BIRDS OF PREY #16 (New 52)

Previously...

Katana moved on to greener pastures after fighting a personal but incomprehensible battle against the Dagger Clan in her homeland.  The others returned to Gotham City where Black Canary decided they needed to recruit a new teammate, because if the series only had three leading characters, the writer would have to spend time revealing things about them, and we can't have that.  (This book sucks.)

Birds of Prey #16: "Lights Out" is written by Duane Swierczynski with pencils by Romano Molenaar, inks by Vicente Cifuentes, and colors by Chris Sotomayor.  Molenaar and Sotomayor provided the cover, which dramatically depicts the Talon Strix fighting Batgirl, which is just about the only match-up that isn't included in this stupid book.

The issue opens with the Birds meeting on a rooftop instead of, like, any more natural place for people to meet.  Batgirl has just brought along her candidate to replace Katana as a member of the team.  To everyone's surprise, she brought a Talon, one of the deadly undead assassins from the Court of Owls that tried to murder every prominent person in Gotham City a couple months earlier.

One of the Talons tried to kill the Birds for as-yet unexplained reasons, so it stands to reason that Dinah and Starling would be appropriately shocked, even mad about this unannounced decision.  After all, this is a comic book, and this is a textbook situation for how you get two good guys fighting before they reconcile their mistaken first impressions and team-up.  That's what you would expect, and the thing is, as cliche as that would be, Dinah and Starling would be perfectly justified in doing that!  Why would Batgirl bring a Talon to a rooftop meeting and not give them any warning of what she's doing?

Of course, Dinah keeps a level head and trusts Batgirl to explain herself.  After all, the Talon makes no aggressive move toward them that would suggest she's there to attack.

Then f***ing Condor shows up out of nowhere and attacks her!

Starling tackles Condor off the edge of the building, while Batgirl tries to calm down the brain-damaged super-assassin who came for a friendly meeting and got attacked by a stranger.  Naturally, the Talon, whose name is Strix (Latin for Owl), feels ambushed and lashes out, punching Black Canary, exactly as you'd expect given how volatile all of these characters are.  I thought Batgirl was supposed to be smart...

Remember a couple issues ago when Condor pushed Starling off a roof and nobody did anything about it.  Well, she remembers, and gets some payback in this scene.

I still say she should have gotten payback on Dinah for not doing anything to help her, but what do I know, I'm just the idiot who paid for this piece of crap story.

Anyway, everyone calms down and just accepts that Strix and Condor are now part of the team.

Hey, Dinah's first two draft selections were homicidal Batman villain and a gangster's bodyguard who looks and talks like a trailer park whore.

Dinah's upset that Batgirl didn't ask permission to recruit a Talon?  Hmm... That sounds like there are serious problems with respect and leadership in this team.  Maybe Dinah should address that.

...

So, three weeks later, the team arrives at a... a place, like a factory or a shantytown... on the "fringes of Gotham City" to take down a Basilisk weapons deal.  We've heard Basilisk mentioned a couple times, but never explained what it is.  I guess because it's named after a mythological serpent that Swierczynski wants us to assume they're a terrorist organization like Hydra.

The team splits up.  Starling and Strix go off together: the mute and the motormouth.  Starling keeps talking, trying to be funny, but not succeeding.  Meanwhile, Dinah and Condor flirt and--

And... Omigod!

Condor is... is... revealing information about himself to the reader...

Holy crap, that's characterization!  Swierczynski did it, he actually did it!  He gave us information about one of the characters he was writing!  True, it's the laziest, dumbest kind of characterization and the writing is pathetically juvenile, but hey!  

Moving on.  The Birds beat the crap out of some nobodies and then they have to bust into a warehouse or something.  Dinah is going to use her Canary Cry when she feels that old familiar sensation washing over her... er, rushing through her... er, she turns from Black Canary to Black Lightning.

I guess she couldn't control her sonic scream, which is odd, because you shouldn't have to make vocal sounds, but whatever.  She screams and it destroys f***ing everything around her, causing a blackout in Gotham and maybe, based on the last page, maybe kills Starling.

The Characters

Black Canary keeps calling Condor an idiot in that way that says she wants to take him to bed and do things to him they only have words for in German.  She's also a horrible leader and a bad judge of character.

Batgirl comes off as naive and dangerously shortsighted, not for trusting Strix, but for not giving the women who would have reason to attack Strix fair warning that she's invited her to join the team.

Strix doesn't talk, so she's like the perfect character for this kind of series.

Condor used to be part of a team, but they broke up, and that made him sad, so he didn't want to be part of a team anymore, because he didn't want to risk breaking up and being sad again, but he met this team of sexy ladies and thought it might be worth eventually being sad if he could bang one or two of them.

Impressions/Questions

The opening fight scene tells me that Swierczynski read a lot of old Marvel Team-Up books (and nothing else), because it feels like the kind of ironic, mistaken intentions fight between heroes that eventually leads to laughs and camaraderie.

