Worlds' Finest #8 - Digging Deeper into Helena Wayne

[aeka]

I initially had reservations about this issue given how poorly executed this series has been under Levitz, but this one actually genuinely surprised me with solid characterisation and a compelling storyline.

First, that bounty on Helena's head from the Huntress mini catches up with her in this issue. And things don't look well for her:



This then triggers memories of her life growing up on Earth-2:







Wish Levitz had done this story arc a lot sooner, but better late than never, I guess.

Comments

[shadowpsykie]

an actual compelling and well told story?

is this Really Levitz?

(that said, funny it's only focusing on Helena, as his solo Huntress series was REALLY good....) maybe he shoul stop writing World's finest and Just write Huntress....

[aeka]

I actually felt Power Girl was better characterised in this issue than she's been written in the last eight, including the zero issue. But yeah, this was a very Helena Wayne-centric story. I did love the scene where Karen comforted Helena following the shoot-out, though. Also mainstream Bruce appearing with Alfred at the end of the issue.

It does look like the next two issues are going to be Power Girl-centric though since it's going to lead her back into Holt Industries where Mister T disappeared off to Earth-2.

[shadowpsykie]

Not Daddy Bruce showed up? does he know who she is?!??!?!

[aeka]

You mean you haven't read the issue? :P

[shadowpsykie]

no i havent! i've been at work all day!

[aeka]

Oh shit. Sorry for the spoilers then. :P

[shadowpsykie]

oh you're not.

and you know very well spoilers are my bread and butter :D

[silverhammerman]

Cool, I've been wondering when they were finally going to have the character knock it off with the skulking around and actually interact with the Earth-1 versions of there loved ones. I hope there are "feels" and I hope someone posts scans.
Also, with Mister T gone, who will pity the fools of Earth-1?

[darkknightjrk]

The last few issues of this book has been Helena interacting with Damian, who would be sort of her stepbrother, and the two sorta bonded enough that he promised that he wouldn't spill the beans on them.

[big_daddy_d]

Anyone noticed the Joker doll at the foot of Helena's bed there?

[superfangirl1]

What better way to teach her not to fear clowns?

I didn't notice the first time. lol

[biod]

Is it bad that my first thought upon reading "Digging deeper into Helena" was "Awwwww, yeeaaaah"?

[alan_smithee]

"It was only a ten-foot drop. Get up".

Spoken like any abusive parent "It was only a little slap. Get up" - I take it within the full context of the story we are given a reason they are abusive towards their daughter or is it simply that they are assholes?

[aeka]

He's training his daughter to be a fighter and is giving her military-style training. This is the sort of thing to expect when you are being trained specifically to fight in war. Real life drill sergeants don't nurture you when training under them and even less so when you fail to do something. They outright yell at you to get back up immediately and keep moving. If you don't get up fast enough they will yell that you're not moving fast enough and will continue to do so until you move fast enough. I'd dare say, Bruce is being considerably mild here compared to how real life drill sergeants talk to their trainees.

Within the context of the story, Bruce is not being abusive to his daughter in the traditional sense nor is he talking to her in this way simply because he's being an asshole. He's disciplining her in the same way that a soldier gets disciplined in the actual military in order to make her an effective fighter. In addition to pushing her body to its limits to get her at peak physical strength and be able to handle anything, he's also teaching her to "toughen up" because she will need to be able to handle situations she's not comfortable with, particularly ones that involve death. Considering that Earth-2 was eventually involved in the Apokolips War while she was still a teen, I'd say those skills proved very useful to her.

[alan_smithee]

Ah! so she is a child conscript!

[biod]

I can't imagine any version of Bruce Wayne forcing a child, even his own, to fight crime with him.
She must have been voluntering since day 0.

[alan_smithee]

The defence of many an abuser!

"He/She asked for it and liked it really!"



(I'm particularly joking with my responses here but I've always been interested in how - because it's an accepted part of the genre - behaviour that would be considered abusive and wrong in the real world is fine with certain characters but not others).

Mod Note

[aeka]

While the second part of your comment is a legitimate question, it could've also been framed without needing to crack a joke about abuse. Abuse and victim-blaming are not things people find funny and goes against S_D policy. Please avoid doing this in the future.

Re: Mod Note

[alan_smithee]

I'll rephrase it then as a perfectly straight question - surely this is abuse then? A child can't consent to be trained as a child solider, so why do we (as a conceit of the genre) generally accept such behaviour with certain characters?

The argument could be made "well there was a war in the future!" but that requires the perfect knowledge of the writer or reader or the other argument could be made that 'Batman has enemies' but that's just another version of "the world's hard and I'm making them tough to survive' it that abusive parent make in their defence when caught or to justify their behaviour to themselves?

The get-out is then "well it's all fiction!" but if it's all fiction, why get worked up about any abuse?

Re: Mod Note

[aeka]

I get what you're asking. The problem is we don't have enough history to go on to fully understand the context of these pages. We just know that Helena received a lifetime of training, the Apokolips War happened sometime while Helena was growing up, and we were told by James Robinson that Earth-2 Bruce passed over his knowledge to Helena out of love for her. But we're not shown any of the specifics that tells us why Bruce wanted Helena to know what he knows, let alone whether or not Little Helena had a say in the matter. We don't even know who Earth-2 Bruce and Selina were prior to their marriage and having Helena. On one of these pages, Selina confirms she had to learn to fend for herself at an early age, but we don't know anything else beyond that. We also don't know what prior wars and conflicts Earth-2 has had prior to the Apokolips invasion to know if those were other factors that influenced Bruce's decision to train Helena the way he did.

So the question of why is Bruce abusing Helena and why do people find this acceptable is a tough to answer in this case cause there's not enough context to go on. What is known from Helena's point of view is that is that the style of training she received sounds very akin to military training. But again we're not shown the specifics or why.

Re: Mod Note

[alan_smithee]

Forget the specific situation for a minute - why do we consider it accept for *any* child side-kick to be trained to go out and fight serial killers and other menaces to society rather than considering it abusive?

Re: Mod Note

[aeka]

Do you mean aside from the fact that historically the child sidekick was introduced for kids reading comics to have a character to relate to, and the fact that child sidekicks often want to help out their respective heroes and are actually depicted as being skilled at what they do enough to impress their mentors? Because that would be why most people don't bat an eye at the idea in the genre aside from the fact that it's very common place in a universe where the impossible happens a lot.

And again, we don't know enough about Helena's past in this reboot to know if this qualifies as abuse or not, or just another case of lack of careful thought and execution on behalf of the writer, which he does a lot.

[lovely_evil_wolf]

Realizing I am late to this, I always took it not as the real Bruce speaking to her, but how someone imagines someone speaking to them when they need assistance. Given the size of Batman here relative to both Helena and the background, he'd be huge Dr Manhattan size.

I'm sure there's a name for this trope, but it escapes me right now.