Helena Wayne (The New Golden Age)

Huntress

Possible Futures: The New Golden Age

Gallery

Real Name

Helena Wayne

Main Alias

Huntress

Relatives

Thomas Wayne (paternal grandfather, deceased) ·
Martha Wayne (paternal grandmother, deceased) ·
Bruce Wayne (father, deceased) ·
Selina Kyle (mother, deceased)

Affiliation

Justice Society (31st Century) ·
Formerly Infinity, Inc.,
Justice Society of America

Base Of Operations

31st Century · Formerly Gotham City, New York City

Status

Characteristics

Gender

Female

Eyes

Brown · Green · Blue

Hair

Black

Origin

Universe

The New Golden Age

Creators

Paul Levitz · Joe Staton · Bob Layton

First Appearance
Stargirl Spring Break Special #1 (July, 2021)

My name is Helena Wayne. I am the Batman's daughter. I am the Huntress. Whether my mom wants me to be or not.

— Helena Wayne ^src

Helena Wayne is the daughter of Batman and Catwoman from an averted future where her father was murdered as a result of the schemes of the time-traveling Per Degaton. She then joined the Infinity, Inc. and the Justice Society of America as the heroine known as the Huntress. As a temporal remnant of a future that is no longer possible, she exists as a living paradox on Earth 0.

History

Early Life

Isis the Cat Prime Earth 001 — Young Helena

In her timeline, Helena Wayne was conceived months after The Gotham War and born in 2024. Her mother was initially told by an unknown figure that Helena had to be hidden or else she would be targeted by the Orgham Family. Since her early childhood, Helena would constantly be chased by a mysterious figure that she called The Stranger, who would visit her from the distance before quickly disappearing. While planning to fight back against the Stranger, Helena found out that her father was Batman after accidentally stabbing him one night, she also learned about the different partners he had while fighting crime, who were no longer with him. After this revelation, Selina convinced Bruce to retire.^[1]

As a child, she frequently tried to convince her parents that the Stranger was real, but they didn't believe her, referring to him as a 'boogeyman' and chastising her.^[2]

Becoming a Hero

When she was seventeen, Helena learned from the Justice Society of America that her father had been murdered by a petty criminal named Bill Jensen, who had somehow gained immense mystical powers.^[1]^[3] Jensen died while killing Batman, but Helena learned that he got the power he needed to kill Batman from a sorcerer named Frederic Vaux. Helena swore vengeance on Vaux, hunted him down and killed him. Against her mother's wishes, she became a vigilante to carry on Batman's legacy.^[4] She adopted the identity of Huntress from her namesake Helena Bertinelli.^[5]

Justice Society

After eight years as a hero, Huntress joined the Justice Society. By this point many of the original members had retired and, unlike the Justice League, their legacies were not taken up by new heroes; leaving Helena, Power Girl and Doctor Fate as the only active members. Inspired by the second chance that her father gave her mother, Helena convinced Fate to let her recruit a new roster of former supervillains to allow them to reform their legacies, much to Power Girl's and ironically Selina's disapproval.

Fate mysteriously disappeared and was found dead two days later with his body stuffed in a sarcophagus, somehow mummified as if he had been there for thousands of years. When the JSA went to collect his body they were attacked by the Stranger, who was in fact the time manipulating villain Per Degaton. Degaton easily killed everyone but Helena and easily dodged when she tried to shoot him with her crossbow. He then attempted to rapidly age her to death, but Selina swung in to save her. She threw The Snowglobe containing the Flashpoint universe at Helena and told her to find Doctor Fate. The temporal energy stored within the snowglobe transported Helena to the JSA Brownstone in the year 1940.^[4]

Helena introduced herself to the original JSA and asked for their help. Kent Nelson attempted to peer into her timeline to determine if she was telling the truth, but the temporal energy she had absorbed from the snowglobe prevented him from doing so and he was temporarily transported to 1941. As his vision of Helena's timeline was blocked he asked Nabu to see the threat she spoke of. Together they both had a vision of Selina fighting Per Degaton in the future and letting him kill her rather than tell him where she had sent Helena. Another flare of energy burst from the snowglobe and Helena was transported forward in time to the present, where she found herself face to face with Deadman, Detective Chimp and a young Doctor Fate.^[2]

