Birds of Prey: Who are the members of the DCEU’s new team?
By Shaun Stacy
Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead)
In the comic books, Helena Bertinelli is the daughter of a ruthless mob boss who eventually becomes the vigilante Huntress to avenge her family’s wrongs. She would become an honorary member of the Batman family, even adopting the Batgirl guise for a time. While she has no actual superpowers, Huntress is a skilled markswoman and an expert in hand-to-hand combat, making her a lethal threat. Shortly after Black Canary and Oracle formed the Birds of Prey team, Huntress joined, completing the classic line-up of female heroes.
In the film, Huntress is portrayed by award-winning actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead. From all accounts, Winstead is playing a pretty comic-accurate Huntress, keeping the daughter of a mob boss backstory and the same skill set. Reports have also indicated that she will be orphaned, though it hasn’t been made clear if that was at her own hands or not.
Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell)
Black Canary is a mainstay in DC Comics such as Justice Society of America and Justice League of America. She is often paired with her romantic love interest, Green Arrow, or with her best friend, Barbara Gordon/Batgirl/Oracle. Black Canary is a skilled martial artist with the ability to generate a “canary cry,” an ultrasonic scream that can create concussive force strong enough to shatter metal. Black Canary has also appeared in multiple other forms of media, including the Young Justice animated series and television shows such as Smallville and Arrow.
Award-winning actress Jurnee Smollett-Bell plays Black Canary, aka Dinah Lance. In the film, she is a vigilante who retains her canary cry from the comics and is also a lounge singer at a club owned by the film’s Big Bad, Roman Sionis, aka Black Mask (no relation), played by Ewan McGregor. From the trailers, we’ve seen that Harley and Dinah have a frenemy-type relationship, though it appears that Harley is always there for Dinah when she needs a hair tie. Black Canary also seems to be fond of baseball bats, which is a new type of weapon for her to be seen with.