The Good
When the Huntress was first introduced following the start of the New 52 most readers were skeptical regarding which version of the Huntress this was an how she would fit into the continuity of the universe. Now, with the final issue of her mini in stores, do we know who the Huntress is? Well, we certainly have a better idea of what version of the Huntress we will be seeing at the start of Paul Levitz's upcoming WORLD'S FINEST, but we still don't know who she is. Is that a bad thing? Not exactly.
So let's go over what was good about this issue. Again, Marcus To's stunning pencils capture a graceful, agile, and very beautiful Helena. The landscape is gorgeous and overall tone of the book is consistent with previous issues. The comic is fun, high spirited and entertaining.
One of the things I really enjoyed about this issue is the Huntress's bravery and courage. She comes face to face with danger and practically spits in its face. Dodging bullets, sliding across cars and jumping off of a cliff -- all with a smile on her face. She loves what she does and she's happy to be doing it. Fighting for a cause she believes in. These are qualities that really made me appreciate her character and kept me hooked to the story, regardless of how careless and reckless some of her actions might be.
The Bad
The issue seemed to end rather abruptly and the villain seemed to go from extremely angry and vengeful to very, very afraid. Amalfi's son seemed to go from very hot to very cold and did not feel very consistent. Some of the scenes were also a little bit far fetched. One minute there is a billion-euro bounty on her head, yet it literally seemed as though getting into Amalfi's compound was a piece of cake. Additionally, why wouldn't he have anyone guarding his doors and windows? It's not as if he doesn't have the money to do it. It all seemed very easy for her and felt like it moved a little bit too quickly. It would have been great to see the character deal with bigger challenges.
Her identity also remains a mystery. Is she Helena Wayne or Helena Bertinelli? I understand this will be answered in the upcoming WORLD'S FINEST, but it also leaves me wondering what the point of this series has been. We've had six issues of Huntress running back and fourth beating up mobsters but at the end of the mini-series, she doesn't actually solve anything. She goes through all that trouble just to walk away from the situation after the bad guy "promises" to fix everything and to never traffic another young girl ever again? Really? How disappointing.
The Verdict
A lot of action that doesn't often add up makes me wonder why I bothered reading this series at all. What did I really gain from it? It didn't give me any insight into her character, didn't leave me with an answer as to her true identity and she literally let the villain walk away because he promised never to do all those bad things again. Sure, she had moments where she was depicted as a fierce, no nonsense, kick-ass chick; but at the end of the day she made some rather silly decisions that virtually undermined her character.
Marcus To, however, fails to disappoint. Impressive art, mediocre story. Perhaps Levitz will pay a little more attention to detail in his upcoming WORLD'S FINEST. I guess we'll have to wait and see.