Hero Profile: Ironheart

Starts as an homage, grows into a hero all her own.

To close out February and Black History Month, we’ll be talking about one of the newest young African American heroes, Riri Williams aka Ironheart. The young successor to Iron Man hasn’t had much of a career as of yet, as she’s only really been doing the superhero thing for just shy of four years, so this one is going to be on the shorter side of things. Just so you know. While she hasn’t had the popularity explosion that some of the other character’s I’ve mentioned this week, (Miles and Static), I think that this girl will impress you with some of her exploits. Let’s get to it, shall we?

Like the design overall, but the OCD part
of me can't help but desire a matching
symbol on the right side.

Riri Williams’ early life seems to be kind of a mixed bag of good and bad. Her father died before she was born. Bad. By the time she was five years old, she underwent several tests and was determined to be a super genius. Good. Her extreme intellect, seemingly inevitably, lead to her being incredibly introverted and slightly socially awkward. Bad. Getting a scholarship to MIT at eleven. Good. Step-father and best friend getting killed during a drive-by shooting. Very, very bad. Honestly, given the amount of death in this girl’s past, is it any wonder that she’d be interested in a suit of powered armor?

Shortly after the deaths of her stepdad and best friend, Riri began work on her own Iron Man suit. She was able to reverse engineer most of Tony Stark’s gadgets and gear from examining one of Tony’s out of date suits. The model in question was his Mark 41 armor, which was designed for deep space exploration, so there were a lot of nifty toys for her to play around with. She then used resources from MIT, mostly stolen, to design and build her own unique power Armor. She was eventually discovered by Campus security, at which point she took another leaf out of Tony’s book… get into your untested suit of powered armor and fly away. Thankfully, her model had significantly better jets so she didn’t immediately crash into the ground after escaping her pursuers. She flew cross country for a while, doing her best to figure out her suit’s flight capabilities on the fly. Pun intended. While soaring over New Mexico, she intercepted a group of inmates escaping from prison. She flew down and stopped the truck they were using to get away, which was good. But she severely damaged her suit in the process, another bad. She eventually trudged her way back home to Chicago, where she got back to work designing and improving her suit, much to her mother’s dismay.

Thankfully, Riri’s stunt at MIT and stopping the prisoners caught the attention of the very person she’d copied her designs from, Tony Stark. Feeling that he needed to reward such behavior as Riri’s, he got her what she needed to rebuild and upgrade her new suit and recruited Riri’s help during the second hero Civil War. Basically, Iron Man and Captain Marvel were at odds about using an Inhuman Precog to preemptively tackle disaster, natural and/or manmade. Iron Man was against it, Marvel for. Riri was recruited and fought along side Iron Man’s faction, with heroes like Iron Man, both Captain’s America (Rogers and Wilson), Deadpool and Luke Cage. A very odd assortment of heroes, not going to lie.

The war ended with Tony Stark getting beaten into a coma by Carol Danvers, and the precog in question peace-outing to try living life on a higher plan of existence. Lotta human suffering and friendships shaken to their core to get to that ending, guys. With Iron Man in stasis, Riri decided to do her best to live up to Tony’s legacy and continue doing the hero thing. She got her hands on an AI copy of Stark’s mind, uploaded it into her new armor and took flight as Ironheart. Riri’s first big fight was against an Inhuman gangster known as Techno Golem and her small army of “Biohack” (Tony’s name) Ninja. Techno Golem has the power to override and assimilate technology into her own body, for brief periods of time. Kind of makes it hard for a powered armor user to face off against her, but Riri got some backup from a re-armored Rescue (Pepper Potts) and defeated the criminal by tricking Techno Golem into assimilating an Iron Man armor loaded with a virus.

I suppose you could do worse for an AI buddy
than a genius, billionaire philanthropist.
Just ignore the playboy advice.

Riri became something of an overnight celebrity after that run in, as she pretty quickly ended up on SHIELD’s watch list, got backing form Tony’s mother, got offered reenroll at MIT, and got offers from the Champions to join their ranks. She later was convinced by SHIELD to invade Latveria to apprehend war criminal, dictator, and former professor Lucia von Bardas. Deciding to risk kicking that enormous hornet’s nest, Riri flew in, defeated Bardas and declared herself Queen of Latveria. I’m not sure if that’s how that works, but it led to Latveria getting free elections, so I guess we’re just going to roll with it.

A short time later, HYDRA ended up taking over the United States. The green suited Nazis had used a fascist doppelganger of Captain America and several other plots in order to dominate the US of A. Riri joined the Underground, a collection of heroes and civilian fighters fighting to end HYDRA’s new empire. She fought along side and officially joined the Champion’s during this outing. They attempted to defeat Evil Steve Rogers along side Black Widow, but were defeated and captured. Which is still better off than Natasha, who was executed by Evil Steve. Riri and her team were eventually freed when the Underground launched a full assault on HYDRA’s base in DC. She helped the heroes defeat HYDRA, Evil Steve and saw that the original Steve Rogers was brought back from cosmic limbo. Not a bad first few years of hero work.

Riri Williams is a super genius and skilled mechanical engineer. She was able to get accepted into MIT, reverse-engineer an arc reactor and build her own Iron-Man style powered Armor before she was sixteen. She’s built a few variations of her powered armor, each with different weapons and capabilities. But some broad strokes tech they all share is enhancing her physical strength, flight, and repulsor ray projection.

Riri is a relatively new character for Marvel, and doesn’t seem to have had the popularity explosion that guys like Miles Morales or Kamala Khan have had. That being said, she does have at least one appearance outside of the comics.

I wonder how long it was after Riri joined
the team before she asked to see Viv's schematic?
That sounded less dirty in my head.

She appears as part of the Marvel Rising, an online Marvel series focused on the creation and adventures of the Secret Warriors. It’s a group of diverse young heroes doing the hero thing. In Heart of Iron, we’re introduced to Riri who is at MIT and attempting to adjust to college at the age of 15 but failing miserably at it. Her only friend, kinda, is an AI she programmed dubbed AMI. Riri is forced to do the hero thing when AMI is stolen by an Accuser (Kree warrior judge) named Hala to use in a doomsday weapon. Riri quickly assembles her suit of powered armor and joins with the Secret Warriors to try to save AMI. In the end, she joins the team.

She’s appeared in a few ensemble Marvel games as well, including Marvel Avengers Academy and as a DLC for Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2.

Overall, I say I like the concept of Riri. She’s still relatively new, so it can be hard to judge how much of an impact she’ll have. Maybe she’ll become a household name like Spider-Man, Captain America or Iron Man, maybe she’ll fade into obscurity like Hybrid, Cosmo the space dog, and the Original Human Torch. It’s hard to say. But, I think she’s got a cool armor design, a respectively tragic backstory, and the gumption to be a long haul hero. I mean, come on, she flew into Latveria and took over. While I question the legality of such a coup d’état, I gotta give her a ton of points for doing something that insane. Also, I’m just a sucker for the introverted egg head getting to live their dream. Shocking, I know. So yeah, she’s still pretty early in her career, but I like Ironheart and hope to see more of her in the future.  

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Hero Profile: Aqualad (Kaldur'ahm)

He's a king of the sea in training.

