Crisis on Infinite Earths Trilogy Redeems a Controversial Death From the Comics

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Three ended the Tomorrowverse with only 10 movies, presumably setting up the next phase of stories in the DC Animated Movie Universe (DCAMU). Based on Marv Wolfman’s and George Pérez’s 1985 event comic Crisis on Infinite Earths, the DC Multiverse heroes similarly find themselves in a losing battle against the Anti-Monitor, a god-like being whose sole purpose for existing is to destroy the multiverse. The original event comic that inspired the movie trilogy changed DC Comics forever by not only killing off fan-favorite characters, but also by merging the DC Multiverse into a single universe to simplify continuity. While this may have sounded good on paper, in execution, the Crisis reboot did more to break DC continuity than it actually fixed.

One thing the Crisis reboot unwittingly proved was the necessity of the DC Multiverse as a means of simplifying continuity, namely by keeping DC’s Golden Age and Silver Age canons separate. Likewise, the DC Multiverse preserved the canons of intellectual properties DC acquired from defunct publishers. By merging all of these conflicting canons into a single timeline, this predictably created many continuity holes that forced DC to do periodic reboots and retcons in an effort to fix them. One DC heroine that exemplified all the inherent problems with the Crisis reboot was The Huntress. Not only was her Crisis death and subsequent re-imaginings highly controversial throughout her history, but the Crisis movie adaptation also showed how these problems could’ve been easily avoided had the original comic done one thing differently.

Who Was The Huntress Before 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths?

The Huntress was originally created in 1977 as Helena Wayne, the daughter of the Golden Age versions of Batman and Catwoman that were published between 1939 and 1955. With Earth-2 designated as DC’s Golden Age Universe, this meant the original versions of Superman (from 1938), Wonder Woman (from 1941), the Justice Society of America and the Seven Soldiers of Victory were also residents of this world. One thing that made Earth-2 stand out from DC’s Silver Age Universe (designated Earth-1) was that it didn’t exist on a sliding timeline. This meant DC’s Golden Age heroes aged in real time, married and had children, allowing the publisher to meaningfully explore generational legacy.

Part of this initiative entailed recruiting a younger generation of heroes to the Justice Society to fight alongside their older predecessors from the 1940s. The Huntress was one of the earlier recruits to the team in the late 1970s, alongside Power Girl, Robin, and Star-Spangled Kid. As a member of the Justice Society, The Huntress served as the team’s detective, especially since Robin (aka Dick Grayson) rarely fought alongside the team due to his work as a diplomat abroad. It was also as a member of the Justice Society that The Huntress met her best friend, Power Girl (aka Kara Zor-L/Karen Starr), and later got to meet and work alongside the Earth-1 version of her father during DC’s annual Justice League and Justice Society crossovers.

Outside the Justice Society, Helena Wayne worked a day job as a public interest lawyer in Gotham at the Cranston, Grayson and Wayne law firm, in which she was a junior partner. She was even in a romantic (if rocky) relationship with Gotham’s District Attorney, Harry Sims. Despite already dispensing justice in the courtroom, Helena Wayne preferred to carry it out on the streets as The Huntress, which she didn’t do openly until both of her parents passed away. As Gotham’s newest protector, The Huntress continued her father’s work of capturing dangerous criminals, including some of her parents’ old enemies, like The Joker. Helena Wayne proved to be a highly efficient crime fighter to the point of drawing the attention of a jealous reporter named Nedra Borrower, who sought to hurt The Huntress’ reputation in the news media.

By the mid-1980s, Helena Wayne proved successful enough with fans for DC to initiate plans for a Huntress ongoing title. While that was in the works, The Huntress featured prominently in the first 12 issues of 1984’s Infinity, Inc., in which she co-founded the titular team alongside Power Girl, Star-Spangled Kid, and the adult children of the Justice Society heroes. Her last major story before Crisis on Infinite Earths was 1985’s America vs. the Justice Society. In this story, Helena Wayne served as the Justice Society’s legal counsel after her father posthumously accused the elderly heroes of being war criminals during World War II. This later proved to be Batman’s convoluted plot to expose Per Degaton as a time-traveling fascist to the world at large.

