Manhunter has not been cancelled but has been put on hiatus for awhile. The good news is she will continue to appear in Birds of Prey in the meantime. Another series you might want to check out is Fables off of the DC Vertigo line. A sort of "What if Fairey Tales were real?" kind of setting, it stars all the classic characters from the old Brother's Grimm stories with a twist. The breakout characters are Snow White, the tough as nailes deputy mayor of Fabletown, where the "Fables" live and Bigby Wolf, the Big Bad Wol of old who's now on the side of the angles.

Also, if you are looking for a good storyline in trade paperback, check out Gotham Central's Half a Life. It contains the storyline where Renee Montoya (the current Question and Batwoman's ex) is outed at work and how she deals with the aftermath with her coworkers and the villianous Two Face (who is obsessed with her). Great read which won an Eisner Award (the Emmy or Oscar or comic books)

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/07/superheroes_need_rescuing_from.html

There's a lot of beefing going on in the comic world over the sexism and percieved misogeny in this male dominated industry. Basically sites like When Fangirls Attack and Girls Read Comics And They're Pissed are pointing fingers at what they claim to be the blatant objectivation of the women heroes in DC and Marvel comics. It's an interesting and ongoing debate on the topic!

I'll definitely check out your recommendations on the Fables take on things and the Gotham site.

Jennifer, I'll check out the link you provided above. Thank you for summarizing the current issues being raised in comics.

It's too bad the Birds of Prey television series botched what could have been a very fine show about three women, their relationships with each other, and their unending struggle to defend a crumbling city. But it had too many problems--the obvious shooting on backlots instead of real locations, the very obvious use of stunt doubles (a hint: don't show your double's face, directors), the unnecessary and badly acted beefcake, the ineptly implemented use of the baddie-of-the-week storyline (which they tried to patch over by thinly linking these things through Quinn), overuse of the we-don't-kill storyline, often lame writing...it goes on. I think they were hamstrung by too many studio demands and not enough creative control. I don't know. all I know is that the beefcake couldn't override the Huntress/Oracle chemistry, on which they usually failed to capitalize.

It could've been such a good show. Damn.

Being a kid here in the UK I used to LOVE reading Tales From The Legion Of Superheroes as a girl. When I could get hold of them that is.

I also loved 2000AD, which I believe is still going strong to this day. Judge Anderson was a hottie, Judge Dredd kicks major ass, Sláine cut a swath of blood with a grin and Nemisis was plain weird, BUT delicious. Not to mention D.R. & Quinch, Rogue Trooper with his talking rifle and the gorgeous enigma that WAS Halo Jones.

These days I'm into Dark Horse (Xena etc) and DC, especially the loooooong 52, Buffy titles, Amazons Attack! (could you WANT for more strong female characters in one comic!) and eventually, Countdown. I'm buying the latter after it finishes its run so it's not as expensive buying it week by week.

I was gutted to hear that the new Batwoman series was cancelled though. Wading and waiting through ALL of 52, just for a few scenes with Renee and her, with no payoff and no series of their own sucks bigtime!

If I could draw I'd do comics and redress the balance!

Alas, as it is I'll just have to live with the bitterness and Birds Of Prey fanfic ;-)

My mother gave me a Hawk Girl action figure for Christmas a couple of years ago.

When my sister arrived, she asked "What did you get for Christmas?"

So I said "A Hawk Girl!"

To which my sister replied "Mom got you a Hot Girl?????"

I have spent hours teasing her about that... although it wasn't nearly as funny as the time she misheard me say "Traveling Bilbo."

;)

after Wonder Woman. LMAO, when I read that your sister said "Mom got you a Hot Girl?????" I annoy Sarah whenever I say Hawkgirl's name because she thinks I'm saying "hot girl." Thanks for sharing!

If your interested in other comics staring strong female leads, here are a few more worth checking out. Best of all, they've all been collected in trade paperbacks so you don't have to go hunting through the local comic racks looking for them:

Alias: Not to be confused with the popluar ABC series of the same name, this comic stars Jessica Jones, a failed super hero now working as a private detective. Set in a more mature world, Jessica deals with cases involving drug abuse, discrimination and sexuality, all the while dealing with a deeply traumatizing event in her past the made her give up the life of a superhero.

Checkmate: Spys with superpowers. Lead by the cybernetic Sasha Bordeaux (along with Fire from the Justice League), its set in a world of politcal intrigue where superpowered criminals and terrorists are the norm.

Gotham Central; Besides the Half a Life storyline listed above, its a great procedural drama set in Batman's world (think Homicide Life on the Street). As Batman's villians are more physically normal, the series is styled very reastically and gritty. Besides Renee, the series also contains another out character, squad leader Maggie Sawyer.

Villians United and the Secret Six: Two of the best miniseries out there. Writer Gail Simone does the unthinkable; makes Catman cool, evolves C list villians into characters you can't help but cheer for, and gives us tight, action packed stories making you want more. Also contains one of the coolest gay couples in comics, Scandal Savage and Knockout (formerly Superboy's girlfriend of all people).

