The Goddess and the Huntress: Diana and DC’s Helena Bertinelli

In 1989, the Sequential Artist Joseph Cavalieri, a graduate with a BFA in Media Arts from the School of Visual Arts, created a new version of a pre-existing DC character, the Huntress, who in his reboot was renamed Helena Bertinelli. Cavalieri worked her into a new noirish mythos, connected to the world of the mafia and centered on the concept of vendetta. The author’s thesis is that many of the features of Helena Bertinelli reverberate with themes connected to the Italic deity Diana, not the least of which is the very codename the DC character adopts: the Huntress. Both share the quality of impressive skill with the bow, both appear in costumes that hide their true identities, both are lovers of solitude and isolated places, and both possess the traits of irascibility and vindictiveness. In sum, this chapter endeavors to connect the Italian American character—through her Italian American creator—to a heritage deriving from the Italian peninsula.