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Post by beccabear67 on Dec 16, 2019 0:10:35 GMT -5
If it was the last Batgirl story I wouldn't be surprised. There were things I liked and things that I didn't, and also things that didn't seem to add up on the first read, and I guess they might not add up on a second read either. It sounds like perhaps the ending had to be changed somehow to fit in with the Killing Joke with her vowing to retire, though I can't see how it would've effected that if she had vowed to fight crime as Batgirl more often again. Cormorant seemed a really nothing adversary to me too, what was he without his gun? Could've been far more three-dimensional, but as is you just wonder if maybe it was written to be The Joker and all that had to be undone because of Killing Joke? |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2019 6:44:07 GMT -5
beccabear67 ... I'm enjoying your thread that you started and wondering what Huntress you've like best Wayne or Bertinelli? I still like the earlier Helena Wayne Huntress best, but I like the new Bertinelli a lot more than I expected to. She's a bit different, and I can accept they had gotten rid of the Earth 1 & 2 etc. so felt the earlier Huntress would be too confusing to explain (Power Girl had to get a new origin to still be around it seems). I like Wayne's version a slight better than Bertinelli ... because Wayne's had better costume designs. Over time, I just felt that Bertinelli's version is a bit more original and that's why she had no connections to Batman ... sort of speak. Both of them, are good and as I grow older ... I liked them for their own merits; but Wayne's version connected me in a way more personal because that Huntress was Batman's Daughter.  This book got me a foothold on Wayne's version than Bertinelli's and that's why I'm curious what your response will be and I wanted to thank you for that. Everytime ... I pick up a Huntress book (any book) ... I want to know who I'm dealing with so I don't get confused at all. |
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Post by badwolf on Dec 16, 2019 11:48:15 GMT -5
If it was the last Batgirl story I wouldn't be surprised. There were things I liked and things that I didn't, and also things that didn't seem to add up on the first read, and I guess they might not add up on a second read either. It sounds like perhaps the ending had to be changed somehow to fit in with the Killing Joke with her vowing to retire, though I can't see how it would've effected that if she had vowed to fight crime as Batgirl more often again. Cormorant seemed a really nothing adversary to me too, what was he without his gun? Could've been far more three-dimensional, but as is you just wonder if maybe it was written to be The Joker and all that had to be undone because of Killing Joke? Yeah, I didn't buy her fear/obsession with Cormorant at all. How many disturbing super-criminals has she faced?
I guess it could have been a rushed rewrite; that would explain why a lot of stuff didn't work in it.
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Post by badwolf on Dec 16, 2019 11:51:26 GMT -5
Um, I gonna have to launch a bit of disagreement on the subject of Barb Randall/Kesel as some kind of one note writer. In the first place, she worked primarily as an editor and was considered quite good at her job. I did not know Barbara Randall was Barbara Kesel. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 16, 2019 12:03:38 GMT -5
Um, I gonna have to launch a bit of disagreement on the subject of Barb Randall/Kesel as some kind of one note writer. In the first place, she worked primarily as an editor and was considered quite good at her job. I did not know Barbara Randall was Barbara Kesel. Dick Giordano tapped her for a job as an associate editor around 1982 and she worked under that name. She met and married Karl Kesel at DC and then began working as Barb Kesel, continuing to do so at Dark Horse. She and Karl later divorced. I haven't seen the later stuff she did, so I don't know if she kept Kesel or reverted back to Randall. |
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Post by beccabear67 on Dec 16, 2019 12:37:59 GMT -5
the last Huntress story when the Justice League international Special #2 makes it into my hands...  Oops, I should've written that as "the last of these Cavalieri & Staton Huntress stories". |
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Post by beccabear67 on Jan 6, 2020 13:48:05 GMT -5
Justice League International Special #2 (cover dated 1991, but I think published in late 1990) cleans up some of the loose ends from The Huntress series. Cavalieri and Staton have Helena with yet another new last name starting with B in some suburb with young James and her 'mentor' in tow. She tries to stay retired but mentor guy argues the big city is falling apart without someone like The Huntress and leaves in a huff. Later she reluctantly turns to the JLI and deposits James with them and re-suits and arms up as The Huntress to take down a new costumed killer naming himself The Hunter. She visits police detective O'Shea for some inside info. Spoilers: it's mentor guy, killing five of six cops for the new big mobster we saw in The Huntress #17-19. He says the cops were bad and would've done the same to Helena now that it's out that she is/was the daughter of dead big mobster Bertinelli. He conveniently catches a stray bullet and appears to die, as does big new mobster guy after a duke-out with The Huntress and members of the Justice League (with James watching from the Blue Beetle's air craft) on a closed bridge that literally falls apart underneath him (again, rather convenient). I guess it's only sane that at the end Helena does a Batgirl and folds up the costume vowing yet again to now be retired.
Not much to say about this, it doesn't seem worth the trouble to be honest as the loose ends being wrapped up weren't anything much needing wrapping I don't think, although it seems good that another mob boss is eliminated. Helena ends up right back where she was on the first page, or at the end of her own series. I guess she will be back later for Birds Of Prey at least? She makes a great team character, or teaming-up with someone.
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Post by Chris on Jan 6, 2020 16:06:08 GMT -5
There were things I liked and things that I didn't, and also things that didn't seem to add up on the first read, and I guess they might not add up on a second read either. It sounds like perhaps the ending had to be changed somehow to fit in with the Killing Joke with her vowing to retire, though I can't see how it would've effected that if she had vowed to fight crime as Batgirl more often again. Cormorant seemed a really nothing adversary to me too, what was he without his gun? Could've been far more three-dimensional, but as is you just wonder if maybe it was written to be The Joker and all that had to be undone because of Killing Joke? Yeah, I didn't buy her fear/obsession with Cormorant at all. How many disturbing super-criminals has she faced? I guess it could have been a rushed rewrite; that would explain why a lot of stuff didn't work in it.
I haven't read the Batgirl Special since.... 1988? ... so I don't recall how Cormorant was portrayed in it. But I do remember that this was a followup to a Batgirl story that appeared in Detective Comics 491-492, "The Assassination of Batgirl." I would imagine the story in the Special makes more sense if you've read the other story first. It really bothered me that Randall went so far out of her way to make Babs vulnerable. She'd been an accomplished crimefighter for years, but is somehow traumatized by one pretty ordinary bad dude to the point that she is ready to give it all up. Again, it goes back to the story in Detective Comics 491-492. Somewhere in this thread, I believe someone asked if people reading Batgirl Special knew in advance Barbara was going to be crippled in Killing Joke. It's been a long time, but I think there was some common knowledge of that. I seem to recall that the Special was viewed by readers as a last hurrah for Batgirl. I don't remember if anyone specifically knew she would be shot and crippled in Killing Joke, but I'm pretty sure a lot of people knew that something would happen and Batgirl would no longer be active. |
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