Huntress (comics)
Huntress is the name of several fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with Batman. The two most well known women of the three to bear the Huntress name are Helena Bertinelli and Helena Wayne, the latter being from an alternate DC universe. Although Helena Wayne and Helena Bertinelli are both superheroes, the Huntress of the Golden Age was a supervillain.
Characterization
Paula Brooks
The Golden Age Huntress was a supervillain with the real name of Paula Brooks who battled the superhero Wildcat, first appearing in Sensation Comics #68. She joined the second Injustice Society of America and stole the Plymouth Rock. She married fellow supervillain Sportsmaster.The character was later retroactively renamed the Tigress in the pages of Young All-Stars. These stories took place prior to her villainous career. At this point, the young Paula Brooks was a super-heroine, and fought both Nazis and criminals as a Young All-Stars member.
Helena Wayne
The Bronze Age Huntress was Helena Wayne, the daughter of the Batman and Catwoman of Earth-Two, an alternate universe established in the early 1960s as the world where the Golden Age stories took place. Earth-Two was also the home of the Golden Age versions of various DC characters.Created by Paul Levitz, Joe Staton, and Bob Layton, her first appearance was in All Star Comics #69 and DC Super Stars #17, which came out the same day and revealed her origin. She appeared in Batman Family #17-20 when it expanded into the Dollar Comics format for its last few issues. The bulk of her solo stories appeared as backup features in issues of Wonder Woman beginning with issue #271.
Helena's parents trained her to be a superb athlete. After finishing school, she joined the law firm of Cranston and Grayson, where Dick Grayson, alias Robin, was a partner.
Helena began her superhero career when a criminal blackmailed her mother into resuming action once again as Catwoman—an act that eventually led to her death. Helena, deciding to bring the criminal responsible to justice, created a costume for herself, fashioned some weapons from her parents' equipment, and set out to bring in the criminal. After accomplishing this, Helena decided to continue to fight crime under the codename "The Huntress."
In All Star Comics #72, Helena formally joined the Justice Society of America where she struck up a friendship with fellow new superheroine Power Girl. As a JSA member, she participated in several of the annual JLA/JSA meetings, most of which took place on Earth-One. Helena was also briefly associated with the superhero group Infinity, Inc..
During the 1985 miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths, Helena was killed while attempting to save the lives of several children. After Crisis ended, Helena Wayne's existence, like that of her parents and Earth-Two's Dick Grayson, was retroactively erased from the remaining Earth and the world no longer remembered her.
''The New 52''
In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Huntress is re-established in 2012 in the ongoing series Worlds' Finest, along with Power Girl. In this series, Huntress is in reality Helena Wayne from Earth 2. She and Power Girl, who is Superman's cousin on Earth 2, were mysteriously hurled to the main DC Universe after a battle with Darkseid's minions. A retrospective prequel to the series disclosed that her mother was the former Catwoman.Helena Bertinelli
Following the 1985 miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Helena Wayne version of the Huntress was removed from continuity. DC Comics introduced a new version of the Huntress with the same first name and physical appearance, and with a similar costume, but with an entirely different backstory and different personality.The Pre-New 52 Huntress was Helena Rosa Bertinelli, the daughter of one of Gotham's Mafia bosses who, after seeing her entire family murdered in a mob hit, vows revenge. During the "No Man's Land" story line, she works as Batgirl, but not alongside Batman.
Batman considers her to be too unpredictable and violent. Others in the Batman family feel differently; Nightwing had a brief romantic fling with her, while she and Tim Drake share a good professional relationship. Early in his career he worked with the female vigilante, and later cleared her name in a murder case. Batman sponsors Huntress's membership in the Justice League, and for some time, Huntress was a respected member of the League. Under the guidance of heroes such as Superman, she grew in confidence, but was forced to resign after Batman stopped her from killing the villain Prometheus.
