Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Huntress Year One #6
DC Comics
Madison, Richards, Rapmund & Buhcman

Probably the best series of the year so far ends with a bang. This series has completely flown under the radar with the press grabbing Final Crisis, Secret Invasion, RIP and countless series and arcs out there now, but that doesn’t change the fact that it delivers on every single level. This issue doesn’t wrap up the story. No, instead it wraps some aspects of the arc, but leaves so much more open. Characters sit in the gray area between good and bad. It’s more than a super hero story or a mafia epic or a crime drama. It uses all of them, but it goes even deeper by taking aspects of religion and revenge, to name just a few, in crafting this masterpiece.

This issue brings a lot in the closing issue here so I will try to recap it briefly without spoiling too much. Huntress figures out the Mayor’s plan to get himself into the White House. She also figures out how the mob is mixed up in this along with Bruce Wayne. Obviously, she doesn’t know Bruce Wayne is Batman and that Batman is tracking this thing. Basically, Huntress is in the way.

Things get more dicey for Huntress when her love, Tony, the new mob boss, is revealed to be the one to execute the Mayor’s plan. Huntress alerts the main mob boss, The Pope, in Sicily and this brings another layer of deception into the comic. One final twist is the involvement of Omerta, the killer of Huntress’s family. He steps in to take out Tony. Complicated enough for you? Well, there is a lot more about who shows up and what their motives are but you got to read it for yourself.

I’m going to tell you some of the things I liked about the comic on a high level. First of all, Batman and Batgirl have great banter throughout the issue. Batman doesn’t chew up the scenery either which is a very good thing. Another excellent character in this issue is the Catwoman. The comic established great lines between Huntress and the Catwoman as well as Batman and Huntress. Plus, Batgirl is quickly put down a rung when it comes to these other two whenever more than one of them is on a given panel together.

Another aspect I like about this issue is the fact that Huntress doesn’t have everything figured out. She does some guessing. She isn’t a detective. Sometimes she guesses right and other times she just gets really lucky.

Lastly, I loved how Huntress remains a hero and still gets some gruesome revenge. She truly resides in that gray area that even Batman doesn’t fall in. It’s an excellent place for someone with such a crime ridden background that she has.

The artwork is outstanding. Huntress is dark with some many different shades to her costume it’s very impressive. Plus, the issue is light on blood, but when you see it you get some powerful images.

Do yourself a favor and find these issues or buy the trade when it comes out. Whether you like crime, The Godfather, Birds of Prey or just cool Year One stories then you probably will love this series. This thing may take place in Gotham and involve Batman, but he is such a small piece to this story it isn’t even funny. What a series!

5 out of 5 geek goggles