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What is Selina's view on killing on comics?

It’s complicated. It’s commonly accepted that Selina generally does not kill people and has said so a number of times. What separates her from the rest of the Rogues is her unwillingness to kill and lack of prospensity for violence. 

This is because Catwoman was not intended to be a particuarly dangerous criminal. For example, Pre-Crisis Earth-2 Catwoman was devastated to learn that she had once killed someone (she didn’t really kill anyone, it was a lie used to blackmail her into committing crimes), which shows that she values life. 

Catwoman has only killed twice in canon in different eras (the second of which I’ve already criticized discussed). People love to use the fact that Catwoman has killed someone as an excuse to bash the character, always convenientlyleaving out the fact that the person she killed was a sadistic, serial killer who kidnapped, tortured, brutalized all of her friends and family for years and never give any context to what actually happened. 

The Cliff’s notes version is this: Catwoman stole $28 million worth of diamonds from a notorious drug dealer and gangster, Black Mask. In retaliation he kidnapped her sister and her husband, then killed her brother-in-law and forced her sister to eat his eyeballs, and brutalized all of her friends as well [full context]. 

During a fight with Black Mask, Catwoman allowed him to fall off of balcony seemingly to his death. Black Mask of course didn’t die and during the War Crimes arc beat and tortured Stephanie Brown to death, and soon after that set his sights on Catwoman again by threatening and terrorizing her loved ones [more context]. 

Selina decided that the only way to stop Black Mask was to put an end to him once and for all. From her perspective it was the morally right thing to do. It wasn’t a decision that she made lightly and she never killed anyone again. To really understand you have to read the full story of what happened with Catwoman and Black Mask. Follow the links below for a thorough summary. 

I’ll admit I’ve come around a lot on this issue. I used to really, really hate the fact that they made Catwoman a murderer probably more than anything else, but I’ve realized that I do think she was justified in her actions. While I can’t say that I’m glad that it happened and I’ll probably never be 100% comfortable with it, I don’t think that Catwoman was all that wrong for killing Black Mask and I don’t think it makes her irredeemable as a character. 

I think that we has fans have an expectation that all superheroes have explicit “no kill” rules by default, and it probably has a lot to do with the fact that we idealize superheroes. While people love to use the fact that Catwoman has killed someone as proof of her moral damnation there is a complete double standard in which some characters are deemed irredeemable because they’ve killed pepole, while others are immune to that scrutiny despite the fact that most have killed at one point or another. No one ever talks about the fact that Superman and Wonder Woman are both murderers, and their kill count is way higher than Catwoman’s. Most people would probably be surprised to learn that Wonder Woman has killed in canon as recently as Brian Azzarello’s run. Batman in his earliest version was a one man killing machine, who gunned people down on the reg and that was when his creators were writing him. 

tldr: Catwoman is just like any character and her motivations and characterization changes over time. The one thing that has remained consistent is that Catwoman is not a violent killer and for the most part does not believe in killing. Any Catwoman writer worth their salt knows this. Yes, Catwoman has killed before but that was a very extreme circumstance in which she genuinely believed that she was doing the most right thing in an impossible situation and she never did it again after that.

Context [1][2][3]

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Ella Purnell as Rhiannon Lewis SWEETPEA 1.02 | This Sort of Thing Needs Some Feminine Energy

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Huntress & Black Canary: DC’s forgotten dynamic duo

long (but worth it) post alert

i’ve always found helena’s relationship to dinah so INTERESTING!!! how helena seemingly idolizes dinah and holds her on a pedestal, because dinah may truly be the only person in the crime fighting biz that doesn't immediately judge her—that she doesn't need to fight for the approval of (*cough* batfam *cough*). i choose to read it as an attachment. one that is similar to her dynamic with batman (in that she searches for approval and comfort), but different because while bruce rejects helena time and time again, dinah does not.

what makes their dynamic even more fascinating is that dinah doesn’t purposely make a home for helena. it’s just who she is or how it happens. the energy isn’t reciprocated in the sense that dinah does not then idolize or pedestal helena in return. it’s sort of a one way street that likely results from the void of helena’s lonely past that causes her to “imprint” on the first person that shows her acceptance. but, because dinah is present and rarely offers rejection, helena thus views her as an object of habitual trust, perhaps even someone that she needs. 

i could be overstating it, but undoubtedly there is a bond between the two worth analyzing, and specifically through the eyes of the Huntress. helena emotionally attaches to dinah because dinah does not turn her away in the way that others that come before her have (due to how she works/goes about business). for once, someone seems to actually care enough to give her the light of day, to give her a CHANCE. and that is a huge change from the unacceptance she is so used to feeling and the lonely she is so used to being. as a child, helena seldom received any validation from important figures (for obvious reasons… i.e. her entire family being murdered), so she sometimes searches for this validation in other people. through this friendship, dinah helps helena realize that she does not have to linger in her own corner of brooding and that she can be apart of a team.

