Monday, November 17, 2008

The ladies are just fine.



I guess Black Canary's not rejoining the Birds of Prey after all. I knew it was a long shot, but I didn't expect to find out for sure by the cancellation of the series.

Coming on the heels of a couple of other cancellations of series that starred female heroes, some folks have wondered if this isn't some kind of backlash against super-heroines in general and if series like She-Hulk should be worried. Of course not, says Johanna (and, to be fair, Valerie in the link above as well, though after a rather sensationalistic title and opening paragraph). And I agree.

Low sales are most likely due to readers just getting tired of the concepts. Spider-Girl and Manhunter (good as Manhunter has been; I haven't read Spider-Girl) have had the same writers on them for pretty much their entire runs. Where She-Hulk (for example) has the advantage is that it's made use of one of the strengths of corporate-owned comics: the ability to boost reader-interest by bringing in a new creative team with a fresh vision.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but respect and admiration for Marvel and DC's allowing Tom DeFalco and Marc Andreyko to shepherd their respective titles to the very end. But let's face it, if DC handed Manhunter over Gail Simone or Geoff Johns, the series would get enough of a sales boost to keep it going for a while longer. I'm not saying that DC should do that; just saying that it would work.

She-Hulk on the other hand, wasn't cancelled with Dan Slott's leaving it. It was handed over to Peter David who's doing just fine with it. That's why it's not in danger of being canceled, even though - like Spider-Girl and Manhunter - it's been through a couple of hiatus periods in its history.

And what does this have to do with Birds of Prey? Absolutely nothing, except that that series' demise also has nothing to do with its featuring women heroes. BoP is being "canceled" along with Robin and Nightwing in a publicity stunt tied into aftermath the "Batman RIP" storyline. DC's already announced an Oracle mini-series to follow BoP and you can bet there will be something else directly after that once the dust settles in Gotham City.

Adding a couple of more shovelfuls of dirt onto the coffin of the Women Super-Heroes Are In Trouble Theory, DC is still coming out with a Power Girl ongoing and a Zatanna ongoing. Also recently announced, Amanda Conner will be illustrating the upcoming Black Canary/Zatanna graphic novel.

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