Review: Grayson, Futures End #1

Spoilers under cut:

Why I Support The Changes to Helena Bertinelli

Let me preface this essay by first off, introducing you to my friend.
This is my friend, Lariza.



(She's on the right).

Now Lariza is a smart girl who is currently majoring in anthropology at UCLA. She also happens to speak three languages: English, Tagalog, and Italian.

And she speaks Italian because, well, she's Italian herself.

She's both a Filipina and Italian, and she was born and raised in Milan, and used to live there, up until a few years ago. That's when her parents decided to move her and her family to California. She now lives in the US and goes to school here, but she still fondly thinks of Italy as home.

In addition to this, there's also another, current, Milan resident to consider.

His name is Mario Balotelli.

 

Helena first meets Dinah Lance in issue #9 of the Black Canary series of 1993.

From the first issue, we can see that Helena was aware of who Dinah was, and is eager to be friends with her. 

Dinah on the other hand, is a bit more reluctant to reciprocate the affections (it must be coz of all dat spiky hurr). However, she eventually comes around. 

The origin of their lifelong friendship began in this issue, and we see how it was easy for the two of them to make this transition, and to build upon their relationship, in Birds of Prey.

It’s also quite sad that these two women are no longer in the DC universe as we know it, and that this wonderful relationship is one of the many things missing from the current status quo.

Helena Avenges One of Her Students

In an arc that spanned two issues, Helena Bertinelli’s love of children is once again, on display, as she investigates why one of her charges (David Stone) came to school with a black eye and bruises all over his face.

It turns out these bruises were administered to David by his father, Walker, a man who also happens to be a survivalist in the Timothy McVeigh vein. After David is beaten to death by his father and Helena comes across his lifeless body (in a scene that eerily mirrors her own, tragic origins), Helena vows to avenge the boy.

And she does so while learning her own lessons, and more about herself in the process. In the end, she gains wisdom out of this tragic episode, and then passes it onto their students, in hopes that they can somehow avoid falling into similarly cataclysmic fates.

Helena saves Tora Olafsdotter's life

From Helena’s stint in the JLI. Here, Helena saves Ice (Tora Olafsdotter) after the JLI crew ends up in the Pacific ocean, after Maxwell Lord manages to somehow lose his island to Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. This scene is remarkable, due to the fact that Helena is often described as reckless and recluse, with little regard for the people who get in her way as she crusades for justice.

Those descriptors were especially prevalent of Helena, as she began her foray into vigilantism. Yet here we have an instance of Helena fighting off a deadly jellyfish in order to save a human life. Also worth mentioning is that in later scenes, Helena is seen tending to Tora as they are stranded on a raft and Tora recovers from a jellyfish’s sting.

Through these panels, it is shown that though Helena had been broken, as both a victim of sexual and physical violence, the light of humanity still shone through those broken shards. Losing everyone you have and suffering a great deal instills a drive in you, that makes you determined to ensure that other people, won’t suffer the same way you have.

And that’s what drives Helena to not only save Tora, but to fight on behalf of others as well.

25 Days of Helena

On my Tumblr blog, I've been starting a 25 day celebration to honor Helena Bertinelli's unofficial birthday. You can find the posts here.

The one thing that immediately grabs me here is Helena's ability to discern between accents. Perhaps she just asked Yasmine that question knowing full well which region of the world she was in, and the history of the locale. Or perhaps she also asked this question knowing the ethnic tensions that have existed between the Turks, the Greeks, and the Kurds, and was maybe trying to stir the pot a little, while also trying to ween out information about the arms dealer.

Either way, that little revelation is a testament to Helena's ability to do research, and to retain information she can use at later intervals.

What's also remarkable about this scene is how firm and confident she is when giving her ultimatum to Yasmine. The fact that she delivers it so calmly and methodologically is a testament to how much she's grown at a person by this point, but Helena also delivers it, knowing she can also make due on her threats, thanks to the fact that she's patched up and has the world's most powerful information broker, on her side.

Birds of Prey #87