With DC deep Brightest Day water they have decided to not only brings back Birds of Prey but also with the Birds of Prey writer Gail Simone at the helm. I was a big fan of Simone’s run on Birds of Prey and was instantly excited when I heard that she was bringing back the title. With Simone’s writing and Ed Benes on art Birds of Prey has the potential to be one of DC’s best titles. Let’s see if Birds of Prey #1 can deliver big with its first issue.
Creative Team
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Ed Benes
Colorist: Nei Ruffino
Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7.5 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: In a snowy mountain area Black Canary is riding a snowmobile to stop some kidnappers who kidnapped a girl and thinking how bad she is going to hurt them. She arrives at the place and gives them the money they requested and once they bring out the girl Black Canary sees that the girl is freezing. One of the men says that even if the girl dies it will be Black Canary who is blamed. The guy says he wants the girl’s parents to do two things: 1) hold a press conference for their imperialist warmongering and; 2) commit suicide live on TV.
Black Canary makes some sort of signal and Lady Blackhawk flies in a helicopter. While Lady Blackhawk takes care of the leaders men Black Canary beats the crap out of the leader (With her inner monologue almost being straight out of the boxing scene from the recent Sherlock Holmes movie). Black Canary quickly grabs the girl and jumps on Lady Blackhawks helicopter and they leave the scene.
At a press conference the girl’s parents thank the rescue team for saving their daughter.
At a hospital Black Canary and Lady Blackhawk are talking about the press conference and catch up with one another. Suddenly they get a call and Lady Blackhawk says “I think a couple Birds’re getting tweeted.”
We then go to the Batcave were Oracle greets Lady Blackhawk and Black Canary and tells both of them that they need to get the band back together. Black Canary says Oracle can count on them and they sign out.
Oracle starts calls the Huntress next, who is in the middle of fighting a bike gang. Huntress asks what’s up and Oracle says she needs her help. Huntress has Oracle stay on hold for a second while she quickly beats up the bike gang. Oracle tells Huntress that she needs Huntress’s help.
Somewhere else in Gotham City Hawk and Dove are stopping a gang who call themselves “The Sick Cheerleaders” and make quick work of them. As Hawk is about to throw one of them off the ledge Dove stops him and Dove asks Hawk what is wrong with him. Hawk says he was dead and he says God wants a soldier.
At a bar an old man comments on the news report talking about what Black Canry did earlier and the guy says how there used to be a code of ethics in jobs but not anymore. He asks the guy sitting next to him, who is actually Hank Hall, what kind of oath do superheroes follow. Hank says he just came in their for a drink.
Lady Blackhawk walks in and sits with Dawn and asks her if Hank is her boyfriend. Dawn says he’s not and he is just her responsibility. Lady Blackhawk then hands Dawn a card and Dawn asks how Lady Blackhawk’s boss know about her and Hank. Lady Blackhawk says her boss knows everything about them. Hank then walks out and Dawn goes with him. Once outside they transform into Hawk and Dove.
On the roof Oracle, Black Canary, and Huntress meet up and Oracle tells them how she got a package from some homeless guy that contained a lot of information from heroes and villains. Huntress says she doesn’t have anything but Black Canary says she does and once they look through the files they see information on different heroes and villains like Riddler and Power Girl.
Huntress asks how this is their problem and Oracle says they also have information on Sin (Black Canary’s former adopted daughter) and Huntress’s students. Huntress asks who this person is but Oracle says she does not know but she does know that the person said he will kill one person on the list every hour until they stop him starting at midnight which is not too far off.
Oracle says they have to play this person’s game as she can’t track the person. Huntress calls Black Canary and Oracle to the ledge and they see a Birdsignal in the sky.
On some roof where the Birdsignal is we see someone in the shadows who the Penguin is scared of. Black Canary and Huntress appear on the scene and the woman in the shadows attacks the pair. The woman easily takes down Black Canary and Huntress which at the same time stabbing Penguin in the neck. We then see that the woman is dressed in white with a face mask calling herself White Canary. End of issue.
Commentary
The Good: Birds of Prey #1 was a solid new start to Birds of Prey. Gail Simone does a great job setting the table for what should be another excellent run on Birds of Prey by her. No one understands these characters better than Simone and it shows in this first issue of Birds of Prey.
