#helena bertinelli

[dchuntress]

@gaylittlebats @616swanda images from pinterest that are just us i think

[gamblinwastes]

More of the trio of A House in New Jersey.... Tbh probably one of my best pieces in a while with the shading.

Closeups:

[warrior-of-storms]

probably not going to finish this sketch but @gamblinwastes and I have cooked up an evil au so here's JPV, Helena, and Dick for it

[gaylittlebats]

Helena Bertinelli and the Road to Salvation

Gail Simone’s Helena Bertinelli makes the claim that she has always wanted, more than anything, to be a teacher, and it’s something that living as a cape has made unstable. This panel has stuck with me long after finishing the Birds of Prey run and moving on with my Helena Bertinelli read-a-thon; because that’s not totally true, is it? Her earliest appearance and all subsequent origin stories showcase something else— she has strived for vengeance for her family and to wipe out the sins of their blood. 

She sees herself as kind of a nun at points, on a mission from God, as the ultimate hero to answer the call of blood— to find salvation. But what is salvation? The Huntress provides a type of salvation, sure. She fights against crime in Gotham, commands that she is clearing her family’s sins and the sins of those like her family, she is able to create a greater sense of purpose for her to follow. In a manner, being the Huntress is a type of deliverance from sin; but is it truly salvation? Even after being the Huntress, even after extracting the revenge for her slain family, she finds that she is trapped in the past and drawn to the violence of her blood. She sees herself as damned. Despite feeling alone, her role is to be the Huntress, to find her salvation, and she continues on.

So, I ask again— what is salvation for Helena Bertinelli? Is it simply becoming the Huntress? Maybe, but I do not see that as the complete picture. Salvation does not only mean the deliverance from sin; it is also the liberation from ignorance. Salvation is not simply going after the bad guys, it’s fighting the systems of oppression that maintain their ways. And what is a way to do that? You guessed it— this is where Ms. Bertinelli, the teacher comes into the picture. Being an educator is another of her branches of salvation. If the Huntress takes out the bad guys to clear the blood, Ms. Bertinelli carves a fresh path of liberation for the future generations— the fresh blood. I have previously discussed how Helena approaches saving her students in this post— and how she cannot save everyone, that is impossible, but how being an educator provides another way for her to be a safe figure for her students. Throughout (well thought out) Huntress storylines, we see her putting children, as vulnerable as they are, high up on her priority list for who to save. Being an educator means confronting your own demons and those of our society and fighting to create a better world (with and) for your students. Educational philosophies like reconstructionism show this; being an educator is not simply lecturing and expecting mastery, but teaching your students to think critically and openly, to be both teacher-student and student-teacher, to invite discussions on societal problems and put education back into the hands of your students. While no author has explicitly explored Helena as a teacher in this manner, her general belief systems that she follows align with this idea of education. She is fighting against authoritarian institutions as the Huntress, why wouldn’t she fight those institutions with her students, as well? In fact, Helena constantly puts her students at the forefront of her mind, even when she is in the suit— because her fight is largely for breaking these cycles of violence, which goes hand in hand with her being a teacher. She reaches out to students who are in trouble, she protects her students when she is Huntress, she is creating her own method of salvation through the combination of her two sides.

When together, we see her reach her true sense of salvation— a higher call than God’s, a higher call than Batman’s; her own. When she exists as both teacher and vigilante. 

So, was being a teacher what Helena always wanted most in life? I do not see that as the full picture— so no, but I do not think the Huntress is either. Her two sides— educator and hero— cannot exist without one another for her complete salvation. What she wanted the most as a child we may never know, what she wanted the most after her family’s death was vengeance, and what she wanted the most after she extracted her vengeance? For no one else to suffer how she has, to fight the systems that are harming so many people constantly, to be a protector, to be a human, to have a family and a sense of belonging. Individually, neither the Huntress herself nor Ms. Bertinelli herself can fulfill these desires, but combined, they create her own special brand of salvation that we all love to see. 

sources:

Birds of Prey by Gail Simone

Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood

Huntress: Year One

Huntress (1989)

Lazarus Planet: Dark Fate

Detective Comics #1034-1039

Miriam Webster Dictionary

[gaylittlebats]

Babe come home the kids miss you

[three-semicolons]

Oh. My lord.

You know that recurring bit from the Teen Titans and New Teen Titans series? This one?

The innuendos Roy used to make about the name “Speedy”? Which were, in retrospect, embarrassing as hell because they implied something completely different than what he intended?

HUNTRESS CONFIRMED IT. HELENAAAAAAA

THE SPEEDY JABS. THEY WERE REAL. IT’S CANON. LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO.

I FEEL MORE PAYOFF HERE, BETWEEN THESE 40 YEARS OF COMICS AND TWO COMPLETELY UNRELATED SERIES, THAN I EVER DID READING CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. YOU CANNOT UNDERSTAND. THE UNIVERSE IS CONNECTED GUYS. THIS IS HOW WE BRIDGE PRE- AND POST-CRISIS. CONTINUITY MATTERS AND IT MATTERS IN THE FORM OF ROY HARPER’S PERFORMANCE IDGAF.

[warrior-of-storms]

my favorite mafia princess 💜

[toomanyf4ndoms77]

DC Holiday Special '09: Huntress in Naughty or Nice.

I love finding scenes of my favourites in stuff I haven't already seen. Anyway, Helena.