Huntress #1

Every week new comic books come out at the local comic book store Gatekeeper Hobbies. I've got a pull list set up with every book I'm subscribed to. This week one of the most notable books I picked up was Huntress #1 written by Paul Levitz, and with art by Marcus To and John Dell

The Huntress title revolves around Helena Bertinelli, the daughter of an Italian mob boss who lives in Gotham and fights crime as Huntress. However, the Huntress title was originally held by Helena Wayne. She was the daughter of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle (Batman and Catwoman respectively) and took up the mantle of Huntress after her mother was murdered in the field.

Helena Wayne has become, by far, one of my favorite female characters in the Batman mythos despite the fact that DC chose to kill her off in 1986 during the last major reboot "Infinite Crisis." A year later Huntress resurfaced with a different background and that is who we see in Huntress #1. I decided to pick up this title mostly for the fact that Marcus To, one of my favorite comic artists, is the one doing the pencilling for the art. I then found out that the writer for the book would be Paul Levitz. He was the original creator of Helena Wayne in the 70's. After learning that fact there was no doubt in my mind that I needed this book.

I was more than impressed with the first issue of the six issue run. The art was fantastic, and I knew I could expect no less from Marcus To. The writing was also amazing. It was exactly what I had hoped for from this book. I've been bored with a few of the #1 title's I've read from the New 52 in the last month. Since writers are starting a new story it takes a couple issues to really get into things. That is definitely not the case with this book. Levitz did a great job of providing exposition quickly and breaking straight into the action. The book is fast paced but still drew me in and quickly created a sense of attachment to the rebooted character. I can honestly say this book is the one I am most excited to continue reading out of all the new books.

However, what really excited me was the final page which announced that after this mini series is complete, DC will be putting out a new Justice Society book based in Earth-2. This "earth" (an alternate universe in the comic reality) was the original home of Helena Wayne. This page also went into detail about Wayne and how the Huntress mini series has connections to Karen Starr, Helena Wayne's best friend, and the book that she is in. All in all it speculated that Helena Wayne will be resurrected and find her way into comics once again.

Please let me know if this blog post lacks coherency. I'm just a little bit excited at the moment and that probably has a negative impact on my writing abilities.