I had some excellent feedback on my last fanfiction featuring Spider-Man and the Hulk. After a little break, I’m back with more, this time featuring the Birds of Prey and a whole lot more.

Origins of the Birds of Prey

I missed the creation of the Birds of Prey in 1996. Chuck Dixon wrote the first incarnation based on a concept from Jordan B. Gorfinkel and named by Frank Pittarese.

Dixon chose Black Canary/ Dinah Lance and Oracle/ Barbara Gordon for the team. He wrote several one-shots, special editions, and the like.

The duo became so popular they earned a regular series. Unfortunately, as all series do, “Birds of Prey” fell onto hard times and sat on the brink of cancelation.

I jumped on board around issue number fifty-six. That’s when Gail Simone took a dying book and turned it into a consistent top seller.

Simone kept Black Canary and Oracle as the leading players and added the Huntress/ Helena Bertinelli to the mix.

Others came after Simone’s run, but hers is the one I’ll die on a hill praising. It’s also the one that got me wanting to write again.

Why I love Birds of Prey

If you hadn’t guessed from my “Shadowdance” saga protagonist Adriana Dupre, I love female protagonists. I was down with that archetype well before the “strong female protagonist” became a thing.

Chalk it up to my love of Frank Miller’s character Elektra Natchios and Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake.

Liking a character type doesn’t mean you can write it for shit. I wrote female characters like crap. They were just dudes with boobs.

In hindsight, it wasn’t really a gender thing. My male characters were just as poorly written.

What I (hopefully) learned from Simone’s “Birds of Prey”

Picking up Simone’s version of the book, I don’t know what happened. Something just clicked.

I figured out the important things like having characters talk about stuff that wasn’t just the plot, but character stuff.

In turn, that character-building drives the plot. Without it, your plot’s characters are interchangeable. Plot defines character as much as characters define the plot.

I’m not saying I can write a character like Ms. Simone. Oh, hell no. But I like to think I’ve improved a great deal from reading and learning from her “Birds of Prey” run.

Writing the Birds, but not the Birds you know

As an homage to Simone’s work and as a bit of fun for me, I’m trying my hand at a Birds of Prey fanfiction.

I can’t do a Birds of Prey run without Black Canary and Barbara Gordon. This time, though, Canary is a vigilante in Seattle whose best friend is Sonya Blade from “Mortal Kombat.”

In my fanfic, Blade is a cop whose partner was murdered by the crime lord China White.

Barbara is here too but in her Batgirl persona. I wrote Batgirl in my “Armored Underworld” fanfiction. This story takes place before that one.

I’ll also have some other surprises from “Mortal Kombat” as well as characters from the Batman mythos. Sorry, no Green Arrow this time. I’m working my way to that.

Building the nest

This fanfiction is a real work in progress. I’m still working on it, and it keeps blowing up as I pull in new characters and scenarios.

I promise it’ll finish it, but it may compete with “Armored Underworld” for the highest number of chapters.

I’m still utilizing the “Mutants and Masterminds, Third Edition” role-playing game for fun stuff like combat. Makes things go a bit longer, but dammit I’m having fun.

Hopefully, that fun will show in the work.

“Birds of Prey” begins tomorrow. I’ll run it every Tuesday and Thursday. If it looks like the story will run longer than usual (it will), I may also run it on Wednesdays.

We’ll play that by ear.

So jump back to this space tomorrow for my homage/ version/ fun time with the ladies of Birds of Prey!