Up next, we’re going to talk about Kaldur’am, aka Aqualad. I’ll be doing this one slightly different than normal. Why? Because this version of Aqualad was created specifically for the television series Young Justice, and the TV series Kaldur bears only a passing resemblance to Jackson Hyde, his comic book counterpart, and Kaldur is the one I want to talk about. I’ll also go over Jackson, but in the more heavily summarized section that I usually use for out of comic appearances. Also, like most of my character profiles, I’ll talk about his history in his chronological order not necessarily by how the events transpired in the show. Have I explained my madness well enough? Sure! Let’s get to it.

This is his serious face. Get used to it, he uses it alot.

 Aqualad aka Kaldur’ahm, or the simpler Kaldur to his friends was born in the Atlantean city of Shayeris, where he was raised by his mother Sha’lain’a and his dad Calvin Durham. His dad was originally one of Black Manta’s henchmen, whom was genetically altered to have an Atlantean physiology as part of a plan to infiltrate and destroy Atlantis, but he eventually gave up his mission upon meeting Sha’lain’a. Kaldur was trained from a young age for combat, joining the Atlantean military at 12 as part of his training and mandatory military service. He spent some time training at the Conservatory of Sorcery in Poseidonis to further expand his skillset. One day, Atlantis was attacked by Ocean-Master, and forced his brother Aquaman to battle him. During the battle, Aquaman was wounded and at his brother’s mercy. Kaldur and his friend Garth leapt up to protect their king, using Kaldur’s fighting skill and Garth’s magic. The boys were pretty easily defeated by Ocean-Master, but they distracted him long enough for big brother Aquaman to recover and defeat him. After Ocean-Master scampered, Aquaman offered both boys the chance to work under him as his sidekick. Garth refused and went back to studying, while Kaldur took him up on the offer, becoming Aqualad.

Oh, and I should note that he’s played by Khary Payton, known for playing another popular DC character, Cyborg.

He served under his king for two years before the start of the series. On July, 2010, he helps Aquaman battle the villainous Killer Frost as she attempts to freeze Pearl Harbor. They defeat Frost, and Aquaman is finally able to get Kaldur to admit he’s excited for their next appointment. What appointment? The induction of the “sidekicks” Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash and Speedy into the Justice League. They’re brought into the Hall of Justice, where things are pleasant until Speedy learns they aren’t actually getting to see anything more than the opposite side of the glass of a tourist trap. Speedy leaves in disgust, as he isn’t interested in a glorified backstage pass. The others, meanwhile, learn about a fire at Cadmus Labs, a lab that Batman had been suspicious of. When the League is called away on a more pressing mission, the boys decide to investigate Cadmus on their own initiative.

So... from nearly shaved head to mop-top? How odd.

On the way in, Kaldur helps several scientists escape the blaze with his water manipulating powers before the group travels deeper into the lab. They find a highspeed express elevator and miles of underground lab and genetic monster wandering around. As they dodge around the creatures, Genomorphs, they discover Cadmus’ biggest experiment, project KR, the Superboy. Cadmus’ head scientist Dr. Desmond discovers their infiltration and uses Superboy to capture the teen heroes. While Superboy does capture them, the boys are able to convince Superboy to switch teams and escape with them. They’re able to battle their way through Cadmus Labs and stop a mutated Desmond just before the League arrives. Aqualad, Robin, Kid Flash, Superboy and Matian Manhunter’s niece M’gann M’orzz agree to join a new covert ops team. A team that they never seem to name. Sorry, years later and it bugs me their group is never officially called Young Justice.

After fending off an attack by the evil Mr. Twister on their new base, they go on their first mission to Santa Prisca. The Team has issues, as they aren’t used to working as a unit. Well, four of them aren’t. The other issue is that Robin is so used to working with Batman that he expects the others to work without him actually giving orders. They’re able to discover that the Cult of Corba had taken over Santa Prisca and were producing a new stronger version of the drug Venom. They also determine that Kaldur should be team lead, as he was the only one working to keep the heroes working together while everything else was going haywire. Kaldur claims that he’s merely holding the position until their Team is ready for Robin’s leadership. Humble fella, is this Kaldur’ahm.

Kaldur leads the team on several more missions, helping ship the pieces of the Amazo android to STAR Labs, investigating the disappearance of Kent Nelson aka Dr. Fate, welcoming their sixth member Artemis, and stopping the League of Shadows from using a weaponize nanite mist called The Fog.

They've learned the 1000 yard stare from 3 masters.
For Superboy it must just be genetic.

A short time later, Aqualad majorly flubs a mission the Team takes to defeat Clayface. He was distracted by thoughts of a girl back home. Batman is forced to step in, defeats Clayface and reprimands Aqualad for his obvious lack of commitment. He orders the team to take some time off, and Aqualad returns to the sea to visit home. While there, he attempts to kindle a romance with his old friend Tula, only to learn that she’d started seeing their mutual friend Garth while he’d been away. His heartbreak is interrupted by Black Manta attacking Atlantis. Kaldur is able to help beat Manta back along side his king, and returns to the team with a renewed sense of purpose.

He leads the team on several more missions, including battling the Injustice League, battling Red Tornado’s evil robotic siblings Red Torpedo and Red Inferno and later Red Volcano, and stopping several Ice Fortress’s from freezing America.

Aqualad is force to lead the Team against the whole Justice League when all the members of the organization are mind controlled by the villainous Light organization. They gather their allies, including Speedy now going by Red Arrow and who was recently discovered to be a mind controlled plant by the Light, Zatanna Zatara, and Rocket (not Raccoon) to battle the League. They’re able to stop the Light’s plan, although all their operatives escape.

We then skip forward five years. In that time, the League and Team have expanded drastically. Unfortunately, Kaldur is no longer apart of it. See, in the intervening years, Tula and Garth joined the Team, which was good, but Tula was unfortunately killed during a mission. And, to make matters worse for Kaldur, he discovers that his dad, Calvin, isn’t his Father. No, his biological Father is none other than Black Manta himself. I’ve yet to discover if his conception was a “happy” encounter or very awful one for Sha’lain’a. Angry at the death and being lied to for most of his life, Kaldur joined Black Manta’s forces and quickly became his #2.

Kaldur leads a group of Manta’s men to stop a communications satellite between Earth and Mars from launching. During the fight, he stabs and kills Artemis, and the satellite is destroyed. This turns out to be a fake out, though. Kaldur is just using his familial connection to Manta to spy on him and the Light and their “new partner.” A position made even more useful when Manta is promoted to the Light’s ruling council in place of the captured and disgraced Ocean Master. The Team faked Artemis’s death to prove his commitment to Manta, and then has Artemis take up the persona of Tigress to act as his own subcommander.

Water swords are so cool.

Things go well with their plan, until M’gann catches up to Kaldur during a mission. Seeing the friend that betrayed their Team and murdered someone they loved, M’gann attacks Kaldur with a telepathic blast that leaves him catatonic. She unfortunately learns the fact her friend was on a deep cover mission while shattering his mind telepathically. Tigress arrives and escapes with Kaldur. Manta attempts to use another Telepath named Psimon to fix Kaldur, but Tigress disables him and lies about M’gann leaving mental booby traps to protect her and Kaldur’s mission. Manta then later capture M’gann and “forces” her to reconstruct Kaldur’s mind. She does so, with more gusto than she might have having discovered Kaldur’s true nature. She eventually restores his mind, but Kaldur plays possum while the try to get M’gann out of there, as everyone is aware that Manta won’t let her escape alive. The opportunity arrives when Tigress’ (Artemis) sister Cheshire and their father Sportsmaster attack Manta’s ship to get payback for “killing” Artemis. Cheshire from love, Sportsmaster to restore his rep after his daughter’s death. They use this distraction to extract M’gann, and to further ingratiate Kaldur to Manta, tricking the villain into thinking that Kaldur’s devotion to his father was the final piece to freeing his mind.

