Pursuing The Most Dangerous Game: Common Criminals!
Huntress.
This is the first miniseries I'll be talking about. It's not technically a part of the new 52, but it is part of the new rebooted DC Universe, so I'm counting it. The miniseries didn't come out until one month after the new 52 launched, so there's only been 2 issues of Huntress out (until today, the day I'm writing this, but I haven't read the third issue yet, so I'm not going to talk about it. I'm only talking about the new 52 books through November, no matter how long this little project takes).
I'll be honest, it took a long time for me to like the character of Huntress, and there are two reasons for this. Huntress is Helena Bertinelli, a mafia princess who is disgusted with the crimes her family has committed over the years, and decided to dedicate her life to punishing criminals everywhere because of it. Originally, this version of the character was a mean-spirited revenge-seeker who got upset when anyone else called her on her violent actions, despite being raised strict Catholic and having some difficulties reconciling her thirst for vengeance and "thou shalt not kill" upbringing. If that was all it was, I would have just waited for it to get better, but they then made the mistake of making her a foil for Batman, and Batman has a very strict no-killing rule. So the two of them argued. And argued. And argued . . . and it always seemed like the writers agreed with Huntress, or at least, they never presented a good reason for why Batman and other heroes shouldn't kill. That's for a different post, but basically, it boils down to Bruce honestly believing that doing so wouldn't be Justice, for a variety of reasons that I'm not going to get into now, because we're talking about Huntress.
So, yeah, she was presented in a way that I didn't like, and that was the first reason it took me a while to like the lady. The second is that I've been reading comic books long enough to have first-hand knowledge of the awesome character this version of Huntress is a revamp of: the daughter of the Golden Age Batman and Catwoman, Helena Wayne. Helena Wayne was basically the best parts of those two characters in one package: smart, sexy, cool, capable. She was a bit harder-edged than her father (yes, even the Golden Age Batman, who was more likely to pull a gun than any other version), but a hero, not a villain like her mother (even though she did reform later in life).
So knowing the history of the character and seeing a (at first) less-than respectful revision of her irked me. I like her fine, now, though. Her stint in the old Birds of Prey by Gail Simone helped immensely. Her brief time in the Justice League under Grant Morrison (him, again!) was also good, until she was forced off the team. Ah, editorial mandates, when will you stop getting in the way of cool stories?
Never, that's when.
Anyway, this mini will show Huntress going against some human slavers, and it's a return to her being smart, sexy, cool, and capable, like I mentioned above. I'm digging it so far, but again, two issues, but hopefully it'll continue to pretty good.
Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; although they are trying to push her sexiness a bit too far, which might lead to some problems . . .
This is the first miniseries I'll be talking about. It's not technically a part of the new 52, but it is part of the new rebooted DC Universe, so I'm counting it. The miniseries didn't come out until one month after the new 52 launched, so there's only been 2 issues of Huntress out (until today, the day I'm writing this, but I haven't read the third issue yet, so I'm not going to talk about it. I'm only talking about the new 52 books through November, no matter how long this little project takes).
I'll be honest, it took a long time for me to like the character of Huntress, and there are two reasons for this. Huntress is Helena Bertinelli, a mafia princess who is disgusted with the crimes her family has committed over the years, and decided to dedicate her life to punishing criminals everywhere because of it. Originally, this version of the character was a mean-spirited revenge-seeker who got upset when anyone else called her on her violent actions, despite being raised strict Catholic and having some difficulties reconciling her thirst for vengeance and "thou shalt not kill" upbringing. If that was all it was, I would have just waited for it to get better, but they then made the mistake of making her a foil for Batman, and Batman has a very strict no-killing rule. So the two of them argued. And argued. And argued . . . and it always seemed like the writers agreed with Huntress, or at least, they never presented a good reason for why Batman and other heroes shouldn't kill. That's for a different post, but basically, it boils down to Bruce honestly believing that doing so wouldn't be Justice, for a variety of reasons that I'm not going to get into now, because we're talking about Huntress.
So, yeah, she was presented in a way that I didn't like, and that was the first reason it took me a while to like the lady. The second is that I've been reading comic books long enough to have first-hand knowledge of the awesome character this version of Huntress is a revamp of: the daughter of the Golden Age Batman and Catwoman, Helena Wayne. Helena Wayne was basically the best parts of those two characters in one package: smart, sexy, cool, capable. She was a bit harder-edged than her father (yes, even the Golden Age Batman, who was more likely to pull a gun than any other version), but a hero, not a villain like her mother (even though she did reform later in life).
So knowing the history of the character and seeing a (at first) less-than respectful revision of her irked me. I like her fine, now, though. Her stint in the old Birds of Prey by Gail Simone helped immensely. Her brief time in the Justice League under Grant Morrison (him, again!) was also good, until she was forced off the team. Ah, editorial mandates, when will you stop getting in the way of cool stories?
Never, that's when.
Anyway, this mini will show Huntress going against some human slavers, and it's a return to her being smart, sexy, cool, and capable, like I mentioned above. I'm digging it so far, but again, two issues, but hopefully it'll continue to pretty good.
Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; although they are trying to push her sexiness a bit too far, which might lead to some problems . . .