Fitzgerald 1 Ashlee Fitzgerald Ms.

Bell English 4 Period 5 26 August 2013 Comic Book Research: Huntress Comic Books are part of the American Culture. Even though they are not as popular as they were when they started out comic books are still apart of American history. Like people comic book trends had there ups and downs. HISTORY OF COMIC BOOKS: Comic book started in the Scotland around 1825, nearly 200 years ago. The comic book was called The Glasgow Looking Glass. The comic was later changed to The Northern Looking Glass. Another early comic was in 1827 in Switzerland by Rudolphe Tpffer. In 1837 he created The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck. It was the first comic book published in the United States. The first female to create a comic book was Brenda Starr. Her comic book was named after her. The book was published on June 19, 1940. The first real comic strip was The Yellow Kid, published in 1895 by Richard Felton in Joseph Pulitzers The New York World. There is five different ages of comic books: Golden, Silver, Bronze, Iron, and Modern (Bellis, Mary). Golden age was between 1938 and 1956. Comic books prospered after Jerome Siegal and Joseph Shuster created the super hero of the name of Superman. In 1939 DC comics presented Batman. Other superheroes such as Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Flash were created in the 1930s by DC. Marvel created Human Torch and Captain America around the same time. Comic books really boomed during WWII. DC had the New Deal and a strong federal government portrayal to emphasize an interest in public welfare (Bellis, Mary). Marvel was more

Fitzgerald 2 on the patriotism side of the cause of WWII by creating Captain America. The comic showed Captain America punching Adolf Hitler in the face. The Golden Age end after WWII and did the withdrawal of Captain Marvel and Plastic. The Silver Age was from 1956 to 1971. After WWII the comic book industry lost readers and publishers due to television, purpose, investigations into the culture influence of comic book industries, mostly the horror ones. Dr. Fredric Werthams The Seduction of the Innocent was hit the hardest. It was accused of corrupting the youth with violence (Bellis, Mary). After the attacks on Wertham a comic book code was made to protect the industry and win back there readers. At the beginning of the 1960s the comic book industries were starting to recover. Now comic books were based on the Vietnam War. Marvel now came out with characters like Superman and the Hulk, who had some kind of weakness or defect. DC created the Justice League of America, in reaction to DC Marvel created the Fantastic Four. The Bronze Age was from 1971 to 1980. Artist began to do experimentation with colors and page presentations. Comic book sales still began to decline. While they were still declining DC and Marvel released their characters to television shows to save what the created. The Iron Age was from 1980 to 1987. Iron Age was where there were numerous superheroes deaths. The deaths of Captain Marvel, Batman, and Rorschach happened in the Iron Age. In 1992, Superman died in his lover Louis Lanes arms. That made DC having to rewrite the history of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Modern Age is 1987 to the present. Spiderman and X-Men began to get new issues. 1990s became top collector items and had fewer buys but were willing to buy more and pay more. HISTORY OF HUNTRESS:

Fitzgerald 3 The Huntresss parents are Franco Bertinelli of the Mafia family in Gotham City and Maria Panessa Bertinelli. He frequently beat her but never touched her face. Her mother had an affair with a man named Santo Cassamento and became pregnant. Franco knew it wasnt his and continued to beat her. She was pregnant with Helen Rosa, Huntress. Helena grew up for eight years without knowing that mafia criminal dealing was going on. At eight her father, mother, and brother were killed at the dinner table by Mandragora (Wikia). Her real father wanted Helena to be spared. But Santo was referring to the mother, Maria. After the death of her family she went to live with her Uncle Tomassos nephew, Salvatore Asaro. She was taking to Sicily, Italy where she would be kept safe. She was terrified, and stayed there for many years. While she lived there she watched her family train and rehearsed with weapons and hand to hand combat. Along with living there she had nightmares and her cousin told here that the only person that can help her is herself. Her cousin told her to put an end to those who killed her family, which in in the comic book blood cries for blood. Her cousin taught her how to fight. She trained till about fifteen when she started boarding school in Switzerland to protect her from the Italians that were hunting the Mafia. Helena realized that what was said about the Mafia was a lie (Wikia). When she was sixteen she headed back to Gotham city and spent Christmas with her uncle. During dinner Batman came crashing in and they all started fighting. She went back to Switzerland for school and while there she went back to her house in Sicily and constructed a costume, took a cross bow. Also a number of weapons for her revenge on her families killer. She returned as the Huntress. Huntress found the killers and abolished them. She began a romantic relationship with Nightwing while working with a police officer with connections to the Mafia.

