Kelly Thompson Breaks Down DC's New Birds of Prey Team, Reaction to Harley Quinn, and More

Kelly Thompson recently closed out her 50-issue run on Captain Marvel, but as one superhero chapter closes, a new chapter begins. Thompson delighted fans when she revealed that her next superhero book would star none other than DC's Birds of Prey, and Thompson is teaming up with Leonardo Romero and Jordie Bellaire on the series. The new Birds of Prey roster will include Black Canary, Batgirl (Cassandra Cain), Big Barda, Zealot, and Harley Quinn, and the lineup certainly got people talking. ComicBook.com had the chance to speak to Thompson all about the new series, the lineup, the unexpected addition of Harley Quinn, and what inspired the series most.

"The team is a little unusual and we knew that, and we also knew that a lot of the charm and enjoyment in a first issue that's an ensemble team, especially if it's a new team, is seeing it be brought together. And so we have those kind of beats in our first issue," Thompson said. "It's a little oversized, it's 25 pages. And so we have that stuff in there, but you have to have other surprises in that issue because the cover 99% of the time reveals who that is, so you can't play that out like 'Oh, what a surprise. Zealot's involved.' No, you can't do that. We knew that we were going to be blown the second Solicits went out, and so I was like, well, let's make a thing of it. Let's do a social media release laying out all the characters."

"And I was really excited by how excited everyone was. It was so much love and excitement and positivity with Dinah and Cass and I knew as we got toward the end of the week and Oracle both hadn't been revealed or wasn't going to be revealed, and there was going to be, Zealot's probably the biggest surprise in that listing," Thompson said. 

Thompson was also prepared for a big reaction to Harley being in the group, both positive and negative."And then Harley is definitely the most divisive. She's sort of got the most fans, but she also has the most haters. So I knew we were headed for falling off the cliff. All week I was just 'hold on to this energy, this positivity, just ride it right on through the weekend, girl'. It was a good time."

Thompson was excited about a lot of the feedback and engagement. She's also fine with people who aren't fans of the current lineup. What she isn't fine with are those who attempt to armchair quarterback Thompson's choices within a story they haven't read yet.

"We got a lot of engagement, which, I don't like it when people come for me or they yell at me or they be shortsighted or my least favorite thing ever is when people try to armchair quarterback on my choices for a story they don't know yet," Thompson said. "I understand that you're upset, but you can't see what the plot is. You don't know why any of these characters make sense yet, and that's fine, but there's nothing wrong with just saying we don't know yet. You don't have to have an opinion yet. It's not required."

The passion was expected, and Thompson is excited to build upon the foundations set by Chuck Dixon and Gail Simone, and there's a substantial appreciation and embracing of what Simone built with the team in years past.

"People have a lot of feelings about Birds of Prey, and I don't begrudge them that. I get it. I went in knowing that. I thought I could make something really cool, especially once I knew that Leo and Jordie were going to do it with me," Thompson said. "I felt like we really have a chance to make something awesome here to build on everything Gail... I mean, I know Chuck created it, Chuck Dixon created it and mad respect for what he did there. But I do think that the sort of rampant fans of today are more the Gail Simone fans and rightly so. She took what Chuck had built, which was beautiful, and turned it into something really special, and I never want to trample on anything anyone has done or things that are important to fans. So I only came into it with love, but I did know it would be divisive, especially with some of the first plotting things we were doing."

All Thompson asks is that you give the first issue a shot because the team has some pretty fantastic things in store. "Honestly, all I could ask is that people who are interested in Birds of Prey read the first issue. If we don't convince you in the first issue, you have my blessing. You have my blessing to be mad. You have my blessing to move on. I feel very confident about that first issue. Someone was talking to me about it on Twitter and they were like, 'I don't know about this Harley thing.' And I put up a gif. It was a girl being like, 'I'm very confident, I'm very confident about all this.' And that's how I feel. It's a really cool book," Thompson said.

"I get that it's not going to be for every single person. Some people aren't going to like what Leo does, or some people just can't bear Harley in any circumstances, or some people are ride or die for Barbara and if she's not there from page one, then it doesn't work for them, and that's okay. That's okay. It's impossible to make comics for every single person that every single person is going to like, but I do think we're making something really cool that has very much the energy and spirit and everything that people who love Birds of Prey are looking for," Thompson said.

Fans can read the issue for themselves when Birds of Prey #1 hits comic stores and digital platforms on September 5th.

Are you excited for Birds of Prey? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things comics and DC with me on Threads @mattaguilarcb!