Helenaween #3 - Batman Family #19

June / July 1978

16th March 1978

Batman Family #19

Gotham Town Is Burning Down

Previously in Batman Family #18, ethical lawyer and superhero Helena Wayne, aka Huntress, was investigating fires in Southern Gotham when she found a small child being bribed to set bombs...

Issue 19 picks up almost the point of the previous issue, though Huntress has had time to change back into her costume. She finds a bomb maker in an abandoned house, but before she can be identified, Helena is shot at, and they flee in a car.

Back at her day job, we get Helena doubting her place, Cranston trying to talk her around, and Roger saying she should go! So only two issues in and it's business as usual! But we're soon back into the plot as Roger says he backs Councilman Greshman's plans to stop the fires and fix South Gotham. In a rare moment, Roger and Helena agree that maybe allying themselves with the councilman might actually be a good idea.

Because it seems too good to be true, obviously it's too good to be true, or at least that's what Helena works out watching Greshman being interviewed on telly whilst she's working out in a leotard. It's a very seventies look and actually pretty tasteful, not that much worse than her bestie Pee Gee wears in heroic work. We don't get what she figures out, but it involves rebuilding Gotham's Southside and the federal money that would bring in! Guess that will change by the late 90s when (post-Crisis) Gotham is written off as a lost cause!*

Looking for clues to back up her theory, Huntress goes to break into the Councilman's office, apparently waiting six hours as Roger and the Councilman natter away; what they're talking about is not clear. Not being quite as sneaky as her dad, as her attempts to get to the office's safe drawing the attention of the Councilman, she put up a fight, but not a massive one, before being knocked out. 

We do, however, get a look at these cool throwing discs she uses. We never get a name for them here, but I guess Huntress-a-rangs isn't as cool-sounding as Batarang!

And that it! It's the middle issue, so it moves parts of the plot on whilst setting things up for the next final issue of this three-parter. Which brings my final, interesting (I promise) observation. Unlike later comics, this era doesn't telegraph that this is a three-part issue, so the reader doesn't know how long the story will last. It's interesting to muse how readers of the town considered the fact that they didn't know when a story would end!

* For the one person who doesn't know that would be in No Man's Land.