Episode 104: Black Canary

my like I got like tiny like yoga shorts on. Yeah, Molly is a menace. Everyone asked about my dog, and she's like straight up rear windowing it, just like watching every neighbor and like barking at them to stay inside. Yeah, she's she's uh pent up, got got that. She's going stir crazy. She's like, I need to sniff butts. I need to be out there running and smell the grass. She's like, stay home, save lives. She's just like screaming at people. Yeah, I gotta stay inside. You better get

inside right now. How's your quarantine going? How's Naomi good? You know, she's getting stir crazy too. I remember the not too long and I took her for a walk and her and another kid saw each other and they looked like they both never saw another kid for years, and I was like, all right, both relax, y'all need to chill the f out. But other than that, good,

very very good, very good. I just got a box set of yomi Azaki all his works, and I didn't I didn't know he did the loop on the third movie, so that was like a nice, uh kind of surprise. But yeah, so I got that. I've been buying so many blue rays I got ACKI to goring log on big oh really and then about like a blue ray holder. I'm just gonna have so so much physical media. Well that's good because a lot of streaming sites have been like mine keeps buffering so much because everyone's on it

and it's literally driving me nuts. That's why I was like, Okay, yeah, this is a good time, and like, you know, I mean, I you know, I will say, the streaming slights do keep up with four K and stuff, so it looks gorgeous either way, but there is something that just having it pop it in and you're not you know, waiting for buffering. You're just getting that crisp Crisp blue ray. Uh you know picture. Uh you know who else is going to have all the Miyazaki stuff. HBO Max, they

have the right, they're uploading all of it. And you know they're my I was gonna say they're my baby mama. We're in a relationship together. So well, this week I have no segue. Last week I had the best seguays, but this week I have no speaking of relationships. No. Um. We have assistant editor at the Mary Sue. She's also the co host of It's Lit from PBS. It is Princess Week. Hi, thank you so much for having me, Thanks for coming on as much. Oh are you binging

anything right now? I am currently binging Deep Space nine. Uh is my first trek, like for real, for real. I got really into Discovery and I was like, well, let me watch the other black one and so and I'm having a good time with it. It's sadly very topical and relevant right now. Yeah. No, Joe, if he'll be proud of me because the thing I've been binging is Jojo Stories. I was like, oh, yeah, see how you liking those buff men? Oh he's so thick. I'm

very happy he's so thick and just beautiful. Yeah, that's what I was saying, is it's crazy how and Jojo they do not neglect the thighs like they they all their buff upper body, but they also have like ripped quads too, Like that's what I'm talking about. He's like if the Hulk were like royalty or something. Yes, oh my gosh. Yeah, so I'm just I'm still in season one, but I heard it gets even better, right, So yeah, season season one is kind of hard for people because

of that royal kind of cheesy talk. It gets a little better and part two of season one when it like bumps up to like the seventies, and then after that it's a little more current and that's when it's really it's a really easy watch. But I didn't mind it too much me, you know, because I actually love that. I was like, oh, this is hella like count of

Money Christo, Yes, exactly. Yeah, And then yeah with me, what I'm binging is the show called Gintama, which is, uh, it's a it's an of me, but it's like comedy action and it's been really it's funny because there's they do a lot of like topical Japanese humor, and they'll try and you know how anime when its subs, they'll like put a whole chunk of information at the top of this, like you have to pose it because it's like a paragraph explaining a joke within a paragraph of dialogue.

And I'm like, wait, hold hold up, hold up. But it's been a it's been a fun watch. And uh yeah, I've just been enjoying that. So I'm real excited that we're all binging some nice and nerdy things. Uh, we're

getting into some nice and nerdy things. Uh. Talking about a character from d C who I feel like she's she's been getting a lot of waves from Birds of Prey, but you know, her name has been popping up, you know, quite quite a bit because uh it was correct me if I'm wrong, but she was part of them, or I guess it was the same name the other Birds of Prey that isn't the one that was the movie, right the TV show? Yes, Yeah, she a version of her was in it. Uh. Whenever anybody says a version,

I'm like, oh, here we go. Yeah. So, so, um, what if he's talking about this week we're covering Black Canary and um if he did you get to watch Birds of Prey yet? No, I'm an idiot. Yeah I have it on my on my like que, but I have not watched it because I've been doing all these uh these super Punch live streams. Um, well, it is fantastic. It's why. I mean, obviously we're all kind of up in arms about the fact that it's not so good and like not getting the credit obviously that it deserves.

