Post Awesome Things Month: Awesome Comic Ladies Picspam

[be_themoon]

 So, chaila43  has made this a month of Posting Awesome Things. And since while things are mostly good over here I am super stressed and busy all the time, I think this is a GREAT IDEA, and everyone should do it.

The theme of my Posting Awesome Things post (note the singular, as I'm not sure I'll have time to do another before the end of the month) is all

Comments

[be_themoon]

It is really great! I highly recommend it.

As a general overview, Birds of Prey has two (soon to be 3) volumes. The first volume ran for 127 issues, the second volume is a currently ongoing on that has 13 issues so far. It will be rebooting in September along with the rest of the DCU, and I've no idea what it will be like then. I'm crossing my fingers for still good. We'll see.

I recommend the whole run, but for specific starting points the Birds of Prey: Old Friends, New Enemies is a really good collection of Oracle and Black Canary's first adventures together. Black Canary/Oracle: Birds of Prey is the very first stuff they did together and is very good. Later on, I'm especially fond of the Sensei & Student story arc (Birds of Prey v1 #62-68) - really, really beautiful, and it's also got Huntress joining the club. Of Like Minds is another good favorite of mine (v1 #56-61), and also introduces some characters who are pretty important in Sensei & Student.

Oh, and Nightwing: The Hunt for Oracle collects a crossover with the Nightwing series that included Black Canary and Oracle's first physical meeting, but it kind of jumps in the middle of some stuff that's already going on in Birds of Prey and then leaves off with a cliffhanger for Birds of Prey. In the collection, they include Nightwing #41-46 and Birds of Prey #20-21. I would include Birds of Prey #19, and then Birds of Prey #22-25 is the arc that resolves the cliffhanger you're left with, but it hasn't been collected in a volume ever so it's pretty hard to buy anywhere if you're going the legal route.

Other than those, the first 50 or so issues are fun, but a lot of them are sadly not collected in volumes. (They can be found online, though.) Gail Simone's run, the one most commonly referenced and the one that expanded the team to four members, starts with the Of Like Minds arc, and is very good. It's kind of hard to recommend just one or two arcs, because especially after the first two arcs that I recommended they start building on each other, and it gets harder to just jump in. I recommend reading the whole thing, really, it's great.

Any more questions? Did I confuse you?

[fallingtowers]

Oh dear, superhero comics canon is confusing. Between asking you for BoP recs and eqnziring with beccatoria about Wonder Woman, my mind slightly boggles. When I have a bit of leisure time, during a (hopefully) upcoming holiday in August, I must make a list and ask at the local comic bookstore.

[be_themoon]

Wonder Woman's history IS really confusing, yeah. Birds of Prey, I promise, is much less so. It's pretty self-contained, for one thing, and I promise it's pretty easy to follow. It's also really, really good. :D