In an interview with Vaneta Rogers, Tim Seeley and Tom King reveal that Dick Grayson's partner in his new career as a spy in Grayson is none other than the New 52 version of Helena Bertinelli, the Post-Crisis/pre-New 52 Huntress. The last time we heard that name in the New 52, the current Huntress (the pre-Crisis/new-52 Huntress), Helena Wayne, was using that identity and noting that the original Helena Bertinelli was dead. Obviously, we now know that to not be the case.

King and Seeley describe her:

King: This is the New 52 appearance of the new Helena Bertinelli.

Seeley: Yeah, it's not Helena Wayne, the Huntress. It's Helena Bertinelli.

King: She's an amazing spy. She's definitely better than Dick; he has to learn from her.

I'm a bit torn on this. On the one hand, I enjoyed Helena Bertinelli as a character and I was disappointed when it appeared as though she was dead in the new 52. However, at the same time, it wasn't so much "Helena Bertinelli" that I liked so much as Helana Bertinelli as the Huntress. Helena Bertinelli as just a super spy might very well be a cool character, but one thing I have had a slight problem with the New 52 so far is the habit of using old names for new characters that have little to nothing to do with the original characters. For instance, Richard Dragon in Green Arrow.

It seems counter-intuitive to try to introduce new characters to make things fresh but also to use old names just, for what, an odd piece of nostalgia? "Remember Richard Dragon? He was cool. Now I'll be more interested in this new Richard Dragon who has little to nothing in common with the old Richard Dragon!"

Let's hope that the new Helena Bertinelli is basically the old Helena Bertinelli just without being the Huntress!

Remember when Huntress and Nightwing hooked up? I thought Devin Grayson did a great job with that mini-series. I was looking forward to her taking on Nightwing's solo series after Chuck Dixon left. Man, how wrong was I?