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People standing around in awkward poses and talking unnaturally is such an awsome storytelling device. Awesomely bad, that is.

Leaving aside the dodgey dialogue, precisely why are Batman and Catwoman perched on random pieces of masonry whilst indoors? And why does that Priest not have anything to say about all the vigilantes hanging out in his church?

Finally, the way Huntress' mask goes up through her hair is kind of stupid.

Right. Bitch over.

I like how Huntress is all, "Back off -- you're not my parents!! At least not anymore."

That dialogue is way too Tolkein.

OK, so I'm not really defending this sequence overall. For most of the reasons you cite, Brian, it's not good. But I dunno, it makes sense to me if Helena baptizes herself. Some people feel a strong connection to ritual, and she's Catholic (lapsed Catholic? recovering Catholic?), so it makes sense that Helena would to transform a centuries-long ritual her own way (that's in keeping with her character, I think), thus marking her rite of passage as she joins the ranks of the caped crusaders. It (probably) only seems especially melodramatic because of the way they laid out the beats of the dialogue: "I am ... THE HUNTRESS."

At any rate, bottom line is: I could make sense out of these pages, and I bet everyone else reading them here can too. Which means they're nowhere near as dreadful as those pages you posted from that Batgirl mini. Good god, that was impenetrable.

That's some terrible dialogue and the art is pretty ugly too, but I'm not sure if this approaches Batgirl #1 level horribleness.

Did we really need another origin for the Huntress?

Okay, so nothing is seriously going to contend with Batgirl’ #1s “Exposition Overload” for bad writing.

You haven't read the Hawkman Special, have you?

Post Crisis Huntress is on like her 3rd origin.....seriously....

sigh

this is what kills me about DC sometimes.

And now Batman knew who she was all along?

That retcons the whole 90's thing where only Tim and Dick knew her real name for a while (until or around NML).

Some awkward posing aside, I actually like the art. The figure work's solid and consistent, with just enough detail and rendering to tell the story without overwhelming it with hatching and minutia. Good stuff.

Cliff Richards, right?

Pretty clunky, but Batgirl #1 makes this look like Watchmen.

She tells Batman that she will "tolerate" him? WTF? And even more WTF is that Bats doesn't set her straight. I haven't read any of this, but from these pages, it sounds like Superman: Birthright in that it wasn't needed and will (probably) be shoehorned in without any explanation of exactly how previously published stories relate to the new "origin status-quo".

So why exactly is the church floor in such shambles? Glass, wood, broken columns... it didn't even look like anyone broke in.

When I saw Huntress: Year One solicited, I thought to myself, "Didn't Greg Rucka already write this?"

"Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood" was perfect in the way it did an origin story with an active present continuity story that also delved into the mythos of the Question. I'm assuming this limited series fell a little short of that.

Yeah Huntress doesn't need elaboration on her origin. The gist of it is so classic it was co-opted in Kill Bill. I've been disappointed by the new crop of Year Ones. The best Year One besides Batman is Batgirls'.

"You haven’t read the Hawkman Special, have you?" Thok

i just felt that needed to be repeated.

The amount of text, especially dialogue, is getting way out of hand in some of these books. I still haven't got past the first 5 or 6 pages of the Metal Men mini-series because of blahblahblah. JLA Classified was another example -- the ideas/plots seemed interesting but the pages were just so dense with all the talking. And I haven't started on that Rann/Thanagar Holy War thing, but from flipping through a few pages, it looks like Starlin's on internal-monologue overdrive.

I'm not saying I want pages and pages of wordless action, but, c'mon, let's lay off the chatter. If we need endless explanations, chances are the story's not so well-thought out nor executed.

Yeah, I should have been clearer that this really doesn't come close to Batgirl #1.

It was just what this reminded me of.

I've never really liked Batman interacting with other heroes, especially in gotham, but isn't he a bit of a hard bastard about it to those that are there?
Like isn't saying to Batman 'I'll tolerate you' one of those things you say before he punches you in the face?

Bit of a case of putting Batman down to boost Huntress up (because it's her series).

Some awkward posing aside, I actually like the art. The figure work’s solid and consistent, with just enough detail and rendering to tell the story without overwhelming it with hatching and minutia. Good stuff.

Cliff Richards, right?

Yeah, that's him. I liked the artwork, too!

I actually enjoyed much of Huntress Year One. It started off pretty dodgy, but a lot of the middle section really worked for me. This ending, though, was awful. Batman and Catwoman randomly show up to see Huntress beat up the guy who killed her parents, Batman stands by and passively watches her cut the guy's tongue out, and then everybody politely follows her to church so she can baptize herself. It's narratively flawed, the dialogue is very awkward, and characterization takes a backseat to a dramatic ending image. I'm not sure I'd rank it as bad as Batgirl's insanely massive info dump, though.

I'm sorry but no way does this beat the "Batgirl" line about killing Lynx, then bring her back, and killing her again..

I followed this mini-series all the way through, and honestly, at the time it didn't seem too bad (however many days ago that was). Sure the artwork was shift, inexpressive, and confusing (the issue where Huntress kills the guy by pinning him to wall took me five minutes to make sense of), but the scripting was dreadful. It was ham-fisted and seemed to be all over the map -- they introduce Mandragora as the mastermind behind the killings in a way that suggests they weren't aware of the character until that issue and tried to sandwich him in as though that was the plan all along.