But another thing I want to say is the fight scenes are glorious, Like they're really good, like they're real choreographed, um so, and just funny, like honestly just funny and like dark but lighthearted, and it has you know, each woman is so different and definitely worth checking out. But it's kind of crazy because people were like, y'all are watching Tiger King and you can't even spend ninety minutes

watching Birds of Preak. You know, you know, I fall into that category where it's like, trust me, it's on my list. It's definitely my stuff. I was almost going to mess up and say, you know, the other word,

but it's definitely in my lane. It is just one of those things where like it came out and that that's what's so interesting too, I will say, because yeah, I'm sure later in the podcast will really get into just how weird it was for the promotion of this movie, but even like now, when everyone's at home, it really seems like they didn't do any promotion that it was out. The way I found out it was out was from my friends posting it they were watching, and I was like,

that's weird. You know, you would think that you would push this release even harder since everyone is stuck at home right now, and you I don't know. It just feels everything around, just the lack of promotion, both on screen and on on It's like, you know, digital release just feels off. Mm hmm, agreed. Um, well, practice, I wanted to start with, like, what was your first introduction

to Black Canary that you remember? Um, So, my first introduction to her was when I watched Justice League Unlimited. There's an episode where she shows up and I remember the it's you see a panning shot and she's on top of this truck and you see like her like boots and fishnets first, and then she just destroys five burglars with all of this amazing martial arts skills, and I knew then that I was hooked. I just I fell in love with that character. I loved how she

was both very like sexy obviously but like competent. She can just step into a room and just destroy everybody in there, either fighting hand to hand or using her Canary cry. And I was a stand from that moment. What about you, Iffie, do you remember your first introduction when he first saw her? Yeah? My my first introduction went to black Canary. I think is when when did that? When when did the Birds of Prey show pop up? Let me let me see that in the two thousand's right, Okay,

Now there was like a live action version. The live action one was there were a couple the earliest one what's their list? One? Like ever it looks like ninety nine okay, definitely not that, yes, and the Birds of pretty like the actual show. Yeah, two thousand and two when they did so, that was kind of like when

she kind of was on my radar for me. Uh and definitely yet her Justice League appearances, but also, um, she was doing some stuff during like the New fifty two era, and I think that's when I got sprinklings, like New fifty two. I was right when I was in the in the like the the the critical mass of me buying comic books and having a poll poll list like it was. It was like the heroic Age, and I think they were trying to call it for Marvel and New fifty two. It was Brightest Day. And

then it led to New fifty two. We had the Flashpoint event, and so I got I took this as an opportunity to really get to know characters in DC outside of me, And they had this really cool dead Shot as a pirate, you know, because they did these alt series during flash flash Point, because there was all these alternate universe all these heroes, and one was where Batman was Bruce Wayne's father and it was actually his son that died and his son and wife. It was

like really cool stuff. But then at the New fifty two stage, they kind of rebooted everything and I kind of tried to get a little bit of everything, and so she she was sprinkled around because there was the Team um where they had Team seven I think it was called, and and I was seeing a little bit of her in that um you know, I don't remember. Maybe it was also in two thousand and two. But um, I really remember when um she popped up in Smallville.

Oh yes, that was after oh yeah, and then of course in uh in the CW word, Like that's that's what I you know, remember until this movie, like you know, the most vividly, but obviously also in the animation and the animated shows. But I think like actually the embodiment of like seeing her in live action that was mine

until Birds of Prey, until this film came out. Yeah, but yeah, I mean before we before we get too deep, I think we can go in the the intro into uh, you know, the nitty gritty of Black Canary, which is the fact that Robert Canager and car Carmine Infantino created the character in to be featured in Flash Comics as a supporting character, appearing first as a Claddenstein crime fighter who infiltrates criminal organizations to break them from the inside.

