Dell might be back, but there’s a certain laziness to the art this issue. To doesn’t care about perspective during a chase scene–or body proportions–and apparently Dell doesn’t care enough to fix them. But the art is generally better, if not at the series’s peak.

Unfortunately, Levitz’s writing doesn’t improve any this issue. Once again, Huntress can defeat all, but there’s one development. Huntress infers she works with the NSA and the way she trades barbs with the bad guy–she did kill the bad guy last issue, which makes no sense since she was non-lethal with all the flunkies–Levitz seems to be doing a masked, female James Bond.

Then there’s the ending. Another unexciting chase sequence ends with Power Girl, in her civilian outfit, popping in to give Helena a lift.

I think Levitz expects readers to be excited. I can’t believe they’re even conscious.

So Levitz ended the previous issue with an ominous cliffhanger, then this issue just has Helena kicking ass. She doesn’t even face a tough adversary. She just kicks butt over and butt.

It’s almost like Levitz thinks he can get away with dumb female characterization for Helena by making her unstoppable.

There’s another cat reference this issue too, but no bat ones. It would work more amusingly if Helena’s parentage was established. As hints or cute details, it fails.

About the only other thing I remember about the issue is a very seventies or eighties homage page from To with Huntress silhouetted above Helena. The page has a nice, retro touch, something the book doesn’t usually have. Levitz’s attempts at being tough and realistic all fail, given the lovely Italian settings. Huntress is as grim and gritty as Mamma Mia!.

Luckily, the series–and my reading ordeal–is almost over.

Helena likes cats. Get it? Because she might be Catwoman’s daughter. Got to keep the reader guessing, because it adds texture to such a thoughtful series. Levitz also introduces the bad guys–evil Muslim oil barons who sell dissidents daughters into slavery.

I was a little surprised there aren’t any good Muslims to offset the bad guys, but then I remembered the New 52 isn’t about rounded writing, it’s about being cheap.

Other developments this issue? Helena, in her first person narration, thinks of herself as “mama,” as in, “come to mama.” I wonder if Levitz even wrote Huntress. There’s enough stupidity in the narration–not downright badness, but just dumb choices–to suggest some intern wrote it and Levitz put his name on it.

I’m finally a little more onboard with To, however. He’s on the third issue and he and Dell aren’t declining.

Too bad the writing’s plummeting.

So the comic is about Helena–still no last name, still no personality, I’ll bet Huntress was definitely either a pre-New 52 book or before they decided to do Earth 2–breaking up a human trafficking ring.

And the cover tagline instructs the reader to objectify Huntress.

DC is such a classy joint.

The issue is more of the same. Helena in Italy fighting mobsters. If it’s possible, Levitz actually writes her with less personality than in the first issue. If it were any other writer, one might assume he or she was doing it for the paycheck. Levitz isn’t even introduced in providing informative informational about human trafficking. I guess his Helena narration isn’t terrible….

It’s just lame.

To and Dell’s art continues to be okay, but indistinct. There’s nothing gripping about anything in Huntress, not the art, not the writing.

Levitz doesn’t even bother with a cliffhanger.

I’m utterly confused. Is this Earth 2? Is the Huntress Batman and Catwoman’s daughter again? If so, why’s she going after the mob in Italy? The mob vigilante Huntress was a post-Crisis thing, right?

Like most of Paul Levitz’s modern work, he never establishes why anyone should be reading Huntress. Levitz wrote some great pre-Crisis Huntress thirty years ago, but there’s no hook in this first issue. There’s also no brain fodder to keep up interest.

Instead Levitz establishes a modern, realistic setting (Arab Spring mentions) and a bunch of sexist guys. Maybe because Helena doesn’t have a last name yet, it’s hard to get much personality out of her, but come on….

This issue feels like it was written before the New 52 and slightly rejiggered. Marcus To and John Dell’s art isn’t bad; it’s slick and without personality, but not bad.

It’s boring, like the writing.