Kaldur ultimately reveals his allegiance when he helps the team infiltrate a meeting between the Light and their Partner, the Reach. The various young heroes attempt to capture as many of the villains as they can. In the ensuing chaos, Kaldur is forced to confront his father. He admits to being conflicted with battling Manta and tries to convince his father to repent. Manta refuses, he’s enraged by this betrayal and swears to make Kaldur Ruthless, even “if I have to pound (the lesson) into your Skull!.” Kaldur is forced to knock him out and capture him. They’re able to capture the Reach’s Ambassador as well. He then helped the Team stop the Reach’s final contingency plan. He then is given command over the Team again, as NIghtwing needed some time off.

And that’s all I’ve seen thus far. I do know that in season three Kaldur officially succeeds Arthur Curry as the new Aquaman, but that’s about it.

Kaldur’am is a half human-half Atlantian. He can survive in both the depths of the ocean and on land. He can swim at incredibly high speeds, breath underwater with his gills, is incredibly strong and durable, and also largely resistant to poison. He’s also an expert hand to hand combatant, thanks to his military training. His powers are enhanced by Atlantean sorcery. He’s not incredibly gifted in that category, but specializes in using hydrokinesis (manipulating water with magic) and generate electricity, he generates it through the eel tattoos on his arms. He also uses two Water-Bearers, hilts that can take water and solidify it into various weapons. He specializes in making water swords that he can twist, bend and extend at will. They use this to fake Artemis’ death, as he bent his sword around her torso close enough to look like it pierced her abdomen. When he takes up his position as Black Manta’s number 2, he’s given a Manta suit like his father’s, which includes a helmet beam cannon.

A separate version of Kaldur’ahm was introduced in the DC comics to coincide with his Young Justice reveal. This version is Jackson Hyde. Jackson lived in Silver City, New Mexico, where he was taught at a young age to fear the water. He lived in isolation until he was tracked down by Aquaman during the Darkest Night event. He discovered his true parentage, and explored how to use his powers with Aquaman for several months. He was written out of continuity during the “New 52” continuity, but returned after the “Rebirth” event. 

Aqualad had a non-speaking appearance in the DC animated movie Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox alongside Garth and Aquagirl as they attack Lex Luthor’s boat and battle Deathstroke. He’s seen again during the battle of London, but is presumed dead before Barry could re-reset the timeline.

I loved Kaldur during Young Justice. He was largely stoic, but that made his occasional emotional outbursts all the better. He was summed up really well in his first few minutes, where while battling Killer Frost, he insisted on focusing on the mission, despite Aquaman’s gentle ribbing about whether he’s excited for the Justice League induction later that day. And once Frost is finally captured, he does smile and admit he’s excited. He works hard to keep his team together and is incredibly loyal. It takes a man of extreme loyalty to play double agent, especially when the guy he’s working against is his own biological father. I even enjoyed seeing Kaldur work with Manta in season 2. They made it clear that while Kaldur’s loyalty to the Team doesn’t waver, that he is torn with what to do about his father. Makes me assume that his mother’s time with Manta wasn’t terrible, despite her quick rebound to Kaldur’s Dad Calvin. To each there own. Again, I really enjoyed Kaldur and hope that he pops up in a few more projects later to come. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Hero Profile: Static

He'll put a shock to your system.

Before we get into the meat of this one, I feel like I should mention the publication history of Static and the Dakota-verse, as it was called. Static was originally created as part of Milestone Comics, a small independent media company that published through DC. Basically, DC slapped their logo on the comics and distributed them, but Milestone’s characters weren’t directly affiliated with the main DC universe. Milestone was founded by Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle. Milestone was there attempt at trying to get greater representation of minority characters in comics. And, fun fact, Virgil Hawkins was named after the real-life Virgil Hawkins, a black attorney form Florida whom was initially denied entry into law school due to his race in 1949, and spent his entire career fighting to fix this particular injustice. While their goals were admirable and they put on a valiant effort, the company itself didn’t last long, only being in operation from 1993-1997. While the comics division of Milestone shut down, the company itself continued. They mostly just licensed out their characters, the crown jewel of which being the Static Shock TV adaptation that proved so successful that DC revived Static and folded him into the main DC Universe. Okay, that’s a pretty long preamble. Now that we’ve gotten the publication info out of the way, let’s get to it, shall we?

Bet you can't think of a cooler use of a trash can lid than flying
on it.

For the first decade and a half of his life, Virgil’s life was relatively normal. He lived with his parents, Robert and Jean, and his older sister Sharon, in Dakota City. I don’t believe we’re told exactly were Dakota is, beyond somewhere in the Midwest. It’s probably in Michigan. Anyway, he had a reasonably normal life for a smart kid in my neck of the woods. Meaning, he had a few close friends, engaged in “nerd” activities like comics, video games and sci-fi, and was punished for these interests by meat heads. Ah, high school, I don’t miss you at all. Things took a turn when bully Martin Scaponi kicked his ass one too many times. His friend Larry stepped in to protect Virgil, and once the bully was gone, slipped Virgil a gun and encouraged him to “take care of things” with Martin during a gang war that was set to go down that night. Virgil did set out to kill Martin, but realized at the last moment that he couldn’t kill someone in cold blood. He threw the gun away, just in time to be hit with a new kind of tear gas that the police were trying out. The gas had a radiation marker build into it, the hope being that the police could track individuals exposed to the radiation several hours or days after the fact if said hoodlum escaped the initial arrest. Unfortunately for the police, the gas has other effects. Namely, it killed all the standard humans exposed to it, and also triggered mutations in any dormant metahumans, giving them superhuman powers. It also triggered a minor explosion that got the event dubbed the Big Bang. Virgil received a plethora of electromagnetic powers, and was able to escape custody using what would become his favorite mode of transportation, flying on a trash can lid. Inspired by the comics he loves, Virgil decided to create a superhero persona, Static.

Start small, but dream big.

Like many a first-time hero before him, Virgil was initially stoked at being a superhero. He’d make something of a spectacle out of catching petty criminals, often taunting them and playing things up for the crowd. So, he was basically Spider-Man. Things became significantly harder when he faced off against his first real metahuman threat. I refuse to refer to them as Bang Babies, the term that Milestone Comics used. This first meta was none other than that asshole Martin, whom received pyrokinetic abilities and dubbed himself Hotstreak. The two elementalists faced off, with Static coming out the loser as he was forced to also protect his friend (and secret crush) Frieda from the villain. Frieda is able to get an injured Static away, unmasked him and was shocked (not apologizing) to find he was Virgil all along. She smuggled the young hero back to her home and nursed him back to health. Once recovered, a now somewhat “gun shy” Virgil battled Hotstreak again, but got the upper hand this time. After seeing Hotstreak arrested, he talks things over with Frieda, and she becomes his only confidant to the issues of hero work.