Fitzgerald 4 Huntress also was Batgirl at the same time in No Mans Land but batman told her to give up and he gave Cassandra Cain the Batgirl outfit. Huntresss other identities are: Sicilian, Robin, Mafia Princess, and Iron Owl. In the Golden Age her real name was Paula Brooks. In the Bronze Age she was the daughter of Batman and Catwoman with the real name of Helena Wayne. Helena Bertinelli is the Modern Age Huntress. Huntress soon found out that her real father was Santo who was responsible for her familys death but was already killed by her uncle Tomassos men. Batman Found her a new costume and a bike. After that she saved Batmans life and he never thanked her. She joined the Birds of Prey and served with the Outsiders. Then about three months later left the outsiders. She became a field leader with Black Canary and redesigned her costume to cover her whole body. HISTORY OF THE WRITER: Chuck Dixon is the writer of Blunt Trauma, a story about the earthquake in Gotham City Staring the Huntress and the Spoiler. He is an American comic book writer best known for his Punisher titles. He grew up in Pennsylvania reading all kinds of comic books. His earliest comic works was writing Evangeline for Comico Comics in 1984. He wrote back up stories for Marvel Comics The Savage Sword of Conan (comic vine). In 1986 he worked for Eclipse Comics writing Airboy. In 1987 he wrote Valkyrie. He also helped with The Hobbit. In 1990 he was asked to produce the Robin mini-series by Denny ONeil. Which spawned two sequels called The Jokers Wild and Cry of the Huntress. He worked on Detective Comics number six hundred and forty four through seven hundred and thirty eight through the major Batman stories KnightFall and KinghtEnd he helped create the villain Bane during those, DC One Million, Contagion, Legacy, Cataclysm, and No Mans Land. For DC Comic he helped with Batgirl, Batman, Batman: Bane of the Demon, Batman: GCPD, Batman: Leatherwing,

Fitzgerald 5 Batman And The Outsiders, Birds of Prey, Booster Gold, Catwoman v1, Connor Hawke: Dragon's Blood, Detective Comics, Green Arrow v2, Joker: Devil's Advocate, Justice Riders, Manbat, Nightwing, Richard Dragon, Robin, Robin limited series, Robin II limited series, Robin III limited series, Robin: Year One with Scott Beatty, Rush City, Batgirl: Year One with Scott Beatty, Nightwing: Year One, The Conjurors, and Psyba-rats (comic vine). SUMMARY OF BLUNT TRAMA: Stephanie Brown along with her boyfriend Dean are at the mall when the earthquake hits destroying Gotham, with Stephanie disobeying Robin's orders to lend a hand to the people who needed help as Spoiler, while somewhere else several villains are escaping Blackgate prison including her father. The fugitives then head for the mall in order to gain citizen clothes so they can blend into the mayhem of Gotham. As the Spoiler, she prevents the looting taking place in the mall. However she's forced to run to save a little girl, who is retrieving the toy she dropped, but ends up falling only to be saved by the now arriving Huntress. However both their attention is drawn by gunfire, stopping the Baffler as the other inmates continue changing. Cluemaster seeing the Spoiler and recognizing her as Stephanie then orders the escapees to leave. As they prepare to leave Firefly disappears having went to set fire to the lower level of the mall drawing the Huntress's attention. Cluemaster then has everyone begin carrying money out from the Gotham savings and loans, as Spoiler and Huntress arrive on scene, making Cluemaster assault the two female superheroes. After defeating him they try and capture the escaping escapees while dealing with the returned Chubbs out to murder Cluemaster. Stephanie then tries to capture her father who is for the time being saved by the RatCatcher, but lets her father get away for fear of the Huntress murdering him as Stephanie helps the injured Huntress out of the mall. Then the police and emergency unit come and help everybody.

Fitzgerald 6 PERSONAL REVIEW: I dont read comics but I did enjoy the one I read about Huntress. The comic she is in are great. The one I read felt so real. Too bad comic arent like books where they are longer with more details. I like how Huntress saved The Spoiler from falling when the Spoiler was helping a little girl that had fallen. There should be a book with them too about their lives growing up because they are much alike. They both were Batgirl and Robin at one time in the superhero world. Huntress the female superhero I like. Shes a good superhero working with the other superheroes fighting everyday crime in Gotham City. She is strong and willing to fight bad guys. She is so brave she went after the people that killed her family. The graphics in the comic book were very detailed and colorful. I might just have to read more comic books. I think if Huntress was a real person we would get along very well. We seem to be alike. The story line seems like it could really happen. How there was an earthquake. How people needed help. Only thing missing is superheroes. In way our world does have superheroes. Our superheroes would be like fireman, paramedics, and police officers. I wish our world had real superheroes like the Huntress or superman. Families getting separated, either by death or something falling in between them leaving them with no way to get to each other. Until the whole mess is over with and they are reunited. I dont think if there were to be a big earthquake like that that a prison would break open like it did in the story. If it was possible that an earthquake could do that it would be pretty scary. The city if were to happen in would be a mess.

Fitzgerald 7 Huntress overall from what Ive read and researched seems to be a good comic book series. She doesnt seem to be that well known in the world but she deserves to e know worldwide.

Fitzgerald 8 Works Cited Bellis, Mary. "The History of Comic Books." About.com Inventors. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2013. History, Random. "A History of the Comic Book." A History of the Comic Book. N.p., 18 Mar. 2008. Web. 28 Aug. 2013. "Huntress." (Helena Rosa Bertinelli). Sixtyfour, 07 May 2008. Web. 28 Aug. 2013. Itv.com. "World's Oldest Comic Book Traced to Scotland." ITV News. N.p., 23 June 2013. Web. 28 Aug. 2013. Wikia. "Huntress." Wikia.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Aug. 2013.

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