The following contains spoilers for The New Golden Age #1, now on sale from DC Comics. T/W for mention of suicide
DC Comics The New Golden Age #1 has finally arrived, revealing new mysteries surrounding the Justice Society of America. Written by Geoff Johns with artwork from Jerry Ordway, Steve Lieber, Todd Nauk, Scott Kolins, Victor Bogdanovic, Brandon Peterson, Gary Frank, Diego Olortegui, JP Mayer, and Scott Hanna, the one-shot sees the return of DC's iconic Golden Age heroes in their own title, as well as the return of a fan-favorite legacy heroine: Helena Wayne, aka the Huntress.
As a one-shot that sets up the main storyline for the upcoming Justice Society of America relaunch (by Geoff Johns and Mikel Janín) later in the month, The New Golden Age sets up three main timelines to explore: the Justice Society's past in the 20th century, their present in the 21st century and their future in the 31st century. Caught in the middle of these different timelines is Helena Wayne, who is being targeted by the Justice Society's time-traveling enemy, Per Degaton, due to her association with the team. While the specifics of Helena's storyline will be revealed in Justice Society of America #1, some differences from her pre-Crisis counterpart are evident right away.
Golden Age Changes Huntress' Place in The Timeline
One of the major differences between the pre-Crisis version of Helena Wayne and her counterpart featured in The New Golden Age is that the latter is a native of Earth-0 and not Earth-2. This change also means Helena is now in Batman and Catwoman's future and not a figure of their erased Golden Age past. Before Crisis on Infinite Earths (by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez) collapsed the multiverse, her parents originally married in 1955, and she was born in 1957. As such, she grew up in the 1960s and came of age in the 1970s. She joined the Justice Society in 1978, just two years after her best friend Power Girl joined the team. In the Earth-0 timeline, Helena is born in 2022 and is potentially being set up to meet Power Girl in the 1970s via time travel.
Another major difference between pre-Crisis Helena and her Earth-0 counterpart is that Bruce Wayne doesn't retire being Batman prior to her birth. In the original Earth-2 continuity, it was established in The Brave and the Bold #197 (by Alan Brennert and Joe Staton) that Bruce began questioning his lifestyle choices. In particular, he started noticing he wasn't progressing with his life while the people around him were already married with children. This caused him to re-evaluate his future, and after a heartfelt conversation with Selina Kyle, he decided to retire. This decision facilitated a marriage between them. In the Earth-0 timeline, it's implied Batman and Catwoman marry, but his unwillingness to retire Batman makes Selina consider leaving him with Helena.
Huntress Accidentally Discovers Batman is Her Father
Bruce not retiring as Batman leads to another major change in the Huntress's history: how she finds out her father is Gotham's Caped Crusader. In the original Earth-2 timeline, Helena revealed in the Wonder Woman #286 story "Karnage Is the Name" (by Paul Levitz and Joe Staton) that her father told her he was Batman when she was a child. He even showed her the costume, which inspired her to want to become a hero. It's also strongly implied that her father's history as Batman is what inspired her to become a lawyer before becoming the Huntress. In the Earth-0 timeline, Helena accidentally discovers her father is Batman when she mistakes him for an intruder and stabs him with the assumption he is her stalker, whom she identifies as "The Stranger."
After learning her father is Batman, Bruce shows Helena the Batcave, which reveals she has many other siblings who assumed the Robin mantle. This is also different from pre-Crisis where Helena only had one sibling, in this case, Dick Grayson, the original Robin. Another thing that differs between the two incarnations is that pre-Crisis Helena was always aware of Dick's existence because he was a part of her life growing up. In the Earth-0 timeline, Bruce appears to have kept his Robins a secret from Helena, most likely due to them meeting a tragic fate as Selina implied during this sequence. This also effectively establishes that Helena does not have an existing relationship with Dick like in the Earth-2 timeline.
Batman's Death Is Now Huntress's Origin
The last major change that's established in The New Golden Age is the reason Helena becomes the Huntress. In the original pre-Crisis timeline, Helena became the Huntress when she was 19 years old in response to her mother's tragic death. As depicted in her original backstory in DC Super-Stars #17 (by Paul Levitz and Joe Staton), Selina was blackmailed into performing one last job as Catwoman by one of her former henchmen. This job resulted in her accidental death when Bruce intervened as Batman, with the latter blaming himself for her demise. With her father falling into a deep depression, Helena took it upon herself to catch her mother's killer as the Huntress.
In the Earth-0 timeline, Helena becomes the Huntress at age 18 in response to her father being murdered. Within the context of the story, it's strongly implied that "The Stranger" aka Per Degaton murdered her father as part of a larger scheme to take out members of the Justice Society of America. One possible motivation for Per Degaton targeting Bruce and Helena in The New Golden Age is if the events of America vs. the Justice Society (by Roy and Dann Thomas, Rafael Kayanan, Rich Bucklerm, Jerry Ordway, Michael Hernandez, and Howard Bender) are once again canon in the Earth-0 continuity.
In that particular storyline, a much older Bruce discovered Per Degaton's plans to alter history in order to make himself world dictator. Bruce then wrote a false diary that accused the Justice Society of being war criminals during World War II. This forced Helena to serve as the Justice Society's legal counsel during a public senate hearing and was able to -- along with Dick Grayson on a separate occasion -- figure out the real reason the diary was written. By exposing the Justice Society's true history, they would publicly expose Per Degaton's latest scheme, which resulted in the latter's suicide. If Per Degaton is looking to avert that same fate on Earth-0, then killing Bruce and Helena as part of his larger scheme makes sense.