You’ve just gotten coffee at a dingy little diner -- a low-key place where you had to
wipe the dirty mug before taking a sip.
Everything in Gotham’s a little rough around the edges, but you’re not expecting glitz
and glamor.
You’re here on a work trip and after walking around a bit during the day, you recognize
its dark and edgy character.
You head outside after it’s just been raining and it’s freezing.
An unholy breeze smacks you in the face and you just want to get back to your warm hotel.
You turn the corner and, to your pleasant surprise, an alleyway serves as a shortcut
to your safe haven.
But there’s something kind of sinister about this alleyway.
Something feels off.
You notice a tuft of blonde hair from a woman as she’s crouched in the shadows.
Not too far behind is another woman with a sharp fedora-looking hat on, holding a gun
in your direction.
A swift turn of your head and you see two pointy ears and a sleek black mask across
a brunette’s eyes.
Next to her, a remarkably attractive woman with fair skin, long black hair and purple
eyes looms nearby.
And finally, a sinister smile, those white blonde pigtails with the pink and blue tips
and tattoos everywhere that the whole world’s come to recognize faces you dead on.
You haven’t done anything to arouse suspicion, but you’ve had the immense pleasure of finding
yourself faced with the Birds of Prey -- an intense squad made up of Black Canary, Renee
Montoya, Cassandra Cain, Huntress and Harley Quinn.
They’re tough -- to put it lightly -- ready to fight and don’t trust you.
Black Canary, the first one you saw, is actually a woman named Dinah Lance.
She’s known for her high-pitched scream, but she tries to use it sparingly.
High-pitched might be putting it lightly, though, because this sound -- dubbed her canary
cry -- is made up of ultrasonic vibrations, or high-frequency sounds that are beyond the
scope of what an average human can hear.
This scream is such a superpower that it can shatter organic and inorganic objects -- including
metals -- and gives her the power to glide across distances.
Because you’re a human, you wouldn’t be able to withstand the sheer power of the canary
cry, so let’s hope this altercation doesn’t push her there in any way.
But you’ll be cautious and try not to push her there once you see what else she’s got
up her black, leathered up sleeve.
There are a couple conflicting theories behind Black Canary’s shrieking superpowers.
Some postulate that it was because she was cursed by a wizard, while others think she
already had superhuman ability at birth.
And some think the scream was a result of when Team 7, a military special operations
unit, experimented on her by supplementing her with genes from Ditto, a mutant alien
who can duplicate herself.
Knowing the sheer power of her cry, opponents often gag her in an attempt to stifle it.
She’s decided to hone her martial arts skills as a back-up, though, and she specializes
in hand-to-hand combat.
She’s also a skilled boxer, a result of being trained by Ted Grant, who mentored her
in several different techniques.
Her fighting tenacity is also a result of her rough upbringing: Her mother eventually
died of radiation exposure, so she became a foster kid and was eventually taken by Demond
Lamar, who trained her in the martial arts.
Her mother was also the original Black Canary, and her daughter, who so desperately wanted
to be a superhero, took her costume despite her objections at 19.
Lance’s Earth-shattering pipes have gotten her places aside from combat.
She specializes in rockabilly and rock music.
She’s the lead singer of a band, aptly also named Black Canary, and they’ve released
two EP albums.
Renee Montoya, the Latina still holding that terrifying gun in your face, is the detective
of the group who’s garnered the nickname “The Question.”
She’s got a no-nonsense personality -- a lot of it due to her days as a cop at the
Gotham Police Department, but gave up that path when she realized how corrupt the whole
force was.
She’s also originally from Gotham, so her deep familiarity of its every turn is a huge
asset.
In order to evade her, you’re going to have to be unpredictable because she’s not only
a skilled markswoman -- she’s also intensely familiar with the criminal mind, so she can
predict people’s moves.
So you might want to think as quickly as you can to see if you can beat her.
Case in point to describe how much of a mastermind she is: She’s been able to detect patterns
within global crime rings and make sense of cryptic texts.
She’ll stealthily go undercover in order to pick up on information, like the one time
she snuck her way into a creepy cult led by a woman named Korrigan.
But perhaps with enough trickery and creativity, you’ll be able to break free from the grasp
she’s probably already got on you as she’s sizing you up while the seconds go by.
Cassandra Cain, Orphan or BatGirl is your next opponent.
Speaking of those in the group who can sniff out your every move, you’re going to have
to watch out even more for this one, and a lot of that is because of her backstory.
You won’t hear a peep from her because she’s mute, but don’t underestimate her for a
minute!
She was raised by David Cain, an assassin who completely mistreated her -- depriving
her of human contact and who never taught her how to read or write.
Instead, he taught her fighting techniques that sharpened her ability to read body movements
and therefore anticipate what a person will do.
Cain’s childhood is marked by violence: When she was 8, David took her to kill a businessman,
and while she didn’t know what exactly was going on, it was her first real exposure to
death.
This was also when she fled from her evil caretaker and spent the next 10 years living
on the streets -- kinda like Black Canary -- before being snapped up to serve for Oracle,
a covert operation run by Barbara Gordon, a former vigilante who’s now wheelchair
bound.
It looks like you’re going to have a hard time trying to outmaneuver Cain unless you
can somehow whip out some major martial arts skills from out of nowhere: While she has
no superhuman powers, she’s proficient in Jeet Kune Do, a non-fixed form of martial
arts that’s come to be associated with Bruce Lee, Muay Thai- which uses specific parts
of the body like shins, knees, elbows and fists- and Ninjutso, the type of fighting
used by ninjas in guerilla warfare.
Huntress, or Helena Bertinelli, is the raven-haired beauty who you’re simultaneously transfixed
by but also petrified of.
She’s the daughter of Catwoman and Batman, so, just right off the bat genetically you
know she’s a lot to be faced with.
To try to outdo this one, you’re going to have to muster all the speed and agility you’ve
got, so, hope you’re limbered up!
She’s also a force to be reckoned with after all she’s been through.
When she was just a kid, a criminal coerced her mom to continue being Catwoman, which
resulted in her mother being killed.
Helena set out to avenge for her mom’s death, making a costume and fashioning some weapons
out of what her parents had -- one of which included her crossbow, which became her signature
weapon.
And finally, Harley Quinn, otherwise known as Harleen Quinzel, appears to be the last
foe you’re going to try to outsmart, but it’s going to prove itself to be nearly
impossible.
Quinn wasn’t always the fast-talking, brash character.
At one point a long, long time ago, she was an intern at Arkham Asylum, the psychiatric
hospital.
Part of her mental expertise has to do with this psychiatry training, so, like the other
characters we’ve mentioned, she’d be able to aptly predict what you’re going to do,
which will leave you frantically searching for a way to throw her off.
So, back to her time at the Asylum.
She met The Joker there and became utterly obsessed, which led her to try to help him
escape.
The whole plan goes up in flames when she’s caught, but then she escapes to find her “puddin.”
So, she’ll do anything for the man she’s obsessed with.
She has no real superpowers, but she’s immune to most toxic environments because of an injection
she received, which also made her stronger and have more stamina.
She carries around a mallet and knows what to do with it.
She’s also nimble and agile -- before she was injected, she was an expert gymnast with
an exceedingly high IQ.
So, there’s a breakdown of your odds against the current Birds of Prey squad.
Hope you can learn martial arts out of thin air, be as unpredictable as possible and outlive
a canary cry that shatters the Earth!
Thanks again and we’ll catch you next time on The Infographics Show!