10 Yildiray Cinar | Top 10 Favourite Huntress Artists

Yildiray Cinar is a comic book artist from Ankara, Turkey who began working for DC Comics in 2009 with titles such as Teen Titans and Legion of Superheroes, the latter of which he was a regular. While Cinar hadn't had many opportunities to draw the Huntress in the New 52, the work that he did do in Worlds' Finest #9 wowed me nonetheless.

One of the things that stood out to me right away about Cinar's drawing style is that he has a very realistic approach to drawing human beings. While this is definitely not unheard of in the industry, I have noticed that compared to the past there's been less of an emphasis on 'realism' in terms of art style and the industry has become more welcoming of various styles that range anywhere from very cartoony-looking to very realistic and life-life, something that fellow artist, Alex Ross, specialises in.

If a scale was to be used to measure where Cinar's art style (1 being very cartoony, 5 being somewhere in between, and 10 being very realistic) I definitely say it falls somewhere between an 8 or a 9. When draws human bodies, it's evident that he strives for anatomic correctness and he poses his characters in a way that is humanly feasible. Similarly, when draws faces, there's a little wiggle room to exaggerate the expression a bit if the character is experiencing an extreme emotion, but for the most part keeps all facial expressions realistic-looking for a human being.

On that note, I also feel he's one of the few artists who succeeds at correctly capturing the emotion a character is supposed to be experiencing in any particular setting, which is not something that is always easily achieved. I can't tell you how many times I've been distracted by incorrect use of a facial expression in a scene that is clearly meant to invoke a different emotion. In a scene, for example, where a character is supposed to be experiencing grief, I get distracted right away if the character has a cynical look on their face, which subsequently makes the rest their lines sound like they're being sarcastic as opposed to serious. Not only do I get sucked out of the story when that happens, but I don't end up feeling what I'm supposed to be feeling during that scene. As such, I can't stress enough how important it is to me that an artist captures the right emotion that a scene demands. Cinar does not disappoint on that front because I always end up feeling what I'm supposed to be feeling. If the Huntress is determined to win a fight, it'll show in both her body language and facial expression. She'll often have a fierce look to her face and her body will often be drawn in a way that invokes the perception of fast movement. Similarly, if the Huntress is shocked to learn something, she will definitely have a look of shock on her face.

Another thing that stands out to me about Cinar, is his use of contours and shadowing. He's not heavy in his use of either one to invoke the perception of lighting and depth and maintains, for the most part, a very clean and crisp look. This is also important to me because as much as I love detail in any given piece, there are times when it does work and times when it doesn't. Excessive use of line for example works best in a drawing that has no colour, but makes an image look very heavy when it does. Cinar is very good at balancing the use of contour and shadow to invoke the perception of depth and light, but leaves enough wiggle room for the colourist to fill in the rest of the details.

While it saddens me that Cinar has not been featured as a regular artist on a Huntress book (there's only one right now), I've nevertheless enjoyed the work he has done on her and hope to see more in the future.

Tomorrow: Joe Staton!

10 Days of Christmas, 10 Favourite Huntress Artists of All Time

Here it is everyone! The holidays are upon us and they are quickly going as they came. We are officially ten days away from that special day many people celebrate as the birthday of an Israeli man who supposedly inspired millions of people around the globe.

(This is of course taking into account that the actual birthdate is debatable and that not everyone became followers of Christ of their own free will, particularly in countries that were invaded by self-righteous Europeans who imposed their way of life on unsuspecting peoples and unlawfully executed anyone who didn't assimilate....among other reasons).

However, we are not here to talk about religion or any of the politics that come with it. Instead the only 'religion' that matters here is comic book culture and all the nerdgasms that come with it. In particular, my favourite aspect of comic book culture is the exposure to all the talented artists working in the industry and their power to inspire and influence the style of many, many more talents. As a former artist myself who's been drawing since the age of 3, one of the reasons I got into comic books at all was the artwork.

Growing up, I've always admired artists of various time periods and, specifically, their ability to capture a single instance of time in a picture, and bring to life all of the emotion that accompanies it. An instance of time that feels so real you often feel like you're actually there. More often than not, I aspired to be like those artists and throughout my life I've experimented with various art styles until I developed one that I liked. My art style hasn't been consistent over the years and is often subject to change as soon as I notice something that can be improved.

