Tag: Huntress

Gail Simone’s Huntress: Breaking the Habit

Huntress’ swag and stellar instincts shine in Birds of Prey #11.

Enjoy it while you can, Catman.

Girls Gone Geek has been alive with the sound of frustration due to the not-so-flattering portrayals of beloved female comic characters. Today, I would like to celebrate a powerful character moment for a G3 favorite, Huntress. Continue reading “Gail Simone’s Huntress: Breaking the Habit”

Heroic Hotness: Huntress

Huntress: The Girl Crush

Helena Bertinelli is a ride-or-die chick, and if she’s got your back, you are very lucky, indeed. She will eagerly snap a neck for a friend (or her students, if they’re threatened), but like her fellow Birds of Prey, she’s got a heart of gold. She is also one of the few female characters who can wear a silly outfit with a belly window and make it look stunning, even regal. I think of her as the slightly troubled, female version of Dick, and I’m still a little salty with him for acting all weird after they hooked up. Like any hero worth his or her salt, Helena does what she thinks is right, even if it means clashing with one of the Big Three, like Batman. One of my moments in Hush is when Huntress appears and saves Bats’ life. “She’s better than she knows,” Batman thinks. On a completely shallow note, I kinda have a thing for dark-haired comic book heroes who excel at hand-to-hand combat. Huntress’ combination of street toughness and beauty transcends sexual orientation and gives her the top spot on my Fictional Characters Worth Switching Teams For list.

Poll Retrospective: Here’s How You Voted

Over the past year, we’ve asked for your opinion on everything from Wonder Woman’s drawers to whether you gave a rat’s ass about the upcoming Green Lantern movie. The results were always entertaining, and frequently surprising. Without further ado, here are the results from polls past:

1. Which version of Diana’s knickers do you prefer?
Given a choice of Nicola Scott’s taut medium, Jim Lee’s warrior skirt, Ed Benes’ quasi G-string and Aaron Lopresti’s granny britches, the clear winner was … Continue reading “Poll Retrospective: Here’s How You Voted”

2010 Memorable Moment: Iron Owl

Moxie! Huntress has it.

I so intensely desired the relaunch of  Birds of Prey with Gail as the writer partly because I felt a need for the proper treatment of the character Sin. It is not news that I think Ollie and Dinah’s marriage is some Grade-A bullshit, and that stunt he pulled to hide Sin … yeah, that was the worst. I knew Gail would address that at some point. When Sin was mentioned in the first issue of Birds of Prey, it was clear that it would happen soon.

In Birds of Prey #6, not only did I get Sin, but I got Lady Shiva, too. GOOD GAWD, I love Shiva! The appearance of Shiva and Sin was, indeed, extremely satisfying. But, I was not prepared for just how moved I would be by Huntress.

Helena Bertinelli is the kind of girl you want as a best friend because she has got your back. Huntress decides to take Dinah’s place in a battle to the death against Lady Shiva, one of the deadliest people on the planet. THAT is one hell of a gesture. Not only did Helena hold Dinah down to the tenth power, but she stayed on her feet while taking that ass-kicking of a lifetime from Shiva.

Huntress has more moxie than any lady in the DCU. She is Iron Owl.

Birds of Prey #2: White Witch, Crazy Bitch

The million dollar question: Who is White Canary!? Well, we still don’t know. It’s okay though, this issue was excellent.

The million dollar question: Who is White Canary!? Well, we still don’t know. It’s okay though, this issue was excellent.

Jumping right back into the action from issue #1, Black Canary and Huntress face off with White Canary who is serving the Birds some serious whoop ass. Black Canary manages to get a few licks in. Maybe a few licks too many as she responds emotionally to what seems to be some major hater vibes coming off of this new enemy. Continue reading “Birds of Prey #2: White Witch, Crazy Bitch”

Birds of Prey #1: Fishnets, Fisticuffs and Fabulousness

For fans of Gail Simone’s Birds of Prey run, reading issue #1 of the revived series is like that great reunion with an old friend. Simone stepped away from the book three years ago, and it was canceled in 2009. However, she and original collaborator Ed Benes have wasted no time in returning the Birds to classic, crime-busting form — and we missed them terribly. (Spoilers await.)

