Someone's killing members of Gotham's major crime families, and leaving crossbow bolts in their bodies. So suspicion falls on Huntress, and she has to clear her name, with a little help from a certain "no-face" guy. Along the way, she learns a few unhappy facts about her past.
This came out in 2000, not too long after No Man's Land, but I didn't pick it up until spring of 2012. At that point, what I knew about Helena Bertinelli was essentially, she used a crossbow, she used lethal force sometimes, and Batman didn't like her because of that second thing, because only Batman's prepubescent son is allowed to get away with killing criminals.
Rucka and Burchett dive into her backstory more heavily, the ways in which her origin is tied up in crime, and the way her approach is informed by the people who taught her. The flashbacks chart her progress from a traumatized, terrified little girl staring with wide eyes, to a determined, angry (traumatized) young woman, looking out at the world through a scowl.
I don't know if the idea Helena was a guest at the dinner party Batman breaks up in Batman: Year One was something previously established, or something Rucka decided to add here. I guess it's a way for Batman to act as an inspiration, but it feels like too cute of a coincidence.
Inspiration or not, Helena got her combat training from a father/son pair of Mafia assassins, the notion of trusting the police to settle wrongs done against you and yours is laughable, and you answer blood with blood. Even if Helena perhaps reaches a point where she won't kill, that doesn't mean she's opposed to someone else doing the killing.
Which rather effectively blows apart the burgeoning relationship Rucka starts to establish between her and Vic Sage halfway through this story. Rucka's Sage is in a very different place than he was when Denny O'Neil and Denys Cowan left him. He's regained some of that inner peace, to where he's resumed trying to help others by investigating, digging for facts and truth, rather than just going around busting heads. Burchett often draws him with a largely unlined face. There's no anger or tension bubbling under the surface, but more often an amused smile. He's enjoying himself, and maybe trying to help Helena find something similar. It doesn't ultimately work out for them (not counting the Justice League Unlimited cartoon), but Helena gets to join the Birds of Prey later on, so she made a few connections eventually.
I'm generally neutral on Rucka's work, and my interest in Bat-family stuff is limited, but this mini-series has kept it's spot in my collection for over a decade so far, and I don't see it going away any time soon.
And with that, we're through the Hs! That means, between Sunday and Saturday Splash Page, we've covered 13 letters, so only half the alphabet to go! (Plus all the stuff I've added to the earlier letters since I finished them.)
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