#131 The Huntress Podcast: Huntress: Cry for Blood #3

The Huntress Podcast is back to talk about Batman: Huntress Cry For Blood 3, where the creators of this story stop, slow things down, and analyze the true struggle and pain of Helena Bertinelli.  Contact us at www.thehuntresspodcast.com [e-mail]

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Huntress: Cry for Blood 3

Cover Date: August 2000

Writer: Greg Rucka

Artist: Rick Burchett

Colorist: Tatjana Wood with Seperations by Jamison

Letterer: Clem Robins

Associate Editor: Joseph Illidge

Editor: Dennis O’Neil

So Much To Learn, If She Is To Survive

Helena awakens in a cabin in Canada where a man introducing himself as Richard Dragon offers her tea and is repairing her Huntress costume. He says The Butterfly brought her to him. We can only assume he means the Question, who after all is the one that kicked her in the head last issue. Helena gets frustrated and threatens Richard before Vic Sage comes in. He comments that Helena’s anger is like looking in a mirror.

“We’ve come to know the world through violence and rage. We wear masks to hide from ourselves as much as others.” Then he reveals he is the Question and formally introduces himself to her. She quietly does the same.

Meanwhile in Gotham, Tim Drake/Robin is meeting with Barbara Gordon aka Oracle. Tim doesn’t believe the Huntress is the killer; it’s too sloppy and she’s too smart for this. Barbara is skeptical but Tim insists they have to learn the truth. 

Back at the cabin, Vic explains that Richard can teach Helena how to live, not just how to not die. Vic understands how isolated Helena is and that if she returns to Gotham now, she’ll soon be dead or be forced to kill. Leaving her to think, Vic tells Richard he’s returning to Gotham - he’s got some questions.

In Gotham, Tim returns to Barbara with newspaper clippings from Helena’s past. They acknowledge that while Helena and Bruce both lost their parents at 8, in Helena’s case all the Bertinelli’s in the city were systematically eliminated, whether they were in the mafia or not. The real question is why and why Helena was left alive.

Helena is doing Tai Chi with Richard. He explains, “Passion and rage as fuel. Fear and vengeance as destination. And the faster you move, the more your past drags at you, the more of you that breaks away.” She needs to remember to breathe.

As Helena trains she acknowledges to herself that she lost her breath long ago, She’s been running scared her whole life, trampling anyone or anything that gets in her way. But blood cries for blood and her family’s is calling for her. How dare she refuse that?

Later inspecting her costume, she tells Richard how the Huntress scares her. He says she should, that Huntress is a killer. But also that Helena no longer needs to don the mask, to be someone else. She already is the Huntress.

Vic finally returns to take Helena back to Gotham. She seems calmer and more at peace. As the two walk down the mountain, Vic lets her know he stopped by Helena’s apartment to help out with bills and chores and noticed it’s being watched.  She’s not surprised.

As they sit at a little town’s bus stop, Vic asks her to tell the story of how she became the Huntress. Helena says: “It started in Sicily…”