How important is the Bat Family to Bruce Wayne? What happens when the old enemies return and take them out in the most cruel way possible? Where does Bruce’s story go from there? These questions seem to be the focus of Batman’s newly returned Tommy Elliot: Hush 2.
Currently, three issues, Hush 2 focuses more heavily on the Robbins, particularly Jason Todd, Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne. This is not surprising, as the Bat Family has grown much bigger since the original Batman: Hash in 2002. But with Tommy Elliott back, there’s a reason Robbins is a bigger deal.
“(Hush 2) evolved from us talking together about what we want to do,” author Jeph Loeb told DC Comics Q&A. “The best way to explain that is to set the stage for how Batman deals with not just Hash, but the entire Bat family.”
According to Loeb, the original Hush focused more on how Batman treats various members of his Rogues gallery. For the sequel, Robe and artist Jim Lee want to explore how Batman deals with individual members of his Bat family. Additionally, Loeb and Lee confirm that Hush 2 is set to current DC continuity. That is, it’s based on all the storylines that’s been happening so far. But that’s not all that Loeb and Lee have confirmed.
“I think we saw from the beginning that Talia plays a big role,” Loeb confirmed in the same Q&A. “We’re not just doing cameos here. When someone shows up, you know that it means something.”
When discussing Damian’s role in Batman #160 this week, Loeb teases him very embarrassingly that Damian might not survive Hash. Loeb ominously confirms that he and Lee are “intentionally doing something about this Robin issue.”
While Robe’s comments seem to suggest Robin Culling, another comic of the Dawn of the DC era already shows that Robins Batman might be losing in the future: America of Jeff Johns and Mikel Janine’s Justice Society: A New Golden Age.
JSA: The New Golden Age confirmed that Robbins will leave the Bat Family
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One-shot of the New Golden Age of 2022 depicted a future in which the birth of the original Huntress was considered the daughter of the major Earth Batman and Catwoman. In the same future, Helena was shown to be Wayne Manor’s only child, completely unaware of her father’s other Robin. She didn’t even know about her brother, Damien (in the main Earth Continuity). She finds out that she has a father inside the mansion after making a mistake intruder.
After learning that her father is Batman, Bruce tells Helena about the other Robbins, and Helena asks why they chose a life of crime warfare alongside the Dark Knight. This revelation angered Selina. Although Selina hasn’t seen what happens to each one, she suggests that Bruce ultimately left them behind after each of the horrifying events from the past caused a “break.” In this case, she named Stephanie Brown, Tim Drake and Damian Wayne as victims of Bruce’s crime-fighting lifestyle. Additionally, only Dick Grayson is present at Batman’s own funeral.
Helena Wayne’s future was erased as a result of actions per Degaton in the “New Golden Age,” but this does not mean that Robbins is safe. As Robe and Lee have already confirmed to “fix” the Robin issue, fans have a pretty good idea of who the target is, given what has already happened with the main continuity. Outside of Nightwing and Damien (who has an ongoing storyline in the main DCU), other Robins like Jason Todd, Stephanie Brown and Tim Drake have been pretty undirected for a while.
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Even when these Robbins won their own ongoing series, they were not given a bold or conclusive story about the caliber of Scott Snyder and Greg Capro’s Batman: The Owl Court, or the acclaimed Nightwing Run of Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo. Similarly, when these characters appeared in the book of Flagship Batman, it was often in supportive roles and rarely a substantial role. This tells a lot more to Batman, who has more companions than DC has a real storyline. So it makes sense that Robe and Lee will help regain the hash and reduce the size of the bat family.
From a narrative standpoint, culling Robin’s excess would make Hush a more impactful villain than in the past, especially if some Robins were killed in the process. In doing so, Elliot is established as a more sadistic murderer, essentially offering him his iconic banne moment of “breaking the bat.” The fact that he is also a childhood friend of Blues would give his revenge arc a much stronger emotional weight. However, it remains to be seen what exactly happens to the Robbins in Batman: Hash 2.
Fans can speculate that Tim and Stephanie are likely to be x, but Loeb and Lee may choose to go on the shocking route, later in Hash 2 in 2026, perhaps sparring Jason and killing Damian. Wayne’s return to DCU. (In particular, she will already appear in Mark Waido’s Justice League unlimited “Quantum Quorum” storyline.)