Black Canary was drawn with fishnet stockings and black and a black leather jacket to conno images of a sexualized yet strong female character. She appeared as a character in a backup story featuring Johnny Thunder. Yeah, so this is um from Carmine says, I was drawing Johnny Thunder, which was not much of a character. I suppose he could have been better because his Thunderbolt was interesting, but the situations they were in were pretty juvenile. Bob Canag wrote

these stories and he had no respect for the characters. Wow, it's always funny we discovered t there's so much. These stories were nowhere near as good as the Flashtoys. D C knew it. They knew Johnny he was a loser. This is a lot ut in the Black Canary to the series. Immediately she got a good response and it was by bye, Johnny thunder Nobody missed him. Wow, there's a scrub. This is open public knowledge. So I don't mind quickly spilling the tea on this Ben Affleck thing.

The Gone Girl commentary had a director's commentary. David Fincher was like, there was a scene and he was like, oh, in this scene where Ben Affleck just putting on a hat and going through the airport and he doesn't want to be recognized from the news, and he was like, given like something something how unprofessional of an actor Ben Affleck is He refused where a Yankees hat, even though it would fit the character, because that's where the character

is from because he's because Ben Affleck is like a Boston fan, and so we that lines up. That lines up with and he said, he said, it's shut down production for four days. So my guys had to sit around for four days. We wasted and he just did not care. He just eight up, was like he's unprofessional, and I was like, and it was in a commentary for his movie Wild, Oh my God. And in his defense, if they tried to get me to wear a Celtics jersey,

I'd be like, nah, him like I don't know. Like Meanwhile, Chris Evans has been pertaining to be from Brooklyn for life a decade, so it can be done. It's black. Canarias ranked the seventy one greatest comic book character of all time by Wizard and I g and rated her it's eighty one greatest all time comic book hero. She's number twenty six on the Comic Buyers Guys to Sexiest Women in Comics list. Wo yeah, you got a huge bump up when it turned into the Sexiest Women in Comics.

We talked about this in a in our other episode, but it was kind of wild how anime women in anime gets seen as being oversexualized. When you look at our the comics it covers from the nineties, and it's like boobs that are so big it's like painful looking, like it just looks. That's what's so funny to kind of watching um My Hero Academia and how they have characters like Midnight Um and um what is it Mount Lady who are like overtly like kind of especially Midnight Midnight.

Her whole thing is how sexual and how everyone finds it. But then when you think about that My Hero Academia is based off of like Western comics, it's almost like it almost makes you wonder if they're almost making fun and winking at Western audiences of being like, oh, yeah, you always make fun of anime characters, but here's how

y'all superheroes be looking. I think that right, because the other women in it aren't like there's women that have smaller, you know, bodies in My hero and so like it's specifically especially because all my is kind of making fun of or at least a nod to Western superheroes. But it's just funny to me that we never talk about our own stuff and we're always like, oh, they're sexualizing it's like, no, we have that. Also, like a lot of these characters are teenagers too, especially star Fire, Oh

my gosh, star Fire, Oh boy. And I don't know if you remember Princess the new fifty two star Fire that was so bad everyone had to be like, Okay, this we went too far. We went to it was infamously bad that even fanboys were like, no, I think this is a bit much. Do you know when um, when um Steve, when Steve Carrell in The Four Year Old Virgin, he refers to boobs as like bags of sand. Like, so that's what I think of with some of these comics. It just looks like the boombs are about to burst open.

Like it reminds me of like when my sister in law was breastfeeding. It's just like there's like busting out of this. That's what I mean about pain for where it's just like it just looks like they're about to bust through their skin. Yeah, Cup runneth over for sure. Um So. At her Golden Age debut, Black Canary was the alter ego of Dina Drake. Am I saying that? Yeah?

Dina Dina Dina Drake and participated in crime fighting adventures with her love interests and eventual husband, Gotham City detective Larry Lance. Did you princess like this run or like her having a husband. I have to say my favorite incarnation is actually her daughter. But I do like it when superpowered women have scrubs for husbands, Like, yeah, that's how I feel when I watched Wonder Woman with them.

