I'm sorry if you've been asked this before, but why did you choose to bring in Huntress when you started Birds of Prey? I can think of a dozen different reasons, but I'd like to hear straight from the horses mouth

Not the loveliest metaphor…;)

Okay, let me think. I remember a lot of people thought it was because DC or Warners wanted the comic to match the show more closely. That is actually the opposite of what happened.

The show was not beloved by Warners OR DC. It had potential, it could have been great, the cast was great, but there was constant interference, I believe by the network, and it came out a bit of a mess and was quickly canceled.

DC did NOT want to affiliate with the show more. It was already canceled, and DC was going to cancel the comic as well. There was NO pressure to add Huntress.

But I felt there was a narrative problem. If you read the early issues, they are so cleverly constructed that you don’t really notice that there are ENDLESS panels of just Oracle and Canary chatting back and forth wirelessly, without ever being face-to-face. I felt that having so much page space be taken up with that every issue could get a bit dull and repetitive, even with two great lead characters. In short, I felt Canary needed someone to talk to in the moment, someone to disagree with, someone to protect and be protected by, and we also needed someone to vex Oracle by being more willful and independent. Huntress fit that bill perfectly.

So it was 100% my request.

Every once in a while, someone complains about how Oracle and Canary treated Huntress in the first couple issues. All I can say is, yes, yes, they obviously did.  This is what happens in the real world, you don’t automatically start with complete trust, kindness and respect. Often, you start off shaky and rocky. Even smart, kind people rush to judgment.

Because relationships have an arc, especially in serial fiction. It’s amazing to me that anyone needs this explained (yes, THIS happened, and THIS was the result, and now THIS is the situation) but it does come up once in a while.

My thing with BOP was I wanted a team of women, of buddy cops, who would, WITHOUT QUESTION, lay down their lives for each other. And I feel that that is what made the book a success. But first, they HAD to get to know each other, they all made mistakes. That’s human. If you don’t mess up, if you have nothing to overcome, all the smiles and hugs in the world have no real depth of emotion or meaning.

Anyway, I love what she added to Bop and I think it was powerful enough that it changed the dynamic of what Bop MEANS to people. When the new52 version came out, and it WASN’T Dinah, Barbara and Helena, it just never felt like Bop. And even now, they are trying to recreate that trinity, and I’m glad.

That’s how it happened!