Helenaween #4 - Batman Family #20

October / November 1978
13th July 1978

Batman Family #20
Trial by Fire
Previously in Batman Family #19. Figuring out that Councilman Gresham is involved in the fires in South Gotham, she goes to investigate only to be rendered unconscious...

Huntress wakes up inside a burning building, as escapable deathtraps hadn't quite fallen out of style yet. Whilst bound in a burning building, Helena takes time to recap the story so far. To be fair, she does also escape her bounds and uses her crossbow to break the barred window.
Lounging around in a dressing gown after a shower, a more egregious showing of flesh after last issue's leotard, she goes over what she knows. Or at least that Gresham, who she's figured is the arsonist, he probably knows that mild-mannered lawyer Helena Wayne is also the Huntress. Showing her frustration by throwing a knife at (hopefully) her own wall.
Because of this, we cut to a week later with Gresham coming out of hiding, apparently waiting to see if Huntress was dead, because tomorrow, Federal authorities will tour South Gotham. Huntress is following him around, considering that this will be where he proves that Gotham needs the money.

During the tour, he falls through the floor of a tenement, something apparently planned by Huntress. 

Apparently, during the previous twenty-four hours, Huntress watched the Councilman and his associate planting the explosive devices (one of Acme's finest). Unforately, this was all off-screen, as we're in the final issue.

He plays dumb until this revelation, though alas, we don't get a final villain's reveal as the firebox goes off when dropped, and Gresham is burned up in the resulting fire.

Though dead, it seems he gets his wish as the funds are given to Gotham, with a promise that the first building will be named in his honour after what appears, according to Gotham's finest investigation, an accidental death. Though we're talking Gotham PD, so how deeply they investigated we'll never know!

It's unfortunately a little underwhelming as we don't get any reasons why he was doing it this way, or Huntress really showing her abilities. It's a little rushed, which to my eye suggests that this was meant to be a longer story cut short for whatever reason.

That's because this is the last issue of Batman Family, due to the Implosion, a Batman comic was due for the chop, and whilst Batman Family was the better seller, it was pointed out that cancelling Detective Comics, the place of Batman's origins, was probably a bad idea!

Another victim of the Implosion was All-Star, with the JSA ending up in Adventure Comics, where, among other stories, we see the end of Earth-2 Batman (Adventure #461-466).  This wasn't the end of Huntress, and she'll appear again in Wonder Woman, where we pick her up next...

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