Steve Trevor, like he's very much the sub Like he's very he's very much like she wears the pants and he's okay with that. Um So, I do love that about these d C ladies. If you need to make a comic like that. The support of dad, Yeah, good, good supportive dad, And I like those concepts. I like a good support of dad. I was like, yeah, mom and my daughters out there fighting crime and I'm just,

you know, over here doing dishes. Um so. Black Canary was originally a hand to hand fighter without superpowers who often pose as a criminal to infiltrate criminal gangs. Later stories depicted her as a world class martial artist with a superpower, The Canary Cry, as a high powered sonic scream which could shatter objects and incapacity and even kill powerful floes. Um actually did really like how they showed

that in the new Birds of Prey movie. I was like wondering exactly how they would um if they were like burst out our ear drops in the theater, But I felt like they did a really good job of that, so, uh, you know, it's fun thing listeners. So after the Crisis on and fitted Earth's event, uh, Black Black Canaries origin was altered and the character were now two separate people, uh,

Dine Drake and her daughter, Dina Laurel Lance. And Dina Drake married private investigator Larry Lance and acquaintance of James Gordon, and after the loss of her husband and retired, Dinah Lance raised their daughter raised their daughter, Dinah Laurel Lance, who grew up surrounded by her mother's friends and former teammates of the Justice Society. Awed by her mother's exploits as the Black Canary and the adventures of the Justice Society,

Dina aspired to become a superheroine. However, the older Dinah did not approve of her daughter's wishes. Well, if I did want to hop into her powers, and we're going to do that. Right after these messages, we are back. We're still talking about Black Canary. I wanted to talk about her powers because we kind of touched on them. But Um, Princess, aside from her sonic scream, her Black Canary cry, Um, what are some of the other powers that she's known for. Well, her other really abilities are

more her combat style. She is, after Lady Shiva and Batman, one of the top tier fighters in the DC Universe period. She's trained in like several different sorts of combat skills and even with her Canary car that has changed over time, but the most consistent thing of batter is that she can basically kick anyone's but in any situation. Um. She has beaten up Batman before and that was fantastic to watch.

I feel like most people have an advantage over that man because he's literally wrapped in rubber, like it must be so difficult for him to move all the time. And then okay, so she Yeah, we have a list here of like all of her different martial arts style, which is like every style ever. Um. She has been trained by other top tier fighters including Wildcat, Lady Shiva, Cassandra Caine, and wonder Woman. Okay, so, with the comics in Oracle summoned Black Canary to work as an agent

for her. After a mission with her first agent, Power Girl, went awry, the duo formed the Birds of Prey, and when Dina began working with the Birds of Prey, she got rid of her blonde wig and bleach bleached her hair blonde, so she went full blonde. Um. At first, Dina did not get along with Oracle, but eventually the two put their disagreements aside and became best friends. UM. As far as the Birds of Prey run, what do

you think A Prentice? What do you think? Like? Attracted people to this comic so much because it kind of just has lived on pretty iconically. I think for a lot of people it was a great way to highlight Oracle because this was kind of like the really big thing that she had done post becoming Bad Girl and now is Oracle. So it was great seeing all of

these women coming together to basically pick a team. And even though Chuck Dixon is the one who originated and Gayl Simone took over this series in like two thousand and three, I believe she really allowed all of the women to have really interesting dynamics. They were left to have genuine um disagreements as a squad but like really

build together. And I think that um, in comparison to the film, what a lot of people really missed and wanted was that Oracle Um Dina Countress relationship because that was like the core three of the of the Birds of Prey for a long time. Yeah, and so then they ended up adding, um, you know Harley Quinn poison ivy um. And I want to say Gail Simone, which is just so she I know I've talked about on this podcast her like women in Fridges, which is still up.