Naturally when I picked up my first comic as a teen (at the time I was more into Japanese manga than western comics), I spent more time analysing every detail of the line work, often admiring all the work that went into illustrating sequences of scenery. I particularly had (continue to have) an affinity for artists with a good sense of human anatomy, good use of perspective, good sense of lighting, and their ability to make every character seem real and life-like.

In the following days when I discuss my favourite artists who have drawn the Huntress from the time she debuted in 1977 to her appearances in the New 52, my evaluation of their art styles will specifically look at those four main things. If every post starts to sound repetitive after a while, that'd be why. :)

For today's post, we will look at the work of......

Yildiray Cinar!

Stay tuned!

Worlds' Finest #18 Preview

WORLDS' FINEST #18
Written by PAUL LEVITZ
Art by RB SILVA, SCOTT MCDANIEL
Cover by EMANUELA LUPACCHINO
As Power Girl's abilities grow increasingly uncontrollable and unpredictable, Huntress finds herself without backup as she stalks a new villain preying on the upper crust of New York City glamour.
DECEMBER 11 | RATED T | $2.99 | PRINT | DIGITAL

The Best of the Huntress in 2013

It's that time of year again folks, and you know what that means.....

Time to talk about the cool things the Huntress did in 2013!

Amidst all the whining I did this year about the lack of direction story-wise and the lack of character growth, the artists (and sometimes Levitz) don't disappoint.

Regrettably this year's list is far less interesting than last year's, but it's something. :(


10. Acquiring the first iteration of the Huntress costume. (Worlds' Finest #9)

Worlds' Finest #17 Preview

WORLDS' FINEST #17
Written by PAUL LEVITZ
Art by RB SILVA, SCOTT MCDANIEL
Cover by EMANUELA LUPACCHINO
Power Girl tries to restore her powers to full strength with the super hero equivalent of sunbathing...in space...with disastrous results.
NOVEMBER 13 | RATED T | $2.99 | PRINT | DIGITAL

I ♥ Huntress, Day Seven: Helena Wayne's Profession

Here it is ladies and gentlemen, the final topic as we bring I ♥ Huntress week to a close. It is the one final piece of Helena Wayne's history that I am definitely missing from her New 52 incarnation: her profession.

As I've stated in the previous posts, one of the things that was cool about Helena Wayne was that she chose law as her profession. Not only was it fitting for Batman's daughter to pursue a career in criminal justice but it was also a unique aspect of her character that differed from the rest of the Wayne family who were, for the most part, industrialists or practitioners of medicine.

While much of the details on how Helena functioned as a lawyer is not currently known (and she was retconned out of continuity before a future writer had the chance to expand on that aspect of her character) a lot can still be inferred based on how she was written in her back-up stories in Wonder Woman and especially in the Roy Thomas-written miniseries America vs The Justice Society.

One thing that was known right away was that her areas of law dealt with public interest and consumer law. She also had a very strong reputation amongst her colleagues and was a very popular choice lawyer amongst Gotham's citizens. More often than not, her clients were normal everyday citizens and the majority of the people that she prosecuted in court were individuals in a position of power. Sometimes her exploits even prompted the federal government to act such as the time that she exposed a government official for a real estate scam that had left hundreds of people from Gotham's poorer district homeless.

Another thing that was notable about Helena as a lawyer was that she often used her own clients' cases as a way of finding out what was going on in the Gotham underworld and what crime busts she would make as the Huntress. It was also very evident that she was far more invested in her work as the Huntress than as a lawyer, largely because she preferred to stop a crime from happening rather than deal with the politics in court, which would often bend to the will of the person with the most power and money. As the Huntress she also had considerably more control over the gathering of evidence that she could later use to convict a criminal in court and insure that he or she would actually see prison time as opposed to squeaking their way out of the handcuffs through clever exploitation of the justice system. The latter in particular was one of the things she disliked most about her profession.

On the subject of balancing her activities as the Huntress and her actual job, Helena was often times late for work as a consequence of staying up until three or four o'clock in the morning busting criminals as the Huntress. Sometimes she wouldn't even show up to work at all which earned her the contempt of her partner Roger Demarest who thought of her as 'a rich princess who had nothing real to offer the law firm than her good looks and her father's money.' Her senior partner, Arthur Cranston, thought very differently of Helena and actually acknowledged her talents as a lawyer and even had the highest respects for her. He also often times excused Helena's 'strange habits' on the basis that she was one of the best lawyers in his law firm.

