My local Barnes & Noble reorganized their store recently. I eventually found the comic book section and instantly noticed this book about the Huntress. It’s pretty thick and was only $20, as opposed to the $30 that most new trades are. This was first published in 2020, so it’s brand new. I’m not going to say the Huntress is one of my favorite characters, but I knew her from being the Birds of Prey, which I’ve read several issues of. I snapped it up with barely a glance at the insides.
I also knew the character has had a bit of a tortured history. Helena Wayne had a very specific origin as the daughter of Batman and Catwoman from Earth-2. She takes on the crime fighting mantle after they pass away under tragic circumstances. Then Crisis on Infinite Earths happened, and she became the daughter of a mob boss and became a vigilante. That doesn’t entirely logically follow as well as the original, does it? DC reinstituted the multiverse at some point, but the later origin is still in use. I was interested to see her in her original form.
Is it getting hot in here?
Or is it just me?
It also wasn’t a good sign that it took me a few weeks to
read this. I kept picking at it because
it wasn’t that interesting. Part of that
was just the format of the stories.
While they were serialized and not stand-alone, they were pretty
short. These were mostly backup stories
in Wonder Woman. (During the 80’s, DC comics often had a
backup feature.) However, the comic was
not without some appeal. While female
superhero comics might have been targeted at girls, the editors seemed aware
that boys might buy them too if properly enticed.
To be brutally honest, this chick isn’t Batman, nor even
Robin. A lawyer moonlighting as a
superhero is a questionable premise.
Ahem.
Yes, Matt Murdock?
Oh. Erm. Moving on.
What also doesn’t work with this character is the outfit. It’s nice for dramatic lingerie, but not as a
superhero costume.
Ahem.
Yes, Diana Prince? Oh. Erm. Moving on.
In all seriousness, the outfit doesn’t work well. As her secret identity is blown several times
in the book, it doesn’t even protect her from identification. Later iterations of the character would
feature new and cooler costumes. Being a
lawyer, especially with a public class action firm, didn’t add anything to the
character. The supporting cast wasn’t
really very interesting. This was
probably necessitated by the short features.
So, you got a lot of scenes of Helena talking to herself.
There are notable guest characters. Power Girl is friends with the Huntress. (Boy, talk about characters screwed over by Crisis.
I have no idea what her current origin is. I never understood who she was to begin
with.) They’re both in the JSA. The group must have lowered their standards
dramatically to let in Helena. In these
stories, she’s tough and smart, but still very green as a superhero with little
in the way of even interesting gadgets to fight villains with. (She keeps what equipment she has in a combat
purse on her waist.)
Robin shows up as a possible love interest for the
Huntress, even though they grew up together.
(I’m not sure if the timeline actually makes sense with that.) Adult Earth-2 Robin wears yellow pants, which
looks even worse than the traditional briefs and booties outfit. Nothing comes of the romance as Helena ends
up with the Gotham DA instead. Alfred is
still around and makes a quick appearance (as a hostage, as you’d expect).
As for villains, there were a couple of familiar
faces. The Huntress was completely
outclassed by Solomon Grundy. Luckily,
he became infatuated with her and she was able to take him down. The Huntress also faced her father’s
arch-nemesis, the Joker. After he
poisons a couple of people, including her DA friend, she tracks him down and
punches him out. The end. (70’s and early 80’s Joker was not the most
fearsome foe.) He did make her mad
enough to break her trademark crossbow and hunt him with daggers instead, which
she uses for the rest of the book. Later
writers immediately brought back the crossbow, so that she wouldn’t be
borderline useless. All of the original
villains used for the stories just suck.
Needless to say by this point, I’m not recommending
this. Maybe if you’re a big fan of the
character and haven’t seen this material before. No, not even then. You might not still be fan after reading
this. In any case, you’ve seen all the
best parts with the pictures I’ve posted.
I’m out of practice writing. This
was hard. I should have just posted the
pictures instead. Meanwhile, B&N moved
the comics again and put them next to the café, which made for some awkward
moments with coffee-sipping customers while I was browsing. The art books have been moved next to the
registers. I can’t guarantee I’ll be
buying a lot more there.
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