What Happened To Everyone Who Joined The Birds Of Prey?

13. Huntress

Penguin Birds of Prey
DC Comics

When you have a Birds of Prey story, you can count on three characters making at least a minor appearance and having some role to play in the story: Barbara Gordon, Black Canary, and Huntress.

Considered the violent wild card of the team, Huntress' history is... weird. She technically started off life as the daughter of Batman and Catwoman from another universe, named Helena Wayne. But until that version found a way into our universe, the Huntress of the mainline DC universe (and the one most often associated with the Birds) is Helena Bertinelli, schoolteacher and daughter of an Italian Mafia Don.

Huntress is the one you call in when you just need a problem to go away, preferably violently, and in multiple pieces. She DOES know the meaning of the word "subtlety", but seemingly for the sole purpose of knowing what tactical concept she's raucously defying when she's driving her motorcycle through a window and shooting up everyone inside.

The biggest change to the Birds of Prey's Huntress after the New 52 is basically just giving her darker skin. Which is fair enough, since not only does it add much needed diversity to the team, it also further separates her from the original Huntress, who, while no longer in the main universe, still comes up from time to time. And considering that they both had the same name, alias, costume, and skin color, it makes sense to change a few of those aspects to cement Helena as her own character.

Contributor
Contributor

John Tibbetts is a novelist in theory, a Whatculture contributor in practice, and a nerd all around who loves talking about movies, TV, anime, and video games more than he loves breathing. Which might be a problem in the long term, but eh, who can think that far ahead?