What Happened To Everyone Who Joined The Birds Of Prey?

3. Lady Shiva

Penguin Birds of Prey
DC Comics

When Lady Shiva first shows up in Birds of Prey, you'd be justified in assuming she's just going to be another one off team up where a villain and a hero have to put aside their differences, and go right back to it later. Well, it is that way for a bit, but Lady Shiva's development is one of the most fascinating parts of the original run.

Lady Shiva is one of the deadliest martial artists in the DCU, trained by the same master that trained Black Canary. The two originally teamed up when their master was assassinated, Lady Shiva enraged that one of the only people that treated her like a human being and never once gave up on her was murdered on her watch.

After avenging their master, the two parted on slightly more agreeable terms than when they started. Several more story arcs followed after where Lady Shiva made appearances, each one slowly chipping away at her outer shell to reveal the good person her master always knew was there. This culminated in her joining the Birds of Prey outright and renaming herself as Jade Canary. While being on the team didn't ultimately work out, Shiva left of her own accord with no ill will and would still help out the Birds on occasion.

Then the New - 52 happened and Shiva was reset to zero as a villain. Because f*ck character development, am I right?

Contributor
Contributor

John Tibbetts is a novelist in theory, a Whatculture contributor in practice, and a nerd all around who loves talking about movies, TV, anime, and video games more than he loves breathing. Which might be a problem in the long term, but eh, who can think that far ahead?