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My name is Amanda McKnight and I’m going to be sharing with you the top 10 Birds of
Prey Shocking Facts.
Birds of Prey for those who don’t know is the DC female team started by Barbara Gordon,
aka Oracle and Batgirl, and Helena Bertinelli, aka Huntress.
I know some of these facts surprised me and I hope some of them surprise you as well.
Before we get started, I’m sure it comes a surprise to no one that DC is in the process
of creating a Birds of Prey film.
That’s right.
The film is being produced by Margot Robbie, with her also reprising the role of Harley
Quinn, and will be directed by Cathy Yan.
Some of the main cast have been revealed and it has also been confirmed the film will have
an R rating.
Which I’m sure brings a sigh of relief to all of our lips, after that PG-13 Suicide
Squad business.
What do you think about the anticipated Birds of Prey film so far?
Are you excited?
Let me know in the comments below.
And without further ado, let’s get counting:
10 Huntress fought Lady Shiva.
In the 20-10 series Birds of Prey, we get to see Huntress and Lady Shiva fight.
The fight is kind of based around a sort of weird plot wherein Black Canary’s ward,
Sin, has been kidnapped and for some reason the White Canary is threatening to kill the
young girl, Sin and keep her from her foster parents unless Black Canary fights Lady Shiva.
Of course the two are both members of Birds of Prey so Lady Blackhawk and Huntress are
surprised that Shiva would agree to fight but Black Canary insistes Shiva is doing it
to guarantee Sin’s safety.
At this point Black Canary also has a broken wrist and Huntress decides to step in for
her.
In one corner we have Huntress, who is tough but just a well-trained fighter.
In the other we have Lady Shiva who is a deadly assassin who is known for being one of the
best martial artists on the planet.
Needless to say this fight is pretty much just Lady Shiva kicking Huntresses butt.
Surprisingly though Huntress does at least catch her unawares when she spits blood in
her face.
And ends up earning the respect of Lady Shiva for continuing to get back up and take a beating,
being given the name Iron Owl.
9 Lady Duo in the Comics and Behind the Scenes.
So we all know Birds of Prey is pretty female-centric team of heroes but you may not have known
that there was also a duo of ladies at one point, working behind the scenes to create
this series.
This occurred pre Flashpoint in the 1999 series of Birds of Prey issues #100 to 108 when we
had both stunning art from Nicola Scott and famed and long time on-again-off-again Birds
or Prey writer Gail Simone.
There have definitely been a few other women who have taken part in the creative team for
this ongoing series but I really love the issues that these women made together.
This is right around the time Simone decided to shake up the team’s roster by adding
some new members, namely Barda, Judomaster, Misfit, Manhunter and Spy Smasher.
8 Team Members.
There have been many agents of Oracle who have help the Birds of Prey out as well as
roster of ladies who have been part of the team, come and gone.
Sometimes the Birds of Prey team up with villains even.
Anything to get the job done.
Among their former and current members we surprisingly have Power Girl.
I say surprisingly because Superman’s cousin, Kara Zor-L, aka Power Girl and Barbara Gordon,
aka Oracle have never gotten along and this shows in the comics.
The team also has the amazing Vixen on it’s roster, a former supermodel who uses the power
of the Tantu Totem give herself the abilities of any animal.
At one point even Catwoman was a part of the team as was Poison Ivy.
Though Poison Ivy got herself kicked off the team and appears to be killed by Katana as
a result of manipulating the team to advance her environmental agenda in the 2011 Birds
of Prey issue 12.
Naughty naughty, Pamela.
7 The team name was ignored for awhile.
While the creation of Birds of Prey name is attributed to editor Frank Pittarese at the
end of the first comic appearance of the team in 1996 Black Canary/Oracle: Birds of Prey,
the name wasn’t actually posed by the characters until much later.
In the 1999 series, issue 86 of Birds of Prey which was released in 2004, it is Blackhawk
who makes the suggestion.
She explains that Black Canary and Blackhawk both being birds fit with the name.
Huntress relates to the name in the fact that birds of prey are known for their keen hunting
skills and Oracle… well she says she does not know what an Oracle is… [crickets] However
the team is distracted by gifts that Blackhawk throws at them and although she continues
to allude to the name, no one even comments as to whether or not they like it.
So yeah, we didn’t get an explanation till issue 86 and even then it was ignored by the
characters.
Odd.
