The Huntress is a name used by several characters in DC Comics.
The Golden Age Huntress is a supervillainess, while the Bronze Age and Modern Age Huntresses are superheroines.
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.
She 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-Starsmember.
Helena Wayne
The Bronze Age Huntress was Helena Wayne, the daughter of the Batman and Catwoman of Earth-Two, an alternate universeestablished 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 (December 1977) 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 (September 1980).
Helena was trained by her parents to become a superb athlete. After finishing school, she joined the law firm of Cranston and Grayson, one of whose partners was Dick Grayson, alias Robin.
Helena began her super-hero career when a criminal blackmailed her mother into resuming action once again as Catwoman—an act which 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 (including her eventual trademark, a crossbow), and set out to bring in the criminal. After accomplishing this, Helena decided to continue to fight crime, under the code name, 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. AfterCrisis 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 2012, Huntress began to star 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 Selina Kyle (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 Modern Age Huntress is Helena Rosa Bertinelli (also Hellena Janice Bertinelli in the miniseries Robin 3, Cry of the Huntress), the daughter of one of Gotham's mafia bosses who, after seeing her entire family murdered by a mob hit, vows revenge. During the "No Man's Land" story line she works as Batgirl, but not alongside Batman (whom the citizens believe abandoned them).
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 (Jay Garrick), 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.
References
- DC Super Stars #17 (November-December 1977) at the Grand Comics Database "Origin and first appearance of the Helena Wayne Huntress, who simultaneously first appears in this issue and All-Star Comics (DC, 1976 series) #69, both released August 24, 1977."
- McAvennie, Michael; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1970s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p. 175. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9. "DC Super Stars #17 (November–December 1977) While writer Paul Levitz and artist Joe Staton introduced the Huntress to the JSA in this month's All Star Comics #69, they concurrently shaped her origin inDC Super Stars."
- Huntress (Helena Wayne) appearances at the Grand Comics Database
- Manning, Matthew K. "1980s" in Dolan, p. 187 "The daughter of Batman and Catwoman from Earth-2 found a new home away from home in the pages of Wonder Woman's monthly title...a regular gig as the back-up feature to the Amazing Amazon's lead story. Handled by writer Paul Levitz and artist Joe Staton, the Huntress faced the villainy of the swamp creature Solomon Grundy."
- Comic Book Review: "Worlds Finest: Huntress and Powergirl 0: 5 September 2012: http://www.sciencefiction.com/2012/09/05/comic-book-review-worlds-finest-huntress-and-powergirl-0