Things only grew more hectic in Virgil’s life as his superhero career began encroaching more and more into his day to day life. Again, think Spider-Man, while he loves his powers and helping people, being a hero eats into one’s personal life, job, and study time pretty significantly. Even with Frieda doing her best to run interference whenever Virgil had to run so Static could fly in to save the day, he was getting swamped. Things didn’t get much easier after his friend Rick came out, as Virgil had to both deal with his own issues with homosexuality and protect Rick from Hotstreak’s less than progressive views on the subject. You know a villain is a real asshole when he takes time out of his day to try and kill a gay kid from his high school. Just sayin’. There were a few good points, though, as while his metahuman enemies did grow more and more numerous, so did his hero contacts. These include guys like Icon and his sidekick Rocket, Hardware, The hero team Shadow Cabinet, and the Blood Syndicate. Milestone gets an A for their naming choices. He even had a cross dimensional team up with Superman, Superboy, and Steel (basically a Superman themed Iron Man) against a powerful being named Rift. The four heroes defeat the villain, and Static gets a little melancholy that he won’t work with the “fictional” heroes again. DC’s used this idea before, that some of their separate universes are part of the fiction of another universe. Like how Barry Allen got his idea to be the Flash from a Flash Comic, even though Jay Garrick’s version of the Flash is just as real as he is.

Who do you think get's asked if they're related more,
Static and Black Lightning,
or Spider-Man and Spider-Woman?

One of the biggest hits to Static’s moral was a mission he took up with a fellow hero, and his sort of girlfriend at the time, Dusk. They performed a drug bust with the cops, only for Static to discover that one of the dealers was his friend Larry. Static lets him go, much to Dusk’s annoyance. They try to catch him a day later, only to see Larry get shot and killed by his fellow dealers. Dusk was also shot, but Static is able to save her. Before leaving, in a blind rage Static goes HAM on every dealer or drug pusher he could find in the area. Static attempts to hang up his coat, but Dusk convinces him that Dakota needs him too much to give up. That’s right before she leaves town due to a few of her own issues.

Larry’s death affects Virgil and Static for a long time, but he does eventually realize that Frieda is taking it even harder. She and Larry had been dating for some time, and his untimely death seems to cause her to become Anorexic. Virgil gets his own issues together enough to get their mutual friends together to get Frieda some help. Virgil does decide to drop the Static life all together after seeing Dusk die on the job a short time later. While focusing on being just Virgil for a while, he and Frieda start getting “close” but neither seems to want to try moving their relationship into anything more than friendly. I’m fairly certain that were I a friend of theirs, I’d be constantly fighting the instinct to shout “Just kiss, you idiots!” Virgil ultimately takes up the Static mantel again when he’s informed that a mysterious villain is kidnapping Metahumans all around Dakota. He ultimately learns the kidnapper is John Tower, a Superman-eque hero that had been one of Virgil’s personal heroes. He’d recently developed the power to steal abilities from others, specifically the Metahumans created in the Big Bang. He was stealing the powers to make him stronger and stay on top as a hero. So, he’s doing a terrible thing for at least a somewhat selfless reason. Static is able to defeat the much more powerful Tower by freeing the other metas and distracting Tower long enough for their powers to recover. Tower is taken into custody and Virgil decides to be Static again, but only part time. Or so he tells Frieda.

A short time later, the Dakota-verse and the main DC Universe were fused together by a hero named Dharma whom used some of the power gained from that Rift fellow I mentioned earlier. A tear in the space-time continuum had occurred by the death of Darksied, hence why things needed patching. Dharma blurred realities so perfectly that only he, Superman, and Icon are aware that Static and his fellow heroes and citizens of Dakota are from another dimension. Since then, Static has done his best to integrate himself into the DC Universe, becoming a part of the Teen Titans, training under experienced electrical hero Black Lightning, and doing his best to befriend every hero he works with to one degree or another.  

Static is getting some good ol' fashion Soul Power!

Virgil Hawkins is a Metahuman who’s abilities manifested after exposure to experimental radioactive tear gas. The gas unlocked electromagnetic powers in Virgil, allowing him to shoot bolts of lightning, and manipulate magnetism. His most common use of his magnetic abilities is to use electromagnetism to levitate the metal disks he likes to fly on. He can also sense electromagnetic energy, allowing him to detect where electronics are, sense and tap into radio signals. While he generates electricity on his own, he can absorb it as well to recharge himself. He can also somehow use his electrical powers to rapidly heal himself. Because why not? Were he a X-Men, I think his powers would earn him the rank of Omega Level Mutant. He’s also immensely intelligent and regularly upgrades his own tech.

Virgil has been used outside of the comics a few times. Heck, it was his spectacular animated show Static Shock that helped Static get integrated into the greater DC universe.

They say don't meet your heroes, but I think Virgil's fine with
this particular group.

He’s obviously the central character of Static Shock, voiced by voice acting heavyweight Phil Lamarr. Look up his filmography, I guarantee you know that voice even if you don’t recognize the name. The show made a fair number of alterations to Static in order to make him more appealing to a larger audience, and make TV execs more comfortable. One of the biggest differences that the show created was with Virgil’s support cast. For one, they made Richie Fowley (based on Rick Stone) into Virgil’s best friend, Larry is reduced to basically a cameo, and to also have Richie take Frieda’s place as his confidant. I suppose back in 2000 we just weren’t ready for the platonic-opposite-gender-best-friends-that-might-eventually-hook-up dynamic. The fact that it would be an interracial romance probably didn’t help, either. To be clear, I’m all for these kinds of relationships getting greater representation, just pointing out TV execs at the time and even now to an extent seem somewhat hesitant to show a white person with a non-white person. Frieda is in the show, but has a severely reduced role. Richie also develops most of Virgil’s gear, and later takes on a hero identity of his own, codenamed Gear. They also make it so that Virgil’s mother, an EMT in this continuity, had died years before in a gang war crossfire. This was probably to make Virgil even more vehemently detest guns. Virgil mostly battles villains of the week, but his villains and story plots get more complex as the series goes on. And the villains he faces are mostly original villains for the show, with even comic-based characters like Hotstreak get massively reworked to fit the show. A personal favorite episode of mine is where Virgil worked with a retired 60s era hero with electrical powers, Morris Grant aka Soul Power! The elderly hero gives Virgil some tips on hero work, despite Virgil not being 100% onboard with Soul Power’s style. They along with Soul Power’s former sidekick Sparky work to defeat the older heroes enemy Professor Menace. He starts fighting along with other DC heroes as the show goes on. A personal highlight for him being working with Green Lantern John Stewart (also voiced by Lamarr) and Anansi the Spider, a Ghanaian superhero.

He also has a few crossovers with prominent DC heroes in later seasons, including Superman “Toys in the Hood” to battle his enemy Toyman; the modern and future Batman in “Future Shock” where a time displaced Static has to work with Batman’s successor Terry McGinnis to save a major hero… old Static; and helps John Stewart clear his name in “Fallen Hero” where the GL is being framed for a number of crimes committed by Sinestro. Not bad for a kid from Dakota.

The future is probably in good hands.

The same version of Static appears in an episode of Justice League Unlimited entitled “The Once and Future Thing, Part 2: Time, Warped.” A time traveling adventure sends Batman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman are sent time hopping chasing a villain named Chronos. They arrive in future Gotham and team up with Terry McGinnis; the son of Green Lantern and Hawk Girl, Warhawk; and an older Static. He’s supposedly 65, but advanced medical tech has made that the new 30. He works with the older generation of heroes to stop Chronos and restore the timeline.  

