Seasons Greetings! 2018 In Review

Seasons greetings everyone! I apologise for disappearing for a while this month. I really did need to take a break from everything, namely due to exhaustion and feeling pretty burnt out by my day job. It's enough to say the abrupt changes that took place at my workplace midway through the year had some of us quickly taking on new responsibilities on the fly and with very little to no preparation.

Needless to admit, the fact that there were no backups in place for the event of crucial employee departures meant a lot of things went wrong in the transition process, and left quite a few of us feeling stressed out by the end of this month, myself included. The fact I expect the workload to quadruple in 2019 with more upcoming changes to our organisational structure and not enough staff to go around to make things go smoothly means I'm already looking for a new job to say the least.

The Best of the Huntress: Wonder Woman #317 Review

Title: Wonder Woman #317
Story: On the Trail of the Nightingale
Characters: Huntress (Helena Wayne), Myra Liebe, Alfred Seraphin, Nightingale
Creators: Joey Cavalieri (writer), Mark Beachum (artist)
Publication Date: 04 July 1984
Available In: Digital

Summary: Helena Wayne has had an exhausting couple of weeks and decides to go on holiday in California. Rather than take an aeroplane to arrive at her destination in a shorter timeframe, Helena decides that a trip from coast to coast should happen slowly and more leisurely.

En route, Helena reunites with an old friend from college who also happens to be travelling to the west coast to finalise the procurement of an ancient Japanese statue. It turns out Helena’s friend isn’t the only person on the train interested in procuring the Japanese relic. Someone else aboard that same train wants it as well, leading to a mysterious murder inside one of the train’s compartments!

This December, Something Wicked This Way Comes...To The DC Multiverse!

It is now three days after Halloween, and literally just a day after the anniversary of Helena Wayne's historic debut as the Huntress in All-Star Comics #69 on 02 November 1977. A story Mark and I happily covered for both the Halloween season and her anniversary on the same week.

We now get to talk about another story of a more ghoulish nature for the upcoming Holiday season. An upcoming sequel of sorts to the epic multiversal adventure, Dark Nights Metal, that not only follows up on Bruce Wayne's journey to the Dark Multiverse, but reacquaints him with the normal DC Multiverse. The upcoming Batman Who Laughs miniseries by Metal writer Scott Snyder and his Wytches and Batman collaborator, Jock.

The Best of the Huntress: Wonder Woman #316 Review

Title: Wonder Woman #316
Story: The Roar of the Ocean
Characters: Huntress (Helena Wayne), Sea Lion
Creators: Joey Cavalieri (writer), Mark Beachum (artist)
Publication Date: 06 June 1984
Available In: Digital

Summary: The Huntress has exposed the truth behind the theft of Dr. Tori's research on Project Starfish. With the culprit revealed, the Huntress is led to the real man behind the curtain: a double amputee who could certainly benefit from Dr. Tori's regeneration research, a mariner who goes by the name of Sea Lion. Apart from the obvious, what is the Sea Lion's other motives for hijacking Dr. Tori's project? What does he plan to do about the Huntress and his accomplice at the hospital, now that his secret is out? Things aren't looking too well for the Huntress as she finally confronts her newest foe!

Doomsday Clock #7 Reveals The Fate Of Alan Scott And The Justice Society. So Now What? Spoilers Ahead.

Doomsday Clock #7 hit the shelves last week, and while the story does recover one major piece to the larger puzzle, we are sadly still no closer to seeing (let alone understanding) the larger picture that is the post-Flashpoint DC Universe. We especially don’t know what writer Geoff Johns wants to say about DC’s haphazard reboots and their long term damages to character vitality and the integrity of their core mythologies.

