The Will Of The People Cannot Be Denied: BARDA! BARDA! BARDA!
(Or maybe it's just my will? Eh, tomayto--tomahto!)
That’s right, three down and two still to go as we reveal our all-new BIRDS OF PREY team all this week. If you missed the previous reveals you can check them out here and here to learn all about Leonardo Romero, Jordie Bellaire, and my BOP launching in September 2023!
Today we both got our Barda reveal and Leo’s design and ALSO this truly gorgeous Barda BIRDS OF PREY #1 Variant Cover by Stanley “Artgerm” Lau got revealed on Popverse.
Big Barda has long been one of my favorite characters. But she wouldn’t be here if we didn’t need her for this specific mission.
Which is something I’d like to say about the book in general — especially as people get excited and upset (in equal measure?) as we reveal these characters. It’s of course a bit of a cheat to say that I needed THESE characters for THIS specific mission, since *I* designed the mission. But… that’s just the best way I know to build a story?
Finding something juicy with good tension and stakes and potential emotional fall out and building the most exciting and emotionally resonant story around that idea.
In this case, I’m especially excited about this idea, and I think we built the right team for the best story for this first arc. But without overwhelming the book, there are only so many characters I can include. Some favs are gonna be left in the toy box (as always), but the BIRDS OF PREY format it very bendy in a beautiful way, and the right cast for THIS mission is not necessarily the right cast for the next mission. And by that same token — there are some big surprises in this first arc that I think will make a lot of things make sense to everyone.
The excitement from these announcement has been incredible so far and I feel so grateful for the fan response, but as always, I like to urge people to check out the first issue before they decide anything one way or another.
Open minds and open hearts! This is the way!
~Kelly
Ah! Looks amazing! But it's probably going to end up killing my "Bardas of Prey" series :(
Thanks for all the love, guys. We're trending for the third day in a row and it's AWESOME. So much love for these ladies. Tomorrow's pick is gonna surprise...ALMOST EVERYONE. And Ben (my editor and I) are very proud of ourselves right now for managing an ACTUAL surprise. Hope it's a good one. ;D