Yankee Poodle

Yankee Poodle
Yankee Poodle. From Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #7 (September 1982). Art by Scott Shaw and Al Gordon.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	New Teen Titans #16 (February 1982)
Created by	Roy Thomas Scott Shaw
In-story information
Alter ego	Rova Barkitt
Team affiliations	The Zoo Crew
Abilities	Ability to shoot semi solidified electromagnetic "stars" from her right hand to repel objects and generate "stripes" with her left hand to attract objects

Yankee Poodle (real name Rova Barkitt) is a fictional character in the DC Comics universe, an anthropomorphic poodle. Yankee Poodle is a superhero who lives on the otherdimensional world of Earth-C (now Earth-26), an alternate Earth populated by sentient animals. Her first appearance is in a special insert in The New Teen Titans #16 (February 1982).

Rova's name is a play on the name of gossip columnist Rona Barrett, while "Yankee Poodle" is a takeoff on the song "Yankee Doodle".

While interviewing movie actor Byrd Rentals in his Follywood home, Rova was struck by a meteor fragment (which was launched toward Earth by the villain Starro the Conqueror); the result gave her the superpowers of "animal magnetism", as she described them. Joining with Byrd (who was also transformed by a separate meteor fragment), the two teamed up with other superpowered animals affected by the meteor; together, the group defeated Starro (with the aid of Superman), and decided to form the superhero team called the Zoo Crew.

Rova tended to reflect the values of her Follywood roots, and thus had a great fondness of things such as the group's public image, or her own (both in and out of costume). She also occasionally got into spats with the group's other female member, Alley-Kat-Abra.

In Teen Titans #30-31 (December 2005-January 2006), Yankee Poodle and the rest of the Zoo Crew were featured in a short multi-part story purporting to be a Zoo Crew comic published in the mainstream DC Universe. This story followed the adventures of the Zoo Crew teammates in a grimmer, darker version of Earth-C, parodying the recent trend toward "grim and gritty" superhero comics. In this story, Yankee Poodle is shown having exposed the secret identities of several of the Zoo Crew members, and is mostly working as a solo heroine.