The Huntress must go!

It's time for the Huntress to go.

Originally, as most you probably already know, the Huntress was an Earth-2 character, Helena Wayne, daughter of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. I remember buying the comic in which she was introduced (DC Super-Stars 17) in 1977.

She got a little play over the next nine years, but, like most Earth-2ers, was seen only in occasional crossover stories until being killed in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Despite several post-Crisis attempts to give her new history and raison d'etre, it hasn't seemed to take. I like the original Huntress and I'm tired of seeing her namesake trotted out repeatedly as cannon fodder/loose cannon.

On Earth-2, her best friend was Power Girl, and it's ironic that Power Girl seems to remain popular no matter how she's drawn or what her origin of the week is (Who cares? It's Power Girl!), while Huntress, despite the repeated efforts of good writers and cheesy costumers, doesn't seem to catch the popular imagination. At least, not mine.

Characters often flounder when cut off from their original purpose or context. The Huntress was created to be Batman and Catwoman's daughter. Once she couldn't be that any more, it's been hard for her to find a place. It's certainly not with the Bat-family, where she's been treated like a red-headed stepchild from day one.

She was used, after a fashion, to fill the "Batwoman gap", but the fit was awkward and most readers today don't even remember her heroic role in No Man's Land. And that role is pretty much filled already now ... by Batwoman.

So I say enough is enough. It's time for Huntress to go.


To Star City.

Huntress needs to become part of the "Arrow Family".

Post-Crisis, Huntress has worked best (like many characters) in her role on the JLU series, where she and the Question were friends with Green Arrow and Black Canary (the other "caped couple").

She's a lot like Green Arrow; wealthy background but still considers herself a "woman of the people", rebellious against authority, shoots people with pointy things. Face it, shooting people with a crossbow looks pretty darned out of place in Gotham, but in Star City it's an hourly occurence.

And before one 0f you writes back to say, "But that's why I like her, she stands out so much from the other Batcharacters"... . That's fine, but she's pretty much banished/vanished from all the Batbooks, so rather than letting her go to waste or continually using her as a negative example, I'd rather see her go see somewhere her style fits in.

Besides, I want to see how Helena would deal with a real "woman of the people" like Mia. Or grapple with Ollie's decision to "fight the system" from within. Her possible interplay with Roy and Connor I leave to your imagination. I think putting her in Star City is just the thing the character needs, and a welcome expansion of the Green Arrow Dynasty.

Just don't change her name to "Miss Arrowette".