The ‘Birds of Prey’ Betting Pool: 9 Heroines That Might Make The Roster

If Gail Simone's looking to expand the BOP roster, Renee Montoya seems like a no-brainer: She's been teaming up with the Huntress in the "Detective Comics" co-features, and now that Rucka's leaving and the co-features themselves look like they're going the way of the dinosaur, it looks like she's soon to be without a comic book home.

The only problems? With two members of the extended Batman family on the team already, she might be a little too Gotham City, and while the Renee Montoya of Gotham Central certainly hung out in Batman's stomping grounds, Renee Montoya as The Question has been far more of a world-traveling adventure hero. Still, that's exactly the sort of thing that "Birds of Prey" tends to do, and half the character work's already done. She'd be great.

ODDS: 1 to 1

Power Girl and the Birds of Prey go way back, with her exclusion from the team being a key point in a couple of Chuck Dixon's issues, but a lot has happened in the intervening years. The Power Girl of today, at least as she appears in her own book, is almost a completely different character, if only because now, she's fun. Throw in the fact that Simone -- who hasn't had much of a chance to do anything with Power Girl -- has a writing style that could fit right in with what Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Amanda Conner have been doing, and you've got a likely candidate to become the Birds' resident heavy hitter.

At the same time, Power Girl's already got a solo title and a team book, which is something none of the other characters can claim. It's doubtful that DC wants to overexpose her (get your jokes in now) by putting her on another team. And while I certainly think she'd fit in great with Simone's "Birds," the almighty historical connection trumps everything else right now, and that puts her squarely on the JSA.

ODDS: 2 to 1

Like the Question, Batwoman seems like a pretty obvious choice at first -- especially before the Batwomanish silhouette on the cover was revealed to be Dove -- but the more you think about it, the less likely she becomes. She's definitely one of DC's more prominent female characters right now, but that comes after a couple of lackluster years that saw her bopping around in event tie-ins before she finally started headlining "Detective," and at this point throwing her into a second-tier team feels like a step backwards. For now, Kate Kane seems to work best as a solo act with the occasional team-up, rather than a full-time member.

Of course, what works best and what actually happens aren't always the same thing.

ODDS: 5 to 1

"Blackest Night" (and by extension, the entire "Green Lantern" franchise) have been setting the tone for the entire DC Universe, and going by the sales figures, that's been a pretty good idea. So with "Brightest Day" serving as the backdrop for the "BOP" relaunch, could Star Sapphire, Earth's resident defender of love, high collars, and skin-tight pink vinyl show up?

It's possible--and there's no doubt that it might bump up sales among the Lantern-hungry fans--but with the various Rainbow Corps members busy in "Brightest Day," she seems a little too cosmic for BOP's usual modus operandi. Still, there's always a chance she could swing by, if only to make Huntress's purple hot pants and halter top seem modest by comparison.

ODDS: 10 to 1

During her initial run on the title, Gail Simone made the unconventional move of adding Lady Blackhawk to the team, so there's precedent for finding characters that nobody would ever in a million years thought would work. And who better embodies that than Halo? Throw in multi-colored auras that could be keyed into the all-important emotional spectrum (a trick Geoff Johns pulled off in "Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes"), and you've got a potential revival in the making.

The difference, of course, is that Lady Blackhawk--a hard-drinking time-lost pilot in a cheerleader skirt--was actually a pretty fun character to begin with, while Halo managed to stand out as the most annoying character in "The Outsiders"...

ODDS: 20 to 1

....until Looker came along and gave her a run for her annoying money. Essentially Jean Grey in a truly unfortunate costume, Looker's one of those characters that will crop up pretty much at random whenever someone seems to remember her, which is why she's now a vampire.

But like I said, to put it in "Always Sunny in Philadelphia" terms, she's the Wildcard: You never really know where she's going to turn up next.

ODDS: 30 to 1

DC's fetishization of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" seems to have peaked with "Final Crisis" and the return of Barry Allen, but it wasn't that long ago that Harbinger looked like she might be making a comeback. It didn't really stick, but when you think about it, it was only marginally less successful than the first time Harbinger got called up to the big-time, the ill-fated (and awfully familiar-sounding) "New Guardians."

There might be someone who thinks the third time's the charm, but I'd seriously doubt it.

ODDS: 50 to 1

Hey, remember a few years ago when it looked like DC was going to bring Gemworld and its characters in closer to tie in with the DC Universe, sparking a renewed interest in the Amethyst? Yeah, nobody else seems to either.

But it happened! And I actually do think Amethyst, who's basically a wish-fulfillment character along the lines of Captain Marvel but geared to young girls, could use a comeback, as unlikely as it seems that it'll actually happen.

ODDS: 100 to 1

Technically, Tulip -- the female lead of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's "Preacher" -- is a DC Comics Property, and come on, everybody and their brother knows this would be totally awesome, even if her word balloons would have so many censored words that they'd end up looking like someone's pen exploded on them.

Sadly, I'm pretty sure it's more likely that I'M going to show up in that book than she will. It's nice to dream, though.

ODDS: 1,000,000 to 1