Posts Tagged ‘ Birds of Prey ’

You know when a band reforms after a few years ‘pursuing solo projects’, then it turns out that maybe they split up because they had nothing new to offer and we might have been better off with them not getting back together?

That’s kind of how I feel about Gail Simone’s return to Birds of Prey. It’s not bad, exactly, but there doesn’t feel like there’s anything new here. Oracle reassembles Huntress, Black Canary and Lady Blackhawk when she starts receiving blackmail material on all of them and adds Dove and the newly-resurrected Hawk to the team too. While they’re protecting the Penguin the group run afoul of a new antagonist, White Canary, with ties to one team member’s past. Meanwhile Oracle must deal with the return of two of Simone’s earlier creations, Creote and Savant.

Oh, and Lady Shiva shows up too.

There’s a lot going on in the six issues collected here – too much. Hawk and Dove’s presence feels like an edict from above given their exposure in Blackest Night and Brightest Day, but their presence doesn’t really add anything in this arc and they don’t get much to do – well, aside for Dove providing the Penguin somebody else to lust over (and don’t get me started on his dream sequence).

Simone also falls back on the old narrative box trick, with each issue largely narrated by one character – usually Black Canary – but it doesn’t quite work. It’s not bad on the scale of James Robinson’s Justice League of America narration, but it’s distracting and interrupts the flow of the story somewhat.

The book also suffers from choppy pacing as the action switches between wherever the on-the-ground team is and wherever Oracle happens to be. Once the team splits up and we get three separate story threads, it feels even more disjointed. Plot-wise there’s a little bit of a disconnect too; while we get a good feel for the White Canary (even if I can’t really remember the events that lead to her grudge), throwing the Penguin into the mix is superfluous at best. While Savant’s motivation in the plot is clear, the fact that he is instrumental in exposing Black Canary’s civilian ID and life is pretty much ignored once the details are out in the open – although I suppose that may be followed up on later in the run.

And then there’s, Black Canary. Traditionally one of DC’s strongest characters (outside of some really bad decisions when it comes to Green Arrow), Dinah is presented here as someone almost in awe of the newly introduced White Canary’s Machiavellian ways. Yes, her identity is exposed, and yes, her once-almost-adopted-daughter Sin is imperiled, but it feels like Dinah just caves to the White Canary’s demands without even thinking about other options. It doesn’t feel like her.

You may notice I mentioned this being Simone’s return to the book, and not artist Ed Benes. That’s because he manages to turn in only one complete issue here, sharing the art duties on three more with Adriana Melo before moving on completely. Melo then shares the art with Alvin Lee for the final two issues of the volume. While the three have similar enough art styles for this not to be too jarring, the inconsistencies are still apparent and it’s frustrating for the reader.

Just in case it feels I’ve been overly harsh here, let me add that I do enjoy Huntress and Lady Blackhawk. Huntress especially has a few good scenes in the final issue of the book, while Zinda continues to be a joy in every scene.

I don’t know; maybe I just enjoyed Simone’s original run on the book so much that I expected to love this wholeheartedly, especially given her recent excellent work on the much stronger Secret Six – but this just felt like a ‘miss’ to me. I’ll pick up the next trade just to see how her run finishes – and I’m still looking forward to her new controversial Batgirl book – but I honestly don’t think I can recommend this to anyone but diehard fans of BoP.

Probably shouldn’t have called this series of posts ‘recommended reading’, eh?

…when did Grace Park join the DCU?

DC’s had a lot of bright and shiny announcements coming out the past few days. They kicked off with the Brightest Day bi-weekly series, but have followed that up with what amounts to the return of the JLI in the also bi-weekly Generation Lost, and now they’ve announced the return of Birds of Prey under Gail Simone and Ed Benes, the team who gave the original run of the book a kick in the ass a few years back.

They’ve also said that the new Flash book (sadly without the originally promised Johns/Kolins Wally West back-up) and the Justice League of America will carry ‘Brightest Day’ banners, presumably so everybody realizes that the books are relevant and central to the DCU and have to be bought, dammit!

