GUYS BIRDS OF PREY IS BACK
AND IT IS EPIC. See this.
Birds of Prey was one of my gateway drug comics like so many others. I'd heard of it from Girl Wonder and Karen Healey's glowing praise, so I got the trade. Actually, I accidentally got a Chuck Dixon one (Old Friends, New Enemies). I was a few pages in and was like "This was written by a man." And I checked the cover and oh, it was! Not that the Dixon trade was bad or anything, mind. For some reason I could just tell the gender of the person it was written by. Weirdness.
So after enjoying the Dixon trade okay, I got "Of Like Minds" and I was HOOKED. I fell in love with Black Canary and Oracle and Huntress. These were strong funny women in a strong funny book. One of the most important things about BoP is it's a female buddy book. Female buddy anythings are incredibly, incredibly rare. In a time when we're getting inundated with male buddy movies with no sign of anything willing to think outside the box in Hollywood...a female buddy book is a blessing. Especially considering the lack of female friendships in comics that the internet had a kerfuffle about a while back.
There's also the fact that Black Canary's recently been written pretty horribly lately, from her giving up and crying and disbanding the Justice League to...well...Kriesberg. The WW/BC teamup Gail wrote was the one bright spot, and I am elated to see that Gail will be writing Canary again as a powerful woman fighting crime with her best buddies.
Oracle's had it rough too. She disbanded her team because she was sad and a failure, abandoned her charge Misfit and had to suffer through that awful mini where she was incredibly incompetent. Miller's been doing good by her in the last few issues of the Batgirl title, writing her as a good mentor with plenty of snark to spare, but just being Steph's snarky mentor was a huge step down from being the leader of a powerful team of operatives.
Huntress did mariginally better, she had some good appearances in Manhunter and 'Tec to counterbalance her rather awful ones in Streets of Gotham and Batman. Then there's the matter of the fail!bikini and Hal Jordan.
Lady Blackhawk was referred to twice. Once when Hal bragged about having a threesome with her and Huntress. No comment on that. Second, an awful appearance in Batman Confidential where she's a bound and gagged victim.
The Birds of Prey book ended with the team disbanding as a failure, really depressingly. It's not the ending you want for a book about female friendship and empowerment. And all the characters seemed to be depressingly and surely going the same way- treated as awful, tearful failures when they weren't merely sex objects.
So I am OVER THE FREAKING MOON this book is getting a second chance, OVER THE MOON these women are getting a chance to be team mates and best friends and awesome again. And best of all, they're being written by the woman who made them great and lovable and kickass in the first place- the woman who said this:
This is the thing about BoP, is that it simply doesn't fit in with the 'drab and dreary' style of female characterization that has unfortunately become today's great comics cliché, and a real drudgery to read. It's a book that gets very dark and very bloody, but at the core, you have Black Canary, one of the most hopeful characters in comics. To me, if you write the Canary without hope, you are getting her wrong. And Oracle and Huntress can't help but be swept along by that.
and this:
It's going to be a blast. It's Black Canary putting her boot in bad guys' faces and the Huntress taking no *&^% from anyone and Oracle being smarter than anyone else in Gotham. That's what I loved about the book in the first place.
IT'S GONNA BE GREAT.
The only bad thing is Huntress is still in her fail!bikini and Ed Benes and his lifeless, souless cheescake is going to be drawing it. But if that's the sacrifice I have to make, I'm willing to make it for mah girls comin' back.
The silhouette's on the cover? Some think it's Hawk and Dove. I'm hoping for Cass or Misfit for the bat-winged chick. That would be epic. Especially Cass coming back. Ohplease. The guy could be Achilles or Creote.
And finally, things I hope Gail does in this new book:
*Oracle resumes her guardianship of Misfit and DOESN'T ABANDON HER OKAY.
*The whole mess with Black Canary and Green Arrow and Sin is FIXED. I don't know how. Divorce. Sin coming back. Whatever. I want it fixed.
*Cass. Please bring Cass back and fix her, Gail. I'm begging you. I know you can do it.
*Make the fail!bikini go away!
*I want Steph to come by on occasion! (I really wanna see Gail write Steph. EPIC)
*Oh, do anything you want. Just write mah girls as amazing and kickass. And I know you will.