By the time The Huntress appeared in Crisis on Infinite Earths, she was not originally planned to be killed off in the event, since Earth-2 was originally meant to survive Crisis alongside Earth-1. Unfortunately, it was decided somewhat at the last minute to merge all the Earths into one, which meant the loss of Earth-2. This then led to the decision to erase the Golden Age Batman and Catwoman from canon, along with their daughter. The Huntress’ erasure was thus depicted in Crisis on Infinite Earths #11, followed by her death in issue #12. The Huntress’ death was subsequently confirmed in The Last Days of the Justice Society, and was taken off the table for three years until DC reworked her for the post-Crisis continuity in 1989’s The Huntress.

Why The Huntress’ Death in Crisis on Infinite Earths Is Controversial

Part of the controversy surrounding The Huntress’ death in Crisis on Infinite Earths is the fact that it took Helena Wayne off the table for two decades despite being popular with DC fans. The character has also not recovered from her Crisis death, even four decades later. More specifically, since Crisis, DC has consistently struggled to figure out how to reintegrate her into the main DC Universe without having to change Batman and Catwoman’s more profitable status quo. As such, every attempt to make The Huntress functional in the main DC canon has resulted in radical re-imaginings of the character’s concept. This is also the reason the character’s branding and core mythology has become more convoluted over time.

Immediately after Crisis, the first solution DC came up with to re-integrate Helena Wayne into the new DC Universe was to re-imagine her as Helena Bertinelli, the sole survivor of a slain crime family. At first, this seemed like a workable compromise. By re-imagining Helena Wayne as the daughter of a murdered mafia boss, this preserved The Huntress’ original concept as a female Batman. In the same way that Helena Wayne’s parents were killed by criminals who wanted revenge against them, Helena Bertinelli’s parents were also killed by a rival crime family. The only problem that came out of this re-imagining of The Huntress, however, is that nothing else about the original Huntress remained intact.

For instance, Helena Wayne was a lawyer in the pre-Crisis continuity, but after Crisis, Helena Bertinelli was re-imagined as a school teacher. Similarly, Helena Wayne was a second generation Justice Society hero and a cofounder of Infinity, Inc., but Helena Bertinelli was completely severed from both teams. Helena Wayne was also Power Girl’s best friend pre-Crisis, but the two women became complete strangers to each other post-Crisis. Lastly, Helena Wayne had loving relationships with her own father on Earth-2 and his Earth-1 counterpart, but Helena Bertinelli had a largely antagonistic relationship with Batman, leaving her in a place of pining for his approval.

To top things off, Helena Bertinelli’s personality was presented as more extreme than Helena Wayne’s, namely in that she was depicted as being angrier, much more violent, and having fewer reservations about killing than her pre-Crisis counterpart. Given these significant changes to The Huntress, Helena Bertinelli was understandably a controversial character with Helena Wayne fans, and has been largely treated as a different character. But The Huntress’ troubles that started with 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot don’t end there.

How DC’s New 52 Compounded the Problem With The Huntress’ Erasure

Despite a new version of the pre-Crisis Huntress being created between 2006’s Infinite Crisis and 2007’s 52, DC didn’t stick with this version for very long. Following the Flashpoint reboot of 2011, the post-Crisis Helena Bertinelli was retconned back into Helena Wayne. However, she still wasn’t the original pre-Crisis Huntress. Instead, this was a brand-new Helena Wayne that originated on a new version of Earth-2 for The New 52 continuity. But just like with post-Crisis, this retcon proved highly controversial among Huntress fans across the board. Pre-Crisis Huntress fans didn’t like the idea of Helena Wayne having the same personality flaws as the post-Crisis Helena Bertinelli. Likewise, Helena Bertinelli fans disliked seeing her entire character and history reduced to being nothing more than a stolen identity used by Helena Wayne in the main DCU.