She-Hulk: The latest version of this comic (there been about 4 different series since the character first made her debut) finds She-Hulk splitting her time between fighting bad guys on the streets and in the courtroom. Think Ally McBeal, but not quite as neurotic

I always liked Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl, despite most of my friends always asking me just who the heck was Hawkgirl. Oh, and Jade, she was great!

When I got into high school, I started reading more Marvel comics than I did DC ones...I think I was able to relate to the mutants' plight more. I've tried to get back into reading comics but I find that alot of the storylines are very hard to follow these days.

heroines are all fine and good(in that peaches and cream kinda way); but we all know that the sexist comic books ladies are the villains... Lori, i think you should make a list of them.

I'm curious - most of the comics readers here are familiar with the superhero stuff. But has anyone tried Peter David's cult series Fallen Angel? It's one of those series that deserves a better following - kind of like Manhunter, but without the powersuit.

A female protagonist of supernatural abilities - her background is slowly revealed as you follow the series. She is selective about who she thinks deserves help. She might just nudge you further into hell if she thinks you deserve it. A morally ambiguous protagonist with a mysterious past, who is stuck in the city of Bete Noire, which may be the city founded by Caine.

No one else has read it?

I only just started collecting Wonder Woman, and the Amazons Attack! series, have to admit that I'm a little disappointed so far, the plot is patchy even for a comic book, the characters are a little paint-by-number-ish, and is it just me or do the women in this book spend way too much of their time waiting for some grinning-male-thingy to come and bail them out instead of just getting on with it.

The only reason it's still on my pull list is the slightly desperate hope that it's going to get better, I mean, it can't possibly get much worse, can it?.

Negativity aside, I loved the fables series, particularly snow white (never thought I'd actually write..er, type? something like that in a million years), birds of prey rocks ass, oh, and catwoman but I wish they'd take her back to the way she used to be when she was slick and cool and not so much with the kid and stuff...

and I should probably stop now or start a blog, fortunately I'm too lazy for at least one of these options.        

~ Imagination is the eye of the soul ~

I was into comics when I was a kid...mostly X-Men, but I just kinda lost interest. It was the Xena and Buffy comics that brought me back and when I started going to the comic book store I looked for other comics to get into.

But where to start? errgh. I tried looking online for recommendations for women, but I just found a lot of rants on what NOT to read...and a lot of nit picking. It hurt my brain. This blog has been really helpful.

I was a comic collector in my youth in, I was a fanatic even. I stopped collecting when the price went up to $1.00 per issue and UPCs began to ugly-up the cover art and the fact that my over 10,000 comic books were taking over my mom's entire house. The only female Superheros who were not 'sucky' IMO were the original Elektra in the Daredevil books, starting at # 166 (I think), the orignal alternative Universe Huntress who DC failed miserably to evolve and grow and market, even Ghost Rider had a villaness named Steel Wind who I got a thrill from because solid female Superheros were sorely lacking in the DC and Marvel Universes. The only real interesting ones often had a dark edge to them and were drawn more as villans than good girls. Wonder Woman was a comic that could never hold my interest because she was never really interesting, the same stories kept getting a fresh coat of paint. Don't get me started on Supergirl, her numerous costume changes alone got me confused, I could only imagine that DC had no idea how to market her. And Spidergirl was just a bad idea, period. Having said all this, to be fair, DC and Marvel's main target market were 8 - 38 yr. old males who could care less about a strong, positive,  female Super hero who they could connect with each month.

It was with a breath of real freshness that the likes of Xena and Buffy, although not born from the medium of comics, offered us some really interesting female characters to enjoy weekly - a fantsy come true for old girls like me.

I've read many a comic book, magazine, graphic novel in my day and my favorite remains DC's maxiseries Camelot 3000. I wish someone would please make the movie or, better yet, turn it into a trilogy. If you don't know story, check it out.

'Nuff said.

Xenite3000

Countdown 43 was interesting just for the two pages where we see Harleen Quinzell and Holly Robinson interact.

When I'm not slashing Harley/Ivy in my head, I can now totally see Harley/Catwoman.

Bring on more Montoya/Kate too.

I have an interesting picture to share with you guys too. I love Thrillkiller <3

Ms Quinzell may love the Joker, but she likes the ladies too.  I can recall when she set up residence with Poison Ivy, on the Batman animated show.  She and Ivy were very cozy...swearing off men,  doing jobs together, celebrating together like only two women (living on a toxic waste dump) can. 

No doubt, I am a dyed in the wool Marvel fan, but even Storm can acknowledge the beauty, brains, and brawn of Wonder Woman.  I've always been a fan and an off and on collector.  And I can admit, I was more than a little green with envy, when Hawkgirl dated Green Lantern on the animated show Justice League.  I always wanted to believe that maybe Diana and Shayera didn't get along on JLU, because there were some unacknowledged feelings or perhaps attraction.  Hmmm... They would be/look incredible together.