"Assassin" by Kelly Dawn Holmes

Brenna Burkovola--a.k.a.  Raven Black or The Red Raven-- is the dark anti-heroine of a comic book/ graphic novel that I had an idea for.  This particular character has bounced around in my muse for years and even now I don't have the talent to bring her to life just yet.   She is the child of a L.A. journalist and the leader of an underground gang called the Crows.   Her parents were killed in a police chase when she and her twin brother were only 7.  Both of them were mistreated by the next leaders of the gang and when she escaped, she spent several  months of her young adolescant life in and out of juvy.  She was taken in by a man named John Daemon and he became a tutor and father-figure to her, until his murder three years later.   The man who killed him also raped her, taking every ounce of innocence that she still had left.   Since his death, she is consumed by hate for corrupt establishments and organizations.  She is obsessed with finding the mogul who killed Daemon and will stop at nothing to discover his true identity and expose him. 

Brenna is hightly intelligent and extraordinarily gifted in languages, social studies and mythology as well as having extensive street fighting and military-level training.  She works by day as a Latin tutor and is commissioned by the highest bidder as an assiassin, choosing jobs that deal with corruption and scandal.   She is very petite (only 5 feet tall) but her aggression and deadly percision give her a notable reputation.

Because of her love of Norse mythology, she kills with the help of her specially trained pet ravens, Muininn and Huiginn.  They are her eyes and ears on the streets and their ghastly nature to pluck out the eyes of the dead have given Brenna a very distinctive signature.   Living with only her birds, her reclusive nature has brought out behaviours that  mimic that of her pets, such as preferring high places and adopting avian movements/instincts.  Due to her past and present situations, she is religious, often frequenting cathedrals and churches in the area of her hits to repent of her terrible crimes against God's children.  She has made a vow that when the man who raped her and killed Daemon is dead, she will no longer kill to end the villains of this world.

She also bears the red mark of the Crows on her stomach.