Birds of Prey: Between Dark and Dawn

I chose Birds of Prey because it was a group of women, led by a woman and, written by a women, Gail Simone. The book I read was issues #69-75. What struck me most about the comic was that it did not feel different from the other comics I read that were written by men. Eventually the women seemed to have more "friendship/bonding" scenes than I would expect in a male written book, but it was surprisingly similar as far as action, sexplotation in the costumes and drawings and overall feel of women kicking ass for pleasures sake. Especially for Simone who is apparently famous for being a feminist and pointing out how women have been used in comics only to provide fodder for men to be triggered to action (got this off wiki). At one point the girls seem to be bonding over lunch in a rose garden where they comfort "Babs" over the loss of her sentimental photos in the explosion of her secret hideout, the clock tower. They have a moment of silence before an angry Babs says, "Healing time's over. Let's kick some ass." It almost felt as if she was overcompensating for women's "vulnerability" by making them super tough. At points Babs has to cope with being cripple which no longer allows her to be Batgirl and losing the love of her life, Nightwing, but this emotional challenge is always put in the backseat to her strength and triumph. Over all it just felt like these characters that were supposed to be so flawed and real were overly strong and resilient, at least for the kinds of super-heroines I want to create. The Huntress was supposed to be overtly angry and troubled, but she just walked all over the men and her anger never presented a problem, it just gave her strength. Again, I think I want more moral ambiguity. Good and evil, strength and weakness are always so black and white in this series.

Another thing I noticed was just how wrapped up in the comic book universe this series was. There are so many superheores and references to other comics that it was hard to follow at times for the casual comic book reader. Superman shows up as an ambulance, the Justice League is name dropped, Batman is joked about, random superheroes are mind controlled and used as martyrs. It is all very integrated in the mythology. I need to keep this in mind when I make my own series. Is this a world where superheores run rampant or are these people just regular ladies inspired by comics or movies? This could be the points of humor, as inside jokes, these references, but they can't make up the whole world. I just couldn't follow since my comic knowledge is so thin. What is the audience you are trying to reach and how can acknowledging comic heroes be addressed without isolating those that don't know the whole canon of superhero history?

Overall, I don't think I'll continue to read this series, despite the fact that I am leaning toward an ensemble webseries with 3-4 ladies as the lead heroines and this seems similar in that regard. Ultimately it is just not the direction I want to go in. I'm still interested in watching the short lived TV show, if only to learn from how they failed.