Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Green Arrow and the Return of Helena Wayne/Bertinelli


Reason editor and Ron Paul’s Revolution author Brian Doherty may have addressed an Institute for Humane Studies crowd last night – and Atlas Shrugged Part II may be in theatres starting Thur./Fri. – but tonight the capitalist who matters is: Oliver Queen, head of Queen Industries.  Yes, superhero Green Arrow makes his solo live-action TV series debut tonight at 8pm Eastern on the CW show Arrow.  Leaving off the “Green” may indicate it’ll be hipper and more streamlined.  Maybe.

Other comics characters already slated to appear if the show survives include villainous archer Merlyn, Black Canary (destined to marry Green Arrow in the comics), Deadshot (from the semi-criminal team the Suicide Squad), and the Batman-like Huntress.  Interesting wrinkle with Huntress’s appearance: I blogged a while ago about there having been multiple versions of her because of DC Comics periodically revising their fictional universe, some named Helena Wayne (daughter of Bruce) and others named Helena Bertinelli (daughter of a mobster).  Well...

One decade ago, Helena appeared on the short-lived TV series Birds of Prey (as did Black Canary, making tonight’s show a bit of a reunion).  At the time, that meant that the TV Helena was the classic daughter-of-Batman version while the version appearing in the comics was the daughter-of-a-mobster version, Helena Bertinelli (though to complicate matters, the TV version was called Helena Kyle – after her mom, Selina Kyle, a.k.a. Catwoman).  As of tonight, the situation is reversed: Just one year after DC’s most recent reboot of the universe, it is Helena Wayne who appears in the current Worlds’ Finest comic book but Helena Bertinelli who appears as a character on TV’s Arrow.  The two (primary) incarnations of Huntress keep passing like ships in the night. 

Seriously, though, I trust you won’t be able to tell the difference.  For archery-oriented TV action purposes, the one thing likely to matter is that she wields a crossbow.  Let’s see if I make it through the whole hour.  

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