The emergence of Bertinelli as the Huntress has not kept DC from occasionally paying homage to the Helena Wayne incarnation of the character. During a post-Crisis JLA-JSA team-up, Bertinelli was so impressed with the skill and prowess of the Flash, Hippolyta, and Wildcat, she stated humbly, "I wanna join the Justice Society...." Additionally, Power Girl sought her out for someone to talk to, even though the two have never really interacted.
The character was featured in the comic book Birds of Prey from 2003 onwards as a member of the eponymous team. Although she is still depicted as prone to excessive violence, she became a valuable member of the team.
Other versions
In the final issue of 52, a new Multiverse is revealed, originally consisting of 52 identical realities. Among the parallel realities shown is one designated "Earth-2". As a result of Mister Mind "eating" aspects of this reality, it takes on visual aspects similar to the pre-Crisis Earth-Two, including the Huntress among other Justice Society of America characters. The names of the characters and the team are not mentioned in the panel in which they appear, but the Huntress is visually similar to the Helena Wayne Huntress. Geoff Johns confirmed that it is indeed Earth-2 Batman's daughter, Huntress. As prefigured by comments from Grant Morrison, this new alternate universe is not the original/pre-Crisis Earth-Two and ensuing Justice Society of America exploration disclosed that this Helena Wayne/Huntress was a member of the Justice Society Infinity, Earth-2's merged JSA and Infinity, Inc. and was in a relationship with Dick Grayson/Robin in this world. Since Power Girl briefly visited that world, there has been no subsequent depiction of the new Helena Wayne/Huntress of Earth-2.In the alternate timeline of the 2011 "Flashpoint" storyline, Huntress joined with the Amazons' Furies.
In the prequel comics for the video game , Huntress is a member of Batman's insurgency that combats Superman's One-Earth regime and she is very close to Kate Kane and Renee Montoya until she is accidentally killed by Wonder Woman.
In the Arrow tie-in comic, after the death of her boyfriend Michael, Helena goes to Sicily in Italy where she discovers the existence of La Morte Sussurrata, an organization of killers trained by the Hashshashins of Persia when they migrated to Italy. Helena begins to have sex with various members to earn their trust, one of them being Silvio, who trains her to become an effective killer. She uses those skills to take down her father's criminal empire and her father.
In the Arrow: Season 2.5 comic, Helena is released from prison by Lyla Michaels and Roy Harper after Felicity Smoak was taken by Renegades and Oliver having no backup. She helps him to take down the enemies including Lyle Bolton and back Felicity.
In other media
Television
Animated
''DC Animated Universe''
- The Helena Bertinelli version of the Huntress has appeared in the animated series Justice League Unlimited, primarily as the love interest and partner to The Question. She is voiced by Amy Acker and starred in the episode "Double Date". In this episode, Huntress's thirst for revenge against the murderer of her parents, Steven Mandragora, results in her expulsion from the Justice League. Green Arrow and Black Canary chase Huntress only to find her ready to kill Mandragora, until the Question talks her down and Steve's rescued son is revealed. In the subsequent episode "Question Authority", the Huntress helps the Question uncover a government conspiracy against the League. She later rescues him, with the help of Captain Blackard, from the Cadmus Project after he has been captured and tortured for information. In the episode "Flashpoint", Helena rescues Question while Superman fights off Captain Atom and she later has a moment with her injured love interest. In "Panic in the Sky", Huntress defends Question when the Ultimen clones attack the JL satellite until Captain Atom has recovered enough to save them both.
- While nothing came of it, there was consideration of bringing Helena Wayne/Huntress into Batman Beyond, as it would make a good alternative to having a Batgirl Beyond.
