And Colleen, I think the whole thing with Misfit was meant to be humorous, and you’re looking way too far into it if you’re going to drop a great series because of it.

This is what Gail said on her Black Canary storyline:
“It’s interesting, but if you read BoP from my very first issue to issue #99, you’ll see it’s very clearly a huge, single Black Canary story (with lots of little side bits along the way). Essentially, Black Canary was sort of a weak sister, a little bit, not from what Chuck had done, but other DCU writers. There’s this one panel that seemed to show up over and over again, Green Arrow being righteously angry at someone, being fun and entertaining, while Black Canary places one hand on his arm or shoulder to calm him down. I used to refer to that portrayal as Dinah being a professional wet blanket.

I really got sick of seeing it. What it was saying was that she was only interesting as Green Arrow’s Jiminy Cricket, or as a hostage, and I thought that was a tremendous waste of a great character.

Sometimes you have to pull these characters apart to their elements, and strip some of the crud that’s accumulated, to remind everyone of what lies underneath.

So we started (too much yelling from Black Canary fans) by putting her at almost her lowest point ever…beaten, legs broken, and four issues of being handcuffed to a bed. I think the fact that despite all that, she was still the one in control, that’s what makes her great.

And that incident had her thinking, why the hell does this happen to me, and not so much, say, Green Arrow? So the mega-story has been her search to become as good, as dangerously skilled, as she possibly can be.

But in the end, she hits a moral and ethical wall…she gets to the point where if she takes one more step, she goes down a path where she stops being Dinah and becomes a little more like the tortured martial artists at the top of that chain; Batman, Shiva, Richard Dragon, etc. No one seems to top that pyramid and keep their full self intact.

So Dinah says, enough, this is enough, and I get to stay myself. I don’t need to be a cold-eyed terror. Early on in our run, she has a dream that she’ll go that route, and become the Witch Canary…that was her moment of clarity and caution. That’s not a life she wants. Sounds a bit Doctor Phil, until you realize the path is nothing but broken bones and cracked skulls along the way.

That was the Black Canary story I wanted to tell, and thank goodness I was given the room to do it.

That said, Canary is still a big part of the heart of BoP and I would hope her leaving isn’t permanent. I don’t care for her as just another superhero among hundreds.”

It’s the other way round for me - I find it hard to think of Barbara as anything but Oracle, since she’s been Oracle for most of my life.

Now, this is what Dinah said when she left the BOP:

“I have a choice here. To be something I thought I never could be. Something a little bit like a mother.”

It seems fair to say that the choice she speaks of is a choice between fighting crime and raising Sin.

Just tossing that in. I’m not fond of that Batgirl illustration, either, although I’ve warmed to the character considerably over the past couple years. For me, it’s hard to think of Batgirl as anything but Barbara.

As for Misfit…she’s a little odd.

Gail

Meaning…?

That website was basically made as a little advertisement when #25 came out. It wasn’t an encylopedia-type thing.

Concerning BoP;
1) The writer, Gail Simone, is a woman.
2) Black Canary left the title because the JLA writer wanted to use her. Simone has said she would like to bring her back sometime in the future.

Yes, you could argue that Cass’ costume is fetishistic. I mean, doing so would ignore the fact that her costume is actually a highly practical one, and that there was a serious reason behind the mask-stitching, and that at some level all superhero costumes are allegedly fetishes.

Yes, her costume could be construed as fetishized. So could Wonder Woman’s. So could Starfire’s. Black Canary, for her part, has spent the majority of her career dressed like a prostitute. Is this a problem? ‘Fetishistic’, sexualized’, and ‘exploitative’ have different meanings. The first two are not necessarily problems, if unaccompanied by the third.

Basically, I think some of you are not getting past ‘OMG icky costume’. And once past that point, there is a lot to see.

The character profile pic . . . I’m not going to make any attempt to defend that. DC mistreating it’s female characters? In other news, the sky is blue, and water is wet. I will say, though, that her own series was never like that.

The image shows she’s taken a severe beating but still refuses to back down & has been hitting back hard. Why not use to illustrate an encylopedia-style entry for the character? She’s meant to be a hardcore fighter after all, that pic seems to sum that up.

(And Canary simply walked next door to Metzler’s new League. I wonder if she even has a daughter there.)

Dean, silent characters are difficult to handle long term (I’m reminded of how Jericho was killed off) because few artists are capable of portraying them successfully on the monthly comic art grind. It takes skill and work to get across their emotions and motivations, and month after month, that becomes too much of a challenge for many.

Colleen, I hope that that new Birds of Prey character is a satire of Mary Sue-ism. Because otherwise, yeah, not a good idea. But as a standin for fanficcers and wannabes… it’s kind of funny.

I really disliked that Black Canary “I can’t keep my job and calling because I’m a mom now” decision. Much too retrograde for me. It wouldn’t have seemed so bad with any counterexamples in the universe, but as it is… eck.

And the message is, as always, superhero comics aren’t for girls. Another example of working to keep them out of the clubhouse.