space
head
head head head
Home Contact RSS Feed
COMICS   •   MOVIES   •   MUSIC   •   TELEVISION   •   GAMES   •   BOOKS
Comic Review: Huntress: Year One #1
space
MajorJJH   |  

Huntress Year One #1Huntress: Year One #1
Written by Ivory Madison
Pencils by Cliff Richards
Inks by Art Thibert
Colors by Jason Wright
Letters by Sal Cipriano
DC Comics
Cover price: $2.99; Available now

One of the greatest actions that DC has taken of late is the Year One line of comics. Batgirl, Nightwing, Green Arrow, Metamorpho, and others have all received the Year One treatment, bridging that gap between hapless nobody to lycra-wearing superhero.

The latest installment of the Year One franchise is Huntress, another of the Bat-verse characters entirely deserved of recognition.

Now, to be fair, I am a massive Batman Universe fan, and thus anything to do with any Bat-character I am intrinsically drawn too. Born to one of Gotham’s Mafia families, Helena Bertinelli, aka, the Huntress is definitely one of the Bat-verse’s more emotionally charged characters.

Written by Ivory Madison and penciled by Cliff Richards (fairly certain not the same one your thinking of), this story tells the first part of a six-issues series reinvisioning the origin of Huntress. Written by comics newcomer, but no stranger to the writing scene, Madison is the founder and CEO of Red Room.

Madison very definitely takes her cues from the original Year One story, written by Frank Miller for Batman. The link between Helena and Bruce Wayne is similar, in that both sets of parents were killed before the eyes of the helpless children. However, in Helena’s case, it created in her a sense of righteous anger simultaneously linked with helplessness. It could be this that Madison is trying to create to explain the Huntresses’ penchant for unnecessary violence, compared to Batman‘s seeming reticence.

Not that Batman can’t get down and dirty with it, of course, but Helena has killed, and is more willing to kill than the Batman, who makes a point of never killing his victims, though victims they be in the end.

Helena’s upbringing was not fun, and Cliff Richards’ art vividly tells the story of a young, frightened girl, deeply attached to her brother who, until taken away by a mob killing, seems to be her only leash to normalcy.

Her father is, for all intents and purposes, a very bad man, and this is clearly expressed time and time again in the first few pages. The story of how she lost her parents is interweaved in to the present, as Helena comes back from hunting and soon has to deal with some mob-type men come to kill her, at the bequest of her Uncle Tommy.

However the story of her swing towards vigilantism is told after her parents and brother are shot by a masked hitman. Her helplessness and later desire to right the wrongs of men starts here, when the hitman leans down, takes a hold of the cross around her neck, and rips it away “as some kind of sick souvenir.”

There is a beautiful page, and I use the word beautiful here as a literary device, where Helena, tears streaming down her face, screams out with three dead relatives lying around her, blood spattering her young girl’s dress.

This issue fills me with hope for the following issues, as the story told is remarkably insightful, psychologically speaking. Actual thought has gone into the method behind the story, a story that is intent on creating a background for a very complex character.

There were few things that I was upset with in this book. There is an abundance of purple, framing Helena’s narration of events that seems to clash a little with the morose nature and coloring of the book itself. The way that Helena is drawn as well seems once again to follow the stereotypical female comic character, a character who can’t seem to stand up straight without pushing her breasts out and slinking as she walks.

Lastly, the turn that is taken with the last few panels and last full page spread is stupidity at its height. Now whether this is an intentional attempt to focus on Helena’s lack of self control, or the result of bad storytelling, I’m not certain. But for all intents and purposes I felt that, reading these last few pages, there were massive gaps in the story to explain why Helena goes all kick-ass in a police station.

This comic gets 3 out of 5 for the story, and 4 out of 5 for the artwork. But the low story score is simply for the last page and a bit, and thus I still suggest that any fans of the Bat-verse should run out and get a hold of this comic. Definitely well worth your time.

4 Comments »

  1. Of course it’s to show Helena’s lack of control. As far as I’m concerned Ivory Madison put on a writing clinic with this one.

    But if you know anything about the character than you know she’s a loose canon, impuslive, hot-headed, impetus, and wreckless. Anyone that would start a fight with arm prison guards has got to be.

    I thought Cliff Richard was thoughtful in the way in depicted Helena. So I have to disagree with you 100% about Cliff following in the pits of steroetyping female characters. I’ve never seen a more beautiful and dignified Helena BBertinelli /Huntress drawn by anyone.

    Comment by Ryan — May 20, 2008 @ 9:04 pm

  2. A writing clinic? Please.

    The issue was running well enough until that last page. No context and out of the blue nonsense. It can’t be rationalized. just very, very bad writing.

    I have a feeling Contessa Ivory’s “wri-tah” friends are hitting the talkbacks to further the mission of their queen: to get into comics to eventually have something she writes optioned by Hollywood.

    She’s a tool.

    Comment by TopJack — May 21, 2008 @ 2:28 am

  3. No context? Check pages 9 and 15.

    Comment by Jason — May 28, 2008 @ 10:36 pm

  4. Wow. issue #2 was even worse than the first. The characters are wildly over written and completely out of character from page to page, a forced, hackneyed, unexplained and unconvincing “love story” and no real plot. Just a series of disconnected anecdotes.

    Huntress deserves better than this hackneyed crap.

    Comment by TopJack — June 3, 2008 @ 2:51 am

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

space
Tags:
space
Previous Article
space
Next Article
«
»
space
space
space
Amazon.com
space
You may have noticed that we're now AD FREE! Please support Geeks of Doom by using the Amazon Affiliate link above. All of our proceeds from the program go toward maintaining this site.
space
Geeks of Doom on Twitter Geeks of Doom on Facebook Geeks of Doom on Instagram Follow Geeks of Doom on Tumblr Geeks of Doom on YouTube Geeks of Doom Email Digest Geeks of Doom RSS Feed
space
space
space
space
The Drill Down Podcast TARDISblend Podcast Westworld Podcast
2023  ·   2022  ·   2021  ·   2020  ·   2019  ·   2018  ·   2017  ·   2016  ·   2015  ·   2014  ·  
2013  ·   2012  ·   2011  ·   2010  ·   2009  ·   2008  ·   2007  ·   2006  ·   2005
space
Geeks of Doom is proudly powered by WordPress.

Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press

Geeks of Doom is designed and maintained by our geeky webmaster
All original content copyright ©2005-2023 Geeks of Doom
All external content copyright of its respective owner, except where noted
space
Creative Commons License
This website is licensed under
a Creative Commons License.
space
About | Privacy Policy | Contact
space