Of her entire pre-Crisis career, by far the highest profile case she had as lawyer was the time that she defended the entire Justice Society in a very public court from accusations of treason that her father made in a diary going back to the World War II era. During this case, she fought very vehemently against her father's words and even considered outing her father as Batman (and subsequently herself as the Huntress) as a way of proving the JSA's innocence. This consequently put her at odds with Dick Grayson who challenged Helena in court on Bruce's behalf, and the only way Dick and Helena were prevented from going the extra mile was through the timely intervention of Power Girl who provided the testament needed to put the entire case to rest.

In the New 52, Helena has yet to establish a life and a career outside of being the Huntress, but if/when a future writer decides to develop her character further, I do hope they stay true to her pre-Crisis incarnation and have her decide to have her pursue law again. Not only would it be a logical and progressive career choice for her character even in her newest incarnation, but it would certainly be one step closer to reinstating the character back into the boots of the Helena Wayne I knew and loved from the pre-Crisis days.

I ♥ Huntress, Day Six: Romance

It is often stated of the weeping willow individual (that is anyone born between 3 September - 12 September in this case) that they are 'honest with good intuition, but nonetheless frequently suffer greatly in matters of the heart before they find an anchoring partner.'

In the case of Helena Wayne (who was established as having been born on 7 September by Joey Cavalieri in 1984), this very much rings true. While she is a rather remarkable woman on many fronts, she has unfortunately not had much success with finding a romantic partner who genuinely loves and accepts her for the person that she is. This was especially true of the one longterm relationship that she did have pre-Crisis. Even when she did come across someone who actually loved and respected her, that person either turned out to be 'family' or someone who didn't respect personal boundaries and engaged in stalking behaviour.


The first and only known longterm relationship Helena Wayne had in the pre-Crisis continuity was with a lad who was also Gotham's young District Attorney, Harry Sims. Before he learnt of her life as the Huntress, Harry did actually love and admire Helena for her intelligence and assertiveness in her fight for justice in the courtroom. He even turned to her for advice whenever he found himself with difficult cases he couldn't handle, and unsurprisingly, was physically attracted to her as well. Yet, despite these positive qualities, he also maintained very patriarchal views of women and relationships which later influenced his attitude towards Helena once he did learn of her life as the Huntress. In particular, he was not comfortable with the idea of Helena being able to take on dangerous criminals by herself and had an awful tendency to undermine her skill and ability to do so, often rationalising that this line of work was 'too dangerous' for a woman. To top it off, he was not comfortable with being in relationship with a woman who, from his point of view, was 'trying to get herself killed,' once again completely denying Helena's competence in a male-dominated endeavour.

Obviously these 'concerns' did not stop Helena from operating as the Huntress, but they did nevertheless produce plenty of obstacles in her relationship with Harry. After a certain point, for example, he started exhibiting controlling behaviour in the form of withdrawing information from her on cases he knew she would be interested in, and even condescended her like a father to a child when she didn't do things his way. These are, of course, very transparent examples of sexism at work, and these behaviours are especially symptomatic of an abusive relationship--something that Helena herself even acknowledged in narrative. Yet, despite recognising that she was in a toxic relationship with a man who did not actually respect, let alone 'love' her, she was never written by any of her writers as ever exiting this relationship--something that a self-respecting woman who is already financially secure (such as Helena) would have already done. Whether or not the pre-Crisis Helena would have eventually moved on to someone else will never be known because she was axed during the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths before her then-announced miniseries saw publication. Nevertheless, Harry Sims was not the only potential love interest Helena had.

One popular choice of a potential love interest for Helena was her own father's ward, Richard 'Dick' Grayson, who was 25 years her senior pre-Crisis. In addition to the fact that he was raised by her father, Bruce Wayne, from the time he was 8 years old and fought alongside him as Robin, Dick was also around to raise and even take care of Helena when she was born. Not only was he still a part of the Wayne family during this time, but he had also--originally--established a brother-sister relationship with Helena growing up. Yet, despite the familial relationship that already existed between Dick and Helena, that didn't stop writers from considering him as a potential love interest for Helena. We saw the first iteration of this in the 'Together Again For the First Time' story arc of her back-up series in Wonder Woman.