He also appeared in Young Justice season 2, potrayed by Bryton James. In this version, he’s one of several teens and runaways kidnapped by the villainous Reach aliens. The Reach were experimenting on humans in an attempt to understand and weaponize the Metagene in humans. While shown earlier, his first speaking role Is in “Cornered” where he speaks with JL psychiatrist Black Canary about the experiments performed on him. He’s continually tested, until he and several of his fellow former test subject’s runaway in “Runaways.” The group is hoping to make it to Dakota and lay low with Virgil’s sister Sharon, whom he was intending to visit when he was nabbed. Their escape plan is interrupted by Blue Beatle, and an attack by Red Volcano, an evil android. The runaways might have come back with Beatle, but Blue Beatle, whom is being controlled by the Reach at the time, proved too violent for them to trust. They later meet Lex Luthor who convinces them to travel to the War World in “The Hunt” to save the team from the Reach and Mongul, using a Father Box to transport them. He helps the League stop the Reach’s end of the world contingency plan to destroy the earth alongside Black Lightning, whom offers to mentor him if the kid ever needs it. Virgil takes him up on the offer and in the aftermath of the fight happily announces he’s going by Static from now on.

He’s a main cast member in the third season, Outsiders. I haven’t sat down to watch it just yet, so don’t want anything spoiled for me, beyond knowing that he’s in it.

He hasn’t had an appearance in any of the live action or animated DC films, but there’s been rumors buzzing around that he’ll at least appear in the latter at some point. He’s popular enough where it’s a possibility, but not so popular that it’s a sure thing, it seems.

So, I mostly know Static from Static Shock. The show was a favorite of mine growing up, as it was a superhero show, but also did deal with things like social justice, racism, and other more complex plots. Heck, in the first ten episodes they have a plot centered around Virgil finding out Richie’s father is a racist, and how that affects their friendship. They also deal with Virgil’s grief over his mother’s death, make several stories that could be seen as allegories for drug use, and there’s this long running plot of Static’s enemy Rubber-band Man trying to go straight and all of the issues that entails. It was a very cool show. But, having read some of his comic exploits makes me want to track down some of the Milestone comics or the more modern DC Static. He’s got a fair amount of Spider-Man in him, which is good. He’s got the confliction between what he wants as a person and what he needs to do as a hero, inventive intellect, and goofball personality that I like. But he has a lot of his own quirks that make him more than just an attempt at cashing in on the teen superhero craze. Plus, electrical powers are #1 on my list of powers that I’d give myself, so he was pretty much destined to be a favorite of mine. So yeah, I love this kid. I think I’ve gushed enough for this one, have a good night. 

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Hero Profile: Spider-Man (Miles Morales)

A heroes real legacy isn't in their actions, but in whom they inspire to follow after them when they fall.

He's no Peter Parker, but he's as great a Spider-Man as anyone
could ask for.

Okay, since I’ve gotten Birds of Prey out of the way, and we’re still in the month of February, now seems like a good time to show case a few up and coming African America superheroes. And, who better to start off this category than arguably the most popular Afro-Latino character to come out of comics in the last decade, Miles Morales. The Ultimate Universe’s original Spider-Man has gained massive popularity since his introduction back in 2011 and has been one of several characters to make the jump from the now defunct Ultimate Universe into the Main Marvel Universe, causing the same confusion to some as DC’s several Flashes, Green Lanterns and Blue Beatles running around. But I’ll get into that later, let’s get to it.

For those new to my posts or whom are forgetful, I’ll point out that the Ultimate Universe is a separate comic book continuity from the Main Marvel Universe. The events in it are similar to, but distinct from the Marvel Universe that has been running since the 1960s or so. The biggest being that all modern heroes began popping up around 2000, certain origins and character dynamics have been tweaked and death is largely permanent. For example, in the Main 616 universe, Peter Parker gained his Spider powers and battled several villains in his early days that were all created in unrelated lab accidents. In the Ultimate Universe, Spider-Man’s powers and most of his early nemesis could all be tied back to Norman Osborn and Oscorp. Something that obviously the main universe couldn’t do since they didn’t debut until several years after Peter’s origin. You follow me? Good, let’s move on.

Miles Morales was born in the Ultimate Universe to Jeff Davis and his wife Rio Morales. Jeff had something of a checkered past before turning his life around and becoming a police officer, so he insisted that their son be given his mother’s name instead of his own, his way of giving Miles a “clean slate” in life from the get go, in case you were wondering. Miles life was relatively normal for the first decade or so, he was raised by his parents, went to school, and occasionally hung out with his Uncle Aaron much to his father’s annoyance. The brothers Davis have a lot of tension between them due to that checkered past mentioned above. It’s that last bit of seeming normality that really changed Miles life.

Yeah, that's about my reaction to seeing a spider. Wish one would
bite me and give me super powers. That'd be sweet!

A few months prior, in universe, industrialist, scientist and all-around asshole Norman Osborn was revealed to be the criminal Green Goblin and arrested. After said arrest, costumed supervillain/vigilante the Prowler broke into an abandoned Oscorp lab and stole some of the labs research, which was focused on recreating Spider-Man’s superpowers. During this raid, a spider that the lab had inject with the superpower inducing drug OZ slipped into his bag. Oh, Aaron Davis is the Prowler. That’s important. A few days later, Miles stopped by to hang out with his uncle and complain about being put into a charter school. While there, the spider slipped out of Aaron’s duffle, crawled onto Miles and bit the young man. Shortly there after Miles went through a similar yet distinct mutation and power discovery that Peter Parker did before him. He found that he could cling to walls and was unusually strong and agile like Spider-Man, but could also camouflage himself and generate a powerful bio-electric shock that can stun his opponents. He only revealed these powers to his friend Ganke Lee, and they both decided that it was probably better to leave the superhero stuff to guys like Spider-Man. Miles, unlike Peter, just desired a simple life and had zero interest in being anything more than an average kid. He was content with his life, and didn’t want to see it change.

Then a few months later… tragedy struck.

Spider-Man faced off against the Green Goblin, trying to protect his loved ones from the unhinged businessman and super criminal. During the fight, Spider-Man was unmasked and ultimately killed. Miles arrived just in time to see Peter’s dying breath as he was held in the arms of a sobbing Mary Jane Watson. Realizing that he potentially could have helped Peter, Miles is disgusted with himself for taking the “easy way out” and ignoring the good he could have done with his powers. Peter’s friend Gwen Stacey speaks with him a few times and gives him the “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility” line in Peter’s place. Inspired to take up the Spider-Man mantle, Miles puts on a store-bought Spider-Man costume and goes on patrol.

I wonder what hurts more, his face or his pride at getting hit
by a dude with a super mullet?

Things go about as well as you can imagine, which is to say, not well at all. His first encounter is with a D-list Spider-Man villain named Kangaroo. Miles is able to defeat Kangaroo, but this is mostly due to everyone being shocked at seeing someone run around in a Spider-Man costume. Miles muses that using a facsimile of the recently dead hero’s costume might have been in poor taste, but before he can really do anything to change that he’s attacked and knocked unconscious by Spider-Woman. If that reaction feels a little extreme for Spider-Woman aka Jessica Drew, who knows Spider-Man and is fond of him but has no really strong connection to him, keep in mind in this universe she’s a female clone of him. Same rules as Laura Kinney to Wolverine, Peter is kind of her “dad,” kind of her twin brother. With that in mind, the idea of her attacking someone dressed up as her recently departed parent/sibling without much warning makes a ton of sense. Spider-Woman takes him into the triskelion where he’s interrogated by Nick Fury. In classic Fury fashion, he reveals to the young Spider-wannabe that he knows everything about him and that he also has some concerns about someone trying to take Peter’s Mantle. Nick was another of Peter’s mentors in this universe, and he took the boys death particularly hard because he felt he pushed Peter too hard. Their interrogation is interrupted by Elector waking up from a coma and starting to wreck the place with his lightning blasts. The Ultimates, this universe’s Avengers, and Miles are able to put him down once again. Seeing Miles bravery in his first real supervillain battle makes Jessica change her mind on Miles and she give him her blessing to take Peter’s mantel. Nick also gives him a new Black and Red costume, to differentiate Miles from his predecessor while still paying homage to him.

