Batman #8: Night of the Owls

[aeka]

And so it begins...

Comments

[espanolbot]

Aha, they specifically mentioned only the allies in Gotham, that could answer any queries as to where certain people are instory. For example, Batwoman could be in a different part of the country as part of her government job, Helena was in Italy, Cass in Hong Kong... and Steph in Hong Kong too, I guess. Or she's still in the UK hanging out with Beryll or something.

[kenn_el]

Does visiting-Earth-1-Helena have any association with the Bat Family in the new U? I'd assumed not as of yet.

[espanolbot]

From what I've gathered, the Helena Bertinelli identity was just one of her aliases, post-reboot, so the Huntress from BoP etc. kind of doesn't exist anymore.

[kenn_el]

That's what I thought. This way whoever's writing WF gets to do the big meet where Helena angsts over whether to tell Bruce that he reminds her of her father.

[aeka]

It was mentioned in the Huntress mini that she has been operating in Gotham and even mentioned Batman in her narrative. It was also stated that she "is a notorious vigilante," suggesting that she's a well known name. At the very least, Batman should be one of her ties in Gotham, especially if (a) she's been operating there for the last five years, and (b) Batman is the kind of guy who never misses any new face that arrives in *his* city.

How much of Helena Bertinelli's relationship to the rest of the Batfamily is still in continuity we'll find out in Worlds' Finest.

[kenn_el]

She's from an Earth 2 Gotham, though, and is Batman's daughter/partner (apparently), so we can't assume she meant Earth 1.

[aeka]

From issue one of her mini:

"Now 8894, let's see what's going to Gotham," "I wonder if Batman plans these moments better, or is he just luckier?"

I'm 110% sure she's referring to the Earth-1 Gotham given where her mini takes place, and I'm pretty sure she means the Earth-1 Batman. I would find it highly unusual for her to not refer to her own father as "daddy" (she does in #5).

[kenn_el]

You're probably totally correct! I was still wary of anything in the mini back when Levitz was being cute about the whole Earth 1/Earth 2 question, though, and the contents of the crates could have been going to Metropolis, and it wouldn't have meant that Helena operated in Metropolis. The 'Batman' comment just makes no sense coming from Batman's daughter, and seemed to indicate at the time that the character was pre-Flashpoint Helena. If anyone knows how Batman does it, it's his daughter/partner, and I can't imagine that the Earth 1 Bats is THAT much more impressive than his Earth 2 counterpart.

[aeka]

True, but even if Helena does travel and fight crime globally, it would still make sense for her to make Gotham her more permanent base of operations since that's as "close to home" as she would get on an otherwise foreign planet.

With regards to the Batman comment, it was more likely done as an easter egg to hint at Helena's parentage as opposed to just saying "daddy" since that would be more ambiguous. But nevertheless, I don't see why she would refer to the Earth-1 Batman as her father when he actually isn't. He's *a* version of her father, but he is not *her* father. So it does make sense to me that she'd refer to him as Batman.

On the note of differences between E1 and E2 Bruce, at the moment all that is known about the latter is that he has no qualms about killing on Earth-2 and apparently (according to Robinson) has set up some sort of global Batman network on Earth-2 (I guess the equivalent of Earth-1's Batman Inc). Beyond that, we don't know how else E2 Batman is different or similar to the mainstream one.

[kenn_el]

Just considering the fact that Earth 2 Bruce is both Helena's father AND Batman to her Robin, it's highly unlikely that she'd be that impressed with Earth 1 Bruce, as she seems to be in the example you cited. That's more the pre-Flashpoint Helena's style.

[aeka]

I see where you're coming from, and you may be right that she should not be that impressed with E1 Bruce. But if E1 Bruce is drastically different from her own father in some key areas (i.e., her father has no qualms about killing, whereas E1 Bruce is staunchly against it), then I don't think it's too unusual for her to be impressed by him in that regard.

If her past interactions with E1 Bruce as Helena Bertinelli are still in continuity, (i.e., "I thought we understood each other Batman" in Detective Comics #653), then I think it would be understandable how these differences could even lead her to try to get his approval, which was also characteristic of the Bertinelli version pre-Flashpoint.