In the narrative, Dick as Robin teamed up with Helena on a case involving a crime boss who would later be known as the Crime Lord, and both had taken down the Joker before that. While working out together in Helena's flat, Dick and Helena discussed her relationship problems with Harry. Dick openly acknowledged that she was in relationship with a guy who didn't fully understand or appreciate her, and therefore couldn't workout in the longterm. He especially drew a parallel to Bruce's relationship with Selina, particularly noting that the reason this relationship worked as well as it did was because Bruce and Selina understood each other in way that most people would not have been able to. He especially made a point of emphasising that if Helena was to have a chance at a successful relationship with anyone, she would have to get together with a man who will understand her, love her, and respect her for the person that she is, and not for who he wants her to be as was the case with Harry. It was also during this conversation that the two noticed each other under a sexual light for the first time and a mutual physical attraction was established.

Of the two parties, only Dick openly acknowledged his sexual attraction to Helena that he decided to depart back to Africa to avoid pursuing those feelings further. Although a relationship between the two never took place in either the pre or post-Crisis continuities (his one night stand with Helena Bertinelli notwithstanding), Dick's attraction to Helena continued to be hinted at most notably in Infinity Inc and America vs The Justice Society. In the post-Crisis continuity, it was explicitly acknowledged in the JSA Annual from 2008 that Dick was in love with Helena and wanted to be there for her when she was going through a very stressful time in her life. It was also within this same narrative that Helena admitted to Power Girl for the first time that she had always been in love with Dick and that she was never really in love with her actual boyfriend, Harry Sims. (Admittedly, I have to give props to Geoff Johns for writing Helena as wanting out of this relationship even if his establishing of Helena as in love with Dick felt rather forced).

The last known potential love interest for Helena Wayne during the pre-Crisis continuity was a character created during Joey Cavalieri's run of her series, an Italian-American police officer named Gary Minelli. Since his initial introduction, it was established that Gary found Helena very attractive and even helped her escape from a psychiatric facility that had been using its patients for illegal experiments for new drugs. Helena herself was shot with a cocktail of psychedelic drugs that left her hallucinating for a lengthy period of time and it was Gary who looked after her while she was high. By the time Helena had regained consciousness and was able to think properly, Gary wasted no time in asking for her phone number, which surprised Helena that he was not remotely intimidated by her.

Whether or not Gary learnt Helena's real identity was never explicitly established, but I always assumed that he did since he had unmasked (and apparently undressed) her while she was unconscious, and was especially assigned by the Gotham Police Department to spy on her. While Gary was in fact following orders from his superiors, he also admitted to himself that he would have still stalked Helena regardless to learn more about her and hopefully ask her out. Needless to say, Helena found Gary's stalking behaviour very off-putting and was particularly disturbed by the revelation that he had been invading her privacy. Whatever became of this encounter remained unresolved because Crisis wiped the slate clean shortly after this story was written.

Within the New 52 continuity, Helena Wayne hasn't had any romantic relationships to make note of, but it is known that she did not actively date on Earth-2 due to a lack of privacy from her father. Whether or not she has hooked up with anyone since arriving to the mainstream Earth is also unknown, but it is known that she does flirt with men as a way of getting information quickly (and possibly outside of 'work' as well since she implied being quite skilled at it), and has even given flirty gazes at women, most notably to an Italian reporter named Christina and her best friend Kara. She was even perfectly comfortable with bringing a female sex worker into her hotel room, and was even wearing sexy lingerie 'for the occasion' even if it was part of her cover. (On that note, who does she wear sexy lingerie for if she actually owns some?)

Admittedly, Helena reads to me as someone who is potentially bisexual in the New 52, and apparently I'm not the only one picking up on this. Quite a few of my followers on Tumblr have picked up on this as well, including a friend of mine who isn't even into femslash. Whether or not Helena's sexuality will ever be explicitly acknowledged one day, I guess that will depend on the next writer who gets a hold of her (assuming Levitz doesn't do it first). One thing that is for certain though, is that she is very much a clean slate to work with. Since there was never a Dick Grayson on the New 52 version of Earth-2 that was a part of the Wayne family, it is quite possible now to pair her up with the mainstream version of Dick (assuming Dan Didio doesn't kill him off) and the incestuous vibes won't be quite as strong this time around. It's also just as equally possible to officially pair her up with Power Girl if a future writer decides to go the LGBTQ route with Helena. Or if a future writer feels like exploring the Huntress/Catman relationship again now that the Huntress is back to being a Wayne with the BatCat genes to actually make this idea more significant, he too is another possibility for a love interest.

