BY JENNIFER M. CONTINO Originally Ivory Madison had an idea for a great Batwoman story, before the events of 52 reintroduced her to the multitudes. So, instead, she turned to another favorite female member of the Batman family, The Huntress, and pitched an idea that would explore how she came to be the scourge of the Gotham underworld. Her idea took form in a Huntress Year One story that fills in some of the gaps of the Huntress Cry For Blood tale penned by Greg Rucka. Madison told us what it was like getting to work with one of the favorite characters.
THE PULSE: I loved the Earth-2 Huntress. The idea of Batman and Catwoman finally trying to have a happily ever after, and their baby girl becoming a hero as well ... that was just amazing to me. I know you were a fan of that incarnation of the character as well. What was it about Helena Wayne that you found the most intriguing?
IVORY MADISON: There’s something about your childhood heroes, the comics you read growing up, that always stays with you. And it should. The Huntress was one of those for me.
The archetypes of Batman and Catwoman put little girls in the classic conundrum: strong men are good, strong women are bad. These are terrible messages for little girls. Helena Wayne solved that problem for girls, because she was the genetic combination of Batman and Catwoman—a merging of both archetypes. I loved that there wasn’t that bifurcation of good and bad along male/female lines in the Bat/Cat paradigm.
Plus, Huntress was a lawyer, which was unusual for that time. She was strong and principled. She was smart. She had that difficult to manufacture thing—that mystique thing. I think Paul Levitz was a visionary feminist regarding her creation, and should be recognized for his trailblazing—like William Marston, who invented Wonder Woman to fight the sexist messages little girls were getting from comics.
THE PULSE: I always thought that Helena Wayne was one of the strongest female characters that DC had at the time. She was a successful lawyer. She wasn't doing a job that was considered the "traditional" job for a woman to have. I think she was kind of inspirational to some of the girls reading comics at that point in time, and maybe a little bit of an eye-opener for the boys who never considered a girl could be a lawyer. What do you think?
MADISON: Women were only guaranteed equal access to education in the U.S. in the early 1970s, and it was a long, drawn-out fight. At the time Huntress appeared, women faced tremendous discrimination and were rarely admitted to law school. Helena Wayne was valedictorian at Harvard Law, and a partner at a public interest law firm. That was politically radical for that time—there weren’t any women lawyers on TV or in movies. There weren’t many lawyer moms. This was a time when “help wanted” ads specified whether they wanted a male or female. Like Wonder Woman opened eyes in the forties that a woman could be a hero at all, Huntress made it clear that a real woman could be a hero in real life, even without special powers.
Since I have a law degree, and did a public interest fellowship right out of law school, I’m partial to her even more. These days that’s no big deal, which of course was the goal: To make it normal for women to have education and power in the public sphere.
THE PULSE: It took almost five years for The Huntress to make another appearance in the DCU after the Crisis on Infinite Earths. What did you think of this new incarnation of the hero? Although she had tragedy that drove her, it wasn't exactly the same as the legacy Helena Wayne had ....
MADISON: Before I wrote Huntress: Year One, I re-read everything every written on Huntress, up until just a few years ago. Joey Cavalieri had to create a new origin for her … Something powerful and tragic. Something that echoed Batman’s origin, but was even darker, more modern for a modern audience. The story was edgy and Huntress was pretty serious. Also, she was not cute—I liked that. The eighties covers were not so cute either.
Then, about ten years later, Greg Rucka was asked to update her origin in Cry for Blood. He did a fantastic job (in typical meticulous Greg fashion). I used Cry for Blood like a textbook. Greg and I have similar ideas about strong female characters—he’s my favorite comic book writer of the past decade—and it was incredible going from reading Greg’s Huntress to writing her.
THE PULSE: After the Killing Joke, I know DC didn't want to just have another Batgirl type out there ... so that's probably part of the reason this Helena was so different from the heroic pillar of justice that came before. Out of all the "new" incarnations of past heroes in this post-Crisis world, where did Huntress rank amongst your favorites?
MADISON: The universe of characters I love goes back to my childhood. I loved Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Catwoman, and Huntress. I never really related to Batgirl. Somehow the characters with “girl” in their name instead of “woman” just never interested me. I was also always fascinated with Batwoman and wanted to bring her back.
THE PULSE: How did you get the opportunity to pitch a Huntress story for DC Comics? This is your first work in comics, although you're a big fan of the industry. Most people don't get this kind of chance right out the gate.
MADISON: I don’t mean to get philosophical here, but everyone has so many opportunities they don’t even realize they have. When people tell me it’s their dream to write Batman, but they say it’s impossible to get in the door, I ask them, “Have you tried?” The answer is always “No.” No, they haven’t tried.
