beccatoria (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beccatoria) wrote2012-01-13 10:27 pm
beccatoria) wrote2012-01-13 10:27 pm
DC Comics: Huntress Origins
So. DC have announced a new comic, and Helena Wayne is coming back, huh?
Actually, I'm in an odd position here. Emotionally I'm pretty much totally signed up for this. It's a freaking team-up with Huntress and Power Girl, and to top if off, they've given them the title traditionally used for the Superman/Batmanfriendship comic. Also, while I came to appreciate Helena Bertinelli's unique brand of reckless and amazing thuggery, and level of determination that would keep her crawling over broken glass while holding her own guts in, it took a while to get there (and it took the audio adaptation of Greg Rucka's No Man's Land novel to really explain to me why she was fucking aces), while I came to love all that, I have a real soft spot for Helena Wayne, as a concept if nothing else.
So I'm excited for this idea, but I have to acknowledge that Bertinelli is a far more complete and interesting character than Wayne, as things stand.
Part of that is because Wayne hasn't been a character for 30 years. Back when she was created, there was a very different aesthetic and if her characterisation and motivations are a little transparent by modern standards, that's not entirely surprising.
Having read the first four issues of the Huntress mini series (written by the dude who originally created her all those years ago), the Huntress in that, whom we now know to be Wayne, certainly is a well-realised character and I look forward to finding out more about her. And my first thought on hearing this news was, "Excellent, they can use the personality established for Helena Bertinelli as an influence on updating Helena Wayne!"
Now I still think this is likely, but in thinking about it, I realised that without updating Wayne's origin story as the Huntress I'm not entirely sure how it would work on quite the brilliant gut level it works for Bertinelli. It turns out I feel that more of her character is based in her origin than I might initially have thought.
Both Helenas' origins are designed to evoke Bruce Wayne's. Both witness the death of family in unjust circumstances and are moved to avenge it. Superficially I think Helena Wayne's origin feels the most like a direct reference because of the biological connection, yes, but certainly because the image of her taking the oath to her mother's grave and the culprit being a lone, desperate man for ultimately pointless reasons. But Bertinelli's is more emotionally similar. Yet different enough it explains all the reasons that Helena Bertinelli and Bruce Wayne clash to terribly with each other.
Both witness their family slaughtered in front of them. Both are left with a desperate desire for justice - one that will not be met by the social systems in place to protect them.
But - very broadly speaking, because the two issues obviously overlap - Bruce Wayne is left with righteous anger and a desire to fix the system in order to protect the people, while Helena Bertinelli is left with disillusioned rage and a desire to tear the system down because it is irreparably broken and fails to protect the people.
I think this makes a lot of sense when you consider that Helena's family weren't killed by a desperate criminal in a senseless crime - they didn't die because a system failed. They were killed as part of a mafia feud. They were killed because the system was working. A system Helena's own family were complicit in.
Helena Bertinelli is angry all the time because it's not about the powerlessness that comes of being unprepared in a tragic moment in front of a desperate man like Joe Chill - it's about the powerlessness that comes of facing an entire system of control and violence - it's the powerlessness that comes of knowing it probably wouldn't have mattered if your dad was a ninja or your mom had a submachine gun in that moment, because you're facing down a squad of professionals and if you somehow manage to survive, they're not going to stop and you don't have the resources to oppose them, because you're fighting a system that's older and more powerful than you will ever be.
Obviously, intellectually, Batman understands this, but it's not the emotional core of his origin, and I think, thinking about it that way, explains to me a lot about why Helena is as vicious and nihilistic as she sometimes seems.
And I don't want to loose that feeling of Helena as a loose canon that not everyone entirely trusts, because that's one of the things she has to set her apart from other characters. And her conflict with Batman is brilliant, and if anything that would just be even more complicated and tragic if she knew she were secretly his daughter BUT NOT REALLY.
But I don't see how Helena Wayne's origin leads to that level of anger and recklessness - and also, yes, fierce, fierce loyalty, which I think of as an extension of her general distrust of everyone; once you get through that barrier she will do anything for you - in the same way as Helena Bertinelli's.
Her mother is killed in terrible circumstances yes. She would want to bring that killer to justice, yes. But she was also already an adult when it happened, she was raised by a loving family, and had already been trained in everything she needed to know.