Once again, brand new universe, brand new version of the character, endless possibilities for romantic/sexual relationships in the character's future.

I ♥ Huntress, Day Five: Friendship

Throughout Helena Wayne's publication history, friends have come and gone from her life. In one lifetime, she was friends with the members of the Justice Society, the Justice League, and Infinity Inc. She was even friends with the police commissioner in Gotham, her colleagues at her law firm, and even established friendships with Barbara Gordon and Kathy Kane on Earth-1. She was even friends with the Earth-1 version of her father whom she fondly called 'Uncle Bruce,' and was very close to her world's Dick Grayson whom she was also romantically attracted to (more on that tomorrow).

In this lifetime, however, Helena is a lone ranger preferring her own company and that of one other person. An individual who has been by her side since her first appearance in comics in 1977, since even in death during a time when no one remembered her, and even now that she is officially reunited with her best friend in life. Her name is Kara Zor-L, alias Power Girl.

The first time Helena encountered Kara, it was very early on in her Huntress career and during a time when her father, Bruce Wayne, was still mourning the death of his wife, Selina. Within the context of the storyline, Psycho Pirate had brainwashed Bruce (who was by this point, commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department) into legally pursuing the Justice Society for a crime they didn't even commit. Amongst the JSAers to confront Bruce and the Gotham City Police was Power Girl who was subsequently injured by a powerful weapon that was fired at her. This confrontation with the JSA got Helena's attention and investigated the case from afar. The first time she saw Power Girl was lying down in a hospital bed while spying from outside her bedroom window.

Once the issue with her father was resolved and Psycho Pirate was defeated, Helena officially joined the Justice Society shortly after this case, and after she had fought alongside them in another story involving the Star-Spangled Kid. During her meetings with the Justice Society, she befriended Kara and became not only her closest friend, but also her 'guide' to the human world since Kara (by this point in her history) was still very newly arrived on Earth and was still adjusting to life outside of the virtual Krypton she had grown up on in her space ship. When the two women weren't fighting side by side with the Justice Society, they would also team up for independent cases and even hang out in their civilian forms. In one story, Helena even invited Kara to lunch at a very posh restaurant one day and the two made mental notes of one another, mostly Kara noting how very confident and professional Helena is in both of her identities, while Helena found her very fascinating, largely because of how different she was from entire human population. She wasn't just fascinated by the fact that she was an alien from another planet, but she was especially intrigued by her upbringing in a spaceship.

Over the time, the women grew very close to one another, and Helena even provided comfort to Power Girl during the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths when she brooded over not being able to fight alongside her cousin and worried for his safety. When she subsequently lost Helena in the final battle with the Anti-Monitor, it was a loss that affected Power Girl on a very deep and personal level, and mourned her death a bit more strongly than others did. When she regained her memories of Helena and Earth-2 in the post-Crisis universe, Kara wanted more than to get back to her world and the people she knew in it, especially Helena Wayne. When the god Gog granted her wish and sent her to a newly born Earth-2 in the Magog story arc of Justice Society of America, she didn't believe it at first, but when she got reacquainted with the Helena Wayne of that world, she felt like she had gotten a huge part of her life back. Unfortunately for Kara, her reunion with Helena was very short-lived when she turned out to not be the Power Girl of this new Earth-2.

Before returning to the mainstream Earth, Kara expressed her regrets to this other Helena, specifically that she didn't mean to take over her life, but simply wanted to be a part of it again. This left a huge impression on this world's Helena to the point where she kind of didn't want to let her go, which is something that bothered her own Power Girl. When she officially returned to her 'source Earth' (meaning the mainstream Earth), Kara settled for resuming her life as the CEO of Starrware and the newly appointed leader of the Justice Society, but nevertheless continued to miss her best friend. Although she had learnt to move past her desire to return to her Earth-2 that no longer existed, she did nonetheless still longed for the presence of Helena Wayne in her life, and she was never able bond with the version of her (Helena Bertinelli) that did exist on this world because she never had the history with her that she once had with Helena Wayne.

