Gail Simone: Super Hero

She set the bar plenty high with her take on Birds of Prey. She made you fall in love with the villains of the DC Universe in Secret Six. She even left her mark on Wonder Woman. There's no doubt Gail Simone is a top notch comic book writer and one whose game shows no sign of diminishing. If you follow Gail on Twitter, you quickly learn she is just as big a fan of the titles and characters she writes about as we, the humble readers are...and that small fact = love all day long. HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE THIS WOMAN WHO SQUEES WHEN SHE GETS TO WORK WITH AN ARTIST SHE LOVES??!! To add to this love fest, Gail Simone recently summoned up all her courage and took to the streets to LITERALLY defend a young lady in harms way, earning her another title. Hero.

From her Tumblr "Ape in a Cape" (using bits and pieces)...

I was by myself in the car, no one else around except a couple talking to each other, I thought playfully, on the lawn in front of my parking spot. They looked like they’d been drinking a little.

The girl and the guy started making some noise, but I didn’t immediately think anything was wrong, because I had thought they were play arguing.

It turns out they weren’t.

When I looked up, they had moved, and I couldn’t spot them immediately. There was no one else around, and as I say, it was very dark.

Pretty soon I heard the girl start screaming. She was yelling, get your hands off me, get off me. I rolled down my window, and it was clearly serious, something very bad was happening.

So I grabbed my keys and my phone to go see what I could do. By this time, she’s full on screaming and the guy is cursing and yelling, and at the very least, I can hear that he’s hitting her. I run towards the sound, and she comes running out of the dark area between two of the apartment buildings…she’s thrown her shoes off to be able to run.

And she’s screaming HELP ME.

And the guy comes out after her.

Now, it’s dark, and there’s nobody around. And when I worked at a crisis center, they used to warn us not to go into dark, enclosed areas like this when there’s a dangerous situation.

So the guy is chasing her, and I make it to her, and put myself between him and the girl. I have my keyring clenched in my fist with the keys sticking out, which does a lot of damage very quickly, if necessary. I am weirdly, completely calm, but it is also very clear that this guy is not going to be allowed to put his hands on the girl. What I don’t know is that my son, in his room on the third floor, has heard the shouting and is looking for the number for the complex’s security.

Luckily for both Gail and the young woman, this stand stopped the assailant in his tracks and the arrival of a man and Gail's son further suppressed his urge to attack, while a phone call to the police sent him running. The sad part of this story (yes, somewhat sadder than a man beating a woman) is that no one else came to help, security showed up and couldn't be bothered to leave their vehicle until Gail went over and kindly asked them to do their fucking jobs and the police arrived...an hour later. Appalling. Click the link above for the full, chilling story that gets my heart racing every time I read it, and then head over to Twitter and Facebook and let Gail know how much you appreciate her bravery.