The Best of the Huntress: Wonder Woman #315 Review

Title: Wonder Woman #315
Story: Chasing Rainbows
Characters: Huntress (Helena Wayne), Tom Kelly, Gary Minelli, Sea Lion
Creators: Joey Cavalieri (writer), Mark Beachum (artist)
Publication Date: 02 May 1984
Available In: Digital

Summary: The Huntress has moved on to her newest case, but has no idea where to start looking. All she knows is that there is one Dr. Mizuki Tori--the head researcher of Project Starfish--and stolen data from said project. She has no leads on the culprit and begins her investigation by looking into a new hospital intern as a possible suspect, Tom Kelly. Huntress rationalises that the person leaking Dr. Tori's research has to be someone working close to her with easy access to the data. If the Huntress is wrong, she'll be back to Square 01...or will she?

The Best of the Huntress: Wonder Woman #314 Review

Title: Wonder Woman #314
Story: Life is for the Lionhearted
Characters: Huntress (Helena Wayne), Tom Kelly, Gary Minelli, Nedra Borrower, Sea Lion
Creators: Joey Cavalieri (writer), Mark Beachum (artist)
Publication Date: 04 April 1984
Available In: Digital

Summary: After dissolving a baby trafficking ring and losing the Earthworm in the process, the Huntress decides to follow up on one of the children she rescued from the gruesome operation. The baby is deaf, but the Huntress takes comfort in knowing the baby will live a normal life free of the criminals who tried to traffic him.

But as is par for the course in the Huntress' life, the journey is truly never over. While she may have stopped the Earthworm hot in his tracks and exposed his accomplices Terry Marsh and Nedra Borrower, there is a new villain in town. One that seeks to make a profit off the research of one Dr. Mizuki Tori!

The Best of the Huntress: Wonder Woman #313 Review

Title: Wonder Woman #313
Story: The Worm Turns
Characters: Huntress (Helena Wayne), Nedra Borrower, Terry Marsh, The Earthworm
Creators: Joey Cavalieri (writer), Tim Burgard (artist)
Publication Date: 07 March 1984
Available In: Digital

Summary: Nedra Borrower has succeeded in turning an already unfriendly demonstration into an angry lynch mob, but the Huntress is not about to become their punching bag, much less their retaliation kill. Making her escape she decides to take the fight to Nedra herself by investigating an aspiring politician she's been doing heavy coverage on. What Helena Wayne discovers next puts into perspective just how low her newest enemies sink as well as how closely they intertwine!

The Essential Huntress: I Want To Read Helena Wayne's Bronze Age Stories. Where Do I Start?

One question I get asked a lot by new readers who want to get to know Helena Wayne better as a character is "what should I start with?"

Apart from DC Super-Stars #17 as the obvious first choice, I'm always tempted to link fans to every Helena Wayne Huntress story that has ever been published by DC, which can at times overwhelm newcomers. I therefore started to think about "what are the essential stories to read for getting to know Helena Wayne?"

The thing I've always loved about Helena Wayne is that she was always more than just the daughter of Batman and Catwoman and had more to offer the DC Universe than just being a member of the Justice Society. She also had her own character motivations, goals, and relationships that were uniquely her own, culminating in an exciting journey and ultimately a compelling narrative.

What is the core of Helena Wayne and what are the must reads for understanding her character? I break down (in chronological order for each section) the stories that set the standard for her character and more significantly develop her character.

For the ones that are available for purchase on Comixology, I will post a link to the first issue of the story arc. If not all the issues of the story arc are available, it'll be noted as incomplete.

Can Bruce Wayne Be Happily Married To Selina Kyle And Still Be Good At What He Does?

It's been a little over a week now since Batman #50 came out and hopefully everyone reading this post has had a chance to read it. I didn't spoil the plot twist of Batman #50 in part because I wanted to give fans a chance to read the issue and judge the story for themselves, and in part because the plot twist centred around an age-old question that I felt deserved its own post.

If you still haven't Batman #50 and don't want to be spoiled, this is your turning back point as I can't progress with the rest of this post without discussing the plot twist that prevented the wedding from taking place.