She's the one that kind of coined that term as far as women being killed or hurt in some way to further the plot of a man character. Um. She is a treat to also follow on Twitter because she is just flexing on people constantly. Um. She people will be like what do you even know about comics? Or

like what do you know about this person? And she'll like take a shot like a screenshot of her library and it's just like she's like read the names on it and it's just her name written on like all of the comics is it's third Winner's trying to come for her online because it's like do you even know who you're talking to like, yeah, yeah, no, exactly, It's

so funny. I just love watching her flex constantly, but also as someone that that understands how often women are kind of just used as very stereotypical trophy ways, it was so great to have her not only getting this obviously, but she's also known for wonder Woman. I mean, she's one of my favorite oneer woman uh writers. But just like being able to take full reins on this, and same with the Birds of Prey movie, like just having women involved. You can feel it like in the bone

of this, you know. Um, So that was really that was really awesome. And if you haven't picked up these comics, it's a great time to still get comics. I think even a lot of comic book places they're still trying to stay afloat. This is just like a sidebar, but you can do like no contact like pick up and stuff with your fellow comics, like hit them up, ask them. You know, they're they're trying to still they're still trying to stay in business. So it's a great time to

catch up on comics right now. Very true, very true. We got lots of time inside, so feel free to go ahead and get at that. Pool List. It's so funny, Princess, because I'm looking at this her from when we cook on the animation thing in the um the artwork, she looks like Harley Quinn. So I'm really glad that they change that for the movie because it's like it would just be too Harley's No, for sure, they really like I would be watching Suicide Squad the other day and

I just have so many notes on Harley's costume. I hate every almost everything about it. I hate. The best thing is that Margot Robbie is talented, but like man the Male Department, Yeah, when they went and ran with it, so yeah, so uh. The first animated appearance of Dina Drake is the basis of the character Donna Nance, the Black Siren, who's voiced by Jennifer Hale and the Justice

League Animated series episode Legends in two thousand two. Then the Dina Laurel Lance version, which was voiced by Marina Backred, appears in the sequel series Justice League Unlimited, where she's a member of the Justice League and she has that romantic relationship with Green Arrow and uh, the partnership with Huntress during that series, which is probably like that that kind of like kind of lobbed it up to what would make the you know Erroverse team be like, oh,

we need to bring her into the verse. She's great in arroverse, Like she's really I love her. I love her in that eares and uh on the CW I'm really glad with like also a great also a great channel that has a lot of badass women and queer people. They were like, the more queer people and women, the better. So I really respect them for doing that. I wanted to say. Jennifer Hale, little known fact, is actually the voice of Cinderella. So she when the original Cinderella passed away.

You know, we're getting to a point where some of our original Disney princesses are passing on and the mantel gets handed to the next. She has voice Cinderella for twenty five years, I believe. Um. She was on my Disney Princess panel with the original princesses at New York Comic Con, so that was really cool. She doesn't always get the credit, but like, whenever you hear Cinderella, now, that is her. So she's carrying on the legacy of that character. It's pretty cool. So the black can area

that I'm looking at right now. She has these gray leggings, black boots kind of like a blue top or a navy there thank you, um, and choker and a choker and um. But this was heavily, heavily changed for the movie. So, Princess, can you talk a little bit about her the change in her looks, because I love what they did for her in the movie. Yeah, for sure, Like the fishnet style is iconic, Like that's very much what Black Canary wears. But I definitely think that they did a good job

at updating the costume. Actually, the costume that she wears at the end of the movie is a nod to sort of one of her older body suit costumes that you still exist. It was very disco um, and I think all the choices they made because there's one where she's singing, um, it's a man's world. She's wearing a fishnet dress, which looks amazing, and I think everything she wears is so thing that Dinah would wear um in

her day to day garb uh. And I think I just wanted to do something that was a little bit less voye voyeuristic but still sexy because I think that you know, she's still wearing like this really um great body is She's still wearing these tight pants, but it's a little bit more functional than straight up corset body suit boots and fishnet leggings. Yeah, it's a great choice. I also want to say in every iteration of her,

is she also a singer? That's newer um I believe in during one of the New fifty two relaunches, they did a standalone series with Dina I believe it was Dinah Drake, and they incorporated the singing into it, and that is just sort of like built in since then, so it's a fairly new addition, but it has um oh. I just wanted to say. One of the things that's really interesting about Dinah as a character in like The Black Canarias that she was part of the original Um

Justice Justice Society of America. So she's been like a really important figure in comic books for a really long time. But she's just very underrated because she's both a legacy character UM and she kind of gets overshadowed by some of the more powerful female staple characters like um, You're

wonder Woman, You're Supergirl. But I think the fact that she's managed to be so popular from like the late forties onward, just shows like how special she is and how much people do like to see a female character whose power is half just pure physical combat. And also she screams that you real loud. Yeah, if I had a superpower, that would definitely be mine. Because I used to always say that I wanted to stop time. I was like, I just need more time, and now I

have the little most time in the world. So I really regret saying that. Um, and now if I could just end people with my scream, that would be great. We we have to take a really quick break and then we're going to hop into the movie and in the future of Black Canary right after this and we are back. So something that it's kind of fascinating with with Black Canary and even Hunters in some way, is that now that they've kind of aligned with Harley Quinn.

