Ivory Madison Hunts Huntress in "Year One"

[CBR News]

Writer, lawyer, entrepreneur and Bat-superfan Ivory Madison goes back to the scene of the crime and updates the origin of Helena Bertinelli in DC Comics' upcoming six-issue miniseries, “Huntress: Year One.”

http://www.comicbookresources.com/ne...m.cgi?id=13204

[EJS]

I'm looking forward to this.

[Mart]

What a fun interview, Ivory Madison (is that her real name?) sounds a smart, funny writer, and the mini series sounds more interesting than I thought.

But that intro needs a tweak, surely? Helena Wayne wasn't a love child, Batman and Catwoman were married. And I don't see that any of the Helenas count as a reboot of the Golden Age, villainous Huntress (renamed Tigress).

[TopJack1]

Wow. What an amazing ego.

Seriously, she couldn't be more impressed with herself and appears to have zero humility. For someone who's never has a comic book published to talk about how DC will undoubtedly want to publish her Batman spec script based the success of a mini-series that has yet to be published and how she deserves to write a Huntress ongoing comes across as someone full of hot air if not something more crude.

Not to mention she comes across as a vapid wri-TAH as opposed to someone who wants to write comic books.

What an elitist! And that name - Ivory Madison. Could there be a more white-bread name in existence?

I love the Huntress but, ugh, I can't support this contessa.

[Mart]

Wow. What an amazing ego.

Seriously, she couldn't be more impressed with herself and appears to have zero humility. For someone who's never has a comic book published to talk about how DC will undoubtedly want to publish her Batman spec script based the success of a mini-series that has yet to be published and how she deserves to write a Huntress ongoing comes across as someone full of hot air if not something more crude.

Dearie Lord, calm - I read all that with a wink in her voice.

Wow. What an amazing ego.

What an elitist! And that name - Ivory Madison. Could there be a more white-bread name in existence?

If the name's real, it's hardly her fault. If she chose it as a pen name, so what. You'd prefer her to be I Bling or something? (Mind, that sounds like a Wonder Woman writer.)

[carabas]

Oh dear...

She wants to incorporate elements of the old Earth 2 Helena Wayne Huntress, and turn her into a lawyer?

I'll skip this one, thank you very much, and hope it doesn't get acknowledged in 'real' continuity.

[CaptainCanada]

On a superficial note, she's hot.

I've been debating whether I'm going to buy this in singles or read it in trade. It sounds interesting; she's definitely a fan of the character (or characters, I suppose, since there are two Helenas).

Hypothetically, were she to get the chance to do the lawyer thing, that seems like it would make her very similar to Manhunter (although Earth-2 Huntress got there first). I like Helena as a teacher, though I can see how being a lawyer would tie more into the superhero job.

[Alexx1]

Hypothetically, were she to get the chance to do the lawyer thing, that seems like it would make her very similar to Manhunter (although Earth-2 Huntress got there first). I like Helena as a teacher, though I can see how being a lawyer would tie more into the superhero job.

Huntress has an equal disdain for cops/law enforcement as she does criminals. I think she sees them both as corrupt evils. Giving Huntress's past it makes more sense for her to go into the teaching profession to protect and perserve the very essence of what she lost as a child, her childhood. We've seen the lawyer turn vigalante story with Kate "Manhunter" Spencer. I hope Madison is successful with this series so that it may open the possibilty for a Huntress ongoing. Whether or not she's the perfect person to write it will remain to be seen. But I'll definitely be picking this mini-series up.

[CaptainCanada]

I could see the disdain for the system at the start (I mean, to a certain extent, every hero must have some frustration with it because they all work outside it), but she's mellowed out a lot since then (and you could always do the "try to change things" angle).

[Mia]

Her admiration/love of Huntress is nice. And unlike other writers she seems to have done her homework. I do have a problem with some of the things she said though.

She wants to chuck Batman's influence on Helena to become a Huntress. I don't like this at all.


And since when did Helena have a problem with male authority figures? She was protected and trained by two men to be a fighter! Why would she have a problem with male authority figures? I get the impression that she's borrowing here and there from past Huntress writers. I hope that she doesn't plan on bringing Calvieri's story where she was raped as a child back into existance!

I will probably be getting this, but with a bit of hesistation. I don't like the ret-conning out of some things--and frankly it seems to play into her feminist tendencies. Also--and I say this as woman who writes as a hobby--I just have not been impressed with female comic book writers. They just don't seem to 'get' what makes a hero or the point of what mainstream comics are all about. It seems it's either 'girly' or pseudo psychobabble trash.

It still boggles my mind that two of the three worst portrayals of Huntress I have ever seen were done by women. Devin Grayson and Gail Siomone who essentially turned her into a whore.

I admire Ms. Madison's love of the character. But we've all seen writers who claim to love a character, destroy that character and run them into the ground.

[Mia]

I could see the disdain for the system at the start (I mean, to a certain extent, every hero must have some frustration with it because they all work outside it), but she's mellowed out a lot since then (and you could always do the "try to change things" angle).

Helena's disdain (if you want to call it that) for the law, probably stems from her life in Sicily, where the cops/government were seen as the enemy. Also much like Batman, she's too independent & impatient to join the police force and follow orders. Another thing, being part of the Mafia and seeing how hard it's been for the cops to bring them down. She probably thought that she would do better as a vigilante crime fighter.

[Alexx1]

I could see the disdain for the system at the start (I mean, to a certain extent, every hero must have some frustration with it because they all work outside it), but she's mellowed out a lot since then (and you could always do the "try to change things" angle).

I don't want to be one of those fans who is so oppose to change with a character you've come to appreciate. I suppose anything is possible if it is written well and made believable. But given Huntress's past, who she is, and what she stands for, I think it's going to be a hard sell. And I don't personally view Huntress as mellowing out as much as she's learning to work with in the constraints of team work and under Bab's rules. Big difference to me. I still think there are times that her independent nature is itching to get out, how could it not, it's in her DNA. The great thing about a character like Huntress is she's always, constantly fighting against her self. I'm a little surprised that it hasn't caused a little more tension in BoP between her and Babs. Though I believe Tony Bedard showed a little of it in one of his BoP fill ins.

[OverMaster]

It still boggles my mind that two of the three worst portrayals of Huntress I have ever seen were done by women. Devin Grayson and Gail Siomone who essentially turned her into a whore.

Just out of curiosity, who did the third worst portrayal?

[Mia]

Just out of curiosity, who did the third worst portrayal?

In my eyes. Judd Winnick. Not only did he write her as your stereotypical 'psycho b*tch'. He also used the character as nothing but a 'mattress' to make Arsenal, his pet Marty Stu, look like a stud. I found the whole thing revolting.

[munniec]

It still boggles my mind that two of the three worst portrayals of Huntress I have ever seen were done by women. Devin Grayson and Gail Siomone who essentially turned her into a whore.

Just out of curiosity as well, what did Gail Simone do?