Who's This? Batman's daughter.
The facts: The Earth-2 Batman and Catwoman's daughter, Helena Wayne first appeared in DC Super Stars #17 (Nov-Dec 1977) and was created by Paul Levitz and Joe Staton as a response to All-Star Comics inker Bob Layton's suggestion that an Earth-2 Batgirl be introduced in that series. The name was borrowed from the Wildcat villainess (see last week's Who's This?). She would go on to have her own solo feature in Batman Family (#17-20) and a back-up in Wonder Woman (starting with issue 271). Crisis on Infinite Earth erased her parents and therefore herself, and she was replaced in continuity by Helena Bertinelli, whose completely different origin gave her story legs, but we'll stick to the original Huntress here. The New52 did restore Helena Wayne and featured her in both Earth 2 and World's Finest (co-starring with Power Girl). In current continuity, a new Helena Wayne was introduced by Geoff Johns in The New Golden Age and his 2023 JSA series, this one from a future where Batman and Catwoman had a kid. By the end, she becomes part of a 31st-Century JSA.
How you could have heard of her: Aside from recent comics, a metahuman version of this Huntress was part of the television Birds of Prey (as Helena Kyle), and appeared in the CW Crisis on Infinite Earths. For
older nerds, she appeared in Legends of the Superheroes as well.
Example story: Wonder Woman #281-283 (July-September 1981) by Paul Levitz, Joe Staton and Steve Mitchell
So take the JSA out of it, what do the original heroic Huntress' adventures look like? The following three-parter has her going up against the Earth-2 Joker, so that makes it seem like she's taking Batman's place in Earth-2 Gotham. Not far off. The cops respect her and she definitely a detective, though perhaps a more fragile one than her old man, sporting a sprained arm from a previous issue. They even call her a "bat".
Arm in a sling or not, she's jumping out of windows and vowing to live up to her name... and hunt down the escaped Joker! Of course, she does have to cater to her secret identity as the junior partner at Cranston, Grayson and Wayne (a law firm where she and Dick apparently both work, as does Charley Bullock - no relation - the original Blackwing!). But it's a fleeting thing. As night arrives, one might wonder if Catwoman is actually in her DNA, too, and I dare say scenes like this certainly seem to say so ->
Honestly, I don't know if there's a DC character in whose bedroom we've spent more time than Catwoman. Staton puts Huntress is various states of undress throughout the issue, so if you thought Earth-2 was somehow more prudish on account of its origins, you were wrong. As Helena Wayne, she makes a late-night visit to the Commissioner's office (he's got poor work/life balance, too), just in time to see him tagged with Joker venom just like the D.A. (the previous victim). At least it's not the kind that kills you outright. And the Huntress jumps into action and has a good chance of catching the Joker thanks to her extremely specific knowledge of the police HQ neighborhood. He almost gets her instead, and she makes a dramatic move:
Rich kids, amiright? Fine, you don't want to use the non-lethal crossbow bolts on him, but do you need to destroy your weapon? I guess she might not need it, the way she handles a drug dealer in the next chapter.
She has other assets, and great precision. With pills popping out of his pocket, doesn't take long for the cops to bring him in. But he wasn't part of the pipeline the Joker is using to manufacture his venom. The trail has gone cold. Helena returns to Wayne Manor, for the first time since her father's death. And of course, to the Bat-Cave. No doubt this explains the news reports soon coming through that the Batman has been seen swinging around Gotham in the past few hours. The Joker knew it, his nemesis couldn't be dead. Consider yourself lured, Clown Prince.
They fight - nothing here that's so extreme, a crossbow would be amiss - and suddenly, the Batman appears! Huntress is just as mystified at the apparition, but she knows it's her shot.
Batman's ghost vanishes before she can talk to it. She finds Joker venom of the villain's pockets, enough to make an anti-toxin and save Gotham's law enforcement gents. In epilogue, Helena finds her stepbrother Dick Grayson in her apartment and figures he was the faux-Batman.
And the adventure continues... The back-up was heavily serialized and from other issues I've read, not always so attached to the Batman mythos. Good thing, but if you're never going to play around with the Batman Family of characters, what would be the point of telling stories about Batman's daughter? And so, we have stories like this where Helena faces off against what she considered a boogeyman of her youth and triumphing. From these three chapters, though, it looks like she really needs to invest in her secret identity more. Her absences are causing a small mutiny there...
Who's Next? A former monarch of Thanagar.
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