Helena Wayne

Infinity Inc is a great series in my opinion, and it’s written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Jerry Ordway who are two of my favourite talents from the comics industry.

Infinity Inc is basically your Earth-2 ‘Young Justice’ book fronted largely by the children of the Justice Society members. You have Jade and Obsidian, Fury and Silver Scarab, Star-Spangled Kid and Norda, Brainwave Jr and Nuklon as your main cast.

Huntress and Power Girl appear in the first 12 issues of the series, and after that first story arc, they decide that their place is with the Justice Society. But nonetheless, it is still a great book with a great cast of characters, and Huntress and Power Girl are both very well written and characterised in that series.

I do recommend that you do check it out.

I’ve been told that, yes. :)

1. Without Fear by Lacuna Coil

This song is actually in Italian (which I know you’ll enjoy Steph :P), but it’s a song about emptiness. It reminds me of Helena Wayne because the New 52 version feels very empty in the sense that she’s completely distanced herself from her life on Earth-2, and subsequently her own identity as Helena Wayne. She also strikes me as someone who is very sad on the inside but doesn’t like to look vulnerable around others and has a very cynical outlook on life. I feel this song captures that side of her very well.

2. Watch Over You by James Bright and Rachel Lloyd

While I don’t think either Helena or Kara have romantic feelings for each other, this song does make me think of the close friendship that they have and how they very much look after each other in their own way. I think this song best captures how Kara Zor-L feels about her friendship with Helena Wayne in part because she at one point didn’t have her in her life which made her appreciate this friendship even more, and in part because Kara has always struck me as being slightly more invested in the friendship than Helena. This isn’t to say that Helena doesn’t value her friendship with Kara, but her reasons for valuing this friendship are a bit different from that of Kara’s.

3. Head Over Heels by Tears for Fears

Aside from the fact that this song is from 1984 and therefore within the pre-Crisis Helena’s publication history, it also makes me think of Harry Sims’ complicated relationship with Helena Wayne. He was that guy who wanted to have a ‘normal relationship’ with a woman he perceived as ‘normal’ only to discover that she was a lot more than he initially bargained for. More specifically he responded poorly to the fact that Helena was a lawyer by day and a costumed crime-fighter by night, which conflicted with his idea of how a ‘normal girlfriend’ should be. Obviously we all know that ‘playing it safe’ isn’t really Helena’s style and enjoys being the Huntress too much to willingly give that up. Under those circumstances she could therefore never slow down enough for him to keep up with her and that frustrated him.

4. I Love My Sex by Benny Benassi 

On a very superficial level, this song is the New 52 Helena Wayne in a nutshell (though it could easily be a Selina Kyle song as well). She’s confident, stylish, likes cars, dresses, money, power, and she definitely loves being a woman. (Though this being a Benny Benassi song, I’m pretty sure he mean’s the act of sex. While Helena does not appear to be sexually active in the New 52, she does strike me as someone who would prefer to be on top if she was…which would be consistent with her *current* characterisation).

5. Another Try by Nova June

This song is very much about being stuck in a certain place in your life and needing to move past that, which is exactly what Helena Wayne is trying to do in the New 52…albeit not very successfully. On the one hand she longs to have her life back to what it used to be, but at the same time she’s completely divorced herself from it, feeling that there’s no point in holding on to something that no longer exists. Given that she has very little control over her current circumstances, she tries to make of the life she has now as much as she can.

Supergirl.

Always Supergirl.

Especially the Earth-2 version who goes by a certain name. ;)

I’m glad to hear you enjoyed the issue. I did read your mini review and gave it a shot to see if it might be something I’d be interested in.

The only thing I liked about this issue is that in terms of story it’s actually leading towards a more focused direction and I did like the tea and cake scene between Kara and Helena. I felt this was the first time these two women have read like genuine best friends since the first story arc, and I appreciated the fact that Helena Wayne was written as treating Kara with more respect than she has in past issues.  

Other than that, I still feel that Levitz’ writing is still suffering from the same problems as before, largely in that the story and characters still lack depth. Very little has happened in terms of character growth and Levitz is not particularly skilled at complex characterisation, which makes both his protagonists and antagonists completely uninteresting to read about. That’s not really something that should be said about otherwise interesting characters like the Huntress, Power Girl, and Desaad. The fact that Levitz almost exclusively relies on clichés and stereotypes to move the story along in place of careful planning and execution especially compromises the quality of the story he’s telling.

And of course, I wasn’t excited to see Robson Rocha on pencils since his handling of women is always cheesecakey and objectifying.

‘Lord Dictator’ sounds authoritarian (which I think is bad), but if I was in charge of running DC Comics, I would definitely change the current corporate culture that is harming the image of the company and improve public relations. I would similarly not impose any of the unnecessary changes that are being made to various DC characters, including iconic ones like Superman and Wonder Woman. 

I would also hire more diverse creators to get more voices represented in comics, and especially bring in creators who actually love and respect the characters’ histories, who they are, what they are about, what they stand for, and can bring new ideas to the table without drastically changing what people already love about these characters. I don’t think any company benefits from losing older customers.

On that note, I would also grant creators more creative control over the stories they want to tell without needing to build towards a ‘major event’ and allow them to use the characters they want for their story. I honestly don’t understand the Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain embargo, especially if they are allowing more controversial characters like Arthur Light to exist in the current continuity.

With regards to Earth-2 continuity, I would honestly bring this universe back to its roots namely in terms of reinstating the legacy aspect of this Earth. I would keep some of the developments that James Robinson brought to the table such as more racial diversity and inclusivity of more LGBTQ characters (which was admittedly lacking on the original Earth-Two) and keep it set to the present.

But I would also bring back the concept of aging Superheroes who married their iconic love interests, had children with them, and semi-retired from superheroics in order to invest more time in their new lives. I felt that this grounded those characters more and made them a bit more relatable than the mainstream heroes.

On a similar note, I would also bring back the children of all of these heroes and reinstate Infinity Inc, which consisted entirely of second generation heroes who were descendants of the original Justice Society members. I would have definitely kept Huntress (Wayne) and Power Girl on Earth-2 where they belong and have them build their lives there as should be. I would have also left Fury’s original origin completely intact.