Harley Quinn, I don't want to say she's not a hero, but she's definitely an anti hero. And so do you think that Black Canary kind of hops back and forth between being being in that same space. Um, I wouldn't say so. I think that other than when they first tried to like make her play both teams, and like the early early days of her creation, she's pretty much

been a solid hero. I think that more has to do with Ecy trying to figure out how to deal with Harley, how to deal with the fact that she was a villain for so long, and I think they attached her to characters like dying like Barbara Gordon. He sort of allows us to see the good and Harley rather than to see the moral brainnest in those women. Gotcha, Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It's I mean I see Harley the same way I mean poison Ivy is

seen depending on whose view you're looking at. She's a villain. I mean, she literally plays a villain in the Batman movies, but when you think about it, she's actually not really doing anything that villain is. She's trying to say she believes in plants and like humans are ruining things. She's a scientist and it's just like he was. Whose viewpoint

are you looking at? But however, I do view her and Harley as being definitely more chaotic, like um, Harley has like a this chaos energy where it's more like she'll like do anything to get what she wants. In my opinion, Um, and so I feel like Black Canary

has like slightly more morals than that. However, in Birds of Prey, it is really fascinating if we get another film, how how they're going to explore this, because I do agree that I feel like her being coupled with some of these other women, it kind of seems like they're more on the criminal, like haisty type of vibe. Yeah, it'll be interesting for sure. I think what I did appreciate is sort of how at the end they kind of do separate Harley from the rest of the gang.

Um they're like, oh, yeah, there there's those goods the Birds of Prey. I think if we do get a sequel, I don't even know if Harley might actually be in it. I think they might try and do with that and just go full birds are probay Birds of Prey. But if they do bring Harley in, I think it will be another situation where, um, they are trying to do something legitimately good, and Harley will be brought in because uh, there's something that she wants involved, or because of her

relationship with Cassandra. They might be like, oh, I have to protect this kid, and she wants to be nice to these other ladies. Well, something that I if he was talking about the promotion of this movie, and I think it might have been I don't know if calling it Birds of Prey, which we all know in the comic book world. But a part of me felt like that might have been people that aren't as familiar, like you said, like it's not a Wonder Woman where it's like so known by its name. Um where I saw

a lot of that conversation happening online. Now, granted, I'm sure that it could have been promoted a lot more, but you are going against trying to think of how to weard this. Well, it's characters that aren't the A list, right, which is fine, but I mean Marvel has been doing that we just talked about. Marvel will take se list characters and put them up And it's not that there's list like their storylines, it's just their sea list because

people don't know them as well. Um So I feel like a part of that might have also led into this, like some of these women aren't as well, some of these characters aren't as well known, so they almost need

twice the marketing. Yeah, it's it's interesting. I had. I've had this converss station like all the time with my friends and my coworkers because like, I am very familiar with all of these characters, um and I think of something like Guardians of the Galaxy, where it's like no one knew who those who those characters were, but people just trusted the Marvel brand so much at that point that they were willing to take that kind of risk

with a movie like that. Also, it was PG. Thirteen, and I think that it also I think it's sold the storyline better in the trailers. I think that when you look at the trailers for Birds of Prey, they're not terrible, but I don't think they properly communicate what the film is about. And I also think that Hartley Quinn is one of the biggest DC characters out there.

