ooo 14, 18 + 19, and 26 for helena bertinelli !
hiiiiiii! thank u for the ask i haven't talked about her in so long.
14: Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character.
hehehehehe i'm thinking something a bit like this
'why are these all 90s' for many reasons but also it's because while post-90s plots have undoubtedly influenced how i interpret these characters dc comics artistically peaked in the 90s. and also like the long curly hair and the leather jacket would be such a sexy look. i hate when artists give her like. basic pastel girl civilian outfits that is NOT how she would dress.
18: How about a relationship they have in canon with another character that you admire?
admittedly this is a hard question to answer because i don't feel about characters this way. and obviously i'm not sitting here looking you in the eye and saying, "i have an emotional detachment to all the characters i like, there is a concrete wall between me and them," obviously that's not true. but like, admire? idk. that's not why i turn to art.
that being SAID. i do LIKE her pre-flashpoint relationship with dick. i LIKE how much it spells out the unique impressions that life has left upon him while also illustrates their very different relationship with the city and their work. devin grayson's mini with her was one of the first helena works i read, way when i was first getting into comics and helena, and while i still have complex feelings about her writing (dc comics fans are too quick to chagrin the mexican woman her frustration at the portrait she weaved over 20 issues of a caricaturized reflection of her ethnicity. why did i say that like louis.), but she is also probably each of their respective best writers (i even think i liked grayson's characterization of her better than rucka's, although rucka is the better narrative-crafter).
19: How about a relationship they have in canon that you don't like?
her post-flashpoint relationship with dick LMAO. grayson was not a good book. i read it for beautiful mixed black helena (like one of two times she's ever been drawn right) but otherwise like. i mean it's a pretty universally panned book i don't have to go into it. it was missing a je sais exactement quoi.
26: What's something the character has done you can't get over? Be it something funny, bad, good, serious, whatever?
hmmmmm i don't think there's any one moment that really stands out. and for what it's worth this isn't like reflect of her being lower in my favorite character hierarchy: i don't think kyle or anissa have a One Thing I Can't Get Over. it's pretty uncommon. again sorry for being pedantic with all of these asks. you followed the pedantic blog you're getting pedantry. that's what we do here on proxima bee dot com.
anyway. it's also hard because a lot of helena's appearances are pretty bad LMAO. like huntress 2011 had some fun moments with her ruthlessness but was also very liberal feminist and very racist. huntress year one had some fun moments with helena's desire to do the right thing by force but was also very liberal feminist and written by someone who knows so little about italy it's actually kinda jarring to read.
THAT BEING SAID. it feels a little too like. 'yeah of course it's that moment.' but the ending of cry for blood was very good. obviously it's the culmination of the internal tension that had been building in helena BUT i also like how like. it's such a different reflection of her belief that sometimes violence merits violence, "blood cries for blood." i like the moments where she just shoots someone in the head with her crossbow. i don't share a lot of comic fans thoughts on violence carried out by superheroes. but here, letting mobsters kill each other, doesn't bloody her hands any less, and the narrative makes sure of that: it's not less cruel by her not pulling the trigger, loosing the bolt herself, it's more cruel that she perpetuates this bloody system for her own ends. rucka's articulation of violence is consistently more thoughtful than most other writers and here it isn't an exception, and here it says something interesting about the woman who (loosely quoting devin's writing of her from memory) "likes to play rough."
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