Like I said, I feel kind of guilty in that I actively want Helena Wayne to come back, even if it means losing Bertinelli. I like the idea of her. I like Batman finally getting a daughter amongst all his sons (which would be less of an issue if they ever did anything with Cass Cain these days, but I digress). I understand the arguments that Helena Bertinelli is better because she doesn't have her identity so directly tied to a male character, but ultimately she will always be seen as part of the stable of bat characters, so while I acknowledge it as a fair point, I'm not sure it entirely trumps the notion of suddenly making Batman's eldest child a girl, or even the complicated question of, if she is going to be seen as derivative of Batman regardless, is it better to use that to slingshot her status by being his child or does that simply compound the problem? It's complicated is all I'm saying.
But having said all that, I realise now that Helena Bertinelli has a pretty freaking awesome origin that succinctly explains a lot of the shit that makes her awesome, and it's going to be a damn shame to lose that, and I'm worried her personality will either need to shift, or her personality won't mesh with her history and I'll feel like they're making her violent because it's cool not because that's who she ought to be.
My personal preference for this is to simply change Helena Wayne's origin so that it more closely resembles Bertinelli's. Perhaps Batman and Catwoman are murdered by the mob when she's a child (okay, unlikely given it's BATMAN, but it is parallel universe Batman!) Or perhaps she's raised by Catwoman away from her father and Catwoman eventually marries into the mob. Or...a billion other things made up by a better writer than me!
I'm not sure what I'm saying at this point really except...props Huntress, I'm sorry I never realised the Bertinelli origin was so deft until it was gone. Here's hoping that your new incarnation has a personality that sets her apart from her peers without it feeling arbitrary.
IN OTHER NEWS.
DC canceled a lot of books and launched a lot of new ones. Extremely briefly, I was very pleased with a new female-led book coming out and to see Nicola Scott getting work because I loved her stuff on Secret Six and Wonder Woman. I was also pleased to see some commitment to a diversity of genre with "Dial H" and "G.I. Commando". I was not pleased to see DC cancel like half of its solo books with people of colour as leads.
Personally, I was reading Mister Terrific, which okay I kind of acknowledge was partially down to nostalgic love of the character, but I really didn't think it was as bad as everyone made out, and Static Shock which surprised me but after I checked everything out in September, I was really impressed with it, and while it never made my pull list every time I saw a new one on the rack I kept impulse-buying it. He was totally new to me and I liked him way more than I thought I would. The book I'm really surprised by how much I'll miss is Blackhawks. I read the first one and was like, eh, okay, it's basically GI Joe. But I have a friend reading it so I kept up and dudes, it's turning into this insanely awesome cyborg story of transhumanism. Like, seriously, it's fucking brilliant. So, yeah. Alas, poor Blackhawks, I knew you.
Actually, I'm in an odd position here. Emotionally I'm pretty much totally signed up for this. It's a freaking team-up with Huntress and Power Girl, and to top if off, they've given them the title traditionally used for the Superman/Batman
So I'm excited for this idea, but I have to acknowledge that Bertinelli is a far more complete and interesting character than Wayne, as things stand.
Part of that is because Wayne hasn't been a character for 30 years. Back when she was created, there was a very different aesthetic and if her characterisation and motivations are a little transparent by modern standards, that's not entirely surprising.
Having read the first four issues of the Huntress mini series (written by the dude who originally created her all those years ago), the Huntress in that, whom we now know to be Wayne, certainly is a well-realised character and I look forward to finding out more about her. And my first thought on hearing this news was, "Excellent, they can use the personality established for Helena Bertinelli as an influence on updating Helena Wayne!"
Now I still think this is likely, but in thinking about it, I realised that without updating Wayne's origin story as the Huntress I'm not entirely sure how it would work on quite the brilliant gut level it works for Bertinelli. It turns out I feel that more of her character is based in her origin than I might initially have thought.
Both Helenas' origins are designed to evoke Bruce Wayne's. Both witness the death of family in unjust circumstances and are moved to avenge it. Superficially I think Helena Wayne's origin feels the most like a direct reference because of the biological connection, yes, but certainly because the image of her taking the oath to her mother's grave and the culprit being a lone, desperate man for ultimately pointless reasons. But Bertinelli's is more emotionally similar. Yet different enough it explains all the reasons that Helena Bertinelli and Bruce Wayne clash to terribly with each other.
Both witness their family slaughtered in front of them. Both are left with a desperate desire for justice - one that will not be met by the social systems in place to protect them.
But - very broadly speaking, because the two issues obviously overlap - Bruce Wayne is left with righteous anger and a desire to fix the system in order to protect the people, while Helena Bertinelli is left with disillusioned rage and a desire to tear the system down because it is irreparably broken and fails to protect the people.