The thing is, Condor attacked the Talon thinking he was protecting the other ladies.  A) Strix never made any kind of hostile or aggressive moves that would suggest she came to fight, so Condor is an idiot.  B) If Condor just assumed she was a danger because she's a Talon, how does he know?  He wasn't involved in the Night of the Owls event.  How would he know they're dangerous?  C) Maybe Condor isn't an idiot; maybe he tried to be overly macho and chivalrous thinking the ladies would be so grateful they'd sleep with him.  That's what I'm thinking.

This issue had all the same stupid things I've come to despise about this book, but it also had real attempts at characterization and substantive dialogue.  It figures that Swierczynski is finally making forward progress with this series in his penultimate issue on the book.

Grade: C-

BIRDS OF PREY #9 (New 52) - Night of the Owls

Previously…

Birds of Prey #9 ties into the "Night of the Owls" event that touched all the Batman-family of books in April-May of 2012.  Rather than summing up the Court of Owls' deadly plot myself, I'll let Alfred Pennyworth explain it in his words, which, I guess, are Scott Snyder's words, really.

"To all the allies of the Bat presently in Gotham, I will send this with the greatest urgency. Tonight, the Court of Owls has sent their assassins to kill nearly forty people across the city.  The Court's targets are all Gotham leaders.  People who shape this city.  I have uploaded a list of targets' names, here.  The Court's assassins, the "Talons," are already en route to their targets.  They are highly trained killers with extraordinary regenerative abilities.  For many of their targets, I fear it may be too late.  I will keep the line open to the cave as long as I can manage.  Good luck to you.  God help us all." (Batman #8) 

Birds of Prey #9: "Gangland Style" is written by Duane Swierczynski and welcomes a new art team onto the book: Travel Foreman on pencils, Jeff Huet on inks, Gabe Eltaeb on colors.  Jesus Saiz and June Chung provide the cover.

The issue opens in Gotham City, the year 1842, amidst what looks like a full-on gang war.  And then everyone's dead.  The street toughs are all wiped out by the Court of Owls' evil enforcer, the Talon.

Cut to present day Gotham, in medias res.  It's 8:20 PM on the Night of the Owls, which is now an official day on the city calendar, like Dia de los Muertos or something.  The Birds have already encountered one of the Talons, and they're not faring well.

I thought Katana's husband could only speak with souls of the dead killed by her sword, so wouldn't he only sense if Poison Ivy was alive or dead if Katana stabbed her?  Or can her husband commune with any dead soul?  

Anyway, Dinah uses her sonic scream on the Talon, which does jack all.  We get a glimpse into the Talon's mind and how he views his current situation.  This allows Travel Foreman to redesign the Birds in Victorian-era garb (Black Canary looks like Captain Crunch, Katana looks like a demon samurai, and Starling looks like, well, like Starling).

Waitaminute, waitaminute, waitaminute!  The Court of Owls dispatched their legion of assassins to murder "Gotham leaders… people who shape the city."  That's what Alfred said; that's what Scott Snyder wrote.  That was the mission statement given to all of the other writers in the Batman family of books.  Gail Simone, Kyle Higgins, they all followed that idea.

Duane Swierczynski…not so much.  Whereas Batgirl and Nightwing and everyone else went to protect Gotham citizens, y'know, like heroes do, the Birds are victims.  They're targets for execution.  WHY?  Why would Black Canary, Poison Ivy, and Katana be on the same list as the Mayor, city planners, religious leaders, and Commissioner Gordon?

The answer is Swierczynski doesn't know or doesn't care.  He isn't writing a "Night of the Owls" tie-in; he's writing a Friday the 13th movie for DC Comics.  Seriously, this issue is essentially an '80s horror movie, with the Talon standing in for Jason or Michael Myers or the Terminator, silently, relentlessly hunting a group of helpless young women.  Let's just acknowledge that and move on.

So Black Canary and Katana run to the same church that Dinah first fought the Cleaners in issue #1.  And just like that time, Starling drives through a door and a wall.

Seriously, how many times is she going to drive through a brick wall in a church?  Is that her super power?  Why isn't the car damaged?  Is it a super-car?  If I had a car that could drive through walls like that, I would never get out?

The Talon is not killed by Starling's Adamantium-Churchbuster-Death-Car, of course, and he gets his hand on her throat with the opportunity to kill her (pleasepleasepleaseplease).  But Batgirl swings down and saves her, because sometimes Batgirl is in this book.  Batgirl knows the trick to stopping the Talon is to freeze him, because she's been paying attention to the other comics.

The Birds lead the Talon to the train yard and throw him into a meat locker car.  Then Poison Ivy comes back.

Ivy locks herself in the freezer with the Talon, claiming that she'll be able to survive the intense cold because of botany-science.  After that, Dinah tells the others that they're going on a trip to South America so she can fulfill her promise to Poison Ivy that totally won't backfire on them or anything.

