I’m kicking The Boy off of the computer and taking over the blog to talk a little Girl Power. As a woman who grew up watching “Wonder Woman” and wearing the matching Underoos, I take female super heroes seriously. Women in comics shouldn’t be relegated to the bubbly girlfriends, only to end up pawns in some villain’s plot to capture the hero. They also shouldn’t be so disproportionately shaped that they use their buxom chests as lunch trays. (Insert “comic book guys have never seen a real woman naked” joke here.) I know The Boy takes this into consideration when he suggests comics for me to read. He knows I would crumple up a copy of “Vampirella” and throw it back at him without even opening the cover.
DC Comics included Birds of Prey as part their “New 52” re-launch. Duane Swierczynski is writing the current arc for this female super group. I’ve devoured Duane’s prose novels and I’m eagerly waiting for his next book, Point and Shoot, to be released. A strong group of female super heroes written by an author I enjoy? I’ll take a peak under the cover.
The Birds of Prey are a cool, modern tough gal crew. They are tougher than “Charlie’s Angels”, but Farrah Fawcett did have amazing hair. They are also way cooler and more together than the gang of female diamond thieves in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. No qualifiers here. The Birds of Prey beat the diamond thieves in every category.
The Birds of Prey crew is comprised of the typical archetypes of any super group:

  • The All-American Barbie – Black Canary, the martial artist with a sonic scream who is the leader of the group
  • The edgy girl with tattoos – Starling, a fan favorite master spy who was created by Swierczynski
  • The one that’s bat-shit crazy – Katana, a samurai that believes that her dead husband’s spirit resides in her sword
  • The one no one trusts – Poison Ivy, the Batman villain asked to join the super group
  • The fringe member – Batgirl, who was previously a member of the group as Oracle, but is dealing with some big-time trust issues with this current assortment of “Birds”

As a red head, I’m not sure how I feel about fellow red head Poison Ivy being the distrusted member of the group. I guess I’d rather be untrustworthy than crazy. You can trust a red head. Trust me.
The women in the crew are independent, but are capable of working as a team. The tension that exists in the team is expected when you have five strong women working together. It would have been too easy to write them as catty bitches that can’t stand each other and are only out to serve themselves. However that would defeat the purpose of being super heroes and working for the “greater good”. They also could have been written as a group of touchy, feely girls that are best friends forever! That angle probably wouldn’t have played well with the mostly male customer base. It may have worked if each book ended with a sleep over or pillow fight, but then we’re back in Vampirella’s realm.
Pardon me while I fire up Spice World and crank up “Just A Girl”. I’m spending the evening with the tough chicks of Birds Of Prey. We’ve got some ass to kick!
Kate Malmon