#Creote Savante

[donnatroyprincessofthemyscira]

Beefcake Bad Boys 🔥

Art Credit to Travis Moore and Tamra Bonvillain

[junimo-hexed]

did anyone ask for these? no, well now you’ve got them.

feel free to suggest more

blame @gailsimone for most of these

[badassbirdsofprey]

[spearclosetcomics]

Birds of Prey #71 (2004) Gail Simone Ron Adrian Rob Lea

[thraced]

I am sorry to say that DC Pride pin up has me back on my Savant/Creote bullshit

[is-this-fandom-who-knows]

Savant and Creote from Birds of Prey - I miss them

[differenzeartistiche]

Savant custom figurine

[comicgeekscomicgeek]

I think Cassandra was in use/limbo at the time, because I can’t otherwise see why she wouldn’t be in this group.

But I really love that Wildcat is.

Criminals who have the bright idea of closing the distance on GA quickly find it was not as helpful as first assumed. Action Comics 440

[pluckyredhead]

Hii I don’t know if you’ve been asked this before, but what’s your opinion on Gail Simone? On her work and as a writer

I am assuming you are asking this in good faith and this isn't bait! Don't let me down, anon.

Anyway, I generally like Gail Simone's work! I think it's hard for folks who have started reading comics more recently to understand how groundbreaking her work on Birds of Prey was. There were absolutely female writers in the industry before Simone, but I don't know if there was ever a combination of "female writer" + "female-led cast" + "superhero book that isn't aggressively pinkwashed." Honestly I can't think of another one until the current BoP run by Kelly Thompson.

(I cannot overstate how hard it was for women in comics in the 2000s/early 2010s. Iirc Simone was one of only two in the initial New 52 lineup, which famously consisted of FIFTY-TWO BOOKS. And then they fired her from Batgirl. (And rehired her because of the severe backlash.) It's still very difficult to this day, but back then...woof.)

BoP had been a good book under Chuck Dixon, but Simone made the characters and their relationships so much richer, more nuanced and three-dimensional. My Barbara Gordon will always be her Babs, who is deeply flawed, well-meaning but manipulative and controlling in a chess grandmaster way, a way that female characters almost never get to be - someone who is a good person but also kind of terrifying. Dixon had written Dinah as likable but admittedly kind of a bimbo; Simone wrote her as profoundly emotionally intuitive and one of the best fighters in the entire DCU. Her Helena adds such a fun element to the book, and Zinda! She didn't invent Zinda out of whole cloth but she might as well have; the character wasn't nearly as delightful before Simone.

I also really enjoyed Secret Six at the time, although it's not my typical kind of book. And I think it's worth noting that Simone either introduced a number of queer characters or wrote previously existing characters as queer - Savant and Creote, Scandal Savage and Knockout and Liana, Catman - and with the exception of Catman, who was confirmed queer in 2015, this was at a time when queer characters in comics were still very, very rare. (And a poly relationship!)

Have I loved every single thing Simone has ever written? No. (I thought her recent Action Comics story, for example, was a pretty lukewarm retread of Superman vs. Muhammad Ali without the, uh, Muhammad Ali.) Has she made some missteps? Sure. But much like her friend and contemporary Devin Grayson, fandom tends to scream bloody murder over those missteps while completely ignoring much worse writing and real-world behavior by men. GEE, I WONDER WHY.

Anyway yes, I like Gail Simone! And I will always consider her BoP to be a must-read.

[zahri-melitor]

There's this thing that I've noticed on my Birds of Prey and Batgirl read, that I can probably use Burnside as a dividing line on:-

Post 2014, there's definitely been a shift to portray BOP and Batgirl as the 'girls team', to the exclusion of non-female characters.

Like do not get me wrong. Birds of Prey has always been at its heart about a small group of women working together (and frequently against the forces of misogyny). But it wasn't exclusionary. Dixon's run has Ted Kord and Jason Bard and Dick and Tim as supporting characters through it. Simone's BOP runs have Savant and Creote as antagonists and supports, they have Dawn Granger AND Hank Hall. There are male heroes around and supporting!

The premise was 'Barbara calls in the characters she sees that she needs for this mission' and sometimes that is her close friends and allies, and sometimes it's very pointedly people she's not close to because she's pushing people away for Reasons, and sometimes it's the only person who has the skillset she needs, and sometimes it's because she's meddling and trying to reform someone, and so on. She has complicated reasoning for how she puts a team together, and who she calls on for assistance.

And yes, part of the point of BOP is to showcase the wide range of talent available in female DC characters for any scenario you can think of, why are you not building teams that are at least 50% women more often?

But there's this trend that starts emerging from n52 onwards, particularly once Simone is removed from the books, where the titles sort of stop interacting with male heroes outside of dating them. No, why are you calling up all the female vigilantes in Gotham to help with this situation but none of the men, even when you're actually closer to a number of the guys? Is there a reason that there's a no-men gas or something? No?

I love seeing strong women heroes who are friends and who are enemies and who fight together and have complex relationships. I love the depth! But also it feels super walled off and unnecessarily inverted to only allow men in as characters to DATE, when from the very beginning they've been used to build characterisation and showcase the women's skills.

[doomerpatrol]

Comic Log: Birds of Prey by Gail Simone

While Birds of Prey is not my absolute favorite thing I read this year, I think what makes it soar is Simone's character writing, as she really manages to reinvent or each character she puts her hands on. We get some of the best fleshing out of Barbara Gordon/Oracle as a protagonist, she gives Huntress an opportunity to shine and step out of Batman's shadow and also display some personality besides just being angry and pitifully needy, and Black Canary is made into a Grade-A badass rather than a secondary player or a supporting cast member. And even better, Simone brings them all into compelling relationships with one another. (Not to mention the incorporation of a roster of other great DC heroines, though I think their presence is not as consistently successful compared to these other three. But Big Barda is awesome!)