I think this makes a lot of sense when you consider that Helena's family weren't killed by a desperate criminal in a senseless crime - they didn't die because a system failed. They were killed as part of a mafia feud. They were killed because the system was working. A system Helena's own family were complicit in.
Helena Bertinelli is angry all the time because it's not about the powerlessness that comes of being unprepared in a tragic moment in front of a desperate man like Joe Chill - it's about the powerlessness that comes of facing an entire system of control and violence - it's the powerlessness that comes of knowing it probably wouldn't have mattered if your dad was a ninja or your mom had a submachine gun in that moment, because you're facing down a squad of professionals and if you somehow manage to survive, they're not going to stop and you don't have the resources to oppose them, because you're fighting a system that's older and more powerful than you will ever be.
Obviously, intellectually, Batman understands this, but it's not the emotional core of his origin, and I think, thinking about it that way, explains to me a lot about why Helena is as vicious and nihilistic as she sometimes seems.
And I don't want to loose that feeling of Helena as a loose canon that not everyone entirely trusts, because that's one of the things she has to set her apart from other characters. And her conflict with Batman is brilliant, and if anything that would just be even more complicated and tragic if she knew she were secretly his daughter BUT NOT REALLY.
But I don't see how Helena Wayne's origin leads to that level of anger and recklessness - and also, yes, fierce, fierce loyalty, which I think of as an extension of her general distrust of everyone; once you get through that barrier she will do anything for you - in the same way as Helena Bertinelli's.
Her mother is killed in terrible circumstances yes. She would want to bring that killer to justice, yes. But she was also already an adult when it happened, she was raised by a loving family, and had already been trained in everything she needed to know.
Like I said, I feel kind of guilty in that I actively want Helena Wayne to come back, even if it means losing Bertinelli. I like the idea of her. I like Batman finally getting a daughter amongst all his sons (which would be less of an issue if they ever did anything with Cass Cain these days, but I digress). I understand the arguments that Helena Bertinelli is better because she doesn't have her identity so directly tied to a male character, but ultimately she will always be seen as part of the stable of bat characters, so while I acknowledge it as a fair point, I'm not sure it entirely trumps the notion of suddenly making Batman's eldest child a girl, or even the complicated question of, if she is going to be seen as derivative of Batman regardless, is it better to use that to slingshot her status by being his child or does that simply compound the problem? It's complicated is all I'm saying.
But having said all that, I realise now that Helena Bertinelli has a pretty freaking awesome origin that succinctly explains a lot of the shit that makes her awesome, and it's going to be a damn shame to lose that, and I'm worried her personality will either need to shift, or her personality won't mesh with her history and I'll feel like they're making her violent because it's cool not because that's who she ought to be.
My personal preference for this is to simply change Helena Wayne's origin so that it more closely resembles Bertinelli's. Perhaps Batman and Catwoman are murdered by the mob when she's a child (okay, unlikely given it's BATMAN, but it is parallel universe Batman!) Or perhaps she's raised by Catwoman away from her father and Catwoman eventually marries into the mob. Or...a billion other things made up by a better writer than me!
I'm not sure what I'm saying at this point really except...props Huntress, I'm sorry I never realised the Bertinelli origin was so deft until it was gone. Here's hoping that your new incarnation has a personality that sets her apart from her peers without it feeling arbitrary.
IN OTHER NEWS.
DC canceled a lot of books and launched a lot of new ones. Extremely briefly, I was very pleased with a new female-led book coming out and to see Nicola Scott getting work because I loved her stuff on Secret Six and Wonder Woman. I was also pleased to see some commitment to a diversity of genre with "Dial H" and "G.I. Commando". I was not pleased to see DC cancel like half of its solo books with people of colour as leads.
Personally, I was reading Mister Terrific, which okay I kind of acknowledge was partially down to nostalgic love of the character, but I really didn't think it was as bad as everyone made out, and Static Shock which surprised me but after I checked everything out in September, I was really impressed with it, and while it never made my pull list every time I saw a new one on the rack I kept impulse-buying it. He was totally new to me and I liked him way more than I thought I would. The book I'm really surprised by how much I'll miss is Blackhawks. I read the first one and was like, eh, okay, it's basically GI Joe. But I have a friend reading it so I kept up and dudes, it's turning into this insanely awesome cyborg story of transhumanism. Like, seriously, it's fucking brilliant. So, yeah. Alas, poor Blackhawks, I knew you.