It’s not all shiny though – DC has also confirmed that Deathstroke will be running a team of villains taking over the Titans book (although didn’t Final Crisis establish the new Tattooed Man as a reluctant hero? I’m confused!). As the tag line for the special that kicks off this run is ‘Villains for Hire’, I do wonder how this impinges on the Secret Six book – and whether Gail Simone is returning to Birds of Prey partly because she’ll have a hole in her schedule pretty soon…

Not only that but don’t forget that amongst all the bright and shiny, and even with Black Canary seemingly relocating to Gotham, you get her erstwhile husband apparently descending into villainy – and poor old Roy Harper running around with one arm (well, at least till he remembers that Cyborg can hook him up).

Man, you’d think Roy would get that bandaged up before he goes running around, wouldn’t you?

So it’s not all bright and shiny in the DCU next year – but it does seem like there’s going to be enough to go around…

It turned out to be an unexpectedly adult week in comics this week, what between Spidey’s drunken one night stand and Green Lantern’s threesome, as revealed by Green Arrow, soul of discretion, morality and faithfulness…

It’s not that Gail Simone is disappointed in this development that gets me.

I could see Lady Blackhawk, actually. Two pilots having some sexy fun, okay, I get that.

But I hate to see Huntress get branded as a slut again. The whole point of the Josh story was for her to realize she deserved better.

And I can’t see them doing a threesome, that affects their friendship, and the Birds were ALREADY one of the very few books about female friendship which is so fucking rare in comics it might as well be moonbeans captured in mason jars. Not that friends can’t have sex, but once again, this is all about the man, and “Well played, sir” is just, ugh.

I love James Robinson. But I really feel like most writers of mainstream comics get the sex thing all wrong over and over. It’s all wink wink nudge nudge and women as trophies and thumbs up and it seems so weird and off-character to me.

But I haven’t read it in context and I’m just the dumb girl anyway.

But James Robinson is a great writer, he’s never written anything I didn’t enjoy in comics and I still think Age is an underrated classic. Maybe I’m reading it wrong. But it does feel weird that people can read bop and still come away with the impression that THAT Huntress and THAT Lady Blackhawk would get drunk and be someone’s sad Penthouse fantasy.

It just shows again that Bop was an important book for a lot of reasons and its absence is keenly felt in the portrayal of female characters in the DCU. Not my bop specifically, just the book overall.

It’s not that readers are a bit outraged that surprises me.

No, what surprises me is that two attractive characters…

…have such terrible taste in men.

I mean, this is Hal Jordan we’re talking about here…
Yeesh.

I don’t think a one word review will do my thoughts on this justice.

First, let’s get the good out of the way: the art here is pretty damn good. Strong, clean, and clear – Don Kramer and Jay Leisten do excellent work, although I could have done without a shower scene, really.

Second, I love the cover for the book (and the subsequent ones), although Barbara sure seems to be wearing some tight shirts these days.

My main problem with the book isn’t even the writing; Kevin VanHook does a pretty good – if thankless – job with the dialog.

No, my issue with this is where it seems to be going. It’s been hinted pretty heavily that Barbara Gordon will be back in the Batgirl outfit when all is said and done.

Now granted, there’s no firm confirmation that the Cure in this mini’s title is for Barbara’s paralysis, as Calculator is also trying to get a cure for his daughter, the Teen Titan‘s Wendy – but I think we will be seeing the return of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl.

This just feels like a regression. Barbara Gordon has, for the past twenty-plus years, been one of the most interesting characters in the DCU. Hell, in comics in general. She’s shown that having a physical disability doesn’t need to stop you living your life or being a hero – I mean, I’m not sure but I’d imagine that she’s been a role model of sorts. To have that taken away by what seems to be an editorial need to have a recognizable Batgirl feels a little like a slap in the face.

Barbara’s flirted with full rehabilitation before, with both a Lazarus Pit and some kind of super-nanite virus thingummy. In the end, she took neither. The recent bouts of lack of confidence in her ability to help people have felt forced to me, as though she’s been pushed in this direction not through natural progression but because this is where DC wants her to be.*

Of course I could be wrong.

I mean, Barbara Gordon’s older than Kate Kane, right? So having a Batwoman younger than Batgirl would be weird, right?

DC wouldn’t do that…

…right?

*Yes, I know that’s what happens to ALL fictional characters.

Nice art though.

Via

Yesterday, DC announced that they were downsizing Gotham – cancelling Birds of Prey, Nightwing and Robin with their February issues.

Via
It seems likely – to me anyway – that this is a combination of Batman RIP aftershocks and low sales.

