Born: 29 July 1974, United States
Died: NA
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
When the book DC Comics Heroines: Highlights from the History of the World’s Greatest Super Heroines came out in 2018, the (male) author made a glaring omission, or, as culture writer Rachel Ulatowski put it, “what can only be described as a gross and bizarre oversight.” Specifically, writer Gail Simone was excluded despite her years of work on Birds of Prey, Batgirl, and Wonder Woman, for whom she was the series’s longest-running writer. She was the first female writer to take over the Birds of Prey series after its initial run and created the character of Huntress as well as Alysia Yeoh, one of the first major transgender comic book heroes. Ulatowski notes, “She truly popularized the (Birds of Prey), and throughout the team’s 27-year history, her run has remained a fan favorite. Since her run ended, the series has been muddled with cancellations, reboots, and relaunches. Simone added over 50 issues to the Birds of Prey series, offering the team its most cohesive, female-focused, and vibrant run. She grew the Birds of Prey, solidified team dynamics, and blended superhero fun, dark and gritty content, and sassy and sexy undertones to frame the all-female team in a way that did them justice.” Yet the book also skips over her run, despite it being arguably the most important. As this is an official DC Comics reference book, the corporation itself tacitly erased the contributions of one of its most valuable female staff.