If you want to write superhero comics for DC Comics, buy The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics, and take the advice in the book. Look up a few comic book scripts online or buy a collection like Panel One. Then go ahead and write a 22-page script.
Notice who the editors are. Know their work. Go to Comic-Con and introduce yourself to your favorite editors—people whose work and personality you relate to. Ask them for friendly advice. Before I had anything to pitch, I was already going to Comic-Con for years and had met my editor, Joan Hilty, many times and started up conversations.
Next time you see them, ask permission to pitch them on your script. If they say yes, give them a one- or two-sentence pitch. If that fails, ask them what they’re looking for right now, and ask if you can email them two more brief pitches that fit that description. Realize they are tired and busy, so be nice. Don’t be pushy.
My favorite saying lately is “The person who says something isn’t possible should not interrupt the person doing it.” You have to do the writing, absorb good advice you get, and reach out to the people who can help you. Stop thinking about it and just do it.
THE PULSE: Greg Rucka already did a year one type tale with the character, some people think this is going to be treading the same ground. How is what you're doing here different from what Rucka did?
MADISON: Greg established Huntress’ origins in Cry for Blood, but it was more of a present-day story with memories of her past, than a traditional “origin story.” Greg wrote about a turning point in Huntress’s life, and he established the timeline and other important details. I fell in love with the characters he created, like Sal, Helena’s surrogate older brother.
But—and I thank him for this—Greg didn’t include how Helena got the name Huntress, what happened to the mob boss who ordered the hit on her family and to the man who pulled the trigger, how and when she came to Gotham, and how she got her costume. That’s where I was able to come in—I got to help him fill in some of the classic “Year One” details. Not a bad job to have.
THE PULSE: Since this is going on kind of around the same time as Rucka's story ... did you talk to him at all about what you were doing to see his thoughts/input, or did you just find some holes you thought needed filled and go for it?
MADISON: Greg told me he still had all the family trees and timeline notes from Cry for Blood and I was, as a fan, really excited to have an excuse to call him and follow up. But before I had the chance to call and ask for his help, I was on a tight deadline and having to slash and burn about 75 percent of the story I was proposing to my editor. Greg would have just given me more ideas for more pages, and I needed fewer pages, so I wound up doing it without his input. He was very encouraging in the beginning though, and that was priceless.
THE PULSE: You've got a group of baddies called "The Hand" in these pages. Marvel also has a famous organization of evil that goes by that name as well. How did you settle on that name for your cabal?
MADISON: I love conspiracy theories, especially global ones. I even used to get a magazine about conspiracy theories called Paranoia. My “The Hand” is a global conspiracy that reaches deeper than the mob, and into all our societal institutions. And they have a cool ancient symbol. I have no idea why I made it up. And I have to admit that I don’t read Marvel and didn’t know there was another “Hand,” but I hope they don’t have much in common.
THE PULSE: Why do The Hand take an interest in Helena?
MADISON: Helena was eight years old when her immediate family and the entire Bertinelli clan worldwide were murdered. That left an eight-year-old to inherit the entire mob family fortune, and fortunes can be stolen pretty easily from a child. Year One takes place the year Helena turns twenty-one and looks a little closer into the situation.
THE PULSE: What kind of learning curve was it for you to write comics? I mean, how did you learn to do something like this? Writing a comic book script is a lot different from writing other types of stories ....
MADISON: Comic book scripts, especially superhero comics with established characters, are highly structured and have lots of rules and expectations attached. It wasn’t easy for me. I tend to write very stream-of-consciousness rough drafts of stories and then figure out what genre they fit into later. But with a six-issue Year One story arc that has so many structural demands—opening hook, splash page, cliff-hanger ending, moving the story aggressively through three major action beats and character development on a tight schedule in each issue and having an arc overall—you have to learn to be disciplined, to self-edit effectively, and to set aside your own ideas to meet the needs of the genre and the preferences of your editor. I learned a lot. I’m very lucky.
THE PULSE: Who or what influenced you the most as you were scripting this series? What were some of the things outside the traditional comics box that played a role in how you thought this story should unfold?
MADISON: Well, I’m a feminist, so I wanted to make sure the character stood up for other women, that the story included female role models, and that Helena had an interest in how society’s expectations of women affected her and those around her. I wanted to show there are good men who support girls becoming both strong and caring.
I love film noir and old black and white films in general, so the entire series has a mafia film noir quality, and a cinematic quality, because I see it in my head as a movie.
THE PULSE: You're working with Cliff Richards on Huntress: Year One. How familiar were you with any of their works before?
MADISON: I knew Cliff’s work from Buffy—I’m a huge Buffy fan—and was lucky to get him. Joan Hilty, our editor, was absolutely right: We are a perfect match. It’s miraculous seeing my words transformed into art. Cliff is a genius. I am so grateful he is on this book, since there are so many artists who are good, but not great like he is. I have been telling him I want to frame some of his drawings. I’m also going to try to get him to draw me as a superhero.
