WARNING: The following contains spoilers for "Huntress" in Detective Comics #1035, by Mariko Tamaki, Clayton Henry, Jordie Bellaire and Aditya Bidikar, on sale now.
The Infinite Frontier era has seen Batman and his allies scattered and on the run from the law as Gotham City's new mayor decides the police force has aided and abetted the Caped Crusader's activities for far too long. And as the Bat Family struggles to acclimate to their new normal, one classic crimefighter and longtime ally has officially made her Infinite Frontier debut, with a new revenge mission as she returns to the streets of Gotham: Helena Bertinelli, the Huntress.
Getting back into the caped and cowled swing of things, Helena defends a woman named Mary Knox who lives in a particularly rough part of Gotham. Prone to regular walks of her house cat Doug, Huntress observes that Mary has been robbed at least six times in her life, with Helena arriving on the scene just in time to stop a mugger that would've been the seventh. Helena warns Mary to stop putting herself in harm's way by going out at night but Mary resents living in fear in her own neighborhood and refuses to comply. Three months later, Helena discovers Mary murdered in a back alley and the Huntress vows to exact bloody revenge on those responsible, tracking Mary's stolen phone.
Unlike much of the Bat-Family -- save for Red Hood, of course -- Helena Bertinelli has been a hero that has not sworn off using lethal force to achieve her brand of justice, often putting her at odds with the Dark Knight himself. Helena's father was a high ranking mafioso in Gotham that was murdered along with her mother by the mob. Helena dedicated the rest of her life in revenge, using her family fortune to travel the world and train to become a lethal killer, often using a crossbow. Helena's stance on killing her enemies would flit back and forth, with her willingness to employ lethal force resulting in her summary expulsion from the Justice League when she attempted to kill Prometheus while he was already subdued.
Huntress has had a relatively complicated history herself lately, absent at the start of the New 52 era only for Helena to resurface as part of the clandestine organization Spyral and working with Dick Grayson after he temporarily retired his Nightwing persona. After leaving Spyral at the start of the subsequent DC Rebirth era, Helena assumed the mantle of Huntress and discovers her mother had orchestrated the massacre that claimed the rest of her family and faked her death in the confusion. It's unclear how much of this backstory remains moving into the Infinite Frontier era but Helena is back as Huntress and with revenge back at the forefront of her mind.
Without the rest of her usual allies on the Birds of Prey and the Bat Family scattered, Huntress appears to be on her own again as she embarks on a new vendetta. The vigilante is poised to gain her own set of superpowers at a dark price in the near future which may stem from her mission to avenge Mary. Helena Bertinelli has always been a hero that has been a bit of a loner, even when working work few fellow Birds or members of the Bat Family. And with Huntress intent on achieving bloody retribution, operating alone this time is just how she prefers it.
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