Huntress and Arsenal. 1 page from outsiders volume 3 issue 12

[requiem2adream]

I have a question about Huntress and Arsenal's one night stand so of course I turn to the lovely ladies and gents of scans_daily to hopefully find the answer.

The first I heard of it was in BoP: Dinah, Babs and Helena are meeting in a park to discuss whether or not they can work together as a team and the subject of Helena's one night stands with Dick and Roy comes up and Helena has the brilliant line 'Archers... they pull a mighty bow but they're quick to let fly'. Which of course pisses Dinah off royally and nearly ends the team before it even begins.

I went back and read the Outsiders issues where Helena takes Roy's place on the team while he recovers from being shot, thinking that would be where I could find the Huntress/Arsenal stuff (I'm a massive Huntress fan and I've been trying to track down and read pretty much everything she's been in because yes I am obsessive) but apart from the kiss at the end




there's not really any interaction between the two and certainly no sexy times going on between the pair.

So folks my question is this: is this the first time it's ever referenced or is does the Helena/Roy stuff happen in different issues to the ones I've been reading? 

Comments

[thelazyreader]

Funnily enough this may be one of the most natural one-night-stands in superhero comics, because Huntress and Arsenal are like opposite-gender versions of each other in the 'will sleep with anyone who's hot' aspect.

[requiem2adream]

I don't see that about Helena at all.

Of all the men she's been linked with - Charlie, Dick, Roy and Thomas - she didn't sleep with a single one of them 'because they're hot'.

Well, except Roy. I don't know WHY she got with Roy which is the thing that's bugging me most about the way it's just kind of dropped in at the end of her time with the outsiders.

As for the others, well they ARE hot of course but there where other reasons for her to be with them apart from just hotness.

[icon_uk]

What reason did they give for her sleeping with Dick that was any more plausible than "because they're hot"? They have nothing in common, don't actually seem to like each other much and Dick is not the sort for one night stands (Bruce Jones to one side)

[nezchan]

"Because he's hot" regarding Dick is a much better reason than "because he's hot" with anyone else. That's a fact!

[icon_uk]

Well, yes, but that's the DCU equivalent of "Skies are blue" and "The grass is green".. sorry, Freudian slap... SLIP!!

[greenmask]

He IS very gymnastic.

[requiem2adream]

Helena slept with Dick because she thought it would get her some kind of twisted approval and according to Helena in BoP he slept with her because was lonely and wanted Babs.

The line she uses is 'maybe I was looking for some happiness but it's pretty clear that all he was looking was you.'

I never said they were good reasons. Just that there were other reasons.

[rordulum]

The only thing I ever liked about this was Gail Simone crapping on it in BoP, by having Helena say Roy was no good in bed.

But then, I've never liked Roy Harper... even before he started hitting people with dead cats.

[requiem2adream]

... I'm sorry Roy did what now?

[shadowpsykie]

Bizzaro Roy, it was in a recent supergirl comic :)

[requiem2adream]

Oh thank god! I thought it was some kind of weird 'Rise of Arsenal' thing for a second XD

[icon_uk]

I hate to say it, but a dead cat featured there too

[whitesycamore]

The only thing I ever liked about this was Gail Simone crapping on it in BoP, by having Helena say Roy was no good in bed.

Personally, I found that just about as crass as if Roy had said Helena sucked in bed. I guess I just feel that way because I have a crazy policy of not talking smack about the guys I bone.

But really, if we must accept that they hooked up then I'd like them both to get a good time out of it, at the very least.

[big_daddy_d]

Personally, I found that just about as crass as if Roy had said Helena sucked in bed. I guess I just feel that way because I have a crazy policy of not talking smack about the guys I bone.

I feel the same way. I feel like, whoever you sleep with, even if it's a one night stand, respect them..unless they were dicks to you. As for Roy and Helena, this is one of those scene where I thought nothing of it. There's no kind of love thing or shipping going, it didn't make Roy seem like "the man" nor do I think it was an attempt at such a thing because well..it's Roy, he inherited plenty of Ollie's traits and I'm saying that as the Roy Harper and Team Green fan that I am. All that and due to their character portrayals in the past, eh, this was one of those hook ups that just made a little sense to me actually.

P.S. Can anyone post the BoP scene in question?

[requiem2adream]

The BoP scene can be found here (http://fyeahbarbaragordon.tumblr.com/post/787301714/that-was-a-sneaky-move-babs-dinahs-banter-is) over on the fybarbaragordon tumblr.

[benicio127]

Word. And not only that... so Helena slept with Roy. What is the Big Fucking Deal. The amount of men Helena has slept with canonically is far fewer than the majority of my IRL girlfriends' "lists."

[requiem2adream]

Oh I don't think it's a big deal and yeah, I'm confused as to how Helena got the bike of the DCU label when she really hasn't been linked with all that many men.

Mostly I just want to see the setup. Something really interesting could have been done with Helena helping out Roy after he got shot since, you know, she knows exactly what he's going through. But no. We get a crappy handwavey kind of aside that it happened and that's it.

And it's not like they didn't have time to show it either because the previous issue spends four or five pages dealing with Roy paying a booty call to Grace.

Poor story telling IMO that suggests Huntress/Arsenal was just added in to get that exchange between the boys.

[benicio127]

I'm confused as to how Helena got the bike of the DCU label when she really hasn't been linked with all that many men.

I have no idea, either, and I actually wish there were more female characters who engaged in casual sex.

Mostly I just want to see the setup. Something really interesting could have been done with Helena helping out Roy after he got shot since, you know, she knows exactly what he's going through. But no. We get a crappy handwavey kind of aside that it happened and that's it.

But how would you have envisioned it happening? I mean, I personally am not all that keen on the artist portrayal rather than the actual story portrayal. (crotch shot as she walks away)

[jaybee3]

"Poor story telling IMO that suggests Huntress/Arsenal was just added in to get that exchange between the boys."

I've always thought that was the WHOLE POINT of this storyline. Which is why I personally dislike it so much. Winick having Huntress act OOC (at this point in her characterization) was basically just so Dick and Roy could josh about it. Not about her. At all. He could have inserted basically any other super-heroine - that's how little she means to the story. And THAT is insulting (and it's from this scene that she get the rep amongst DC writers and some readers as the kind of girl who'll sleep with anything) which is even MORE insulting.

All so Judd Winick could write a joke.

[strannik01]

Oh I don't think it's a big deal and yeah, I'm confused as to how Helena got the bike of the DCU label when she really hasn't been linked with all that many men.

Same reason as why Oliver Queen is considered a ladies' man, in spite of the fact that, until his first death, he was largely loyal to Dinah. Some writer took a bit of information about the character without understanding the context, and other writers picked up on it.

Also, fans are often an immature, puerile lot.

[icon_uk]

I don't think there is any real commentaty on Helena here, Dick comments on Roy's proclivities, not Helena's.

[benicio127]

No, but there has been fan commentary on it.

[jaybee3]

I thought that whole line stated what Gail thought about the story and the way Helena was treated in it (if you go back into the archives of S_D she has one comment where's it clear she's referring to this story in a negative way).

[jaybee3]

It doesn't make sense because it WAS out of character - she cared for Charlies/Vic and Dick (in her own way). Prior to this, she wasn't the kind of character who had been shown to have sex with guys she didn't care about just to "do it". The fact that she never had scenes with Roy prior to this story or after, just proves that how bad this is. She was basically brought into this story has a warm female body for Roy and Dick to joke about. It's not even about HER. Yet it's because of this one scene that her characterization since has been judged (even Gail with the Josh thing).

[alienist]

I think that might say more about the people reading the scene than the scene itself.