Culling a bat family might restore Helena Wayne’s iconic status quo
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Not only is Helena returning as one of the Justice League recruits in the “Quantum Quorum” storyline, the story reportedly sets up an invasion of Apokolips. Waid is clearly inspired by the Bronze Age Justice League and Justice Society Crossovers, which makes it increasingly likely that he will run his own version of 1980’s “Apokolips Now!”. Justice League of America Storyline #183-185. It is also the storyline where Helena worked with Earth 1 Batman to defeat Apocolip.
While the only reason may not be that Waid will get Helena back to JLU, he may be trying to restore some versions of her original pre-crisis status quo (especially as he is also working on a new history of the DC Universe). Historically born from Earth 2, Helena was originally born into a small bat family consisting solely of Bruce Wayne, Serena Kyle, Dick Grayson and Alfred Beagle (Pennyworth of Earth 1). As Helena only had one “brother” in the form of a dick, she had no other competitors to continue her Batman legacy. She also did not have another huntress named “Helena” before her.
In Earth-2, an adult penis eventually took over the Blues as Gotham’s guardian in the 1960s, joining the Judicial Society in the same decade. This was also when Bruce was raising his daughter with Selina. Until 1977, Helena Wayne became a huntress who revenges her mother’s death at the hands of her former henchmen. She then revenges her father’s death two years later, after being killed by a common criminal called Bill Jensen as part of an ominous plan by a magician named Frederick Vaux.
Until the crisis against the endless Earth in 1985, Huntress was the sole guardian of Earth 2 Gotham, and Dick focused on his career abroad. Helena was also a lawyer romantically involved with the Gotham district attorney and worked with Power Girl (who also lived in Gotham on Earth 2).
Helena Wayne has come to regain her place with mainstream DC continuity as both the original Huntress and the original butt child that preceded Damian. Not only did the bat family evolve in a way intended to eliminate her, but Wayne was rebooted after Helena Bertinelli’s crisis. In fact, Wayne’s return at JLU might explain why Bertinelli is set to appear only in Batman: Hush 2.
Helena Bertinelli may be another Batman victim: Hash 2
Provided by DC Comics.
Bertinelli never really shook her status as “Helena Wayne,” but if she was a mafia princess” (though DC tried), this might explain why she’s been largely missing from DC stories since 2022 (except for her cameo abilities). For the past three years, not only has the focus returned to Helena Wayne as the main continuity huntress, but Vercineri himself never truly recovered from the new 52 reboot of DC in 2011.
Attempts to restore Bertinelli to a more familiar post-crisis status quo, at best, were on the surface level, and the creators were unable to give her a definitive story. Kelly Thompson chose not to use Vertinelli in early birds of prey due to lack of ideas for the story, later confirmed that it was no longer available when she finally did. Does this actually hint at Bertinelli’s own fate in Batman: Hush 2? It also allows for a potential explanation of the importance of her sports Helena Wayne’s new 52 Huntress costume.
Bertinelli has not appeared in Hush 2 yet, but he has not seen her favor. What’s more, if Waid is already trying to streamline the main DC Canon more clearly, then Wayne is the huntress he’s trying to use in future storylines. Furthermore, there must be a reason why Bruce and Selina were named their future daughter, “Helena.” Because Wayne now has a predecessor to the Huntress identity of this world.
Provided by DC Comics.
Given her own proximity to Tim and Dick, if Bertinelli is one of the victims of Hash 2, this is the only reason why a future version of Bruce would name his daughter to her honor. Bertinelli isn’t a huntress that Bruce has done well in the past, so he doesn’t. It also gives more weight to Helena Wayne’s comment that Bertinelli is a “family friend” who was also “inspirational.”
Removing other bat family characters is not an ideal way to restore Helena Wayne’s more iconic status quo in DCU, but it needs to be redeveloped into characters that fans know. (This is especially true as she is no longer a pre-Earth 2 huntress.) Many DC fans want to see Helena interact with her other “brothers” in the Butt family, but in reality, Helena already has a well-defined history and is not really a blank slate. This also means that her persistence is entirely dependent on the restoration of her history.
Another reason why Helena needs to restore the original status quo is that if she doesn’t, she will be a gimmick instead of the character. Her original pre-crisis development allows her to become her own unique character. That’s where her character’s focus is needed to provide the longevity of the Main DC Canon. Returning to the more familiar status quo, with a solid foundation for Helena Wayne to move forward, DC can work on reintegrating other members of the Batt family, including Helena Bertinelli.