Other
- Huntress appears in the animated series ', voiced by Tara Strong in the episode "Night of the Huntress!" where she, Batman, and Blue Beetle have to stop the gangster Baby-Face and his wife, Mrs. Manface. The Blue Beetle develops a crush on her in the episode, but Huntress is more interested in Batman. The latter does not reciprocate. The costume she wears strongly resembles the Helena Wayne costume, though this version is identified as Helena Bertinelli. When she isn't performing superheroic duties, she is employed as a professor in Gotham University, the same college Jaime plans to attend. Huntress subsequently appears in the episodes "Death Race to Oblivion!" and "The Mask of Matches Malone!". Additionally, Helena appears in a non-speaking cameo in the two parts of the episode "The Siege of Starro!", first, among the heroes possessed by Starro, and later, as one of the heroines that have already broken free of Starro's mind control, and battle against him.
- In season one of Young Justice, Paula Nguyen-Brooks, a retired supervillain and the mother of Jade and Artemis. She is in a wheelchair and is cautious about her youngest daughter's safety as a heroine and master archer. In "Insecurity", Huntress tells Artemis her membership in crime-fighting is relieving to her nerves. She is now grandmother of two-year-old Lian Harper in the Invasion and ' seasons.
Live-action
- The Huntress's first appearance outside of comics was in the 1979 NBC Legends of the Superheroes TV specials, with actress Barbara Joyce portraying the character. Huntress and Black Canary are the only two superheroines featured among a cast of some of DC's biggest heroes, featuring Batman, Robin, Green Lantern, The Flash, and Captain Marvel.
- The Huntress appears as a featured character in the short-lived live-action series Birds of Prey. This version of the Huntress, played by Ashley Scott, was mostly based on the Bronze Age Helena Wayne version, although she is named Helena Kyle in this series. She is the daughter of Batman, who disappeared after the death of her mother, Catwoman. The Huntress in this series worked with Oracle and Black Canary's daughter as the primary crimefighters in Gotham City. Unlike the previous versions of the Huntress, this series' version possessed low-level superpowers and did not wear a mask or a consistent costume, preferring fashionable black clothing, usually with some kind of long, leather overcoat.
- * Scott reprises her role of Helene Kyle for the Arrowverse crossover "Crisis on Infinite Earths".
- The CW TV series Arrow features actress Jessica De Gouw as the Helena Bertinelli version of the Huntress. Throughout the first two seasons, Helena Bertinelli, secretly known as the vigilante Huntress, is the daughter of a crime boss set on destroying her father's crime empire, after discovering her father ordered the assassination of her fiancé. She and Oliver become a couple at the end of the episode "Muse of Fire". At the end of "Vendetta", she was shot in the shoulder by her father using one of her own crossbows, but managed to survive with assistance from Oliver. She then left the city, to hunt down her father and kill him, despite Oliver's plea for her not to. She essentially becomes a villain at this point in the series. She returned to Starling City in "The Huntress Returns" to kill her father since he had been captured by the Arrow and arrested by authorities. Helena is arrested by police, but freed by Oliver, only to threaten him and his closest ones once again. Oliver prevents her killing spree and she escapes. In season two episode, "Birds of Prey", Helena once again tries to kill Oliver but is prevented from getting revenge when her father is accidentally killed in the crossfire by a renegade SWAT member during her attempt on his life. Following this Helena is arrested, seemingly dejected and morose that her father died from someone else's actions.
- Helena Bertinelli's name appears in a map in season 2 of Gotham.
Film
- In November 2016, Birds of Prey, based on the female superhero team of the same name and set in DC Extended Universe entered development with Christina Hodson signed on as screenwriter. By April 2018, Warner Bros. selected Cathy Yan as director, with Margot Robbie, Sue Kroll, and Bryan Unkless serving as producers for the project. Robbie will reprise her role as Harleen Quinzel / Harley Quinn, with the film being the first theatrical R-rated installment in the franchise and will be made with a significantly smaller budget than some of the other films. The team roster will reportedly include Quinzel, Dinah Lance / Black Canary, Helena Bertinelli / Huntress, Cassandra Cain, and Renee Montoya. Production will commence on January 15, 2019 in Los Angeles. Mary Elizabeth Winstead will portray Helena in the film. Production will commence on January 15, 2019 in Los Angeles for a February 7, 2020 release date.
Video games