The only good points were the Batman and Catwoman appearances, at least up until the end which really seemed to beat their presence in Huntress's life over the head, and the fact they retconned in the second Huntress costume in as her original. Unless they did that in the Rucka mini-series, which I didn't read (but from the sounds of things, I probably should have instead of following this one).

I agree with the person who said the only great Year One's have been Batman and Batgirl. The recent crop has been very disappointing.

Have a good day.
John Cage

Oh, those I-tals! They love Catholicism!

I’m sorry but no way does this beat the “Batgirl” line about killing Lynx, then bring her back, and killing her again..

Of course it doesn't, Bertone, that's established in the first sentence.

I actually enjoyed much of Huntress Year One. It started off pretty dodgy, but a lot of the middle section really worked for me. This ending, though, was awful. Batman and Catwoman randomly show up to see Huntress beat up the guy who killed her parents, Batman stands by and passively watches her cut the guy’s tongue out, and then everybody politely follows her to church so she can baptize herself. It’s narratively flawed, the dialogue is very awkward, and characterization takes a backseat to a dramatic ending image. I’m not sure I’d rank it as bad as Batgirl’s insanely massive info dump, though.

I have to say that the fact that other parts of the series WERE pretty good is actually what made this stand out all the more to me.

And John, yes, Cry for Blood is actually a good mini-series. One of Rucka's best DC works. Well worth tracking down.

As for good Year Ones, if you enjoyed Batgirl Year One, I think you'd enjoy Robin Year One AND Nightwing Year One, as both of them were by Dixon (who did Batgirl Year One).

My favorite recent Year One was Green Arrow Year One by Diggle and Jock - that was an amazing ride.

The first two issues read the same way.

Dude, Metal Men is wordy but Metal Men is worth it. It's not expositional and it serves the story. The dialogue in this Huntress piece is clunky, theoretical and abstract to the point that it's removed from the story itself, and it's loaded with unnecessary exposition. But words are not a bad thing. Remember the Shade's journal, from the Starman? Sometimes it's just about patience. Not every comic meant to be thumbed through.

Silly rabbit, you can't baptize yourself ...you need to make an appointment!!! And pay up front! The Catholic Church ain't running a charity, don't you know!

Then again, maybe that's one of those "new wave" progressive catholic churches. You know... the type that keeps a Garygoyle statue handy so that Batman has a place to perch up. I know Sister Mary Stigmata would've had a cow if he had landed on one of the Saints, but... if you are going to steal from the Blues Brothers, steal the best parts! Besides, seeing the other "Penguin" go after The Batman with a ruler would've been well worth the price of admission!

It's really REALLY bad, but honestly, it seems like a run of the mill modern DCU proper comic to me. By DC standards, I'd say it was average. Which is why I don't read much DCU proper.

Still think the first post-Crisis Huntress series was way better than this... Made more sense too...
They could have just re-drawn that...

Another great case for ignoring/avoiding DC and its pointless minis altogether.

Who is that Monkeywoman perched on the column? Have we seen her before? Does she have any nifty dung-flinging powers?

That is a pretty impressive prehensile tail she's got there, isn't it?

Catwoman totally looks like a monkey in those pages. I guess we're just spoiled after years of watching Adam Hughes draw her in the awesome leather outfit that, you know, an actual cat burglar might conceivably wear.

Forgive me for being obtuse, but is she supposed to be taken over by a ghost or something? Why is she talking like that? And why isn't she using contractions?

It's bad, but Batgirl #1 is better. Dig out New Titans #79 (#80?) and you might have a contender.

Ivory Madison should have never been given a series. Esp. since she's retreading a story that's already been ably told by Greg Rucka no more than a few years ago. I don't think the world was clamoring for ANOTHER Huntress origin story that badly, esp from a no-name comic scribe (hate to say it, but that's what she is).

I really was expecting a Jake Blues revelation moment in there somewhere...

"I'm on a mission from God!"

"I'm 50 miles from Gotham, I've got a full tank of gas, half a packet of quarrels, it's dark and I'm wearing body-armour.... Hit it!"

This would work as a dream sequence. Or maybe a Shakesperean play.

The baptism thing is kinda cool... or at least *potentially* cool, but what gets me is that Batman feeds her a completely unmotivated straight line. "I know who you are" seems to come out of nowhere. Unless it's a plot point that Helena didn't know that Batman knew her identity before then. But if that's the case, then the fact needs to be highlighted *more*.

Maybe it's a musical and this is the big finale. It might work like that.

By the way, Huntress is totally a contralto.

Wait a second...

Did someone say "CLIFF RICHARD"?!?!?!?!?!??!?!

The singer!??!?!

Why hasn't he been doing comics instead for the last 50 years????

Screw "Mistletoe and Wine"!!!

(Joke by the way)

Well, at least she's not wearing that terrible Jim Lee designed costume.

But, yeah, pretty awful ...

Any issue with Cir-El in it (excluding S/B 5).

Hey Batman, why not go fight some crime instead of standing around watching Huntress tossing water on herself?

Said it before, say it again... reading DC continuity is like reading pre-glanost Pravda.

The only way this could have been worse is if she had said "I am the Goddamn Huntress."

It has to be said, because no one else has, that my favorite Post-Crisis Huntress origin is the very first one, as she was working out being a member of Justice League America and Justice League International.

She wasn't even really a Batman character then, which really works for me, all given and all told.

@wwk5d

Actually, that would have made it so much better.