After stopping a mugging in his new costume, the news of an all new Spider-Man hits the papers and explodes across New York. Ganke also shows Miles footage from the Spider-Man movie that had just been released that included real footage from a recent battle with Doc Ock. Ganke suggests that Miles try to watch such footage to get an understanding of Peter’s fighting style and be a better superhero. He has to deal with the classic issue of “heroes’ parental figure not approving of his costumed identiy,” with his father calling the new Spider-Man a menace while his mother tries to sway her husband to see the good any Spider-Man brings.

A short time after this, main Universe Peter visits the Ultimate Universe on one of his own adventures. He and Miles team up to defeat Mysterio, the instigator of this reality hopping adventure. Over the course of their time together, Peter and Miles bond. In a pretty short amount of time, Peter starts to really like this kid and decides to give Miles his blessing to be this world’s Spider-Man. I suppose if you can’t get your dimension’s blessing, getting one from a parallel world’s version is the next best thing.  

It's a good group.

Miles later has a run in with ex-soviet super Mutant, Omega Red, whom was smashing up the area. During the fight with the mega Mutant, Miles discovers his Spider-Sense for the first time, and uses it coupled with a Venom Strike to disable Omega. After the battle, Miles and Ganke muse about ways for Miles to improve his skills so he can be a better fighter, when Aaron shows up. Aaron reveals that he deduced his nephew’s identity as Spider-Man after the latest batch of news on the new Spider-Man. He coerces his nephew into helping him battle Mexican crime lord, the Scorpion, on pains of revealing Miles new identity to the boy’s father. Miles goes along with Aaron’s demands for a while, before it dawns on him that Aaron will just keep using that threat of paternal reveal against him. Realizing that his uncle was trying to turn Miles into an enforcer and set himself up as a new criminal kingpin, Miles refuses to help his Uncle any further. Uncle and Nephew battle, which leads Aaron’s weapons to malfunction, explode and kill him. Well, I guess Uncle Aaron isn’t much of an Uncle Ben. Just saying.

His next few stories are about Miles basically gaining the approval of the other Marvel heroes and acceptance from the late Peter’s loved ones. Aunt May, Gwen Stacy and MJ do this by giving him Peter’s webshooters, and he earns Captain America’s respect and training. He also does battle with the Venom Symbiote’s latest host, with his mother getting killed in the crossfire. After this, Miles gives up the Spider-Man mantle for a year to mourn, before Ganke and Jessica Drew convince him to take up the mantle once again. He also reveals his identity to his father, and how his actions unfortunately contributed to the deaths of Jeff’s brother, and the love of his life. He takes it poorly, disowning Miles and running off to be on his own for a while, but he and Miles are able to mend things after Jeff processed things a bit.

Peter Parker then returns. Not Main Universe Peter, Ultimate Universe Peter. Turns out, The OZ formula made him largely immortal, but it took a while for him to recover from his wounds. He and Miles briefly team up to defeat an also very much alive Gobby, he’d been “killed” some time after Miles took up the Spider-Man mantle, before giving Miles his blessing. He elected to go into retirement, to be with MJ and Aunt May. And all I have to say is, Good for you, Ultimate Peter. What? The dude sacrifices his own happiness in literally every other incarnation time and again, one of these Peter Parkers deserves to be happy. All I’m saying.

More recently, the Ultimate Universe and Main Marvel Universe were destroyed and turned into a new Battleworld. Miles helped the heroes of the Main 616 universe battle Doctor Doom whom had turned himself into a God Emperor of the new world and restored universe 616. Miles is dropped off in the new reality along with his father and other survivors of their Ultimate Universe. As a sort of “Thank You” for his efforts during the Battleworld fiasco, the reformed villain Molecule Man uses his immense power to also restore Rio Morales to life and let the Morales-Davis family reunite. Most recently, Miles has become a very active hero in his new reality, working along side classic Spider-Man, the Avengers, and his new team, the Champions. While it’s not a smooth journey by any means, things are looking up for Miles.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Spider-Man has one of
the coolest method of transportation.

Miles Morales was born a natural human but was bitten by a genetically engineered spider. Said spider, infused with Peter Parker’s blood and the powerful OZ formula gave Miles his own spider-themed powers. He can adhere to walls and ceilings, has super strength and agility, and possess the amazing Spider-Sense. For some reason, his Spider-sense isn’t as powerful as Peter’s, and seems to give him much less time to react to danger. But, he also possesses the ability to camouflage himself to match his surroundings and his venom strike, an bioelectric blast of energy that stuns individuals as big as Hank Pym’s Giant Man form. He also uses a set of web shooters and developed the same intuition Peter has to mixing web cartages, despite not being as accomplished a chemist. He might also be immortal, as the OZ formula has been shown to give individuals the ability to recover from fatal wounds, albeit slowly. But Miles hasn’t been put into such a state to test it out for sure. Fingers crossed that he won’t have to anytime soon.

Miles Morales’ version of Spider-Man has appeared a few times outside of the comics. Like Kamala Khan and several other popular characters I’ve mentioned, he violates the usual decade rule of comic book superheroes, as he appeared in Ultimate Spider-Man only about three years after his debut. Given that, like those others, Miles’ popularity more or less EXPLODED with his debut, I can understand rushing him out to the greater Marvel fanbase. Most incarnations try to work him in as a natural part of Peter’s support cast these days, which might be slightly to Miles’ detriment, but it’s easier than setting up Spider-Man for several years before having Peter pass the torch.

What's up, Danger?

Might as well start with Ultimate Spider-Man. Miles name was used as an Easter Egg in the first season episode “I Am Spider-Man,” as the second to last choice to play Spider-Man in a musical about said character. Yes, Peter is the last choice. He appears in full in “The Spider-Verse” multiparter event, being one of several alternate versions of Spider-Man that Peter Parker meets while traveling the multiverse chasing Green Goblin. He appears in the second half of part 3, voiced by Donald Glover. Over the course of their time together, Peter helps 13-year-old Miles overcome his guilt of not saving Peter’s life during his battle with the Goblin, and the two team up to defeat Miles’ version of the villain. He later reappears in the multiparter climax to help Peter defeat his Goblin, along side Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Girl, Spider-Ham, Spyder-Knight, and Spider-Man Noir. He returns the next season in the episode “Miles From Home.” They swap his voice actor out for series regular Ogie Banks, whom also portrayed Luke Cage in this show. He’s brought in to help Peter stop Doc Ock and his Goblin, but is stranded in their reality when the dimensional gate the Siege Perilous is destroyed. He joins Peter’s new Web Warriors, comprised of Peter Parker’s Spider-Man, Amadeus Cho’s Iron Spider, Flash Thompson’s Agent Venom, Scarlet Spider (later dubbed Ben Reilly) and much, much, much later Mary Jane’s Spider-Woman. He takes up the codename Kid Arachnid to avoid confusion. Though I think Shadow Spider might have been cooler, just saying. He’s a series regular from then on. He’s given the option to return to his home dimension along with his mother in the “Return to the Spider-Verse” multiparter, but he and his mother Rio elect to instead immigrate to Peter’s reality, as Miles loves working with their team, his mother claims Miles is the only close family she has and Miles’ Spider-Man duties have been taken up by his universe’s Gwen Stacey. Bit of a copout, but I’m fine with keeping Miles around.

