When you think of genre, you often associate it with books and rarely think about comic books, because comic books are peculiar and have often been separated from general SFF-dom. It’s true superhero-centric stories are in themselves a peculiar sub-genre as they rely on a narrative based on a sense of grandeur and over-the-top stakes. It’s do or die. Villains are outrageous. Heroes are expected to ascend beyond the flawed human nature.

Marvel and DC dictate how the superhero genre evolves and there’s as much bad writing as there is brilliant writing. Where the superhero genre suffers most is its ever-increasing roster with new and old characters forming teams. You get a lot of action. Lots of panels full of fights and nick of time rescue – a whole lot of flash with not enough character development. Because I started with the X-Men, I’ve been a Marvel fan for a long time before I read the Birds of Prey (DC).

I wasn’t exactly sold on the concept, because the first issues were rather outrageous filled with a number of silly adventures. I stuck because the series had an all-female team, something I found refreshing. Male superheroes have always been center stage as if their personal struggles, pain or catharsis possess are somehow truer and more valid. I don’t remember much about the runs made by males, but I do recall the series grew consistently better once Gail Simone took over as head writer with Issue #56 up to Issue #108, which is a four-year span. This is an impressive run for a writer in the comic book industry, considering how often a title changes artistic direction. Even more so, because Simone is one of the few women writing for the big two. Continue reading »