Ironically enough, in the New 52, Kara did eventually get her best friend back, but in a very strange way. She not only finally 'obtained the friendship of Helena Bertinelli' in the New 52, but this version of Helena Bertinelli was revealed to have been Helena Wayne 'living the life of a mafia princess' the whole time. Although this officially meant retconning all of their past history of the last two continuities to rebuild these two characters from scratch, they nevertheless continue to remain close friends just like before, only with very different life experiences and very different personalities from their 'past selves.' Like in the days of old, Kara met Helena shortly after losing her mother, had even comforted her during that time, and has continued to be there for her best friend when things got rough. While admittedly the newer version of Helena Wayne has a lot of growing up to do and needs to work on her attitude problem if she's ever going fill the boots of her far superior pre-Crisis self, she has similarly demonstrated that Kara means as much to her, and has even shown her affection when she wasn't being a complete arsehole to her.

After taking this time to examine Helena's friendship with Kara, I think that if the Huntress and Power Girl friendship endured even in a time when Helena was dead and erased from continuity, I have a very strong feeling they're bound to always be together in every life they see from this point forward, even if none of their past romances with blokes survive the chopping block of continuity. Oh hey, that's tomorrow's topic! Stay tuned.

I ♥ Huntress, Day Four: Just The Huntress

After roughly three days of talking about how charming Helena Wayne is as a person, we now get to talk about the other side of her personality: the Huntress.

How the Huntress has been depicted on page has depended on the writers who have handled her and the zeitgeist of time period with which she was written. This is true even for the Helena Wayne version of the Huntress. For the most part, Helena Wayne's Huntress personality has been known to range from largely compassionate and optimistic to downright brutal and merciless depending on the circumstances. 

In her original interpretation, the Huntress preferred to maintain an image of hope and embodied much of the idealism that people already associated with costumed superheroes like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. Like her father (Batman) before her, the Huntress utilised her various skills and knowledge to fight crime with the best interests of Gotham's citizens in mind. More importantly, she aspired to become the same beacon of inspiration for good that her predecessors represented to the wider human population.

In practise, this often took the form of taking the kinds of risks that no one else was willing to take and often putting her own life on the line to secure the safety of others. When confronted by actual criminals, she would--for the most part--just threaten to throw their arse in the jail and demanded cooperation to minimise the chances of a fatality. In the event of encountering an otherwise law-abiding citizen who happened to commit a crime, the Huntress would then focus on learning the actual circumstances that led this individual to do something they would not have thought of doing otherwise. To these individuals, the Huntress was most compassionate towards and would often try to reason with them if it would prevent them from actually completing the crime.

Despite embodying all that is good about humanity, the Huntress is also not beyond crossing the line herself if she feels the ends justify the means, and the Huntress has also been known to bring out the worst in Helena Wayne. This was especially most notable towards the end of Paul Levitz' initial run of her back-up series, this was especially true in Joey Cavalieri and Geoff Johns' interpretations of her, and it is especially a defining trait of her character in the New 52.

Amongst the character traits that were established early on in her publication history, Helena Wayne as the Huntress has never been known to be sympathetic towards murderers, human traffickers, basically anyone who has committed acts of violence against innocent people. It especially hits her berserk button if the person on the receiving end of that violence happens to be a woman, a child, a person of colour, or any vulnerable member of society. If a violent criminal happened to 'fall to their death' or 'accidentally blow themselves up' during an encounter with her, the Huntress would not shed any tears for their loss and would even admit that to herself. If a criminal especially threatened the lives of the people in her life as a way of exacting their revenge on her (or as a way of destroying Batman's legacy in the case of the Joker), she would then actively contemplate killing in a fit of rage. 

Out of the times she came close to fatally hurting a criminal, only once did she actively plan to murder one, and that was when the Joker attacked and disfigured her boyfriend and was responsible for the deaths of several other people in her life, including Alfred. She also experienced a mental breakdown during this time and was only prevented from completing the murder when Power Girl intervened. When asked about what drove her to kill (something that shocked Power Girl to start with), the Huntress rationalised it was a necessity given how the Joker had systematically been attacking her in both of her identities. She also admitted to not feeling any remorse should she have committed the murder.

