History
Jana Birdy, known as Birdy, is a character from the 2000 AD strip Grey Area. She works as an Exo Transfer Control (ETC) squad member in the Global Exo Segregation Zone or Grey Area, originally based in the Arizona desert, where any aliens wishing to visit Earth are quarantined. Despite her tough, dangerous and occasionally life-threatening job, she has a sunny and optimistic personality which enabled her to overcome the nerves she had when she was a rookie. Her boss and lover is Adam Bulliet. (Birdy's first boss, Captain Janzen, was murdered by an alien ambassador.)
When Bulliet led his team (comprising Birdy, Manners, Kymn, Feo, and Neats) on a mission to detonate a nuclear bomb in the wormhole at the centre of a 'God-Star' that wanted to consume Earth, none of them expected to survive. They were, therefore, surprised to find themselves spat out by another God-Star on the other side of the galaxy, with just enough fuel left in their spaceship to reach Homeworld, the planet of the Harmonious Free. Essentially, they had travelled down the sub-dimensional digestive tract linking God-Stars all over the universe, allowing them to share food.
Birdy and the rest of the team were quarantined in the telepathic and pacifist Harmonious Free's own version of the Grey Area. There, they were essentially prisoners, forced to subsist on nourishing but disgusting food which Birdy said tasted of packing chips (how she knew what packing chips tasted like was never explained). The Harmonious Free, unfortunately, were a benevolent but extremely introverted species who had no interest in anything not on Homeworld, and had therefore never invented spaceships or long-range scanners. This meant that they did not believe in the God-Star's existence. Fortunately, Bulliet eventually persuaded one of them to use his telepathic abilities to reach beyond Homeworld and sense the God-Star's horrifying presence. Less fortunately, the Harmonious Free had no weapons powerful enough to kill, wound or even slightly irritate a God-Star.
Convinced that they were all about to die, Bulliet asked Birdy to marry him. After pointing out that the way in which he'd done it was extremely unromantic, she agreed. They were wed by an alien priest whose species worshipped war, and Birdy wore a garland of Homeworld flowers in her hair. Although it's traditional to say so on such occasions, the bride really did look very beautiful. The duration of the marriage was increased considerably when Kymn had an epiphany, inspired by an offhand remark from the Harmonious Free called Resting Bitch Face about how the pair were creating a whole that would be perceived as greater than the sum of its parts. He realised that the Harmonious Free could use their telepathy to trick the God-Star, which was slightly less intelligent than a smart dog, into thinking that Homeworld was another God-Star.
This worked, and the God-Star backed off. It was shortly afterwards destroyed by the Congruence, a federation of advanced alien species who were responding to a distress call sent by Birdy and Neats on a transmitter they'd jury-rigged out of spare parts. The Congruence repatriated the humans, and Birdy and Bulliet honeymooned vigorously on the ship home. Once back on Earth they returned to working for the ETC, which was now based in New Mexico. Birdy was assigned to squad eighty-six, which was led by her husband and included Resting Bitch Face, who had travelled to Earth with Compelling Male Musk Odour (another Harmonious Free) on a cultural exchange programme.
Powers and abilities
Abilities
Law enforcement; electrical engineering; armed combat.
Strength level
Human female who gets regular exercise (policing aliens).
Paraphernalia
Equipment
Body armour; riot shield.
Transportation
Human spaceship; Congruence spaceship; flying ETC vehicle.
Weapons
Big gun; baton.
Links
- Appearances of Jana Birdy
- Character Gallery: Jana Birdy
- Images that feature Jana Birdy
- Fan-Art Gallery: Jana Birdy
- Jana Birdy quotations
Discover and Discuss
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