What I liked most about this issue is that Simone doesn’t start the issue with the obligatory set-up for first issues of a comic book, especially for team books. It was a great choice that Simone started the issue of with Black Canary in the middle of a mission. It makes the book not feel like another beginning but instead the issue feels like we are catching up with the characters on their ongoing adventures which is what I want from a monthly comic.
Simone wasted no time establishing the team dynamic between the characters. Even though there is a clear history on this title this issue, like any first issue, is very new reader friendly as Simone gives the reader everything they need to know about the characters and their dynamic, sometimes too much. And while this issue is very new reader friendly there is a lot of stuff that will remind older readers of this title why they liked this title and that we have a lot to look forward to.
The start helped to establish Black Canary as a strong independent character. I always prefer Black Canary working outside the Green Arrow universe and like her much more when she is working with the Batfamily and the Birds of Prey specifically. She feels like a much stronger character and this beginning quickly established this to new and old readers.
The scene between Black Canary and Lady Blackhawk was great as it quickly established their relationship that the supporting character nature of Lady Blackhawk. Even though Lady Blackhawk can handle herself Simone clearly establishes that she will be in the supporting role on this title yet again if new readers did not know that while Black Canary and Huntress are the main team.
Also, I liked how Huntress was shown to still maintain her more loner attitude. She has always presented a nice challenge for Oracle and Black Canary to work together with her even though these characters are very good friends. I hope that Simone does not forget to include some of the development between Huntress and Oracle in Batman as there have been some interesting things happen between them and Dick which I would like to be brought up.
As always has been the case with Birds of Prey Oracle is the star of the show in this issue. Even though Black Canary and Huntress get their time to shine in this issue Oracle was the star of the show. Simone displays Oracle as a cool and confident character that is the leader of the team.
Simone set off a nice first challenge for the team to face in their new title. While it is a bit formulaic with someone sending out information about the superhero community it’ll be interesting to see who it is and what their motives are by putting down a challenge to the Birds of Prey.
I am interested to see who this new White Canary character is. She definitely has a lot of skill with how easily she took care of Black Canary and Huntress. Also I wonder what role she has in the mystery information guys plan. My first guess is that this is a grown up Sin since Black Canary was thinking of her during the issue but my hope is that it is actually Cassandra Cain that is the new White Canary. I get the feeling that she will turn out to be the former but hey you never know.
Ed Benes provided some very good artwork throughout the issue. I know that Benes art is one you either love or hate for many readers but in this issue he seems to have toned down his pin-up style in this issue. It had a nice energy as Benes get a lot of action to draw with the Black Canary and White Canary fights. Though there were a couple inconsistencies with the talking heads scenes overall this was a very good looking comic book.
The Bad: Birds of Prey #1 was far from perfect. The biggest weakness of this issue is that Simone’s tries a bit too hard to sell the reader on these characters that she fills every panel with dialogue and inner monologue. There are a lot of panels were a character is speaking and in the same panel the character gets inner monologue. All of this dialogue and inner monologue got to be too much a third of the way into this issue. It really got in the way of the pace of the story and distracts from the art.
Comic books are as much a visual medium as it is literary medium, maybe even more visual, and Simone’s overabundance of dialogue gets in the way of the visual part of the comic book. If I wanted to read nothing but text I would read a book from my book shelf. Hopefully this will not be a problem in following issues as the wall of text got to be too much and can turn off new and old readers to this title.
Also even though Simone and DC tried to sell me on Hawk and Dove as interesting characters I couldn’t care less about these characters. Hawk came off as a moody little child as Simone’s tries to portray Hawk as the Birds of Prey’s version of Wolverine. Hawk is just a one-note character and Dove is no better as she is connected to Hawk by the hip and it is clear what will happen with the two characters in the future as they will become a couple again.
Overall: Birds of Prey #1 was a solid start to the new Birds of Prey. This was a nice balanced read between action and talking head scenes while delivering two solid mysteries. And outside of a problem with too much dialogue at times Simone delivers everything you expect from a new #1 for a comic as this is a very new reader friendly issue while keeping things in for long time readers. If you are a Birds of Prey fan or are interested in any of the characters in this title pick this issue up.