At present, Oracle does not know Helena Bertinelli personally. She is, however, an acquaintance of the Huntress. And perhaps it is only a matter of time before Barbara Gordon figures out that her occasional ally is actually the sole surviving member of a mob family murdered by rival factions of the citys Mafioso.

In her youth, La Cosa Nostra robbed Helena of her parents and brother, forcing her to seek refuge among Sicilian relations. Trained to fight by her cousin, Helena later returned to Gotham, determined to hunt down the men who ordered and carried out her family’s destruction. Her retribution involved dismantling the organization to which she was once bound by blood.

As the Huntress, Helena armed herself with crossbow and knife, stalking Gotham’s organized crime figures with a violent intent. The city’s Dark Knight defender, Batman, has tried time and again to temper her methods, even nominating her for membership in the Justice League of America, though he later had her membership revoked. But through it all, the Huntress remained unwilling to compromise her convictions.

Most recently, Helena found herself a pawn of Checkmate, an ultra-secret law-enforcement agency which offered the Huntress its “Queen” position in exchange for information on the Dark Knight. With Batman’s help, Helena accepted Checkmate’s offer without betraying him. There is little doubt that the Huntress plans to extricate herself from Checkmate’s control.

Time will tell if Oracle has the means, or the desire, to make the Huntress another of her trusted Birds of Prey.

NOTE ON HUNTRESS CONTINUITY: While doing research, Barbara put together that Huntress and Helena Bertinelli were one in the same, when Tim solicated her help to prove that Helena was innocent of the killing of mobsters (Batman/Huntress: Cry For Blood #3). Barbara discovered that Helena lost her entire family and commented that both she and Bruce lost their parents at eight years old.

The only surving member of the Bertinelli family, the Huntress exists, in her mind, to do nothing but destroy the Mafia, the same organization she was born to, the same group ultimately responsible for the murders of all her relations.

Isolated and manipulated by the Batman during the course of No Man’s Land, Huntress took four bullets from the Joker’s gun in an attempt to save innocent lives. Now nearly recovered from those injuries, she feels more alone in her fight against the Mafia than ever.

Pursing her vendetta with an ever more savage fury, the Batman once again keeps a wary eye on her actions, waiting for her to cross the line. Since the rebuilding of Gotham, another has watched her as well - a man known as The Question.

Batman Secret Files and Origins #1 (2000) Profile

Few know the secrets Helena Bertinelli conceals.

As the “Anastasia of Gotham,” Bertinelli is the sole survivor of a slaughter that robbed her of her parents and closest relatives, the Bertinelli crime family. In a quest for vengeance, Helena echoed the Batman’s own history and become the Huntress, seeking out the hired gun, Omerta the Silencer, who had murdered her family.

Later she preyed upon other Gotham criminals, meting out swift justice in her own fashion and insulating herself inside an apartment peopled by computer-recorded wraiths to conceal her identity. Helena is a true study in contradictions: by day, the “no-nonsense” inner city English teacher working for pitiful wages while driving a Lamborghini; by night, a sleek femme fatale guarding the inner city. Though her violent methods are frowned upon by the Batman, who remembers all too well what the role of costumed crimefighter cost Batgirl [Barbara Gordon], in may ways Helena seeks the Dark Knight’s approval and continues her vigilante career in her own corner of Gotham to prove her mettle to the Dark Knight.

Though her path has frequently crossed with the Batman, the Huntress has more often teamed with Robin, who knows the Huntress’s true identity, much to her dismay. However, it is a secret he has kept from his mentor. 

Batman Secret Files and Origins #1 (1997) Profile

spandexandsportsbras:

I own this Huntress figure (in her best costume) and even took my own picture of it, but it was nowhere near as good as this picture.

Total Justice! 

swatkat:

And here Babs is apologising like a champ, and watching out for Dinah. They make my heart hurt when they’re like this.

This is my favorite Helena and Barbara scene! Helena was trying her darndest not to show a crack in her armour, and opening up like that was pretty big of Barbara considering who she is and pretty much knowing Helena was going to reject her. It was simply the right thing to do.

I enjoy  the dynamic of their relationship. It doesn’t come as easy to them as Barbara’s and Dinah’s or Helena’s and Dinah’s, and they have to really work at it. It’s kinda weird and neat, they have this acceptance/avoidance thing going between them.  In some ways their relationship reminds me of Wonder Woman and Artemis, except they aren’t as open or generally willing to express vulnerability around each other. That’s why this moment is a rare gem.

spandexandsportsbras:

Huntress tosses a criminal with a bomb wired to him into a van and drives him off the end of a pier, killing the criminal and nearly herself, but saving the lives of many people.

Once again, Batman tries to snow her with some bullpoop about how maybe he could have defused the bomb or something (when the Huntress and we know if there WAS anything he could have done, he would have done it, because he’s Batman), Helena’s not buying it this time either and calls  him out on it again.

spandexandsportsbras:

spandexandsportsbras:

The second of the two issue run in Detective that re-introduced the Huntress…

spandexandsportsbras:

After Infinite Crisis, when Helena Wayne got wiped from existence and Helena Bertinelli took her place as the Huntress, she briefly had her own series for 19 issues, written by Joey Cavalierri and Joe Staton. Personally, I hated it then and I hate it now. I didn’t like the artwork from Staton who gave her a forehead as high as the Mentaks from “This Island Earth” and a crazy mullet ‘do and Cavalierri had the series end with her giving up and quitting. Sorry, that is NOT Huntress I know and love.

