trackingthehuntress - Tumblr blog

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"I am no longer their quarry. I am... The Huntress"

Reference under the cut

The panel redraw is of the last page of Huntress (1989) #1

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huntress hold emotes!! the base is courtesy of @deven895!!

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just finished huntress 1989. is this anything. pt. 2

miss sohee f/w 2021

um after i finished i was like “it’d look so good if i drew a crossbow in her hand” and then im like “does she even use one in this run” and then i skimmed through every issue and also i asked ireth and ireth like looked through all the issues and found one (1) single mentioned but im too tired to draw it now so whatever

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just finished huntress 1989. is this anything.

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You just know helena must have gone through SO MUCH hairspray and hair gel

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reread Lazarus planet: dark fate’s huntress story tonight. One reeeally interesting thing to me was one of the logos used:

Does that look familiar to you? It is not the much more commonly used logo for her (in which the T of huntress is stylized as a dagger) seen in such places as cry for blood:

This logo is as far as I can tell the much more prominent one, it started being used first for Helena Bertinelli in the nineties, seen in Huntress (1994), Huntress/Spoiler: Blunt Trauma, and into the 2000s with cry for blood and huntress year one. It is such an iconic logo that they even used it for Helena wayne in the huntress (2011).

however this is not the logo design they chose. What they went with is pretty recognizable as being the title design seen in only one series, to my knowledge and memory:

The Huntress (1989). I can even find an issue where the coloring is pretty similar

So yes, instead of the widely more prominent dagger T logo (which I do find quite nice myself), they went with the one that is from her first series. The question then obviously becomes, was this intentional, or did they just pick the logo at random? If intentional, then why? When rereading I was actually struck by how little it felt like the Helena of 1989 - in dark fate she sets herself as above everyone, above criminals and civilians alike, whereas 1989 spends half its time immersing Helena in a rich cast of civilians, with the tension between her as Helena and her as huntress is a main thoroughline of the book. that is to say, her seeing herself as just as vulnerable as anyone is extremely prominent in 1989 and unlike the way she sees herself in dark fate. Her religion/Catholicism is also barely ever mentioned in 1989, much less prominent than the way it is at the forefront of dark fate’s internal monologue.

all in all, the story itself did not seem to have a clear connection to 1989, and remember, the huntress (1989) has never been reprinted, so it’s not like it is a famous series. dc is not likely trying to associate this story with it due to its prominence, because it is not prominent. it’s the origin of helena bertinelli, but most versions of her would take origin notes from something like cry for blood. Why the use of the logo here?

[trackingthehuntress]

2023 reading list: Huntress (1989)

"I've got to be bigger than the pain. Bigger than life. Bigger than whatever they can throw, shoot, fire, or punch at me."

[trackingthehuntress]

Would love to hear your thoughts in the tags/comments :)

[trackingthehuntress]

Shadow of the Huntress

IMAGE ID: A copic marker illustration of Helena Bertinelli in the costume from her 80s solo. She is an Afro-Sicillian young woman, as of the New52, with her hair in braids. She sits on a rooftop with her arms reaching out, hands on her thighs, in front of a cityscape with dramatic perspective. END ID.

[trackingthehuntress]

you want to stan helena so bad it makes you look stupid

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a little helena doodle bc im thinking of picking up her comics, if anybody has a recommendation pls tell me 🙏

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what is so good about huntress 1989!

EVERYTHING.

Ok anon but seriously. It handles serious topics such as crime and csa, it isn't afraid to be opinionated, and Helena is written amazingly.

There are so many beautiful themes within Huntress 1989 and I think one really good one is Helena and weakness. See the reason she calls herself Huntress is because she was hunted all her life. She feels weak, she feels powerless, and she had been in a petty powerless position most of the time. Huntress is her taking that power back for herself, it is her hunting the ones used to being the hunters.

She is unbelievable strong but she isn't afraid to admit to herself that she is weak! She goes to therapy in this book!

And that is just one example. Another one prominent theme in Huntress 1989 is her beautiful and complex relationship with killing (I have a full analysis of that in the drafts), her strong moral compass and her willingness to protect (especially those who need it, she is also really protective over women and children it is amazing) and the ongoing theme of family in Helena's life.

