The surprise return of Michael Keaton as Batman for the upcoming Flash movie has opened up many possibilities. Many fans want to see him as “Old Man Bruce” in some kind of live-action Batman Beyond project (and so do we!). But another idea would have him reunite with Michelle Pfeiffer, who played Catwoman in Batman Returns. Who’s to say those two didn’t end up together?
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ScreenRant recently asked Pfeiffer is she would be interested in taking the whip and costume out of storage to reprise her role as Selina Kyle for The Flash. Here’s what she had to say: “I would if anyone asked me but no one’s asked me yet.”
First off, someone at Warner Bros.: please ask Michelle to come back as Selina Kyle! Secondly, let’s say she does return in some capacity. Imagine a scenario where Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle reunited after Batman Returns and married. And if so, it would be a perfect way to introduce a version of their superhero daughter Helena Wayne, a.k.a. the Huntress.
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Now, some of you may be a bit confused reading this. Especially if you only know Huntress from the movie Birds of Prey or the Justice League Unlimited animated series, That version is Helena Bertinelli, not Wayne. She is the daughter of a Gotham crime family who became the vigilante called Huntress after her family’s brutal murder. She first appeared in the comics in the late ’80s and has been a mainstay of DC Comics ever since. But she’s not the original Huntress. That would be Helena Wayne, the adult daughter of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle.
The History of the Huntress
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To explain this version of the Huntress, we need to go back to the Bronze Age of comics—roughly the ’70s and ’80s. During that period, the original World War II era DC heroes, the Justice Society of America, continued to live on the parallel world of Earth-Two. That includes the original Batman and all his friends and foes. Now relegated to their own separate Earths, they were allowed to age up. Batman got older and retired, Robin grew up, and Bruce Wayne eventually married Selina Kyle. The two had a daughter named Helena.
An adult Helena Wayne made her debut as a superhero in 1977. An old rival of her mother’s blackmails Selina into resuming a life of crime again as Catwoman; Selina does so and this eventually leads to her death. Helena decides to avenge her mother and starts a costumed heroic identity of her own as the Huntress. Even after bringing her mother’s blackmailer to justice, she continues her superhero career, following in her father’s footsteps. She partners with the adult Dick Grayson, who still goes by Robin. When Batman dies, she takes his place in the Justice Society.
The Death and Rebirth of Helena Wayne
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Huntress was instantly popular and soon got her own series—of a sort. Huntress stories appeared as back ups in the pages of Wonder Woman. She heavily features in the the yearly Justice League/Justice Society crossovers as well. She even made a live-action debut years before more well known heroes in the ultra-cheesy television special Legends of the Super-Heroes. But in the mid-80s, DC decided to streamline their comics. That meant no more multiple versions of their main heroes. So Earth-Two was relegated to non-existence, and Huntress died helping to save the universe.
But of course, no one stays dead forever in comics. The Helena Wayne version of Huntress returned with a new Multiverse in the New 52 era of DC. And a few years prior to that, she appeared in live-action in the original Birds of Prey TV series. Only, in that series, she was Helena Kyle rather than Helena Wayne. Batman was still her father, but it’s not a fact she discovered until he died. Also, this version of Huntress inexplicably had super powers. But The Flash movie could give us the ultimate version of Huntress, as the daughter of the Burton-verse Dark Knight and Princess of Plunder.
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Imagine how cool a Helena Wayne born from the union of Michael Keaton’s Dark Knight and Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman would be. In this reality, they both could have trained her to follow in their footsteps. Much like her original comics counterpart, Helena could struggle with the dark side of her personality she inherited from her mother. But unlike the comics, we wouldn’t kill off Selina or Bruce. Instead, they’d be mentors to Helena, and train her to be Gotham City’s new protector. They’d have big roles as her teachers as well as her parents.
The timeline for this scenario to play out fits perfectly. Batman Returns came out in 1992. If Bruce and Selina had a kid just a few years later, she’d be in her mid to late twenties now. All of this sounds like it would make for a great film, or a possible HBO Max series. Helena Wayne is a great character who deserves a return to the spotlight. And the Michael Keaton and Michelle Pfeiffer versions of Batman and Catwoman deserve their happy ending. Sometimes, the stars just line up for something like that to happen.
Featured Image: Warner Bros. / DC Comics