One of the things we’re working on is portraying the women as really strong—I want to see biceps and abs, and wrinkles on their faces and less make-up, and no stripper body language—and instead of telling me to back off (as I’ve heard some artists have to feminist writers like Greg Rucka or Gail Simone), Cliff says, “Absolutely, let me try to understand, let me try to do that.” He is the nicest person I’ve ever worked with. We’ll be signing books at Comic-Con in July together, so I hope everyone comes by to visit us.
THE PULSE: How well do you think they are realizing your vision for this series?
MADISON: Well, I’d say that I got to do and say about 80 percent of what I wanted to, and I feel lucky to have gotten all of that through. I’ve learned a lot from the process. You never get 100 percent of what you want when you’re working for someone else, but I think that after this experience, I know how to politely push for about 90 percent and get it. You have to talk to your artist directly, earlier in the process, because if he’s as nice as Cliff, he’ll accommodate you. You have to push to see fixes in the art before it’s too close to printing to fix things at all. There are a few panels I’d like to fix for the graphic novel version if they’ll let me.
THE PULSE: Although this version of The Huntress has been around less than 20 years, there's already a rich history associated with the character due to her involvement in the Justice League, the Birds of Prey comic and TV series, and several mini and ongoing tales. Some people think she's better as a team player than solo. How do you feel about that?
MADISON: My perception of Helena Bertinelli is that she is absolutely a lone wolf. In NML, when she took over the mantle of Batgirl, that was an interesting example of her still being a loner—a powerful figure who acts alone and does what needs to be done—but at the same time, it was her way of being on the team. That rang very true to me.
I really appreciate every writer’s perspective on Huntress and all the eras of her life. But for me—and maybe it’s because I’m fixated on her beginnings—Helena is a loner, unclear on if she’s good or bad, finding her footing in the world and becoming a hero.
THE PULSE: Your day job is CEO for Red Room Omnimedia Corporation. What is that organization about?
MADISON: I used to teach writing, and founded a writing school, but I could only reach so many people here in San Francisco. So I founded redroom.com to leverage technology to create a global resource for writers and readers. It’s a multimedia website where the literary community can promote their work, express themselves, and connect with their favorite authors. I wanted it to be free, because many writers and aspiring writers and readers are poor, and easy to use because not everyone is a technologist.
We like to say that Red Room is “the online home of many of the world’s greatest writers” and it is the only social network to feature mainstream authors like Clive Barker , Amy Tan, and James Patterson. In fact, the San Francisco Chronicle called the site “a literary MySpace” after we launched in December.
It’s not all novelists – we also have friends of mine from the industry like graphic novelist G. Willow Wilson, and comic book historian Gina Misiroglu. (We also have Danny Donovan, Troy Hickman, Trina Robbins, Hal Robins, Gerard Jones, and Belle Yang on the site.) Soon, we’re designing a template especially for comic book writers and magazine writers. They are just as important a part of our culture and reading habits as book writers.
What the site offers readers is that the information is straight from the author, so it’s the most recent and accurate information you’ll find on that author—which, as you know, is something comics fans love.
THE PULSE: How do you think being involved with Red Room gives you an edge writing comics over someone who doesn't have that kind of experience?
MADISON: Red Room doesn’t give me an edge writing comics, but it does give me an edge selling comics. I know hundreds of writers because of my job, and those who aren’t in comics are sort of fascinated by those who are.
THE PULSE: What's next for you after The Huntress? What projects in and out of comics are you working on?
MADISON: It looks like I might be doing a literary graphic novel project for Vertigo. I’m adapting a manuscript I wrote originally as a prose novel called The Imperial Tea Garden of Sorrowful Cranes. So far, they haven’t complained about how long the title is, but then again, they haven’t paid me for it either.
Cliff Richards and I are hoping that Huntress: Year One sells well enough that DC decides a monthly title is justified, and if so, I hope they would consider letting me write it and Cliff illustrate it! I have some exciting storylines ready just in case.
Outside of comics, I’m going to continue to work on expanding redroom.com. I’ll still be working a million hours a week. (Actually, maybe it’s more like ninety hours a week, but it can feel like a million sometimes.) Luckily, I love my work.
Posts: 21254 | From: PA | Registered: Aug 2002
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gret interview! I have no real desire to get into a DC-series because I never really have requiered a taste for it, but this "batman/Catwoman make hero-baby" makes me all giddy and great inside!!!
-------------------- My badgrrlcomicfanclub & homepage & Suydam fansite and EBAS fansite: http://www.boomvavavoom.com
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