Khalid was able to look into Degaton's past and told Helena his backstory: that he was a Nazi scientist experimenting with time travel whose lab was attacked by Sgt. Rock and Easy Company in 1944. Degaton attempted to flee via his unproven time machine and was transported to 1947, after the Axis had been defeated, and has dogged the JSA through time ever since. She told them how the snowglobe had brought her into the past and Deadman suggested giving it to Madame Xanadu for study. He and Detective Chimp took the globe while Khalid took Helena to meet the JSA of 2022.

They told the JSA that Degaton was traveling back in time from the far future, murdering every generation of the JSA as he went. The group agreed to help her stop Degaton, but to their shock he teleported into the JSA's conference room.^[5] Just like when he fought her Justice Society, Degaton appeared to know in advance every move the JSA were going to make and had a countermeasure prepared. However, when Helena shot a crossbow bolt at him, he not only failed to dodge but it shot off his finger. Helena realised that Degaton had precognitive abilities but they did not work on her, as she was herself displaced in time; or on anyone who wore the Helmet of Fate, which was why he always killed Doctor Fate first. Khalid blasted Degaton and he disappeared. Madame Xanadu and the others arrived on the scene and told them that Degaton was a living paradox who could not be destroyed, and needed to be imprisoned before he could travel back in time again and kill the original JSA.

Helena slipped away while the others weren't looking and went to Gotham City. She found Batman and told him who she was, and that she had come from the future to save his life.^[6] Helena told Bruce everything that had happened but he just stared at her in silence; after a long pause, Helena hugged Bruce and told him she had missed him. Batman told Helena she should not have told him anything as she risked changing the future. The Justice Society and Madam Xanadu tracked them down, and told Helena that she had altered the timeline and erased her own existence, and was only being preserved by the Snowglobe.

They were attacked by multiple versions of Degaton from various points in his life, as his power had increased to allow him to coexist across his own timeline. Nassour was able to take the Snowglobe and used it to bring the original Justice Society, Helena's team and the Justice Society of the 31st Century to the present to join the fight. The three Doctor Fates were able to trap the immortal Degaton inside the Flashpoint timeline in the Snowglobe. and the other temporally displaced JSA members all returned to their home eras, but Helena did not. Xanadu and the JSA told Helena that she had erased her own timeline and was now a living paradox, and could never return home as there was no home for her to return to.^[3]

Bruce kept Helena at arm's length, setting her up in a penthouse he owned in New York City rather than allowing her to stay in Gotham and giving her the cover story of being his cousin rather than daughter- though he offered to revise the arrangement and have her come to Gotham. She rejected the offer, knowing that, if the current iteration of the timeline was anything like her own, Bruce and Catwoman were about to have something of a major disagreement.

Feeling somewhat tacitly rejected by her family she decided to work with the modern Justice Society. She told the present-day Power Girl how they had assembled a team of people seeking redemption in the future and suggested they do so in the present, starting with Solomon Grundy.^[7] Helena, her father, Green Lantern, Stargirl, Doctor Fate and Kent Nelson's former sidekick Salem the Witch Girl went to Slaughter Swamp to try and recruit Grundy. However, they found him in a feral state and he attacked them. Salem attempted to temporarily lift Grundy's curse and restore him to human form where he could be reasoned with, but the spell went awry and she instead incinerated him to death. Helena was furious but Salem barely seemed to care, even quipping that it was Saturday.^[8]

After failing to recruit Solomon Grundy, Helena suggested that they recruit Ruby Sokov, the daughter of the Golden Age Red Lantern, who was a member of her team in the future. Alan and Helena debated over the fate of the Red Lantern and whether or not Ruby should be recruited to join the JSA as she had murdered people. Ultimately, Alan went to Moscow to see Ruby for himself. Against his better judgement, he took her back to America with him to meet Helena. In the meantime, Helena told Stargirl and the Flash about how Kyle Knight will become the Mist, so it's best to talk to him now; however Stargirl replied that Kyle was only five years old in the present day. Helena then suggested recruiting Gentleman Ghost instead. Jay said that he believed Helena had witnessed the potential for reformation in the future, but Helena cut him off, mentioning that she also witnessed them all die; she blamed herself for their deaths and said that recruiting them for the JSA isn't only their second chance, but hers as well. Helena told Salem that she wasn't giving up on Solomon Grundy, before being interrupted by Stargirl who had news about the Harlequin's Son.^[9]