I'm so happy. We're going to do an epic wfa post on this guys. So get blogging!
Birds of Prey was one of my gateway drug comics like so many others. I'd heard of it from Girl Wonder and Karen Healey's glowing praise, so I got the trade. Actually, I accidentally got a Chuck Dixon one (Old Friends, New Enemies). I was a few pages in and was like "This was written by a man." And I checked the cover and oh, it was! Not that the Dixon trade was bad or anything, mind. For some reason I could just tell the gender of the person it was written by. Weirdness.
So after enjoying the Dixon trade okay, I got "Of Like Minds" and I was HOOKED. I fell in love with Black Canary and Oracle and Huntress. These were strong funny women in a strong funny book. One of the most important things about BoP is it's a female buddy book. Female buddy anythings are incredibly, incredibly rare. In a time when we're getting inundated with male buddy movies with no sign of anything willing to think outside the box in Hollywood...a female buddy book is a blessing. Especially considering the lack of female friendships in comics that the internet had a kerfuffle about a while back.
There's also the fact that Black Canary's recently been written pretty horribly lately, from her giving up and crying and disbanding the Justice League to...well...Kriesberg. The WW/BC teamup Gail wrote was the one bright spot, and I am elated to see that Gail will be writing Canary again as a powerful woman fighting crime with her best buddies.
Oracle's had it rough too. She disbanded her team because she was sad and a failure, abandoned her charge Misfit and had to suffer through that awful mini where she was incredibly incompetent. Miller's been doing good by her in the last few issues of the Batgirl title, writing her as a good mentor with plenty of snark to spare, but just being Steph's snarky mentor was a huge step down from being the leader of a powerful team of operatives.
Huntress did mariginally better, she had some good appearances in Manhunter and 'Tec to counterbalance her rather awful ones in Streets of Gotham and Batman. Then there's the matter of the fail!bikini and Hal Jordan.
Lady Blackhawk was referred to twice. Once when Hal bragged about having a threesome with her and Huntress. No comment on that. Second, an awful appearance in Batman Confidential where she's a bound and gagged victim.
The Birds of Prey book ended with the team disbanding as a failure, really depressingly. It's not the ending you want for a book about female friendship and empowerment. And all the characters seemed to be depressingly and surely going the same way- treated as awful, tearful failures when they weren't merely sex objects.
So I am OVER THE FREAKING MOON this book is getting a second chance, OVER THE MOON these women are getting a chance to be team mates and best friends and awesome again. And best of all, they're being written by the woman who made them great and lovable and kickass in the first place- the woman who said this:
This is the thing about BoP, is that it simply doesn't fit in with the 'drab and dreary' style of female characterization that has unfortunately become today's great comics cliché, and a real drudgery to read. It's a book that gets very dark and very bloody, but at the core, you have Black Canary, one of the most hopeful characters in comics. To me, if you write the Canary without hope, you are getting her wrong. And Oracle and Huntress can't help but be swept along by that.
and this:
It's going to be a blast. It's Black Canary putting her boot in bad guys' faces and the Huntress taking no *&^% from anyone and Oracle being smarter than anyone else in Gotham. That's what I loved about the book in the first place.
IT'S GONNA BE GREAT.
The only bad thing is Huntress is still in her fail!bikini and Ed Benes and his lifeless, souless cheescake is going to be drawing it. But if that's the sacrifice I have to make, I'm willing to make it for mah girls comin' back.
The silhouette's on the cover? Some think it's Hawk and Dove. I'm hoping for Cass or Misfit for the bat-winged chick. That would be epic. Especially Cass coming back. Ohplease. The guy could be Achilles or Creote.
And finally, things I hope Gail does in this new book:
*Oracle resumes her guardianship of Misfit and DOESN'T ABANDON HER OKAY.
*The whole mess with Black Canary and Green Arrow and Sin is FIXED. I don't know how. Divorce. Sin coming back. Whatever. I want it fixed.
*Cass. Please bring Cass back and fix her, Gail. I'm begging you. I know you can do it.
*Make the fail!bikini go away!
*I want Steph to come by on occasion! (I really wanna see Gail write Steph. EPIC)
*Oh, do anything you want. Just write mah girls as amazing and kickass. And I know you will.
I'm so happy. We're going to do an epic wfa post on this guys. So get blogging!