Last week on another forum someone started a thread about the possibility of an eventual return of Helena Wayne (the Pre-Crisis Huntress, daughter of the Golden Age versions of Batman and Catwoman). On the spur of the moment I typed out the following summary of some ideas that have been kicking around in my head for awhile regarding how I would write that -- in the unlikely event that DC threw money at me and begged me to help them out!
Now I've just decided to share the same ideas with you and see if anyone loves or hates them on general principle. If this were announced as the basic premise of, let's say, a year-long miniseries set in "modern Gotham City," would you be inclined to buy the first couple of issues and give it a chance to impress you? Or would you turn around and run the other way, screaming, "Why can't they just let dead-and-erased characters stay dead-and-erased?" Or would you probably not take any real interest in it one way or the other?
Anyway, here's what I said last week:
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I'd love to see Helena Wayne come back. If DC twisted my arm, they might even persuade me to write it myself!
Long ago, I had some ideas in my head about a story I'd like to write about Helena Wayne just mysteriously popping up in the Modern DCU's Gotham City. In my version, the idea was that Bruce Wayne would currently be "missing, presumed dead," and Helena would try to claim control of a portion of his estate on the grounds that she was his long-lost daughter and his will said something about how a certain percentage of his fortune should be "evenly divided in equal shares" amongst any biological or adopted children he might leave behind when he died (the "adopted" part would mean Dick was in for an equal share, of course -- and also Tim, I think, from things I've heard recently).
Dick Grayson and Alfred Pennyworth would be very skeptical about her claim that she rated a share of the Wayne family fortune, but Helena would then pass a DNA test with flying colors!
Under the circumstances, they'd be unable to ask Bruce to confirm or deny that it was remotely possible that he might have a long-lost daughter in her twenties . . .
Near as I can recall, my idea was that Helena would understand she was no longer in her "native universe," but would refrain from explaining the real details of her origins to Dick and Alfred right away (even though she knew how trustworthy their Pre-Crisis Earth-2 counterparts had always been), for some reason that I never actually worked out in my head . . . but it would be a rational one.
(Hmmm. Maybe she felt there was reason to fear one or both of them, in Modern DCU, were suspects in the supposed death of Bruce Wayne? And meanwhile, they of course would feel exactly the same way about this "shameless fortune hunter" who had just popped up out of thin air right after Bruce "died"? That part just now occurred to me as I was typing this, but it makes a fair amount of sense. Go for a real "murder mystery" feel with everyone shooting paranoid glances at the wrong people for the wrong reasons . . .)
And that was as far as I got with the idea, a few years ago. I never did anything further with it. But -- if it comes as any comfort to anyone reading this -- I never intended to describe her "replacing" Helena Bertinelli. That particular Huntress simply would not be in the story -- to avoid confusing readers by having people say, "Helena, have you seen Helena anywhere around here lately?" -- but she'd still be alive and well somewhere else in the DCU; presumably working on another mission for Oracle or whatever.
Now I've just decided to share the same ideas with you and see if anyone loves or hates them on general principle. If this were announced as the basic premise of, let's say, a year-long miniseries set in "modern Gotham City," would you be inclined to buy the first couple of issues and give it a chance to impress you? Or would you turn around and run the other way, screaming, "Why can't they just let dead-and-erased characters stay dead-and-erased?" Or would you probably not take any real interest in it one way or the other?
Anyway, here's what I said last week:
**************
I'd love to see Helena Wayne come back. If DC twisted my arm, they might even persuade me to write it myself!
Long ago, I had some ideas in my head about a story I'd like to write about Helena Wayne just mysteriously popping up in the Modern DCU's Gotham City. In my version, the idea was that Bruce Wayne would currently be "missing, presumed dead," and Helena would try to claim control of a portion of his estate on the grounds that she was his long-lost daughter and his will said something about how a certain percentage of his fortune should be "evenly divided in equal shares" amongst any biological or adopted children he might leave behind when he died (the "adopted" part would mean Dick was in for an equal share, of course -- and also Tim, I think, from things I've heard recently).
Dick Grayson and Alfred Pennyworth would be very skeptical about her claim that she rated a share of the Wayne family fortune, but Helena would then pass a DNA test with flying colors!
Under the circumstances, they'd be unable to ask Bruce to confirm or deny that it was remotely possible that he might have a long-lost daughter in her twenties . . .
Near as I can recall, my idea was that Helena would understand she was no longer in her "native universe," but would refrain from explaining the real details of her origins to Dick and Alfred right away (even though she knew how trustworthy their Pre-Crisis Earth-2 counterparts had always been), for some reason that I never actually worked out in my head . . . but it would be a rational one.
(Hmmm. Maybe she felt there was reason to fear one or both of them, in Modern DCU, were suspects in the supposed death of Bruce Wayne? And meanwhile, they of course would feel exactly the same way about this "shameless fortune hunter" who had just popped up out of thin air right after Bruce "died"? That part just now occurred to me as I was typing this, but it makes a fair amount of sense. Go for a real "murder mystery" feel with everyone shooting paranoid glances at the wrong people for the wrong reasons . . .)
And that was as far as I got with the idea, a few years ago. I never did anything further with it. But -- if it comes as any comfort to anyone reading this -- I never intended to describe her "replacing" Helena Bertinelli. That particular Huntress simply would not be in the story -- to avoid confusing readers by having people say, "Helena, have you seen Helena anywhere around here lately?" -- but she'd still be alive and well somewhere else in the DCU; presumably working on another mission for Oracle or whatever.
t:
No way!?
