Greetings comics lovers welcome back to casually comics the channel where we chat all things
comics from reviews of comics new and old to history to anecdotes to really wherever
our whims take us you all enjoyed hearing about the confusing history of the huntress
so why not meet her properly in her first appearance as Helena Wayne.
She had two on the same day so I’m starting with the origin issue since origins usually
end up being such an integral part of the character.
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So Helena Wayne a.k.a the huntress was commissioned as DC felt that the JSA book of Earth 2 needed
a batgirl style character.
Since Batgirl was proving too be such a hit in the mainverse Earth 1 and DC in the late
70s was very much in the mode of throwing things at the wall and seeing what would stick.
Even down to the comic she debuted in one of them as she had two comics each released
on the same day the one we are looking at is dc super stars #17.
DC super stars was a comic that ran from 1976 to 1978 and had 18 issues total so this was
the second last one on top of that it was mostly a reprint magazine until it’s last
year.
It is most famous for being the comic to introduce the world to the Huntress’s origin.
No lies detected, and yet it was collected in trade, the collector in me is grateful.
I have a problem.
With our history laid out let’s take a look.
The cover is baity but in a fun way it features
the characters from the rehash stories bursting in on the huntress all le gasp who us this
as the cover proclaims DC’s newest femme fatale the huntress.
We challenge you to guess her incredible secret.
Challenge accepted it’s not cheating that I know the answer I’m just from the future
this must be how Booster Gold feels everyday.
I also just need to tell you that the first story is a retelling of Green Arrow’s backstory
did you know he was trapped alone on an island...cause I did and if he tells me one more time I’m
sending him back there.
So the huntress’s origin is the last story in this starting on page 32.
For those of you following along at home I feel like a teacher.
Alright class get ready to learn about the multiverse.
So we have our creator Paul Levitz, Joe Stanton & Bob Layton.
We open on a panel of Bruce marrying Selina cause it’s 1977 and people are allowed to
get married on another Earth at least.
The next page is just the comic explaining that this story is happening on Earth 2, and
that everyone is older and essentially don’t panic or call the navy it’s a parallel earth.
On this Earth Catwoman ended up turning herself in and serving a prison term and when Bruce
saw that he waited for her and when she was released swooped in and married her.
There are tears in a man’s life that seem to flow past too quickly to be real they are
the dreaming years, the happy years.
Stop it I can sense tragedy.
Also eep that it me in my rapidly approaching middle age feels stop talking about the passage
of time Earth 2.
We then see Bruce’s life in hyper speed after marrying selina they have a daughter
helena he becomes an actibist in Gotham abandoning his playboy persona Robin strikes out on his
own with no drama and since Bruce has a kid he doesn’t need to adopt any tire jackers.
It’s all going well he has achieved peek happiness he’s also gone full rich person
he’s at home playing backgammon with his daughter.
I play that with my dad are we secretly rich.
Is he Batman?
The happiness ends when Selina gets a phone call it’s one of her old henchmen who just
got out of prison Silky Cernak!
I love how the caption box and his reveal treat it like oh no the terror but I refuse
to be menaced by anyone named Silky.
But he’s here to blackmail her I wasn’t kiddin’ when I told you to save your marriage
by comin’ here..everybody knows how Wayne only got hitched to you cause you were reformed
and cause you never killed anybody or so you told him.
Dun dun dun he’s got a picture of a guy on the ground with a cat o nine tails on his
neck dead allegedly.
Ok Silky sorry to interrupt this dramatic blackmail with my runaway queries but 1 Bruce
is Batman Selina knows this and he married her knowing she had a past so why should this
work she should just be able to a tell him I’m being blackmailed and he can go full
Batman on the guy and 2 this allegedly happened years ago and she even says it was an accident
what kind of monster are we supposed to believe Bruce is that if she went home and was like
oops honey when I was catwoman I killed a man he’s going to have the divorce papers
in his desk and her bags packed already.
Like all their time together means nothing ouch Earth 2 does not think a lot of Bruce
if that’s the logic.
One more job but only to spare bruce the hurt… no selina no also which is more hurtful him
finding out about this photo or that you don’t trust him enough to tell him about your problems
but what do I know I’m just a pleb from Earth Prime.
That night the Bat signal goes off Dad the bat signal the commisioner is calling Robin
oof he never became nightwing here and still didn’t get his own signal.
You’re right dear and since dick is on foreign service duty in Madagascar that means it’s
time for me to come out of semi retirement.
Ummm what can I read that I need to know more.
Batman gets the tip for the crime that Selina is being blackmailed to commit and takes off.
