Dashing Detectives Devoted to Daring Damsels

The Batwomen of Gotham City, heirs to the legacy of the Batmen, included wealthy debutante Kathy Kane, her niece Betty Kane, and a pair of young ladies who were more than a batch for Bruce Wayne. These lasses, Barbara Gordon and Helena Wayne, were trained in the legal field as well as tutored in various athletic aptitudes. Barbara adopted the alter ego of Batgirl, while Helena assumed the alias of Huntress, motivated by the example of both the Batmen and their Police Commissoner fathers, James Gordon and Bruce Wayne, respectively. They also were personal friends of the Dick "Robin" Grayson of their two worlds. There were two other prominent men in their lives.

Jason Bard's life was borne of tragedy, which he'd mold into personal triumphs. Seeking to bring his father to justice for the murder of his mother, this fueled Bard's lifelong interest in the field of criminology. After a tour in the Marines where he was injured, Bard became a private detective. On his first case, he met Barbara and Batgirl, when investigating a homicide by Gotham Goliaths basketball player turned mugger.

Gary Minelli was a Gotham City police detective about to testify on mob bribery with the police force, both of whom conspired to send him to Arkham Asylum. There, under the watchful eye of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether, Minelli was held captive until a riot broke out in the facility, when he met a fellow friendly prisoner in the Huntress. Freeing her, the pair escaped the Asylum, with Gary helping the Huntress recover from an overdose on drugs she was injected with by Fether. Although unmasked, the Huntress' real face was not recognizable to Minelli.

Batgirl was assisted by Jason Bard in subsequent adventures, such as tracking down the Orchid Killer (who threatened the heroine's life), an amoral actress named Veda (who tried to frame Bard for a crime), and a half dozen other cases together before Barbara Gordon left Gotham to become a congresswoman in Washington D.C. Jason  carried on his investigative pursuits, working alongside Kirk "Man-Bat" Langstrom.

Huntress encountered Gary Minelli once more months after their last meeting, as he was assigned to track down the heroine. A series of cat-burglary incidents seemed to suscipiciously point to Huntress as being the cultprit, which she herself believed she had committed while in her sleep. Minelli confirmed she wasn't the burglar, as he had followed her continuously, indicating he knew her double identity. This caused a rift in their relationship, as Helena grew annoyed at Gary's invasion of her privacy.

These detectives, Jason and Gary, were peers to the batwomen in their lives... although their prescence was only momentary in the costumed careers of Batgirl and the Huntress.