Huntress sent Power Girl along with a few other team members to recruit the Harlequin's Son for the Justice Society, while she talked to Ruby. Harlequin's Son refused the offer, choosing to stall Power Girl and the JSA with illusions while he escaped. The Legionnaire stopped the Harlequin's Son, before stating that he would like to join the Justice Society of America. Back at the JSA Brownstone, Power Girl told Helena and Green Lantern about the new problem that popped up regarding the Legionnaire. Helena asked who he was, Mister Terrific told her and the rest of the team that there were records of him having some adventures in the early Golden Age and then disappearing without a trace. The Legionnaire told the JSA about how the Legion of Super-Heroes and other teams would never give him a chance to join, including the JSA in most eras. However, due to the current Justice Society being the era of second chances because of Helena being an anomaly, she and the JSA were the only ones who could change the Legionnaire's future, revealing that he was Mordru.^[10]

Many in the JSA did not trust Mordru, but allowed him to join on a provisional basis. A few weeks later, as the JSA were attempting to capture Gentleman Ghost, Icicle destroyed a magic orb which Craddock was carrying. The orb turned out to contain the demon Surtur, who would bring about Ragnarok if he was not stopped. Mordru drained Hawkman's life energy, killing him, and channeled it into Craddock. This restored Craddock to life and, as his ghostly form was Surtur's "anchor" to Earth, instantly banished Surtur and the army of zombies which Gentleman Ghost had summoned. Hawkman quickly returned to life, but the JSA were horrified by Mordru's actions, as well as his seeming inability to understand that what he had done was wrong.

At a team meeting directly afterwards, Hawkman angrily demanded that Mordru be kicked off the team immediately. He told them that, although he had returned to life, dying was still extremely traumatic for him as he not only relived all his prior deaths, but also every time he watched Hawkwoman die. The JSA took a vote on Mordru's continuing membership and, while they were deliberating, Helena attempted to counsel him. Mordru insisted that he had had no other choice, and she tried to make him understand that casually killing people was deeply disturbing, even if they came back to life again. The JSA narrowly voted to let Mordru stay, but as soon as they did the Legion of Super-Heroes teleported in from the future and demanded that they hand Mordru over.^[11]

The two teams fought until Nassour also appeared from the future, accompanied by the Legion of Substitute Heroes. He revealed that Eclipso was among them, and had used his powers to manipulate the two sides into violence so he could take over all their minds. Eclipso revealed himself, ripping his way out of Wildcat. Eclipso took control of most of them with the Heart of Darkness, but Huntress and Mordru were able to resist long enough to shoot the Heart with an enchanted arrow. The diamond shattered, restoring Wildcat and trapping Eclipso inside when it reformed.

Rainbow Girl suggested that Mordru return to the future with them, so the Legion could continue to see that he was on the right path; and invited Helena to come too due to her own temporal displacement. They agreed and travelled to the 31st Century, where they joined that century's Justice Society.^[12]

Powers and Abilities

Abilities

Acrobatics^[4]
Firearms^[4]: Huntress is an expert with her trademark crossbow.
Music^[1]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Batrope^[5]
The Snowglobe: (Formerly) Huntress received the snowglobe when her mother threw it to her so she could escape Per Degaton and save the JSA.^[4] It was later taken by Doctor Fate.^[3]

Weapons

Huntress' Crossbow^[4]

Notes

Huntress was created by Paul Levitz, Joe Staton, and Bob Layton, first appearing in All-Star Comics #69. However, in the Prime Earth continuity, Huntress first appeared as part of the New 52 DC Universe in Stargirl Spring Break Special #1 by Geoff Johns and Bryan Hitch.

Helena Wayne (The New Golden Age)

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