One of the many This! moments from BoP

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

One of the many This! moments from BoP

A quick confession. I love (almost) all of Gail Simone’s writing and I can pin point why with a few words. Birds of Prey.

I mean, a team made up of kick ass women, who love and support each other, who can save the world when the other guys can’t and who have made even Big Barda a member? How could you not love them?

So when Black Canary leaves her team in Gotham you can bet your mega rod that Lady BlackHawk and the Huntress are going to go after her. And when they find her in Bangkok the discover that White Canary has kidnapped Dinah’s daughter and has her captive; she won’t be released until Dinah fights Lady Shiva to the death.

Now, I don’t need to tell you that fighting Lady Shiva is a bad, deadly idea. She is just that good. I can only think of one person who has beaten her and that is Cassandra Cain and although Dinah Lance is an excellent fighter, she has a broken wrist and isn’t in the right place mentally to fight Lady Shiva.

So she ask Helena to be her second in this duel. To stand with her in this, her final fight. Helena knows what this is all about. She knows that Shiva doesn’t want to fight Dinah but has to because if she doesn’t she’ll loose her honour.

Helena has to be there for Dinah, even though she completely disagrees with what she is doing she understand that to get Sin back, for her daughter, Dinah would die and you know what, so would Helena.

And then in a really sweet moment, Dinah also ask Helena to say goodbye to her loved ones. To Ollie and to Barbara, her partners trough life. And that is a very touching moment. I just can’t stand her face when she says that she loves them.

The duty Helena has to perform as second is clear. She has to go to Lady Shiva and request the duel. She has to tell Paper Monkey, the deadliest fighter in ever to fight one of her best friends and possibly kill her. So she goes.

But because she is Helena Bertinelli, the goddamn Huntress, she does it her way. She just..she is awesome, is what I’m trying to say and here’s a mere brief glimpse into how awesome she is.

So she fights Shiva Woosan. She fights instead of Dinah and for the same rewards if she wins. Sin’s life. She is fighting, possibly to the death against one of the deadliest people in the DC universe for her friend’s daughter and you know what, that is admirable no matter how you tell it.

Helena fights Lady Shiva. She tells Dinah that she can fight to the death because she doesn’t have people who care for her. Dinah does, so is only logical for Helena to fight in her stead. Dinah tries to stop her but she finds out where Sin is so while Huntress fights Lady Shiva, Black Canary can find her daughter and end the fight before her friend dies.

And Huntress gets her ass kicked. I mean, this is Lady Shiva we are talking about. But also, she gets a few punches in and you know her, she fights dirty.

Eventually, Dinah finds Sin and makes sure she is safe. She stops the fight and with Lady Shiva, Lady BlackHawk and an injured Huntress behind her makes it clear to White Canary that the control she had is now gone. The super heroines win the day. And Huntress wins another thing too

I think this issue exemplifies what makes the BoP, as a team, work so wonderfully well. They just care about each other and are willing to call each other out on their stupid, suicidal crap. This group of people (there were a couple of men in the team as well) goes beyond duty and the work of super heroing. They are a pack. A family.

Also, Helena Bertinelli is just so good in this. It reminds me a little about the Helena we see in Rucka’s novelization of No Man’s Land, where all she does is fight. First as Batman, then as Batgirl and then as herself. She fights the Joker and Harley Quinn and about a dozen guys alone, and she almost dies for it. Because she is protecting poeple that she sees as hers.

Helena Bertinelli is one of the women I would like to see more of, in this new 52. And I mean this Helena, who could kick your ass and then die for you because you know what, that is what family does.

Also, there is this moment where Zinda Blake sums up Helena and smirks as White Canary misses the point, entirely.