He’s part of Peter’s main support cast in the newer Marvel’s Spider-Man tv show, voice by Nadji Jeter. He’s given his powers in “Ultimate Spider-Man” after different villainous groups attempt to steal the Spider that gave Peter his powers. He takes up the alias Spy-D, groan, and his kind of Peter’s protégé from then on.

His biggest appearance is in Into the Spider-Verse. He’s voiced by Shameik Moore. In it, young Miles Morales is bitten by a sort of trans-dimensional spider while tagging with his Uncle Aaron. He develops Spider powers just in time to see Spider-Man get killed by Kingpin during a cross-dimensional experiment. He then meets Peter B. Parker, an older, jaded Spider-Man that seemed to have been sucked into his world when their Spider-Man was forced through the time stream. Miles is given a crash course on being Spider-Man from Peter B., forms a pretty close friendship with another reality hopper Gwen Stacey aka Spider-Woman, and earns the respect of several other stranded spider-people, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Ham and Penny Parker and her Sp//dr robot. Aaron’s relationship with Miles is slightly retooled so that he actually very much loves his nephew and is instead killed when he can’t bring himself to hurt Miles upon discovering his identity.

Young men, Don't actually try this. You will get slapped in the
face and/or kneed in the crotch.

He’s appeared in several Spider-Man games, though usually just as an alternate skin for Peter or a non-essential character in the larger ensemble games like Lego Marvel Superheroes 2. He is a major character in the PS4 Spider-Man game created by Insomniac Games. He’s voiced again by Nadju Jeter. Throughout the game’s run, he’s powerless but forms a bond with Peter and is playable in a few stealth missions like Peter’s love interest Mary Jane. His father is killed during an attempt on Mayor Norman Osborn’s life, and he’s also bitten by a spider during the game’s run. In a post-credit’s scene, he reveals his powers to Peter who reveals his powers back, and he agrees to train Miles. In the next game. Eye roll.

While he hasn’t had a live action debut, Donald Glover did play Aaron Davis in Spider-Man: Homecoming and mention that he has a nephew a lot like Spider-Man. There have been rumors that Miles will appear in a later Spider-Man story, either as part of Spider-Man’s support cast or as the inevitable replacement for Tom Holland once he either retires from the role or gets Robert Downey Jr. big and Disney doesn’t want to pay him as much anymore. What?

I like Miles Morales a lot. He’s got shades of the classic Spider-Man in him, with enough unique character beats to make him his own person. Like Peter, he’s often forced to choose between the things he wants as himself and the things he needs to do as Spider-Man, and like Peter before him, he almost always chooses to sacrifice his own happiness for the good of others. He has the usual Spider powers with a few tricks that are uniquely his. The venom strike in particular looks like it’s been useful a lot. And while he hasn’t shined as much since joining the Main universe, I give Marvel tons of props for him being the One and Only Spider-Man in the Ultimate Universe for several years. While I’m a nearly thirty-year-old white guy, even I can understand how HUGE a decision that was, and how it probably helped a lot of non-white kids get into Marvel comics. The black kid isn’t the side kick, he’s not the comic relief or a spin off, no, Miles Morales was Spider-Man. And a damn good one from everything I read about him. The fact that the writing staff made sure that Miles earned the respect of those that loved and worked with Peter felt like a very nice nod. Miles didn’t just get to slide into the role of Spider-Man, he worked for it, trained for it, and bled for it before guys like Captain America and alternate versions of Peter gave Miles the nod. I read one father describing seeing his son’s face light up when the kid discovered Miles Morales merchandise for the first time and the kid exclaimed “I can be Spider-Man!” Come on, that’s a huge moment for a kid. Or at least I think so. So yeah, Miles Morales, he might go by other names now, but he’s undoubtedly a Spider-Man for the ages. Have a good night, everybody.

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Review: Birds of Prey

Turns out Harley is about as dangerous on her own as she is working for her Puddin'. Which is terrifying.

Alright, let’s talk about Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). My God, that’s a wordy title. I hope one holds it against me that I’ll just refer to it as Birds of Prey. And by that, I mean, I will refer to it as Birds of Prey so you have to just deal with it. Also, as this is an R-Rated film, I feel it’s my duty to tell my under age readers to talk to their parents before continuing. That means you, Wesley Peter Korba. Now that I’ve called out my nephew, let’s get to it.

A movie poster that is both bizarre and yet bizarrely accurate.

While this movie is called Birds of Prey, it is very much the story of Harley Quinn. Not only is she the main character, she’s also the narrator. Considering her… less than stable mental state, you can imagine that this story is going to be a little disjointed. I’m going to try to present things a bit more concisely.

We open with Harley giving a brief history of her life. Shock of shocks, she had an abusive dad. Other highlights include her getting a Ph. D. in Psychology, meeting and falling into her insanely abusive relationship with the Joker, and her dip in the Ace Chemical chemicals. The woman has had it rough. Though things get rougher when the Joker breaks up with her and throws her out of the street. I’ll answer this now, no, at no point do we see Jared Leto’s Joker. He’s referenced constantly, but isn’t even shown in the flashbacks. Weird, I know, but that’s film for ya. Harley does her best to rebuild herself after being ditched by Joker. She gets her own apartment, her own Spotted Hyena, and takes up roller derby. Her new home, pet and outlet for her anger do wonders for her, but just about everyone she knows still thinks it’s only a matter of time before she and Joker get back together.

 Extremely pissed off, she hits up a nightclub owned by Roman Sionis. He’s a local gangster that also goes by the name Black Mask. While drunk, she cripples Sionis’ driver for being rude to her but gets away with it. Why? Because she really hasn’t spread around too much that she and Joker broke up. Why? Because Joker’s girlfriend can do things like break a man’s legs without consequences from anyone not connected to Batman. She’s saved from almost being abducted by some goons by Dinah Lance, the club’s burlesque singer. This saves Harley from a not fun night, and gets Dinah the additional job as Sionis’ new driver. He and his #2 Victor Zsasz were watching from the nearby building.

Black Mask and Zsasz have a very weird but kind of perfect chemistry.

Still drunk and angry, Harley has a brilliant idea, and by that, I mean an insanely stupid idea. She crashes a truck into the Ace Chemical plant, destroying it and metaphorically napalming her relationship with the Joker. The Ace Chemical plant being where they cemented their relationship in this continuity. The massive explosion draws the attention of the GCPD, and one of their detectives in particular, Renee Montoya. Montoya had been investigating the crossbow related death of several mobsters nearby. She discovers Harley’s necklace at the scene and seems to intuit that the explosion was Harley’s Screw You letter to the Joker. She’s also investigating Roman Sionis, and reaches out to Dinah to get her to turn informant. The old driver had also been her informant, but obviously the broken legs kept him from being useful.

