The Huntress #1

History

Writer Joey Cavalieri — who had previously scripted the Helena Wayne version of the Huntress in a Wonder Woman backup feature — co-created Helena Bertinelli alongside artist Joe Staton, who brought particular continuity to the project: Staton had been the co-creator and longtime penciler of the Helena Wayne incarnation alongside Paul Levitz, and recalled that DC editorial, under Paul Levitz's influence, saw him as a natural fit for any reworking of the character after Crisis abruptly cut his earlier run short. The series emerged as part of DC's broad post-Crisis character overhaul wave, roughly contemporaneous with reimaginings of Green Lantern, Hawkman, and others, and it situated Helena Bertinelli specifically without any inherited connection to Batman or Catwoman — a clean-slate Mafia survivor whose vendetta against organized crime gave DC a grittier, more street-level Gotham voice. The issue's credited creative team further included inkers Dick Giordano and Bruce D. Patterson, colorist Nansi Hoolahan, and editors Kevin Dooley and Andrew Helfer.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance and full origin of Helena Bertinelli as the Huntress (Huntress II in DC continuity), cover-dated April 1989; the issue shipped to retailers February 16, 1989.
• Written by Joey Cavalieri with pencils by Joe Staton; inks by Dick Giordano and Bruce D. Patterson; colors by Nansi Hoolahan; edited by Kevin Dooley and Andrew Helfer.
• First appearance of Omerta the Silencer, whose secret identity is Donald Campbell, one of Guido Bertinelli's lawyers — he appears in flashback as the masked assassin who wipes out the Bertinelli family during a dinner party.
• First appearance of Tony Angelo, Helena's bodyguard (and, per the DCU Guide, the son of mob figure 'Fat' Angelo), who trains Helena in martial arts and exotic weaponry after her family's murder.
• The issue's single 22-page story is titled 'Code of Silence' and uses a framing device: Helena, already operating as the Huntress, rescues a woman named Helena Karabatsos from a mugger, which triggers her recollection of her own origins in flashback.
• Helena Bertinelli is depicted here as born into the Bertinelli crime family of New York City; as a child she is kidnapped by a rival mob figure, and her parents Guido and Carmela are later murdered by Omerta on orders from the criminal underworld.
• Helena Bertinelli is the third DC character to hold the Huntress name — preceded by Golden Age villainess Paula Brooks (Sensation Comics #68, 1947) and Helena Wayne, the Earth-2 daughter of Batman and Catwoman (All-Star Comics #69, 1977).
• The solo series ran for 19 issues before cancellation (April 1989 – October 1990), but the character sustained her profile through Batman-family guest appearances, the Birds of Prey ongoing series, and extensive adaptations in animation (Justice League Unlimited, Batman: The Brave and the Bold) and film (Birds of Prey, 2020).

Cast · 4 characters

Full credits

Key issues in The Huntress

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#9 1st appearance — James Cooper

Variants (1)