could have seen more of from female characters in the various franchises I grew up with. The fact that DC Comics did away with such a phenomenal character within the first decade of her publication history while she was still developing into an interesting heroine (and at the peak of her popularity at that) felt like a great disservice to her character. I did in fact feel the pain of her loss two decades after she was initially erased from continuity. I also felt that I had been cheated out of getting to know a character that I know would have empowered me growing up.

DC ALL ACCESS: Helena Bertinelli is connected to Helena Wayne?

Two days prior to the release of Huntress #1, DC made an official blog post disclosing which of the New 52 books Huntress will be tied to and revealed she will be playing a significant role in Birds of Prey, Mr. Terrific (where Karen Starr is a supporting character), and next year's Justice Society set to take place on Earth-2.

Then at the end of Huntress #1, DC All Access hinted more on not just the future of the Huntress, but also on the future of Karen Starr and her relationship to Mr. Terrific:

"Ok, we told you last month that September was only the beginning! And here we are now entering the second month of the New 52!

And "two" becomes a very important number in an unexpected way as writer James Robinson revealed to a stunned crowd at Fan Expo Canada, he will be writing a JUSTICE SOCIETY series drawn by Nicola Scott that takes place on...wait for it...Earth-2!

What does that mean? Well, it means a world parallel to the current DC Earth. But what's parallel and who's on it, only time will tell or maybe there will be hints of things to come in the HUNTRESS mini that's on sale now! It's written by the character's creator Paul Levitz and drawn by the amazing Marcus To (don't take my word for it, look at the art on this page). As originally conceived, Helena was the daughter of two very cool and special people. Two people we knew, but they weren't from here. The Batman and Catwoman of Earth-2. Not bad parentage, and it made Huntress a very aggressive hero with a unique point of view.

Now as we get further into the all-new world of the New 52, you'll have to check out the 6-issue mini to find out where she really comes from. In that regard, I also say pick up MR. TERRIFIC by Eric Wallace and Gianluca Gugliotta. In that book, Michael Holt's relationship with Karen Starr could have some interesting developments.
As been noted, we're just getting revved up!"

--Eddie Berganza
Executive Editor

I have to admit I'm rather intrigued by both of these "big" reveals. Either this means that Helena Bertinelli has made some connection to her Earth-2 counterpart in the form of Helena Wayne and there will be a first multiverse cross-over, or the big reveal at the conclusion of the Huntress mini is that 'Helena Bertinelli' is really Helena Wayne working undercover for something and is using an assumed alias. Either way, it's gotten me very excited for following this mini through to the end!

The premise DC has set up of the Huntress character is a rather interesting one and it'll be interesting to see how her story ties into both the Earth-2 JSA as well as the Earth-0 Birds of Prey and Mr. Terrific. But from what is known so far, it looks like all the arrows are pointing to the return of the Helena Wayne Huntress after 20+ years of inactivity.

How this will fair with new fans and old fans alike only time will tell, but at least fans of the original Huntress will have something to look forward to if DC does decide to bring her back to Earth-2.

How will Helena Bertinelli play a role in reviving Helena Wayne? How will she react to the knowledge that her Earth-2 counterpart is the daughter of Batman and Catwoman? Or is she really Helena Wayne in disguise? Oh the mysteries!

Huntress #1 Review (2011)

Title: Huntress #1
Story: Crossbow At The Crossroads, Part 1
Characters: Huntress (Helena Wayne)
Creators: Paul Levitz (writer), Marcus To (artist)
Publication Date: October 2011
Available In: Print | Digital

Summary: After a long month's wait, Huntress #1 written by Huntress co-creator Paul Levitz has finally hit the shelves. The story centres around Helena Bertinelli returning home to Italy on a personal mission to foil a shipment of drugs into Gotham. On her first night there, however, she discovers something more than just your normal organised crime-sponsored drug shipment; she also catches a disgusting sight of an unknown case of human trafficking and gun smuggling!

An Introduction

Hey Everyone, 

Seeing as DC Comics rebooted their franchise recently and an upcoming Huntress mini series, I felt now was a good time to start this blog. A little bit about myself, I'm Diane and I've been a Batman fan since I was six years old. Amongst my favourite characters over the years have included Catwoman, Riddler, and Harley Quinn (mostly foes, haha), but as I got into the mainstream comics a few years back, I've started to learn more about the extended Batfamily. 

Up until a few years ago, I had no idea that there have been at least two other Batgirls (not including the more recent Stephanie Brown) since Barbara Gordon, and I was especially unaware that Barbara had been paralysed for 20+ years and had been fighting crime as Oracle all this time. Since my first introduction to her character in Batman: The Animated Series, I had always known her as Batgirl! But one member of the Batfamily that really stood out to me that I never new about was the Helena Wayne incarnation of the Huntress character. 

I don't remember the exact details of how I became acquainted with the character, other than I was at work one day when a co-worker informed me that Batman and Catwoman had a daughter who fought crime under the alias of Huntress. I of course didn't believe him at first, but a quick google search did in fact confirm that this was true. The next question on my mind then was "okay, if she's the daughter of two of DC's most iconic characters, how come she's never appeared any of the TV shows or movies that featured both of her parents?" One would think that with her parents' statuses as iconic comicbook characters, she would have surely made an appearance by now, but her only known appearance outside the comics has been the short-lived Birds of Prey TV series. 

Further research then informed that Helena Wayne's tenure as the Huntress was very short-lived when she was killed off in the Crisis on Infinite Earths mini series, and was replaced with the more modern Helena Bertinelli incarnation. Since then I have been very intrigued by the character and was at the same time saddened by DC's unjust treatment of her character. As the daughter of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle, she clearly had some pretty big shoes to fill, and there were so many places they could have taken this character. I especially enjoyed Joey Cavalieri's run of her back-up stories in Wonder Woman, as he began to explore some of the characters innermost conflicts, such as a fear of following in her mother's footsteps, or never leaving her father's shadow. 

Even though Cavalieri was later responsible for rebooting the character as the daughter of a mafioso (the current Huntress we have today), admittedly it just wasn't the same without the "Batman/Catwoman's daughter" origin for me to generate interest in this newer version. It wasn't really until Helena Bertinelli's appearance in No Mans Land, and especially on Gail Simone's run on Birds of Prey that I actually started to warm up to her. By this point writers started to show that there was more to this character than just "psychotic mafia princess hellbent on revenge who needs Batman to keep an eye on her." 

For the purpose of this blog I'll be discussing the publication history of both incarnations of the character, as well as how the character has evolved over the years and the relationships she's had with other characters in the DCU. I'll also post reviews of the upcoming Huntress mini series by Paul Levitz (her original creator), as well as any future stories she appears in. With Justice Society of America being moved back to Earth-2 and Grant Morrison's up-coming Multiversity series, there is a chance we'll be seeing the Helena Wayne incarnation in future stories as well. 

It'll especially be interesting to see a more modern take on this character since her initial appearance in 1977, and from what Geoff Johns has established of her character during his JSA run, it looks like she may have more in common with her Bertinelli counterpart after all. She may not be as prone to excessive use of violence like Bertinelli tends to be, but she's definitely a darker, more conflicted incarnation than the more lighthearted version of the Pre-Crisis multiverse. All that being said, can't wait to get started on the publication history! ;) 

Until then! 

Diane