Even in times when circumstances didn't actually force the Huntress consider something as extreme as murder, she wasn't exactly soft on criminals either, and as mentioned earlier, this was especially true of Joey Cavalieri's interpretation of the character. Whether it was a high tech bank robber, a creepy-looking baby trafficker who could give the Phantom of the Opera a run for his money, or even a criminal nurse posing as a therapist, the Huntress was often pretty rough in the way she beat up criminals. She would either bust your jaw with her heals, pick you up and throw you into a book case, or simply beat you unconscious depending on the gravity of the crime-committed. It's enough to say, even her pre-Crisis boyfriend commented to her that he thinks she enjoys violence.

Within the context of the New 52, the Huntress' affinity for violence is much worse than before. In addition to being aggressive in her fighting style, the Huntress now kills criminals more casually than before. In fact, she kind of reminds me of the Golden Age version of her father in a way, especially considering how very casually Golden Age Bruce snapped necks, tossed crooks to their deaths from high altitudes, and at one time even gunned down the driver of a truck with a machine gun, only to throw a noose around another passenger's neck and hang him from the Batplane. The main difference of course is that the Huntress prefers blowing up henchmen with explosives and reserves her crossbow for actual crime bosses, in this case, the leader of a sex-trafficking ring.

By the year 2013, the Huntress' proneness for casual killings has died down considerably, though in the hands of another writer, who knows when that susceptibility will rear its ugly head again.

Next up, friendship for tomorrow! (And boy, do I have plenty of material for this day).

I ♥ Huntress, Day Three: Just Helena Wayne

Ah, Helena Wayne. Fifty per cent Bruce Wayne, fifty per cent Selina Kyle, one hundred per cent unforgettable.

Aside from the fact that this lucky young woman has one of the sexiest genetic make-ups in the entire the DC Universe (yes, Talia, someone else beat Damian to it), she is easily one of the most charming personalities out of the Bat family who's very hard to resist. It's enough to say fuck the idiot who was lucky enough to sleep with her pre-Crisis to expect less from someone so extraordinary. (More on that later).

One of the things I find most appealing about Helena Wayne is how very self-confident she is as a person and does everything with style. Regardless of her level of experience in any field of endeavour, she always puts her best foot forward and never gives up when she does fail at something. She firmly believes that if she sets her mind to it, she can accomplish anything she wants. While she often compares mental notes with her own father on the side of being an effective crime-fighter, she is nevertheless perfectly secure with her own identity and skills.

On that note, another thing that is equally cool about Helena is that she's not afraid to be herself around other people. She is someone who presents her idiosyncratic self as is, she says exactly what's on her mind, and she's blunt and straight to the point. She never beats around the bush and does exactly what she sets out to do even if others think she's weird for it. In fact, plenty of the people she works with think she's a little off her rock, but she's perfectly okay with people thinking that. It's not going to stop her from preparing that soufflé in her Huntress costume or keep her from having that glass of wine with a box of chocolate chip cookies. It similarly won't faze her if you find her sexual choices 'questionable' for bringing a girl into her room, or if you're that person behind the fourth wall savouring every moment that she and her best friend are in each other's arms, or dining and wining each other. (Yes fandom, I do read all your comments on Tumblr :P).

While she's not beyond taking full advantage of her family's money to enjoy the more posh things in life (including taking you out to a nice lunch), she is also one of the most compassionate people in the world (at least pre-Crisis) and often goes out of her way to help any person in need. She cares deeply about protecting the civil rights of others and takes women's issues very seriously. She's always there for her friends and family when they need her, and she's even willing to lend an ear to someone who commits a crime if they are an otherwise law-abiding citizen. Even when she herself is experiencing problems in her own personal life, she prefers to talk things through like an adult and work something out in a mature way. This doesn't mean, however, that she will put up with misogynistic behaviour or sexist attitudes from an intimate partner.

On the flip-side to all of those wonderful things about Helena Wayne, however, she does have something of a 'dark side' as well. For example, she has been known to push the most important people in her life away and withdraw herself from her normal every day activities when she's in a dark place in her life. When she especially puts on her Huntress mask, things can especially get ugly for those who encounter her. But that is the topic for Day Four tomorrow...