THIS comic is when (in my mind) the REAL Helena Bertinelli was born, under the wonderful writing of Chuck Dixon. You’ll see in a couple scans from now that THIS is the Huntress we all know today.

I don’t share your disain for Joey Cavalieri’s Huntress series, in fact, I think it was a gutsy and ballsy series. Despite the fact the art is outdated, there’s a lot I appreciate about it now. The subject matter was brutual and gritty; maybe three, fours years before it’s time. Had the series been released a little later, it might have found a more receptive auidence. That was the time there was an influx of Mafia films, street orientated films and tv shows. I realize there isn’t always a correlation between what people watch and what they read, but there was a shift in tone where the auidence was looking for edgier entertainment.

Chuck Dixon’s earlier Huntress writings were his best! This story returned Helena to Gotham and the Huntress costume after a years hiatus.  Dixon’s Huntress was NEVER intimated by Batman. His Huntress was aggressively self-assertive and to a point, cocky, but she could back it up. She was intelligent and sharp. She was a match for Batman.

Chuck Dixon was the first writer to establish that Huntress felt Gotham City was as much hers as it was Batman’s. Throughout the years, some writer’s have picked up on that theme, and Huntress seems to shine the most when the stakes are the highest for Gotham City.

But this story showed Huntress to be every much the hero Batman was, while also showing the gulf that exists between the two.

fyeahquestions:

Day 20: Storyline/book you could read over and over again?

 

I also read Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood often. Sometimes when I’m frustrated with a recent depiction of Huntress I’ve just read or when I simply need to be reminded that great comic stories and characters exist.  If all Huntress stories and portrayals were half the caliber of Cry for Blood, she would perhaps be one of the most popular characters in all of comics.  

Although Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood is co-billed, thankfully, Batman only makes sparse appearances. Huntress is the star. The love and care Greg Rucka has for Helena radiates. But his love and affection never override that she is a flawed person. He doesn’t make excuses for her, instead, he explores her demons and what drives her. He forces her to examine herself and what she finds, she doesn’t like. His Helena/Huntress is nuanced, not one-noted that some writers are guilty of portraying. Cry for Blood IS character study at its best.

Helena Bertinelli, sometimes referred to as the Italian Mafia Princess, is the daughter of a former mob boss who witnessed the execution of her entire family one day at dinner. It becomes her life mission to wipe out the mob in Gotham. Cry for Blood takes places after the events of No Man’s Land where Huntress more than proved her value as a crime fighter, and love and devotion to Gotham City. Now, Helena is framed for a murder and has to figure out who did it. Along the way, she finds out some shocking and heartbreaking news about herself as well as why she survived the massacre of her family. She also begins to fall in love with a much older and wiser man, Vic Sage, known as The Question. Unfortunately, Helena isn’t in a position to receive the type of love he’s offering, nor reciprocate the kind of love he deserves.

Cry for Blood dismisses some of the stereotypical portrays of Huntress as Batman-crazy and simplistic. Yes, Huntress secretly craves the approval of Batman who inspired her and longs to be a part of his inner circle. But not at the expense of betraying who she is. Cry for Blood is a story about choices. In the end, Helena must choose between revenge and justice and love. She chooses revenge but not without consequence.

Huntress is flawed but her heart is always in the right place. She makes mistakes, has regrets, and she internalizes them. She’s moody. She broods and agonizes. Ignoring the stories with bad characterization, you see she also has a strong sense of self-worth and self-respect which drive her. She’s not perfect or pretentious. She’s always striving to better herself and that makes her relatable. If you haven’t read Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood, I highly recommend you give it a try.

(Source: royaltimes)

Comic creators don’t spend enough time anymore showing you Superheroes training. They simply tell you in a caption or on message board that their guy or gal can do so and so. You take them at their word because they are, afterall, in charge of the character. Polls and arguments with fans abound over who can kick whose butt. Wasted hours spent going back and worth, nothing ever settled.

It’s all become conjecture at this point.

Comic creators USE to show you Superheroes training: mind, body, and soul. They were like a good Kung Fu movie on paper. I still remember with fondness Michelle Yeoh attacking a wooden dummy in a fight sequence in the movie “Wing Chun” and then used it and her skills cultivated on the training apparatus to kick a bad guys butt. That fight scene rocked hard!

Fight scenes don’t rock so hard in comics anymore.

There’s little creditability. It is well known, regardless of the style of fighting one practices, in real-life, or whether it’s Batman, the Huntress, Daredevil, or the Black Widow, there are certain qualities and attributes one must acquire to be a successful fighter: speed, power, timing and accuracy. Those things can’t be spoken into existence. Since they can’t be spoken into existence, they shouldn’t just be written into existence.

I want fight scenes in comics to rock on again; mostly, to have some legitimacy. The only way to truly accomplish that is to show Superheroes training their entire “self”. If your favorite character is better than mine, don’t tell me, show me. 

 Bruce Lee once said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”