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Huntress is a fictional comic book superhero, owned by DC Comics. There have been three versions of the character. The first was a super-villain, but the second and third were crime fighting vigilantes in the Batman tradition.
The Golden Age Huntress
The Huntress during the Golden Age of Comics was a villain who hunted men down and collected them as trophies. She was sort of the female version of the hunter in the classic short story and movie, The Most Dangerous Game, except she didn't use firearms. Created by Mort Meskin, she first appeared in 1947 wanting to collect the superhero Wildcat for her trophy room. She was Paula Brooks, and was a skilled hand to hand fighter with nails designed to act as sharpened claws. Years later, creator Roy Thomas used the character as a young superhero prior to turning bad, beginning in his World War II series Young All-Stars #6 (1987), renaming her Tigress. Supposedly, she eventually fell into crime and renamed herself the Huntress. She married the villain the Sportsmaster, and operating as a team, they were sometimes known as Mr. and Mrs. Menace. According to Birds of Prey #99 (2006), they would have a daughter who would become a super-villain as well, and call herself Tigress. She would take on the Modern Age Black Canary early in her career. Black Canary would defeat her with the help of her new friend from the Justice League, Green Arrow.
The Bronze Age Huntress
The first version of the “Helena” Huntress had her origins on Earth-Two, along with Power Girl. Earth-Two was a parallel Earth created in the 1960s where the inhabitants of the super characters like the Justice Society of America and other costumed heroes of the Golden Age of Comics were said to exist. She was created to be a kind of Earth-Two version of Batgirl.
She was the daughter of the Batman and the reformed Catwoman from the 1940s. When Catwoman surrenders herself to the police, Bruce Wayne is waiting for her years later when she gets out. Since Selina never killed anyone during her crime career, Bruce allow himself to fall in love. The two marry, and have a daughter they name Helena.
Trained since childhood in the martial arts, the science of detection, and acrobatics by her famous parents, Helena grows up to be an attorney working in the law firm of Cranston and Grayson. The Grayson side of the partnership was Dick Grayson, the now adult Golden Age Robin. With Batman in semi-retirement, it is usually Robin who now answers the Bat-Signal.
One night, Selina receives a mysterious phone call. Cernak, and old criminal ally, claims he has "proof" that Catwoman once participated in a murder. He swears he will return it to her, if she partcipates in "one last job." Fearing the effect this scandal might have on her family, Selina agrees.
When Commissioner Gordon gets a tip about a "macabre midnight raid" on the Gotham Civic Center, he activates the Bat-Signal. With Dick Grayson in Madagascar on "Foreign Service Duty", Batman decides to answer the call. Batman interrupts the crime, but not before a wild bullet hits its mark. Selina Kyle dies.
Selina's death ages Bruce Wayne overnight. He burns his cape and cowl, and never becomes Batman again. Nights go by, and the Bat-Signal goes unanswered. It was up to his daughter Helena to bring the criminals to justice.
On her mother's grave, a costumed Helena makes an oath that echoes the one her father made decades ago. "I swear I'll dedicate my life and my inheritance to bringing your killer to justice...and to fighting all criminals. I swear it..mother..." The narrator writes, "On that night, The Huntress was born!"
She assembles a new identity out of her parent’s old equipment, and soon brings Cernak to justice. Her use of weapons have a bit more deadly a feel to them (like the collapsing crossbow she keeps in her boot) than Batman's did. This was supposed to represent that Helena is a product of both Catwoman and Batman.
The events of the limited crossover series Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985) resulted in the elimination of Earth-Two from the DC Universe. The Helena Wayne Huntress was eliminated from the DC continuity. However, her origin had a short revival during the Birds of Prey (2002) live action TV series, whose creators decided to use the Helena Wayne back story for their superhuman version of the Huntress character.
Helena Wayne is missed only by Power Girl, the only remaining Earth-Two survivor who remembers its existence. The two had become friends back on Earth-Two, forming a kind of “World’s Finest” team, in the tradition of Superman and Batman.
The Modern Age Huntress
Despite the fact that Helena Bertinelli is a poorly paid public school teacher, she drives a Lamborghini. The car is a sole remnant of her being the little princess of the wealthy Bertinelli crime family. When her family was wiped out in a bullet flying massacre by Omerta the Silencer, a hit man hired by a rival crime family, Helena was forced to live among Sicilian relatives while vowing revenge for her family’s execution. While in Sicily, she is haunted by dreams of her family's assassin. Her cousin Salvatore teaches Helena the way Sicilians resolve these problems: revenge. He begins a process of teaching her the skills she will need to get it. Helena found revenge against her family’s assassin, and continues to war on all criminals, with a particular emphasis on organized crime.
The Huntress employs a variety of “edged” weapons such as throwing knives, a crossbow, and CO2 propelled metal bolts fired from a wrist launcher. Her costume always incorporates a cross or crucifix (sometimes, it's her earrings), which is perhaps a symbol of her Italian and Catholic heritage, and also recalls her crossbow. The crossbow has become her trademark weapon.
She is one of the most brutal and violent of Gotham City’s vigilantes. This is the reason that Batman gives for withholding his full approval and support. In a rare vulnerable moment, he confesses to his friend Commissioner James Gordon that she reminds him of Barbara Gordon, who was crippled by the Joker, and is afraid she’ll meet a similar fate. Batman did sponsor her membership in the Justice League at one point, but she was expelled for trying to kill the supervillain Prometheus. She does work occasionally with Robin, and has been a member of other teams, like the Ousiders and Checkmate. She has accepted membership on Oracle’s team of crime fighting agents, the Birds of Prey.
While she no longer has her own comic, she has appeared in limited series and specials, and is a regular character in the comic book series Birds of Prey.
Portrayals
- Barabra Joyce played the huntress in the NBC TV Special, Legends of the Superheroes (1979).
- Huntress is voiced by Amy Acker in the animated series Justice League Unlimited.
Helena Bertinelli Huntress
2008, SCI FI. All rights reserved.
