About Heroes

Author: Ivory Madison
Penciler: Cliff Richards
Inker: Art Thibert
Colors: Jason Wright
Cover: Mathew Clark

Damn, it seems everyone in DC is getting a Year One, so when is Booster Gold Year One going to get here? Before I start the review I can’t begin to tell you how upset I was when I opened the comic and found out Mathew Clark was not drawing the inside of the book. Nothing against Richards, but Clark’s artwork has something unique about it that I can’t get enough of. So, yes I loved the cover.

The story starts off with a 20 year old Helena Bertinelli living in Sicily. She is in hiding because she is the last survivor of her family, who were hunted by rival mobs in Gotham. Much like Bruce Wayne, she witnessed the death of her parents and the death of her older brother while eating dinner. While living with the Asaro family she learned to fight under Salvatore and eventually became a huntress. Now, it seems that Helena wants to repay those lessons by breaking him out of jail.

I really didn’t think there was a point to this book, let alone six issues worth of the Huntress’ first year. Don’t get me wrong I have been a fan of The Huntress since I first encountered her in the 3rd Robin miniseries, but you can get all the back stories you want by buying Huntress: Cry for Blood. However, if you don’t want to hunt down that trade, then this is a pretty decent read. Sure it had tons over the top voice over captions and the flashbacks were confusing at times (not sure if that’s the artist’s or writer’s fault), but it still kept my interested and I wanted to keep reading more by the end.

The art gets the job done, but it really doesn’t stand out from the rest. The transitions between scenes felt a little cluttered and to be honest I couldn’t tell how old Helena was supposed to be during the boar flashback. Maybe Sal likes em’ a lil young. I do have to say that his facial expressions and panel laying are done really well. . I’m glad they got Thibert to clean up the art; he is by far one of the best inkers working today. I would also like to point out that Wright’s colors are simply amazing; he really made those flashback scenes have a Batman: Year One feel to them. Even though the dialogue seems really clichéd, if you don’t know much about Huntress’ origin this book will keep you entertain. B-