I think someone referred to her as like the fourth tier after the Big Three, which is like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, which is incredible for a character that's like literally my age because she was invented. But I think that at the point Birds of Prey came out, people were still kind of like about d C movies, They were still kind of about the whole vibe I think that Suicide Squad was really bad, and people didn't know if it was a sequel to Suicide Squad, they didn't

know how tired it wasn't too that. So I think Birds of Prey unfortunately absorbed a lot of the d C e U stigma that was already in the ether. I would have thought that would have been over after Chasanne and Aquamanded. Well, but you have that. Plus the whole element of this is a female led superhero movie with like all women in like two villainous dudes, and it was the first I think it's the first female lead combook movie of this, like Ouvra that is really

targeted and framed towards a non fid male audience. And I don't mean that in an inflammatory way, but I mean it's not. It's written by women, it's directed by women, that character designers women. It's very diverse. You know. It's like one of the few Marvel movies that will call a character gay in the text. Um. It is one of the few to have like actual like an older Latina lesbian woman in the front and center and showing up some very good delicate age at one point. So

I think it just it was it. I think it should have done Deadpool numbers, But I don't think that the audience for Deadpool is inherently the audience for Birds of Prey, and that sucks because the movie is excellent. But I think that being rated, are having a cast that people didn't really know, and just being part of a brand that has been very messy just made it very hard for people to like take a risk on this film. Yeah, so I guess, aside from because my

my answer, I guess was to do more promoting. Do you think that there's something else that could have been done to kind of get this film the attention that it should have. I think that it's because because I'm in New York, so I saw it promoted everywhere, so it's hard to present in that kind of industry bubble. But I think it. I think honestly, it should have

been PG. Thirteen just for like an audience boundary thing like interne getting a broader audience, excuse me, And I think it should have just done more individual poster trailers. I think that they should have just called it um the Birds of Prey. I think calling it The Bridge of Prey and the Glorious emancipation of Harley Quinn, which

just too long know and knew what that meant. You have just simplified the title, simplified the brand, and really worked curated in like put more promotion when we had conventions, more events for that, just more engagement in social media. I think they overall did as best of a job as they could, because I saw a lot of things for it. But I think that that's because I'm in New York and people, you know, put in money there.

But I think other places didn't really get that same promotion. No, it's wild because when a totally different movie, but um, when Coco came out, it was like all over l A. But I would hear like fans and stuff on Twitter would be like, there's I haven't seen a single billboard or like anything for it at all in like the South, and so it was just kind of like, I guess maybe some places are picking and choosing where. I wonder if some places they're like, oh, it's not even worth it,

they won't even go, you know. Yeah, because I had friends who lived in like Portland, and one of my friends lives in Kansas City and they're like, oh, yeah, I haven't seen any promotion for it. Meanwhile, I at Times Square being like ten different Harley Quinn posters, and I'm like, I'm seeing a lot of it, So I don't think it had that broad marketing campaign behind it. Where are all the people who are super in the hot topic and are like she was his queen and

he was her king and nobody spoke between them. And it's like Joker and Harley. Where all the joker heads? Why did they show up? Obviously not, although I guess see that the hot topic line was phenomenal though several cass So it's it's really difficult. And I'm like, I'm looking at like the budget for this movie, and just compared to like other big main films, it was very small.

Like the budget for Suicide Squad I'm looking it up right now was like a hundred and seventy five million dollars and for Birds of Prey it's between eighty and a hundred million. So it's like, you know, a smaller budget, you know, means like less marketing other places, and it just it's a bummer. Yeah, Well, hopefully people listen to I mean go and watch it. We haven't given anything away, so hopefully, um, no spoilers here, and I hope that y'all listening will go and check it out because it

is super dope, and I do hope we get another one. Um, I'm pretty sure we'll continue. I mean, here's what I'm thinking is they're gonna pull in Poison Ivy, like straight up, I'm pretty sure that she's going to pop into one of these if she's not already going to be in the Batman. Um. And that's what I want to see. I need, you know, now that Harley is broken away from the Joker, I need to go ahead and see her live her life with Poison Ivy. May have their

vegan farm together and they're growing vegetables. That's like the world that I see next is like, now you're in this uh if you are emancipated and you know whatnot now you're in the healing process of like letting your guard down with someone who understands the life that you went through and like, I don't know very into it. I've read too much fan fiction. Now that's the truth. That's what we deserve. Yeah, give you what about you?