It's a bit cheesy in a variety of ways - the "Fabio"esque Savant and his stoic gay companion Creote feels incredibly 2000s, as well as the heavy reliance on "cheesecake" imagery in the covers and panels - but in that way it kind of evokes something like a very lightly elevated Charlie's Angels or Buffy. It's pulpy genre fiction (espionage, martial arts, noir) tethered together by a strong central cast. It's also comparable to something like Claremont's X-Men, where various plot and character points are gradually seeded in order to pay off later, so it feels like a mostly contiguous story.

That last sentence mostly describes the first two thirds of Simone's run, from #56-90. Then the series hits the DC editorial period of "One Year Later," a flash-forward paired with some interesting status quo shakeups. That starts out okay with an arc about Black Canary and Lady Shiva swapping positions for a time which is pretty fun. But after Black Canary leaves the team, the cast balloons in a way that feels rather claustrophobic (though there are some highlights like Big Barda), and some of the annoying horny stuff gets dialed up too much for my tastes (like Huntress and Catman having a thing, lol). The final two arcs also revolve around the extremely annoying antagonist of "Spy Smasher," a rival to Oracle who is very poorly characterized, and the resolution to that conflict is deeply unsatisfying. This last third is a bit of a letdown and feels quite overstuffed and rushed. but still an enjoyable ride!

Favorite arc/issue: "Sensei and Student," which sees Black Canary teamed up with Lady Shiva and (sort of) Cheshire, Oracle put into an incredibly tight spot as she's dogged by the American government, and Huntress being cool as hell. I also enjoyed "The Battle Within," a brief period where Huntress separates from the team to go after the Gotham mob while the other Birds surreptitiously maneuver to support her.

[fancyfade]

Helena Bertinelli for send a character.

First impression - I don't remember having very strong opinions on Helena one way or the other the first time she appeared. I do remember not knowing about the new 52, but knowing that Helena used to be a superhero, and thinking that Helena was also spying on Spyral like Dick, but you know, better at it because she didn't act like a superhero

Impression now - I love her! I love the separation between Huntress and Helena Bertinelli that exists in her head and how Huntress exists to protect her (and other people b/c she's a superhero :P) Huntress 1989 my beloved!

Favorite moment: When she's bluffing the guys who kidnapped James and made him make a bomb and she tells them she'll blow the bomb up if they don't give James back + quote "I see my life differently... than you do yours. your life... is an end in itself. a pleasure cruise. a joy ride. my life is different. my life is a means to an end."

Idea for a story: I think that when she's left Birds of Prey and is going undercover in the mob with Creote and Savant, we should also see James hanging out there and being concerned about Helena and Helena trying to keep him away from the mob stuff :P

Unpopular opinion: I prefer 1989 origins to Cry for Blood origins :P

Favorite relationship: A lot to choose from... I do love the way her and Barbara's relationship evolves :P

Favorite headcanon: She decides to become a teacher when she's looking for parenting books after she adopts James and those are sometimes close to teaching books. And she's curious about what she sees there.

[junimo-hexed]

i’m fully aware that this trend is typically shit posting, but i wanted to make Savant and Creote angst okay?

[badassbirdsofprey]

[alto-tenure]

so I ended up looking it up and apparently creote and savant ARE canonically in love with each other. good for them good for them

[kudosmyhero]

Birds of Prey (vol. 2) #5: Aftershock, pt. 1 - Two Nights in Bangkok

Read Date: May 01, 2023 Cover Date:November 2010 ● Writer: Gail Simone ● Penciler: Alvin Lee ◦ Adriana Melo ● Inker: Jack Purcell ◦ J.P. Mayer ● Colorist: Nei Ruffino ● Letterer: Steve Wands ● Editor: Janelle Asselin ●

**HERE BE SPOILERS: Skip ahead to the fan art/podcast to avoid spoilers

Reactions As I Read: ● Creote and Savant are adorable in a… kind of scary way? ● I’m a sucker for moody silhouettes

● considering these women are bad-ass fighters, I doubt their fingernails would look so perfectly manicured… ● wow… Dinah went weird, fast ● 👏👏👏

Synopsis: Creote, Savant, and Oracle reach a touching understanding. Savant, just having found out that Creote loves him, hugs Creote while Oracle checks in with her team. Having just handcuffed White Canary, the Black Canary requests that Lady Blackhawk flies her to Thailand. However, Huntress informs them that Lady Blackhawk will not be flying anywhere tonight, after their recent battle. Oracle orders the release of the Penguin. Huntress does not like this idea, but Oracle promises that they will take him down later. Black Canary then announces that she is quitting the team. White Canary assures Black Canary that Sin will be safe "with them". The Huntress decides that she will be following Black Canary, however. Meanwhile, Oracle, Creote, and Savant head back to the newly-built Kord Towers - the Birds of Prey's new headquarters! The Canaries hop on a plane that White Canary had waiting and head off for Thailand. In the hospital, Hawk is healing up fast while Dove waits at his side. A dream of his brother, coupled with a mysterious note, may give Hawk the sense of purpose that he has been trying to find since coming back. Also in the hospital, Lady Blackhawk wakes up and Huntress fills her in on Black Canary's actions. They, of course, immediately leave for Thailand to find her. When they get there, they are greeted by a group of unfriendlies that tell them they were not invited by their mistress - Dinah!

(https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Birds_of_Prey_Vol_2_5)

Fan Art: Huntress- original by gattadonna

Accompanying Podcast: ● Batgirl to Oracle - episode 13