Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Huntress Costume History

With Birds of Prey making its film debut, lets look at the many costumes worn by one of the Bird of Prey's members, the Huntress.
Helena Wayne was the daughter of Batman and Catwoman from Earth-2. She followed in her parents' footsteps as a crimefighter and became the Huntress after her mother was killed. Her costume was meant to pay homage to both Batman (with its blue scalloped caped and gold ultilty belt) and Catwoman (with its purple color scheme and cat-like mask).
After the events of Infinite Crisis, Earth-2 was erased and a new hero became Huntress. Helena Bertinelli lost her family to a mafia hit as a little child and swore vengeance. As an adult she was inspired by Batman and decided to hunt down every member of the mob as the Huntress. Her first costume was very similar to the one worn by Helena Wayne, only more armored and with a darker color scheme. As she grew into her identity, Huntress slightly altered her costume, brightening the color and giving her leotard an x-like design. Huntress would later change the color scheme of this from violet-and-blue to black-and-purple and replace the leotard with a protective bodysuit.
When Gotham was separated from the mainland and quarantined, Helena took advantage of the confusion to create a new identity for herself. Donning a black bodysuit yellow outline of a bat symbol, a cape, and  a bat-eared cowl with a full face mask, Helena took the mantle of Batgirl (formerly held by Barbara Gordon until she was paralyzed from the waist down by the Joker). Batman allowed her to use the costume until Helena disobeyed his direct orders to stop the villainous Two-Face, and he stripped her of her Batgirl costume and he and Barbara gave the identity to  Cassandra Cain.
Helena became a reluctant member of the superteam, the Birds of Prey and returned to her Huntress persona, this time with a navy blue-and-white leotard with a purple mask and cape as well as armored purple gloves and boots.
With the events of New 52, Earth-2 was reborn. Once again Helena Wayne was the daughter of her Earth's Batman and Catwoman, and fought crime as Robin (wearing a red-and-green armored bodysuit with a yellow cape ad red mask). During an alien invasion, Helena accidentally fell through a dimension portal and landed on Earth Prime. She assumed the alias of Helena Bertinelli and fought crime on her new Earth as Huntress, wearing a black-and white bodysuit with purple accessories (that seemed to be a combination of the last two Huntress costumes). Eventually she was able to return to Earth-2 and redesigned her Huntress costume, making it sleeker and replacing the purple on her suit with white.
The real Helena Bertinelli on Earth Prime became Huntress after leaving the espionage agency Spyral. Her costume was a simplified version of her Earth-2 counterpart's black-and-white unfirorm, adding a hood and replacing the cape with a sleeveless trenchcoat.

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