However, it does leave me a little bit sad. I followed all these books from early on – Birds of Prey from the very first one-shot, Robin from about Knightsend and Nightwing from the start of the book. In fact there were often times where I was following these books (and Catwoman) but not the main Batman books.

That said, I don’t think that some of these titles are actually necessary.

Robin’s ongoing book (after three mini-series) came about because he split from Azrael-Batman after the Knightfall saga. Once Bruce Wayne returned as Batman, the book tended to detail his solo adventures. The problem is, they often seemed inconsequential because they weren’t referenced in the main Bat books.

While the book usually supplied a nice number of done-in-ones, Robin’s adventures here rarely bled over into the mainstream – with Spoiler’s ascension to the title being the only real time that they did outside of big crossover events.

The simple truth is that when people think of Robin, it’s normally as an addendum to ‘Batman and…’ – and in fact that’s what LITG hinted at some time ago; that post-RIP, Batman will become Batman and Robin. And hey, there’s always Teen Titans.

Of course, it’s probably not going to be Tim Drake in the costume (although I hope not for the reasons suggested here).

Then there’s Nightwing. I mean, okay, if the rumors of Dick Grayson taking over as Batman (again) are true, then the book really has no reason to exist. In fact, it’ll be a nice symmetry since the book launched out of Dick’s time as Batman in Prodigal.

Even so, though, the book’s been fairly irrelevant for much of it’s run, and actively reviled during Bruce Jones’ tenure. It doesn’t help that Dan Didio doesn’t think there’s really a place for Nightwing in the DCU – but you know what, I kind of agree with him. The character doesn’t serve much of a purpose hovering in that no-man’s land between Robin and Batman. He really is a prodigal son that needs one of those roles for definition.

And if, as Batman, he has a new bratty **coughDamiancough** Robin to tutor, it makes sense to keep him close.

But Birds of Prey…if ever there was a DC book that should be published, it’s BoP. It used to be a great book, full of great character development, high adventure and the strongest women characters – hell, the strongest characters period – in comics.

But sadly over the past few years it’s floundered. Gail Simone’s run started off strong but started to suffer as soon as the Birds moved from Gotham to Metropolis. And the thing is, at it’s heart, BoP had always been about the friendship between Barbara and Dinah. Sure, having Helena and Zinda in the mix was fun, but once Dinah left it wasn’t the same.

Since Gail Simone left, the creative juggling of Sean McKeever and Tony Bedard hasn’t helped, and neither have a few other things. Manhunter never really gelled with the team, Barda was killed by crossoveritis before she got settled, Gypsy vanished into the night, Misfit you wished would vanish, Black Alice came, went, came, maybe went…

…and then they moved to an entirely new locale with no connection to any of them, Platinum Flats.

Of all the cancellations, this is the one that I see being more sales related than anything else. Nightwing and Robin you can tie back to consolidating the Bat-Universe post-RIP, but Birds? Low sales.

And like I’ve said before, I really don’t see Outsiders being viable either…

Apparently this episode went unaired. I like to think that was because of the atrocious Killer Moth outfits…some detective that Wayne guy is!

Don’t be deceived! Gail Simone is not back on the book – we’re still on Sean McKeever’s brief run.

That said, it wasn’t as bad as previous issues*. The Zinda – Huntress bits were pretty good – although the Misfit – Black Alice – Oracle – Manhunter bits weren’t.

Still, its not Gail Simone!

*This would be the definition of damning with faint praise.

So I’ve worked out when Birds of Prey started to slip for me.

It wasn’t when Dinah went to Apokolips (actually, I did drop it for a couple of issues back then now that I think about it and I think that’s indicative of my whole dissatisfaction with the book).
It wasn’t when Babs and Dinah finally met face-to-face.

It wasn’t when Huntress joined up.

It wasn’t even when Dinah dated Ra’s Al Ghul – although I tell you, that was only redeemed by the Phil Noto covers!

It was when they left Gotham. And it’s not that moving out of the city was itself a bad idea (although does Helena still teach in Gotham? How does she commute all the time?) or that I was particularly attached to the Birds in Gotham (although I always thought Barbara at least should stay there for familial reasons).

No, it was the fact that when they left Gotham, they got themselves a jet. And bought a skyscraper. And, ultimately, expanded the roster to include Big Barda. A New God.

And it started when they left Gotham

Of course, there has been one bright spot in the Birds getting a plane; they needed a pilot.