6 Male team members.
Despite the fact that this series was originally advertised on the first issues cover as “some
situations require a woman touch,” the team has not always felt that way.
In fact sometimes the Birds of Prey seem to think some situations could also do with a
man’s touch every now and then.
Different male superheroes have made cameo appearances helping the team out including
Nightwing and Wildcat.
They even found a permanent male team member at one point in Hawk, aka Henry Hall, a hero
who is the embodiment of chaos and war and is balanced by Dove, a hero who typically
embodies the opposing sides of order and peace.
Dove at the the time also is on the team those this Dove is not Hank’s brother but a woman
named Dawn Granger.
These two were both a part of the team pre new 52.
5 Lois Lane threatened Oracle.
The Birds of Prey have seen many villians among them Spy Smasher, aka Katarina Armstrong
who used to be friends with Barbara Gordon when they were younger until they had a falling
out.
Katarina later became Spy Smasher, said to have more political clout than anyone in the
US as a powerful anti-terrorism agent.
In the 1999 Birds of Prey issue #102, Katarina even manages to sic Lois Lane on Barbara Gordon,
providing Lois with enough information to expose Barbara as the Oracle.
Lois invites Barbara for dinner and asks her leading questions about her tech know-how
and all the property she owns, ie the Birds of Prey’s base.
Although Barbara has a pretty good trick up her sleeve to dissuade Lois from exposing
her, she seemingly does not need to use it as fortunately Lois changes her mind.
The stand-off that these two powerful women however is intense.
Since the relaunch of Birds of Prey post new 52, Lois is often considered an allie to the
Birds of Prey.
Good thing too, because it seems they certainly would not want to be her enemy.
4 Oracle is a villian.
Wha…?
But I thought Barbara Gordon was supposed to be a good guy?
Don’t panic, she is.
However after the rebirth relaunch our Birds of Prey are assembled due to a mysterious
figure using a now fully healed Batgirl’s old codename, Oracle.
This Oracle however is up to no good, using their skills to sell secrets to villians and
mob bosses.
When confronted however, the team finds out he is just a stalkerish superfun of Batgirl,
who did all this to get their attention.
His name his Gus Yale and it turns out he just wants to join the team.
3 They can also sing.
In the animated series, Batman: the Brave and the Bold, the ladies take to the stage
in the season three episode the Mask of Matches Malone.
They attempt to infiltrate nightclub for gangsters and accidentally end up on stage.
They sing a very racy song about superheroes to Batman who is in the audience but who after
suffering from some amnesia, believes he is bad guy, Matches Malone and has become the
biggest crime lord in Gotham.
Seriously, though check out these racy lyrics: [insert clip from Batman the Brave and Bold,
1:14-1:23, link in script]
2 They had their own show.
That’s right.
It only managed to get one season due to steep decline in ratings.
The 2002 live-action television show follows Oracle, Huntress and Dinah, not aware of her
relationship to the original Black Canary.
Gotham no longer has a protector as Batman has seemingly disappeared and it is up to
these women, the Birds of Prey to keep it safe.
The main villain of the show is Doctor Harleen Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn who we originally
are lead to believe is merely Huntress’ therapist until the big reveal at the end
of the show which involves a face off between Huntress and Harley set to the All the Things
She Said by Tatu.
Yupp, it doesn’t get more early 2000s in that.
1 They have teamed up with Harley Quinn.
Despite the history here, I think we can thank the DC reboots for making this possible.
Harley Quinn has formerly been depicted as a villain to the Birds of Prey, as she often
teams up with the Secret Six, Birds of Preys’ known enemies.
So seeing Harley team up with these ladies is pretty surprising.
Post rebirth in the Bat Girl and the Birds of Prey series, issues 15 and 16, we see Harley
Quinn team up with the gang… after fighting them… to help cure all the men of Gotham
who are suffering from a deadly and mysterious flu.
These two issues are fantastic.
Not only do we get to see Harley join the team but also all three of the Gotham City
Sirens.
Even Wonderwoman joins in.
Thanks for watching.
I hope you enjoyed this video and are super pumped Margot Robbie’s film which is in
the works.
I know I am.
Which character are you most excited or most hopeful to see in the film?
Let me know in the comments below.
And if you love us here at Top 10 Nerd like we love you, don’t forget to click that
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I’m your host, Amanda McKnight, reminding you stay nerdy, youtube.