Gail's run on BOP was perfect!

[Lester C.]

I just reread Gail's run which started on issue 56 and ended around 108. I was enraptured the entire time. This book, and each issue, was a perfect balance of comedy, drama, action, suspense, triumph, tragedy everything you can think of with the possible expectation of romance.

On top of all that each issue had many lines of quotable dialog that are classics of their own right. I kept trying to commit each awesome line to memory but couldn't because there were just too many lines.

What resonated with me most was that her run was one big coming of age story. Everyone from the most minor supporting characters to the Birds all moved to becoming self-actualized beings and we bore wittiness to their amazing journeys. It's a damn shame from what I understand that much of their growth has been undone but that's comics for you. What changes must always change back to maintain the status quo.

In my time away from mainstream comics I've forgotten how awesome Gail was. I'm going to order all the trades of her work because I'm a Gail Simone junkie now.

[Spiffy]

I doubt even Gail, hopped up wine coolers, would claim its "perfect".

What it was? Consistently good. Consistently readible.

And that's far better than what most writers achieve.

[Gail Simone]

I appreciate the nice comment, Lester!

That was what was fun about my Bop run, to me. No one knew, and I mean NO ONE, not even the editors or DC, that it wasn't a bunch of unconnected arcs. It was always intended to be a mega-arc, forty-plus issues, that in my mind, I called "THE RISE OF THE BLACK CANARY." The story properly 'ends' when Canary leaves the book, but realistically, there's a bit of an epilogue even in the issues where she's not there.

I wanted to show what she COULD be, and I really feel we've done that, and it's probably my proudest achievement in comics. I miss writing her terribly, but the whole goal was to try to, in my own humble stumbly way, make her into a character that COULD credibly lead the JLA or star in her own book or hold her own with guys like Deathstroke and Shiva. And I think all that came to pass, and DC really does think of her differently now, as do the readers.

Still hope to get back to writing her again one day. I'm not crazy about the whole marriage thing--if I were in charge, they'd get it annulled day one, most likely, but I do feel that other writers are writing her as more of a powerhouse with her own personality now, and that's a big big victory in my opinion.

It wouldn't have worked without the foundation Chuck Dixon set up, though. I always feel like when I talk about Bop, Chuck has to get a huge chunk of the credit for everything that happened after, just as I feel John Ostrander has to get a huge chunk of credit for creating the Suicide Squad that so obviously was a big influence on the Secret Six.

It's a kind of collaboration after the fact, that those guys did the hard work and I get to rollerskate on the road built by their hard labor.

[LewisH]

when you have Black Canary guest in Wonder Woman and hold her own against some of the villains that give Diana a hard time. She's had some nice moments in Justice League but because of the nature of that book, she tends to get crowded out.

[Lester C.]

when you have Black Canary guest in Wonder Woman and hold her own against some of the villains that give Diana a hard time. She's had some nice moments in Justice League but because of the nature of that book, she tends to get crowded out.

Early one in Gail's BOP Black Canary sparred with Wonder Woman. That issue has made me very excited about Gail's Wonder Woman run and I'm going to now buy it in trade even though I wasn't planning to.

[Pink Bat Maxine]

I wouldn't say perfect..... it wasn't until the later issues that I was really grabbed. The Simone/Scott issues in particular. It was a perfect mixture. Before then..... I dunno what it was but I just wasn't sold, partally because of my distaste for the Gotham-verse.

Still, Simone and Scott: Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together.

[LewisH]

would be the two of them having a discussion about men. Dinah's just recently married and Diana is at least thinking about a serious relationship. Throw Kendra and Mari into the mix and we have a nice DC version of Sex and the City.

[Lester C.]

would be the two of them having a discussion about men. Dinah's just recently married and Diana is at least thinking about a serious relationship. Throw Kendra and Mari into the mix and we have a nice DC version of Sex and the City.

Black Canary didn't get married until after Gail left the book.

[TCJohnson]

I just reread Gail's run which started on issue 56 and ended around 108. I was enraptured the entire time. This book, and each issue, was a perfect balance of comedy, drama, action, suspense, triumph, tragedy everything you can think of with the possible expectation of romance.


That is what I keep saying about her. There are people who do comedy better than her, does drama better than her and people who do action better than her. But nobody balances all three as well as her and as conistantly with her.

Plus she really has a great handle on relationships, both the good aspects and the bad...

[joe27]

I could never read BoP because I can't stand Barbara Gordon BUT one of the side effects of wanting to marry Connor Hawke and reading every Green Arrow book since he arrived on the scene is that I've fallen in love with Black Canary. I've decided I like her more than even Brubaker's Catwoman. And Brubaker's Catwoman is fucking awesome.

Seeing her head the JLA was one of my proudest comic reading moments.

[Dr Ray Palmer]

It's my favorite comic run of my adult life. I find it's not possible or fair to try to compare it with comics I fell in love with as a kid, so I don't. But there's no comic I love as an adult more than I love Gail's BoP -- nothing else is even close.

[ShaunN]

Dear Friends,

HI! A few months ago, I posted on this. I had just finished reading Gail's entire BoP run in the trade paperbacks, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. As I said at the time, it was like discovering a whole group of new friends. The characters felt so real that I could have read stories about Barbara, Dinah and Helena just sitting around talking. (Almost!)

I think that the "best" arcs were scattered throughout the series - the first storyline stands out in my mind as particularly good.

Sincerely,

Shaun