It is soooo well written and heart wrenching and augh. Helena is the character ever actually.

[trackingthehuntress]

Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood / Justice League International (1987)

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If you read her comics out of chronological order, it’s the height of unintentional comedy that Helena Bertinelli witnessed someone going out as a vigilante inspired by the huntress and had complicated feelings about whether or not she was responsible for their actions and if this person was a facet of her legacy, but like, she just went to therapy about it. gee I wonder who should have considered doing this. or who should have maybe stepped back and been self aware enough to reflect on their hypocrisy. this doesn’t remind me of anyone or any situation that might be in your future helena. she should get to murder bruce as a treat I think

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you just get this post <3 real and true

I don’t think I could ever really pick a favorite thing about Helena, but something I think I’ve loved since the beginning of my love for her, - starting with cry for blood and going on to reading her other stuff - something I love is that she’s not really ever a character who gets fixed. Basically all of her connections in the heroism community (except for like. Dinah and Renee) have at one point or another viewed her as a problem, as someone who needs their solution, as someone who needs to be managed or manipulated. So many other characters look at her and see something that needs to be controlled, and at times the individual comics’ narratives agree with this and uphold it. But when you look at the whole of her character history, you see someone who never has the exact answer, who is never sure if she is actually a hero or still that scared little girl whose family was murdered. She’s always throwing away her costume only to pick it up again a few days later. She isn’t static, but her problems run deeper than ones that can be given a simple fix.

where was I? Oh right - she’s not a character who gets fixed. Because every person who thinks they can fix her, or control her, or agrees with people who try, or anything like that? It fails, in any way that matters. Think about max lord, think about batman, think about nightwing, think about oracle. Even if their plans succeeded in the short term, did they have any lasting effect on her or who she is? No - they all ended badly for someone, and only someone who recognized the harm of treating someone like this and apologized was able to get anywhere close to a healthy, meaningful relationship with Helena (that would be Barbara, by the way). So the thing that i love is that even when the people around her are all trying to shove her into a box and then fix the person they’ve imagined her to be, she is allowed to exist as this multifaceted person who has failures and flaws and struggles yes, but ones outside of the two dimensional person the people around her see her as.

[trackingthehuntress]

Real and true, his appearances in huntress 1989 17-19 cement him as a founding member whose absence is felt as much as his presence. note that he is NOT a member in good standing as he voted against james’ admission and how could you vote against james

I don’t think I could ever really pick a favorite thing about Helena, but something I think I’ve loved since the beginning of my love for her, - starting with cry for blood and going on to reading her other stuff - something I love is that she’s not really ever a character who gets fixed. Basically all of her connections in the heroism community (except for like. Dinah and Renee) have at one point or another viewed her as a problem, as someone who needs their solution, as someone who needs to be managed or manipulated. So many other characters look at her and see something that needs to be controlled, and at times the individual comics’ narratives agree with this and uphold it. But when you look at the whole of her character history, you see someone who never has the exact answer, who is never sure if she is actually a hero or still that scared little girl whose family was murdered. She’s always throwing away her costume only to pick it up again a few days later. She isn’t static, but her problems run deeper than ones that can be given a simple fix.

where was I? Oh right - she’s not a character who gets fixed. Because every person who thinks they can fix her, or control her, or agrees with people who try, or anything like that? It fails, in any way that matters. Think about max lord, think about batman, think about nightwing, think about oracle. Even if their plans succeeded in the short term, did they have any lasting effect on her or who she is? No - they all ended badly for someone, and only someone who recognized the harm of treating someone like this and apologized was able to get anywhere close to a healthy, meaningful relationship with Helena (that would be Barbara, by the way). So the thing that i love is that even when the people around her are all trying to shove her into a box and then fix the person they’ve imagined her to be, she is allowed to exist as this multifaceted person who has failures and flaws and struggles yes, but ones outside of the two dimensional person the people around her see her as.

[trackingthehuntress]

shout out to the waterfront warrior, world’s only ethical landlord