Also i love that selina's henchmen used to all wear literal catsuits like how much did
she pay or was it more like finally a real reason to wear my catsuit.
Batman but you’re supposed to be retired….and yet there’s still a bat signal.
Pause a moment reader and pity this man..don’t tell me what to do, He is a good man ….one
of the best and he is doing his duty.
Batman plunges in and goes to deflect silky’s gun from his hand and in the process you can
imagine exactly what happens especially if you saw first class the bullet gets deflected
right into Selina.
My god selina...it’s you...here.
Forgive me darling...i ...only..did...it….for y…..bleh.
No I don’t forgive you none of this had to happen it’s called communication.
This breaks Bruce and he hangs up his cape forever giving fully into sadness and it’s
really depressing.
Even the grim figure of his daughter supporting him like a crutch can do nothing to stop his
head from sagging forward and his soul from wishing for the restful peace of the grave.
While Bruce is breaking down Helena is fired up and she;s her father’s daughter dead
parent it’s time to take it out on some criminals.
And so we get a reveal of her as the huntress on page 43 as she vows to avenge her mother’s
death and bring criminals to justice.
It’s also shown she casts a shadow reminiscent of Batmans’.
She begins her manhunt looking for Silky Cernak who she knows to look for cause reasons she;s
the daughter of the world’s greatest detective yes that sounds good.
We get to see her soon to be famous crossbow in action and it is cool.
She manages to track Silky to Gotham harbor and engages him first not saying anything
but cracking and saying she’s going to make him pay.
He decides he may as well try his luck at a mini monologue and reveals that the photos
were fake so Selina had never even killed anybody adding an extra frustrating layer
of pointless to her death.
See if she’d just taken that photo to her husband with his bat computer and oh i’m
the world’s greatest detective he could have told her it was photoshop.
Huntress defeats him and takes him to the police station leaving him set up in a net.
The next morning as bruce and helena wayne arrive at the police headquarters to attend
to some final formalities.
What formalities flimsy comic, flimsy.
Bruce assumes it’s dick back from madagascar, revealing that nobody in the wayne family
talks to each other cause she hasn’t told her father it was her or that she’s the
huntress.
Maybe it wasn’t richard daddy I have a feeling it was someone else someone new.
Whoever it was I have a feeling they’re here to stay.
No no no I know he’s sad but we’ve established richard is a vigilante
and later we’ll establish she trained with him so why would bruce be mad about this.
I mean he may disapprove at first but who is he to judge I mean yeah maybe wait a few
days Bruce is fragile he does have the white reed richard’s hair streaks a whole band
really.
So that was the introduction of Helena Wayne and the heroic huntress.
Ima ruffle some feathers and say it was just ok the idea of Helena is way cooler than her
origin.
The idea of bruce and selina having a kid who becomes a hero is a fun one a nice expansion
on the lore.
Doing it on earth 2 means that you don’t ruffle any feathers of people who are really
invested in the status quo on earth one so smart play.
But when you learn that she was a character designed at a request and then see this origin
it may be a hindsight thing but it feels it here in this story.
Her actual adventures fare far better and she gets to showcased cause here she’s barely
in it.
She doesn’t get to be the huntress til the last couple of pages and the rest of the time
she’s just kinda there.
While setting up a slight paralleling in her origin to her father’s makes sense it’s
not handled as smoothly as it could be.
Killing off Selina as a motivating factor is not the worst idea
but the execution is far from seamless and makes Selina seem ineffectual and her marriage
to bruce flimsy.
Especially since she didn’t even kill that person which removes a lot of the gravitas
though some would argue it adds to the tragedy it spends too much time making you feel bad
for bruce and selina and not enough time on Helena.
It’s base works though you get it her mom died and she wants to carry on her father’s
legacy and avenge her.
However, from a modern perspective knowing that there is a helena bertinelli and her
2000 onwards origin I think that one is more concise.
A .lot of the attachment to helena wayne comes from the legacy aspect and how she played
on teams which makes sense her origin itself though aside from being a biological legacy
character is not the strongest.
That doesn’t make her a bad or not strong character far from it and her origin actually
sounds better if you just describe it without deets like she’s avenging her mom and carrying
on for her dad cause he can’t.
It works on a visceral level and I get why people are attached to it.
Having characters you like be changed in a giant reboot is never fun.
It’s ok she had a much stronger showing in her comic that came out the same day.
But tell me your thoughts down below did you love earth 2 are you all for stories happening
on different earths?
If you love this origin and disagree with me tell me why i love to hear what people
like about stories.
This is a space to chat about our shared love comics.
I’m Sasha and thanks so much for watching casually comicsplease do all of the youtube
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I’ll see you again soon buy bye.