Huntress (Helena Wayne)

Huntress
Helena Wayne as Huntress in Huntress vol. 3, #4 (March 2012); art by Marcus To.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	DC Super Stars #17 (November/December 1977)
Created by	Paul Levitz Joe Staton Joe Orlando Bob Layton
In-story information
Full name	Helena Wayne
Place of origin	Earth-Two
Team affiliations	Infinity, Inc. Justice Society of America
Partnerships	Power Girl Batman (Earth-Two) Robin (Earth-Two)
Notable aliases	Robin, Helena Bertinelli
Abilities	Highly skilled athlete and martial artist.

The Bronze Age Huntress, also known as Helena Wayne, was the daughter of the Batman and Catwoman of an alternate universe established in the early 1960s (Multiverse) where the Golden Age stories took place.

The Huntress was created as a response to All Star Comics inker Bob Layton's suggestion that a revamped Earth-Two Batgirl be added to the lineup of the Justice Society of America.Penciller Joe Staton recounted how the character was designed:

After Paul [Levitz, All Star Comics writer] had described the origin to me, I worked up sketches combining elements of Catwoman and Batman, and went in see Joe [Orlando, editor]. The short version is that Joe and I had a fine meeting, featuring Vinnie Colletta in his role as art director snoring away at full volume on the couch in the back of the room. Joe touched up the bat-elements in my original sketch, particularly the cape, giving it the scallops, and he made the belt emblem a bit more bat-like. Joe opened up his sketchpad and used my sketch as the main element in the cover design for DC Super-Stars, and I went home to pencil the final cover.

Staton also admitted that the character's costume was heavily inspired by the Black Cat. Helena's first appearance was in DC Super Stars #17 (November/December 1977), which told her origin, and then All Star Comics #69 (December 1977), which came out the same day, and revealed her existence to the Justice Society of America. She appeared in Batman Family #17-20 when it expanded into the Dollar Comics format for its last few issues. The bulk of her solo stories appeared as backup features in issues of Wonder Woman beginning with issue #271 (September 1980). These stories, almost all of which were written by Levitz and pencilled by Staton, tended to a noir style, with the Huntress typically combating street level crime rather than costumed supervillains.