it’s kind of genius, really. and who knows if Gail Simone purposely wrote in all these layers but nevertheless it’s there and it makes sense: girl who continuously gets rejected in her search for approval finally finds someone who doesn’t and in turn, idolizes her. this dynamic only gets more interesting for me when thinking about it from dinah’s perspective; while dinah does really care about helena, she doesn’t necessarily go out of her way to give her that “chance”—she simply does not have preconceived notions about who helena bertinelli is. dinah inadvertently breaks the cycle that helena is caught in. all of this is in terms of the start of their relationship, and to simplify: dinah never goes to helena and says “oh my god you have such a horrible past let me help you!” rather, it is helena who comes across dinah and thinks “wait a sec…? she doesn’t care that i’ve done some bad things? or that batman (AND babs… which is huge bc barbara IS the birds of prey) doesn’t really like me?” it doesn’t mean as much to her as it does to helena. this can be detected in dinah’s own dialogue to her, as seen in the previous panels. however, as their bond strengthens, we do then see dinah going out of her way to directly support and defend helena, even confronting batman herself on several occasions :

i wish this dynamic was explored more, however. it doesn’t help that DC has seemingly thrown helena on the back burner, away from the team that was once so important to her character development. what i’m trying to say is, helena NEEDS to be in the current Birds of Prey run for many reasons, her attachment to dinah and dinah's support of her being one of them. and i hope Kelly Thompson will recognize the importance this has not just for fans like me, but for the character herself. if you know anything about Huntress as a character, she is kind of a "lone wolf" type. by choice, by circumstance, not just cuz of her personality, but because of her origin, too. her joining the Birds of Prey, becoming a prominent figure on a cohesive TEAM, was a huge arc in her development. take it from helena herself, after literally sacrificing her life for dinah :

I would really like to see these two team up again, being that they work pretty well together, visually and literally, but also because it means a lot to helena internally. if we strip huntress away from the birds of prey, who does she really have? where really is she? the answer is no one and no where, a reflection of her current status in the dc universe. helena does not have to be, and should not be, inextricably tied to a team (as some characters unfortunately grow to be) but a balance between co-operation and independence can easily be navigated. in other words, helena works well alone but the birds of prey should remain a comfort zone for her, and a part of her overall purpose. ultimately, having characters and spaces that she is connected to can only be a good thing (i.e. dinah, babs, zinda, the birds of prey). yet, somehow, she is missing in action even while her team is active.

it’s a shame for me to see them operate without her. so, part of my reasoning for her inclusion is Black Canary, as dinah became that important figure in helena’s life— something her character so deeply craves both emotionally and contextually; helena bertinelli needs someone she can rely on and Huntress, as a character, needs to have solid connections within the space of DC’s universe... or else she is at risk of slowly falling into a forgotten pit of oblivion. But when thinking of the birds of prey, i personally do picture a trio— heldinahbabs. of course, the team has always been subject to change, and there is nothing wrong with that (in fact, in volume one, helena only joined in issue #57, while dinah even left in issue #100), but this post is a very long winded way of me wanting to see them together again, even just for a moment. afterall, helena joined for dinah and stayed for barbara. and as someone who is a huge huntress fan, seeing her dynamics explored more with others is a must. but, am i blinded by nostalgia? you tell me. either way, i know helena misses dinah. 

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bonus: helena lowkey fangirling over the sight of both dinah and bruce fighting together

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who do you think is daddy dearest’s LEAST favorite?

she is not his child but that will not stop him from hating

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Haven’t drawn fan art in forever

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Glow🌟

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How would you describe Batman and Huntress’ relationship and how it’s changed over the years?

Their relationship is one of the best ones I’ve seen in comics. It’s very nicely written and it starts with them not trusting each other that much and pretty much always getting in the way of each other. They both want to help, but they have different ways of going about this. Helena is more “plan while you act” while Bruce is more “make a foolproof plan before you act.”

They’re also very similar in a lot of ways. Here’s a list of some of the similarities between Helena and Bruce:

https://purpleladyofthenight.tumblr.com/post/92309423569/helena-bertinelli-bruce-wayne-parallels

I think Helena saw that they’re similar to some extent, but she also thought Bruce wasn’t doing enough or wasn’t effective enough so she thought herself to be very different from him. And the same thing goes for Bruce.

Despite popular belief, Bruce did see Helena’s potential and skills and he was also impressed with her development. He is the one who proposes that Helena should become a member of the Justice League.

DC One Million #4

He entrusts her with Gotham while he’s gone:

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #53

This next one is another important step in their relationship. It comes during NML after he fires Helena from being Batgirl.

Detective Comics #741

One of my favourite moments of them is from Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood:

Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood #5

Then we have Batman in during the Hush arc talking to himself about how good Helena is and how much she reminds him of himself:

Batman #609

And then again during Hush, he even admits to Catwoman that Helena is great.

Batman #618

We also have Batman praising Helena’s work during her run with the Birds of Prey. I think after this is when Batman and Huntress stopped being hostile to one another for good. Before this they would have moments where they would be good and work together and then they’d go right back to being wary of each other.

Birds of Prey #90

And just for a bonus panel:

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #14

Their relationship was frustrating at first and it was very bumpy as in it had a lot of ups and down, but in the end they ended up seeing each other as really close friends. However, throughout their relationship they both cared about each other a lot and it was often that we saw them fighting for each other even against dangerous enemies (like in Batman vs Predator). Batman always saw Helena as a very competent person and he was impressed with her skills and sometimes would even choose her intel over Oracle’s.

Batman #591

I really enjoy reading about them and I think their relationship had been developed extremely well. It’s probably one of the most complex relationships in DC comics.

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here’s some dinah bc twitter is broken and it’s pissing me off 😭😭🔥

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The Joker and Harley Quinn in Mad Love [3/?]

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KORIAND'R  &  VICTOR  IN  THE  NEW  TITANS  #65  (1990)

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Recent DinahBabs commission for @giraffe-lesbian that I’m really happy with how turned out!

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i really just love them a lot

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have i mentioned i like discowing

[id copied from alt text: a drawing of dick grayson from dc comics. his hair is parted to the side, in his discowing suit, the V open with visible chest hair. his head is slightly tipped down, with a grin. his arms are slightly out. the drawing is heavily weathered, as if taken from a comic page. /end id]

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dinahbabs shitpost

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megan thee stallion & sza as starfire !

messy icons !

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Starfire protecting Wonder Girl  ❀◕ ‿ ◕❀

New Teen Titans vol 2 #8