12 Days of Best SFF Characters of 2013: Day #4

For this new seasonal list of the best SFF characters I’ve read this year, my fourth pick consists of some more DC leading ladies, the Birds of Prey from Gail Simone’s first run on the title, with art by Ed Benes. At the time the team consisted of Barbara Gordon aka Oracle and Dinah Lance aka Black Canary. Helena Bertinelli aka the Huntress joined them with Gail Simone coming on to the title.

Hit the break to see why I picked this character.

Origin II #1 (Comics Review)

A few years ago Marvel put out a 4-issue limited series called Origin which detailed the earliest years of Wolverine’s life. Casting him as the son of a landowner somewhere in Canada, the young James Howlett suffered through many trials and tribulations that ultimately led to him forsaking society all together. Several plot threads of that comic were reused for the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie, and the adaptation took away from a lot of the mystique that that comic had created, the deep sense of character and history.

And now we have Origin II, the sequel to that series that tells of the time between Origin and later, when the character joined the army and fought in the first World War. This Wolverine we see is completely different from any I’ve seen before and I have to say that I’m really intrigued. Usually Kieron Gillen’s writing doesn’t work for me, but this has proven to be a different case. And the art is quite good, despite the dominant white palette. Still, really good.