Sionis sends Zsasz and Dinah to pick up an incredibly important diamond. Said diamond has the account numbers of the deceased Bertineli crime family encoded in it. I don’t know if that sciences, but we’ll roll with it. The pick up goes smoothly, but unfortunately for them, Zsasz get’s pickpocketed by Cassandra Cain whom is then immediately arrested. She swallows the diamond to hide it. My God, that’s a dumb decision.

Harley, meanwhile, tries to enjoy her disgusting breakfast sandwich, but is stopped by Montoya tracking her down… followed by just about any and every petty criminal she’s ever pissed off. Sionis had put out a hit on Harley within minutes of discovering that Harley and Joker were no longer a thing. She’s saved from getting killed by one of them by the mysterious crossbow killer from earlier, but is then grabbed by Sionis’ goons. She’s taken to the club where Sionis plans to have her killed but is able to save her skin by promising to get the diamond back for him. She decided to get into the mercenary business as her new business venture, and escaping execution sounds like a hell of a first paycheck. Szasz had just informed him of the missing diamond and the girl that had stolen it. Sionis agrees, saying that if she doesn’t get it back for him by midnight, she’s dead. To hedge his bets, he also puts out a half million-dollar bounty on Cassandra and sends it to literally every criminal in town.

Side note, I guess that Batman is out of town this week?

Harley busts into the GCPD using a grenade launcher and a ton of non-lethal rounds. Beanbags, gas and confetti rounds specifically. She frees Cassandra, and after killing an INSANE number of goons, she and Cassandra make a break for it. I’m summarizing heavily here, but it’s a solid ten minutes of Harley just beating the crap out of generic goons and Gotham Hells Angels. The two ladies start bonding after stealing a bunch of groceries and Harley takes her back to her place. While they’re upstairs, the crossbow killer stops by and talks to her landlord. It’s then revealed that the crossbow killer is really Helena Bertinelli, the loan survivor of the deceased crime family. She’d been saved by one of the goons that killed her family when he discovered her in a pile of bodies. His father and brother then trained her in combat and now she’s back in town to murder the crap out of the goons that killed her family. Oh, and she prefers the name Huntress. A bunch of goons then attack Harley’s apartment, as her landlord Doc sold her out for an undisclosed but large amount of money.

I'm just going to put my hands up and back away slowly.

Harley calls up Sionis and gets him to back off in exchange for the diamond. They agree to meet at an abandoned amusement park. Sionis sends Dinah and Zsasz to the pickup. Dinah texts Montoya about the meeting. Montoya, like a flipping moron, answers the text, and Dinah, like an even bigger moron, leaves her phone out where Zsasz can see. Zsasz makes Dinah make a pitstop and he calls Sionis to let him know. Sionis, distraught at Dinah’s “Betrayal” dons his Black Mask and plans to meet Zsasz there.

Montoya makes it to the Amusement park just after Harley and Cassandra and confronts Harley. Harley kicks the older woman’s ass and knocks her out of a window just before getting tranquilized by Zsasz. He then hold’s Dinah at gunpoint as she tries to sneak Cassandra out. He’s shot in the throat and killed by Helena. Montoya rejoins the other women just as Roman Sionis and his False Face Society arrive to get the diamond. It’s up to Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey to defeat Sionis and get Cassandra somewhere safe.

Is getting a pet exactly like one that you used to share with an
ex a sign of growth or refusal of it? Legit question.

Alright, so the good first. The cast is really solid. Margot Robbie returns as Harley Quinn. While I still contend that Suicide Squad was terrible, Margot’s Harley was one of the best aspects of it. She is great at the acting ditzy but then suddenly breaking out insanely accurate psychological assessments of people. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is great as Helena Bertinelli/Huntress. She’s great as this trained killer that really wants to be taken seriously, but just can’t make it work. There’s a great scene where she practices intimidating dialogue in front of her mirror but just can’t get it right. Jurnee Smollett-Bell is an interesting take on Dinah Lance. While I don’t get her fashion sense, she’s great with her conflicting desires. On the one hand she prefers to just work as a singer and later driver for Sionis, but just keeps getting drawn into hero work because she’s too good a person to ignore a crime boss planning on killing a kid. Rosie Perez is good as Renee Montoya. She’s a hardworking detective that has been routinely screwed over by her former partner, now captain, and seems to talk in 80s cop clichés. Chris Messina is an interesting take on Victor Zsasz. This version is insanely loyal to Roman Sionis, and goes to pretty extreme lengths to protect his boss and follow orders. There are some implications that he might be in love with Sionis, but the film doesn’t go too far into it. Oh yeah, turns out that big stink people were throwing about the rumor that Sionis and Zsasz were gay put a whole lot of energy being angry at something that didn’t really factor into the plot at all. And do I even need to say that Ewen McGregor was great as Black Mask? Dude was the best part of the prequel Star Wars and doesn’t disappoint here. There’s a pretty great scene early on that I glossed over where Sionis were executing a disrespectful associate and his family, where Sionis decides t o let the daughter go… but changes his when he sees she has a gross snot bubble. Perfectly exemplifies Sionis’ unstable nature me thinks, and Zsasz’s weird preference for slicing off faces. Gross. I also liked Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra Cain. She’s a girl that I could see grow into a Batwoman.

The bad isn’t movie breaking, but there. There are a lot of forced emotional moments here. We’re supposed to feel really bad about Harley’s Landlord Doc selling her out and her Hyena, Bruce, possibly dying in the explosion that destroys her apartment. But both had just two scenes each, and Doc only had one set of speaking lines. Kind of hard to feel the betrayal when we barely know him. Bruce’s death fake-out is a little more substantial, but that’s because I love animals, and Male hyena’s have it rough enough as it is. They’re pretty much universally treated poorly by their female pack members, for further details look things up on your own. Also, it seems insane to me that, even as insane as Gotham can be, I just can’t imagine it ever being so bad that a group of violent bikers could just walk into the police station fully armed and just unload on people. Even at it’s worst, Gotham PD wouldn’t stand for this stuff. They also go a very long time from the introduction of Dinah Lance and the use of her powers. I legit thought they might have forgotten about her hypersonic scream until it came up in the finale. And I’m not sure why but the entire fill just felt really low budget. I can’t point to anyone one thing, but it feels like Gotham has somehow become less grand since it last appeared in the DCEU.

I was originally going to mention the lack of Batman and Joker appearing at all in the bad section, but changed my mind. Some other reviews I’ve seen since point out that this was most likely in part intentional, as they wanted the story to focus on Harley and not be distracted by Batman or Joker. I can respect that decision. Even if I know that other half was probably due to the falling out that Warner Bros., Ben Affleck and Jared Leto had with each other.

Also, I’m shocked to see that Gotham has a daytime.

I’ll give this movie a B-. It’s not the best Movie I’ve seen this year, but it’s worlds above some of the other entrants into the DCEU. Birds of Prey kicks the ass out of Suicide Squad. The cast is solid, like most of the DCEU, and the plot is simple but effective. No need to wrap Harley’s story into some world shattering events, just let her work out her relationship issues and help out a kid in trouble. Some parts of the plot don’t really hold up, and there are parts that feel a bit cheap, but that doesn’t ruin the experience for me personally. I’m hoping that this is actually a sign that DC and Warner Bros. have finally started to get their act together and are making DC movies that are as good as the actors in them. Got my fingers crossed for it, anyway. Have a good night. 

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