Her relationship with Helena is built on a thin form of loyalty based on the fact that they've saved each other a few times. Her relationship with Babs is built on trust and love and Babs calls her out when she's being unfair. Her relationship with Shiva is built on mutual respect of the other's skills and Shiva, who doesn't have a lot of regard for anyone, cares about Dinah. I love seeing her interact with Shiva, Babs and Helena. I adore her Dinah Lance! She is a kick ass, honorable, kind character. There are so many great, complex relationships and everyone has their own strengths. There's such a great feeling of sisterhood and I just love the way the women all relate to each other. There's something about Gail Simone's Birds of Prey that puts it above the Dixon run in my eyes. There were maybe one or two lines about prior stories but I didn't feel lost reading this arc.

I adored this volume as well! I can't seem to read these in order but you really don't have to. Speaking of Commissioner Gordon, he gets a great line of dialogue during a present-day dinner scene - 'A cop's life is huge stretches of boredom, punctuated by moments of sheer terror.' Truth! There are also cameo appearances (the sparring scene with Wonder Woman was especially nice) and a flashback story featuring Black Canary's parents and a young Jim Gordon.

This is where Huntress jumps in to lend a hand and kick ass. On the other side of the world Oracle (Barbara 'Babs' Gordon) is hacked and then imprisoned in a continuation of the previous volume's story. Of course they're quickly thrown into an action-filled story, which also features the deadly and truly evil Cheshire. Also present is Lady Shiva, another former student who is sort of a dark opposite to BC. 4: Sensei and Student, Black Canary journeys to back China to pay respects to her dying sensei. Maybe it's too early (in the run of the series) to say, but I think the pairing of writer Gail Simone and the 'Birds of Prey' ladies is my favorite from any graphic novel title I've read in the last two years.

Birds of Prey, Volume 1 by Gail Simone