Girly Comics: Gotham City Sirens

By Lisa Fary

I’d kinda like to see a Marvel Divas/ Gotham City Sirens crossover event. It would probably go something like this:

The Divas would be at a fabulous lounge sipping lemondrop martinis, talking about relationships and cancer, and the Sirens would walk in and kill them for their table.

Gotham City Sirens #1 opens with Catwoman getting her ass kicked by a thug trying to make a name for himself. She is sluggish and weak, still recovering from a near fatal encounter with Hush, and had Poison Ivy not shown up and handled the thug, Catwoman probably would have been toast.

When Catwoman and Poison Ivy get together, Ivy is bunking with Harley Quinn in Eddie Nygma’s townhouse. Only The Riddler isn’t exactly a willing participant; Ivy has no qualms about using her powers to turn him into a completely docile vegetable while she and Harley tear up the place and blow through the $30 million Catwoman had given them prior to this series.  Ivy donated her part to a rainforest preservation charity and it looks like Harley blew hers on harlequin thigh highs and schoolgirl skirts.

By the end, the three have moved into Catwoman’s new, eccentric lair – an abandoned animal shelter – and Poison Ivy is demanding the identity of Batman as a token of loyalty.

What did I like? Besides all of it?

The Sirens may be living together and looking out for one another, but Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn aren’t dropping their professional interests for a nonstop chatfest.

Harley Quinn is bat$h!t crazy and it’s all over her face. Seriously, her facial expressions do an excellent job of showing her insanity. I have no idea what she’s going to do or how she’s going to work out with this living arrangement. What’s awesome is that I don’t think Catwoman or Poison Ivy really know, either.

The real estate agent specializing in lairs. I’ve always wondered how villains found just the right place to set up, a place that met their diabolical needs and matched the particulars of their villainous personalities.

Like the new Power Girl series, Gotham City Sirens is new reader friendly. Catwoman provides a short summation of the situation at the beginning as she’s pouncing into action and a couple of quick bits of background exposition later, but it’s seamlessly done.

I don’t feel pandered to like I did with Marvel Divas. Regardless of the intentions, with Marvel Divas, it really felt like someone said, “Let’s throw some B-list heroines together and make it like Sex and the City so chicks will stop saying we’re not making comics for them.“  Gotham City Sirens felt more like, “Let’s throw these three crazy villainesses together and see what happens.” That’s way more fun.

Our friend Gary summed up Gotham City Sirens pretty well: It’s like Thelma and Louise. . . if T & L were psychotic villainesses.

Gotham City Sirens is totally going into the rotation.

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Lisa Fary’s early exposure to classic Battlestar Galactica in 1979 is largely responsible for her lifelong interest in science fiction and her childhood ambition of being an intergalactic space cowgirl. She thinks diagramming sentences is a fun alternative to Sudoku.

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