Helena Bertinelli's Short Run as Batgirl, Part I

[aeka]

I've been re-reading No Man's Land as of late, and I actually liked the idea of Huntress running around as Batgirl despite having all odds against her.

Incidentally, this was also one of the story arcs where Bruce's usual superdickery really rubbed me the wrong way. I can't decide if it was because he didn't really give Helena the chance to prove her worth on her own terms, or the fact he gave her so much shit for not following his orders despite the fact that she helped maintain *some* order in a devastated Gotham during his absence. The fact that she took three bullets to protect the same idiots who were recklessly getting themselves killed in an ill-fated encounter with the Joker before Batman would approve of her didn't help either.

For now though, I'll start with her humble beginnings in the cape and cowl. For her very first outing as Batgirl, refer to here.


From No Man's Land #0: 7 pages out of 58

Batman witnessed the battle between Helena!Batgirl and Ferak and later deduced that Ferak wasn't a real threat beyond provocation given her infantile state of mind. He decides to test Helena's judgment by 'planting' some evidence next to Ferak and see what action she'll take.

Test 1: Is Helena Capable of Making the 'Right' Decision?











(Really dawwww moment there between Helena!Batgirl and Ferak. ♥)





Conclusion: test past, Batman approved.

And so the tagging of Batgirl II begins!

Comments

[shadowpsykie]

what was the significance of Ferak and the plant?

[aeka]

Bruce took a sample from one of her thorns earlier and figured out she was one of Poison Ivy's creations. He also deduced that Ferak was looking for 'home' meaning a foresty place to live in. So he placed the plant in front of Ferak for Helena to see and to clue her in on the course of action she needs to take.

[shadowpsykie]

hmmm i see.... id on't quite see how that would work... i mean i get it... but... it was pretty iffy.... on batman's part i mean. good on Helena for seeing it... but the wild card factor there was Ferak... i mean what if she had not seen the plant and just went for Helena?

Ferak happened to notice the plant and Helena happened to notice her Noticing the plant....

[aeka]

I know what you mean, and I found the scene a bit confusing as well, but I'm pretty sure that was the direction they were trying to take.

Also, Bruce noted earlier in the issue that Ferak was actually harmless until provoked. So either way she would not have attacked Helena unless Helena attacked first, which is what happened last time they fought. Ferak only attacks in self-defence. Therefore, I'm pretty sure that plant was meant for Helena to notice.

[fifthie]

Yeah this was in the middle of that really zany succession of Batman sagas primarily featuring Batman being a total asshole to everyone around him, Batman making shitty situations worse by continuing to be an asshole to everyone around him, Batman getting to the end of the arc and realizing that it's better and more conducive to his mission to NOT be a total asshole to everyone around him, then Batman immediately going back to being a complete asshole to everyone around him.

[greenmask]

This is the Batman that I think of when I think "Batman".

[shadowpsykie]

my batman is the batman from Identity Crisis

Now WAIT let me explain

what i mean by this is the scene with Jack Drake and Tim in particular. Knowing Tim's dad is in immediate Danger and seeing the look of absolute terror in his eyes, IMMEDIATELY spins the batmobile around and procedes full speed back to his father. and after arriving too late, takes teh boy in his arms and attempts to comfort him.

many people saw Batman's dark figure surround tim as Batman's Darkness taking hold of Tim. That is not how i saw it at all. What i saw was this "Dark Angel" trying to comfort a little boy who just lost his father.

that;s my batman. Or the Batman from the Animated series (baring BMB, he was a jaded crotchety oldman there )

[greenmask]

Something in me really objects to Batman. I don't know what it is, but I just cannot like him.

It's not that I'd deny that he can do some sweet and compassionate things.. I just..

I just get dick vibes. *shrug*

[starwolf_oakley]

Standard Operating Procedure for Batman, going all the way from KNIGHTFALL to INFINITE CRISIS. It was just Batman's default position to be an utter jerkass to all other superheroes. There wasn't even an explanation other than "That's just how he is."

[fifthie]

KNIGHTFALL to INFINITE CRISIS

Haha yeah, that'd be it, those two and like everything between them.

There was what else, Contagion, No Man's Land, Fugitive, War Games, maybe one or two others I'm forgetting?

Like it's not so much that Batman was characterized as a dick that got me, so much as how every single one of those story arcs made such a huge point of Batman eventually, after however many lives lost and people hurt and property destroyed and dreams ripped apart, learning that it isn't good to be a total dick and that from now on he's going to not be that.

And then he'd immediately go back to being a total, total asshole. Rinse, repeat.

[fifthie]

Like I still have trouble believing that Morrison really actually has managed to go for like six/seven entire years now characterizing Batman as something other than a complete shitheel, it just like.... utterly defies everything I know the character to be.

[jaybee3]

They actually did try to explain it (or at least Geoff Johns did) by saying the mindwipe from Identity Crisis which he couldn't remember for the longest time (and then all of a sudden did just like Dr. Light - since apparently Zatanna's magic has an expiration date) made him super-paranoid and isolated, even more so than he used to be. In other words...it's all Zatanna's fault, not the writers who continually wrote him as a tool.
Yet another reason I loathe Identity Crisis.

[greenmask]

That's a sweet moment between Helena and Ferak (is the name explained, btw?). Helena's a teacher, am I right?

Mind of a child? Overruled by body of an adult. Judgement: Nipples super OK!!

[whitesycamore]

But would we all have been as touched by the moment between her and Helena if she *didn't* look like a poofy haired, nearly naked, wide eyed beguiling child-woman? Would we?

Of course not. The nipples must stay!

[greenmask]

We may have been touched but would it have been by OURSELVES? No! It would just have been by our stupid emotions. Gross.

[icon_uk]

I think that Ferak is used as a sort of urban slang for "freak" (as in, a freak so freakish that they can't even spell the word freak properly when describing it)

[greenmask]

How.. xtreem.

[pallas_athena]

I always read it as "tried to type Feral and missed"

[icon_uk]

Ferak was an odd creation, she was perhaps intended to be a some sort of new ongoing villain (She even got an entry in a Batman Secret Files and Origins) but then didn't do very much and then vanished after, I think,appearing in the Young Justice NML tie-in... of course two appearances is better than "The Answer", who got an entry in the Batman SF&O and then never appeared in any comic ever...

[salinea]

No Man's Land is what really made me love Helena - had read her in BoP before that and I liked her; but NML was *love*. She made a kickass Batgirl too. I loved her sassing at Bruce.

[aeka]

Me too! Mind you I liked Helena even when she was still a pretty violent crime-fighter, but this storyline showed how much she evolved as a character. I especially liked that it showed that there was a lot more to her than the whole "mafia princess hellbent on revenge" image we were so accustomed to earlier in her career.

[kenn_el]

I think it was the treatment of Helena in NML that caused me to never warm to Cass. It wasn't Cass' fault, of course, but she was always the reminder.

[aaron_bourque]

Once upon a time, Greg Land didn't trace.

[biod]

Once upon a time, reading the above didn't cause a brain aneurysm.

[thehefner]

I'm not so sure about that. I've seen other comics where he repeats images from this very issue. Hell, I even got a GL sketch from him back in the day which, I realized, was a mirror recreation of a GL drawing he did in a Legends of the DCU storyline. I suspect that he's always been a tracer, and that he was just better at hiding it back in the day, but I have no proof either way.