The Huntress: Origins collects material that originally appeared in DC Super Stars no. 17, Batman Family nos. 18-20, and Wonder Woman nos. 271-287, 289-290, 294-295 written by Paul Levitz, penciled by Joe Staton, inked by Steve Mitchell, Bob Layton, Bruce Patterson, Jerry Ordway, Bob Smith, and Mike DeCarlo, colored by Adrienne Roy, Anthony Tollin, and Gene D’Angelo, and lettered by Todd Klein, John Costanza, Ben Oda, Janice Chiang, Bruce Patterson, Jean Simek, and Milt Snapinn. The stories in this volume tell of Helena Wayne, the daughter of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle on Earth-2: a parallel world in which the DC Golden Age heroes began their careers in the 1940s, just as they did in the comic books of our own world. In the story, Helena alternates between her public life as a consumer attorney and her secret life as the Huntress, defending Gotham against arsonists, corrupt councilmen, and criminals such as the Thinker, the Joker, Lionmane, and the Crime Lord. The stories are great, telling a fantastic serialized narrative with amazing art that leaps off the panels. While the current iteration of the Huntress no longer shares this version’s origin as Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle’s daughter, this is a great way to see where the character began and enjoy some classic comic book storytelling. ( )

Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

The Huntress was, I think, the first concept original to Earth-Two to receive an ongoing feature since Earth-Two became Earth-Two, i.e., since the end of the Golden Age and the return of its characters as alternate reality denizens in the Silver Age. It demonstrates the potential of the concept: the Huntress is a character who could only exist on Earth-Two, a young woman trying to find her own way in the world while living up to the legacies of her superhero father and supervillain mother. You couldn't tell this story on Earth-One, but this kind of thing would become the backbone of Earth-Two stories, and then with the integration of Earth-Two, into DC's approach to its superheroes in general.

The individual stories here are probably nothing special, but they work. Helena works at a public-interest law firm by day and fights crime by night. There's a nice sense that this is all grounded in the social realities of Gotham; you've read much more fanciful Batman-adjacent stories. The Huntress was always a feature in an anthology title, so the stories are typically serialized across installments of about eight pages, which keeps them moving briskly. I couldn't single any one story out, but I know that as I read them, I was always interested and engaged.

Part of that is because of Joe Staton. Staton, I think, is a now-neglected heavyweight of 1980s comics, an era where he did good work on Legion of Super-Heroes, Green Lantern, Action Comics, and Millennium (among, I'm sure, others). I always like his atmospheric style, but it's particularly suited to adventures in Gotham City at night, sometimes blocky, but with Helena's athleticism and attractiveness always clear.

This volume collects the first five years of Huntress solo adventures, all of the ones written by Paul Levitz. Joey Cavalieri took over writing the character after that, with Staton continuing on art at first, up until the point the character was obliterated by the Crisis,* but none of that material has been collected. Unfortunately, as I'm willing to track down some pretty random stuff, but buying a ton of issues of Wonder Woman because of a back-up feature doesn't really appeal.

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* Well, beyond, actually, as Cavalieri also wrote the 1989-90 ongoing series that introduced the post-Crisis Huntress, who had no relationship to Bruce Wayne or Selina Kyle.

This took a long time to read b/c I stopped and read library books in the middle. It took me a bit to get back to it. I was first introduced to Huntress in Birds of Prey, the Helena Bertinelli version of the character. I liked her and thought she was interesting. Then via the awful (although I still love it) Birds of Prey television series I found out that the original version of the character was Helena Wayne. I bought this book years ago at a comic book store and I finally got to it.

I liked this version of the character. I am wondering if there are more of them b/c I want to read more. While it isn't necessarily the greatest story I have read in comics, it is obvious that the writers and artists loved the characters and I think that's what kept me interested enough to make sure I got back to it. ( )

This took a long time to read b/c I stopped and read library books in the middle. It took me a bit to get back to it. I was first introduced to Huntress in Birds of Prey, the Helena Bertinelli version of the character. I liked her and thought she was interesting. Then via the awful (although I still love it) Birds of Prey television series I found out that the original version of the character was Helena Wayne. I bought this book years ago at a comic book store and I finally got to it.

I liked this version of the character. I am wondering if there are more of them b/c I want to read more. While it isn't necessarily the greatest story I have read in comics, it is obvious that the writers and artists loved the characters and I think that's what kept me interested enough to make sure I got back to it. ( )

This took a long time to read b/c I stopped and read library books in the middle. It took me a bit to get back to it. I was first introduced to Huntress in Birds of Prey, the Helena Bertinelli version of the character. I liked her and thought she was interesting. Then via the awful (although I still love it) Birds of Prey television series I found out that the original version of the character was Helena Wayne. I bought this book years ago at a comic book store and I finally got to it.

I liked this version of the character. I am wondering if there are more of them b/c I want to read more. While it isn't necessarily the greatest story I have read in comics, it is obvious that the writers and artists loved the characters and I think that's what kept me interested enough to make sure I got back to it. ( )