The four-part “Endgame” story opens in Iceland, where Black Canary has arrived to rescue a diplomat’s 5-year-old daughter from a terrorist/kidnapper. The beauty of this sequence is that it firmly re-establishes Dinah Lance as one of the world’s most skilled combatants, obliterating the sad-sack wife nonsense other writers saddled her with. Let’s just say there’s a lot of blood on the snow in Reykjavik, and it’s not Dinah’s. Or the 5-year-old’s.

“Where my girls at?”

Shortly, Oracle begins reassembling the team to deal with an anonymous mofo who has a frightening amount of information about the Birds and all their friends/associates. Zinda is dispatched to recruit Hawk and Dove, one of whom has some serious anger management issues. (I wouldn’t have held it against Hawk if he’d tossed that silly, bank-robbing cheerleader off the roof, but that’s just me.) The addition of these newbies to a well-established group is potentially rich with drama, and I’m looking forward to seeing how everyone adjusts, or doesn’t.

This is the REAL DC Trinity

Simone’s affection for these characters comes through on every page, especially in the funny, familiar banter that flies between Canary, Zinda, Huntress and Oracle. The Birds also look fabulous, thanks to Benes’ gourmet cheesecake illustrations and colorist Nei Ruffino’s glowing, moody palette, which really suits poured-on leather under moonlight. Those panels of Huntress cracking skulls while talking to Oracle via cell phone could launch 1,000 gym memberships alone.

As if that weren’t enough, the Big Villain Reveal on the final page is a total surprise, and still a bit of a mystery. I figured it would be Lady Shiva, or even a tween Sin, but the ending suggests that our heroines are in for even bigger trouble. It is totally on — and I couldn’t be happier.

The Birds are Back in Town

I’ve enjoyed comic books and the characters since I was young, but for a long time, it was more from a distance. I’d admire them in a bookstore, peruse a boyfriend’s long box or, on occasion, borrow a trade. But I didn’t collect and follow comics myself — that is, until I met the Birds: Babs, Dinah, Helena and Zinda, as written by Gail Simone and drawn by Ed Benes, hold a sacred place in my heart.

I had just started a new job a few years ago when the topic of comic books somehow came up with the IT guy who was setting up my computer. He asked if I was into them, and I was all, “Sure. Kinda.”  I told him I was really into Wonder Woman and chicks who kick ass. He said he had something for me, and the next day, there was a stack of Birds of Prey trade paperbacks on my desk.

I opened the first one that following Saturday morning, and I couldn’t put them down. I was so enthralled that I read until my eyes couldn’t focus, and I developed a monumental headache. I kept on reading.

It is because of those very books that I go to my LCS every Wednesday; spend countless hours reading comics; search the Internet for comic book news and art; display a Black Canary Ame Comi figurine on my office shelf; spend lunches with other comic book fiends, talking for hours on our favorite stories; and now have a blog to talk about it all. Birds of Prey was the catalyst.

Honestly, no other book or set of characters has done for me what BoP did. I’d liken it to the first hit from a crack pipe. Gail’s writing and Ed’s art made me itch. From then on, I was hooked, searching desperately for that same high that I got from the Birds. Some series have come close: Identity Crisis, Secret Six, Rucka’s run on Wonder Woman, Fables, and Detective Comics with my darling Kate. While they all gave me a great fangirl buzz, they didn’t satisfy me quite as much as Dinah kicking ass in her fishnets, Babs taking down a group of men from her wheelchair, Lady Shiva struggling with morality as Jade Canary, and Lady Blackhawk punctuating the action with her hilarious one-liners.

When Gail moved on to other projects, I was terribly disappointed. Especially when DC married off Dinah to Ollie, and essentially ruined what Gail had done with her character. (And can someone please tell me what happened to Sin? Anyone?) In new hands, the book floundered, then got canned. Many, many times I’ve wished for DC to bring the Birds back, with Gail driving. It seems my wish has been granted: The dream team of Simone/Benes is back! And I am so fucking happy I want to cry.