What do you want to see for the future of this franchise or Black Cary I definitely want to see more, uh more like Birds of Prey content. I like, I

like that idea that was just floated about. Uh you know, if the sequel was just the Birds of Prey and this was just an interaction with Harley, and if this was a device you also not only introduce us to the adventures of Birds of Prey, but slowly introduce other female villains like you know, maybe you know, like Poison Ivy appearance down the line, get some catwoman in there, you know, just slowly but just introducing the new like Rogues Gallery to the point where then they stopped being

you know, friends and they actually go toe to toe. And of course I'm always pushing for having more ladies who are quote unquote older, because having Renee montoyat like that was just so amazing because it's just like, and we had a great resurgence is past year of having Jamie Lee Curtis and not Linda. Why am I blanket on her name from terminator? Linda Hamilton's Linda Hamilton's say

Linda Carter. Linda Carter can come back to um. But like I'm they're badass, like there, they can still kick butt and like I really want to see that happening more in these comic book films. If we can have men playing like villains and superheroes until Robert Downey JRT so like, which it doesn't feel that old to me, but like we can have more women that are in

their fifties and sixties too. No, for sure, my dream for my Birds of Prey sequel dream is that they will bring in Lady Shiva, because she's Cassandra Kine's mother, and uh, that would just be the And she's been a long time Birds of Prey like antagonist, and so it'd be perfect to bring her in and you could

just see some amazing fighting. You can get like an older um well that actually plays Cassandra k is China is Korean and Filipina, so you can get like a brown Asian woman to like play this role and be like this awesome martial artist and just a lot of amazing female fight scenes. I think that'd be so cool. I'm going to nab her from Marvel, but Angela Bassett, I think we could. We didn't really get to see her fighting as much, and I think I think we can go ahead and pull her over to I just

want to see I know over there. I think Selma Hyak is going to be in the Turnals, right, So it's like just more women in their fifties and sixties that I think are glorious and just should be kicking butt. No, I think you know, if that's in If if Birds of Prey the movie inspired, you definitely go out and like support them in the comic books and buy those comics so you know, people can can keep reading them and you know, spread the gospel. That's That's what I

That's all I always like to say. I guess, Princess, what is one that you for people that are now interested in checking out Black Canary? Where do you have any comics that you recommend they hop into. I definitely recommend the Birds of Prey run that was by Gale Simone. I think it's very good at really explaining who the characters are, and you do see a lot of really good um Dina also her standalone theories for the New

fifty two was also really excellent. She's tends to be put a lot more in Green Arrow because I don't think we mentioned it, but in the comics Dina Lands her primary love interest is Oliver Queen the Green Arrow they're like endgame and their relationship is great. And so in the Green Arrow Rebirth, she plays a really big role in that theory. So it also gives you really good Green Arrow Black Canary content as well. Well. This

has been a another edition of Netificent Quarantined. We did it, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was trying to do a play on Wars, but it didn't work. So I'm just gonna say, Princess, thank you so much for coming on. Where can people find you? And do you have anything to plug? I right at the Mary Suit every day because I love it. I also do videos for PBS for insult. You can find me on Twitter at weeks Princess w E E K E S and um, I'm just happy to be here. You guys are great. So this was a lot of

fun for me, So thanks for having me Superhero. Um I am at Miss Danny Fernandez and all the things. Thank you again everyone for being patient. We are still learning all of our audio. See it's better than when our first week when we had a record on our cell phone. That was rough. But we appreciate everyone that's stuck around and we're going to continue to try to bring y'all some fun good content to keep you, to keep you company while you're clean cooking all the things

that you're doing. All the teams, Uh yeah, yeah, and the same here if you wide away on Twitter and Instagram, if ds on on Twitch, and uh, you know, after this week, uh, super Punch will be on hiatus until May, so I won't be on Super Punch nightly, but you know, still tune in to my personal Twitch and hopping the discord. The anime UH club is going off. We finished Black Lagoon. Now we're trying to decide on the next UH anime

that we're gonna that we're all gonna watch. Uh and you know, and people are talking, having lots of fun conversations. It seems like everyone's really bonding during this quarantine in the discord, So don't be a stranger pull up. Uh yeah. And I guess, like we always say, we will never get it, and it's okay, we'll pretend we did