While DC did eventually go on to create a new version of Helena Bertinelli to replace the post-Crisis version, she too was radically changed from her post-Crisis incarnation. Whereas the post-Crisis Bertinelli was a clone of Helena Wayne in terms of physical appearance, for The New 52 continuity, she was re-imagined as biracial, and was now presented as having predominantly Black features. She was also re-imagined as an agent of Spyral before later taking up the Huntress identity after the Earth-2 Helena Wayne returned to her native Earth. But even with Bertinelli back to operating as the Huntress, her own history is still wildly inconsistent and amorphous in the current DC continuity.

Further compounding the Huntress’ problem that started with her erasure in 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths is that, in 2022, DC created yet another new version of Helena Wayne to replace her pre-Crisis predecessor. However, instead of originating on Earth-2 like her pre-Crisis and New 52 counterparts, the current version of Helena Wayne is now the time-displaced daughter of the main DCU’s Batman and Catwoman from an erased future. While some fans are excited to finally have a version of Helena Wayne who is native to Prime Earth, this version of the character is still being met with controversy among DC fans. In this case, some Helena Wayne fans are unable to connect with this new version due to lacking many of the groundbreaking qualities of her pre-Crisis predecessor. In other cases, fans find the writing for her character lacking.

Without the original developments that made Helena Wayne a beloved character in the Bronze Age, some fans feel the Future Huntress has little going for her in terms of character development and strong story potential in the current continuity. As such, she’s seen by some as a disappointing replacement for the conceptually superior pre-Crisis Huntress. Among Batman fans, the Future Huntress has also seen her fair share of controversy due to a fear that she’ll someday replace their immediate fave in the Batfamily. The latter is not an unfounded fear given DC’s unfortunate history with erasing women from the Batfamily, while never subjecting any of the male Robins to erasure. While Helena Wayne’s controversial status quo could still change for the better in DC’s upcoming All-In initiative, for now, that remains to be seen.

How the Crisis Movie Trilogy Avoided the Comics’ Mistake With The Huntress

While it’s inarguable that The Huntress has become a convoluted character in the comics as a consequence of 1985’s Crisis reboot, fortunately, the animated movie adaptation avoided the same problem with this crucial change: Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Three ended its story with the creation of a new Earth and all the heroes being reborn as part of one timeline. This is also the way Marv Wolfman originally wanted to end Crisis. While Helena Wayne wasn’t given the space to be developed as a character in the Tomorrowverse the way she was in the Bronze Age of Comics, she was still given a prominent role in the movie trilogy to emphasize her importance to both Batman and the larger DC mythology.

The recurring theme with The Huntress in the Crisis movies is that she embodies the happiness Bruce Wayne could have if he opens himself to others. He’s already in love with Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman) in the Tomorrowverse, but still keeps her at a distance. The Huntress makes the point towards the end of Crisis Part Three that, “Love is beyond experience. That’s why a jewel thief can marry a vigilante.” Not only is this consistent with the character’s original history in the comics, but it gives the Tomorrowverse Batman the hope he needs to be a better person in his next life despite his reservations surrounding death and rebirth.

While the Tomorrowverse versions of Batman and The Huntress technically die when they allow themselves to be reborn on the new Earth, it’s also handled in a way that is respectful of both characters. More importantly, the ending of Crisis Part Three opens the DCAMU to tell a story the comics won’t explore in the main DC canon due to branding: Batman marrying Catwoman and raising a daughter with her. Because the DCAMU (like many film and television adaptations) is not beholden to following the main comic book canon, it has the flexibility to more accurately adapt these characters’ stories while still taking them in exciting new directions.

For Helena Wayne, this means she can be easily introduced as the Huntress of the new DCAMU with her classic origin. This could not only result in stories that finally present the Huntress as a second generation member of the Justice Society of America, but they could finally adapt Helena Wayne’s classic friendship with Power Girl, which would easily sell with today’s audience. This could also finally see Helena Wayne presented as a lawyer again in her civilian identity, which also has strong story potential. Lastly, a DCAMU version of Helena Wayne can explore how Bruce and Selina train her as a child to develop the skills she would later use as the Huntress, and how continuing their legacy could later inform the formation of Infinity, Inc.

All three movies in the Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Trilogy are available on digital and Blu-ray.