The Characters

I have complained a lot about the lack of characterization and consistency in this title.  How important concepts introduced in one issue fail to be addressed later on.  Well, this issue bucks that trend by having Dinah finally dwell on the pressure that her husband's murder has thrust on her.  And the horror that her allies may believe she was responsible for it, and maybe she was.

The problem is when Swierczsynski finally gives Dinah--and readers--a moment to acknowledge her past demons, it is completely inappropriate for the time and place!  Dinah's being hunted by a faceless, unstoppable killer, and the first chance she gets to catch her breath she starts crying to Katana about the dead husband that never seemed to bother her before.  You know who else has a dead husband?  Katana!  But slice-'em-up girl isn't crying about it; she's trying to keep them alive like Dinah should be doing!

Besides this out-of-place character moment, the issue is short on people, long on plot.  Like every issue of the series.

Thank you, Travel Foreman and the new art team, for allowing Poison Ivy to show a little skin and look a little sexy like she's supposed to for the first time in this series.  You know, before the plants shoot out of her chest again.


Impressions/Questions

One of my other regular complaints with this series has been the amount of story per issue.  Given that these comics used to be 22 pages, and now they're 20, I would think the issue would feel crowded.  That's never been the case with Birds of Prey in the New 52, though.

The first three pages of this story are a prologue showing the Talon slaughtering a whole bunch of people we don't know or care about because it was 170 years ago.  I understand the intention is to show how dangerous the Talon is by showing how easy it is for him to kill a lot of dangerous men before turning him loose on our small band of heroins.  But the precious real estate of page space is wasted.

Page 1 is three panels.  Pages 2 and 3 are a double page splash of dead bodies we don't know or care about.

That's four panels in the first three pages.  Four panels to set the tone and the threat level of this story, but that leaves only 17 pages to tell an actual story.  Those three pages could have/should have shown the Talon killing a contemporary Gothamite and butchering his whole security team before turning his sights on the Birds who arrive too late to stop him.

So how do I feel about this issue?

First, when this issue came out back in 2012, I was thoroughly enjoying Snyder and Capullo's Batman.  It was a consistently great comic and one of my three favorite series out of the New 52 launch.  While I think eleven issues was too much for the opening arc, I really, really enjoyed the Court of Owls storyline.  I read a lot of the tie-ins and I thought they were pretty good.

And as a small cog of the greater "Night of the Owls" wheel, this isn't a bad story.  There are some inconsistencies and some faults, but there's also a lot of treats if you read it as an homage to horror movies like Halloween.  As such, I feel compelled to grade this issue on two different scales: as a part of "Night of the Owls" and as a part of Birds of Prey.

Grade (NotO): B
Grade (BoP): C

BIRDS OF PREY #8 (New 52)

Previously…

It seems like the long, confusing first arc of Birds of Prey volume 3 is finally over.  Was anything accomplished by that story?  Have the characters grown or changed?  Did the finale make sense and feel deserved given the scope of what came before?  No, no, and no.

So let's move on.

Birds of Prey #8: "A Far Cry" is again written by Duane Swierczynski, with pencils by Jesus Saiz and inks/finishes by Javier Pina and colors by June Chung.  Saiz provides the cover, as well.

The issue opens three days ago* at the Cornwell Hotel where the Gotham City P.D. is investigating a brutal murder.  A mysterious man with more clout than the local cops kicks them out, taking charge of the case.  The murder victim's entire face was caved in, including his teeth, which were shattered, making facial or dental identification impossible.  Convenient.  But a fingerprint check reveals that the victim was a member of the investigator's mysterious organization.

The investigator believes that Dinah's sonic "Canary Cry" was the murder weapon.

Cut to Dinah Lance being burned…

In the Cornwell Hotel today, Black Canary, Batgirl, and Katana are fighting for their lives against a team of assassins called the Infiltrators.  The Infiltrators are led by a holographic commander whose name we never learn, because that's how Swierczynski rolls.  Dinah's narration explains that the Birds came here "on a tip" from "a man" who claimed "to have information that would interest [Dinah]."  If there is a lazier way of establishing the situation I would like to see it.

Dinah knows the hologram from her past.  The Infiltrators, however, seem new.  The first Infiltrator we meet is Napalm, who has flamethrowers attached to each wrist.  Napalm is really excited about torching Poison Ivy, and is really disappointed to discover that she's not here.

Next up is Flesh, who looks like a well-muscled sumo wrestler.  His skin is impervious to cuts and damage, so he spends the issue fighting Katana (also 'cuz they're Japanese…?).

The last Infiltrator we meet is Head (seriously), who has chemicals pumping into his brain that make it impossible to knock him unconscious.  That seems like a really, really super-specific and not-as-useful-as-you'd-think-superpower for an assassin, but whatever, his name is Head.  Head targets Batgirl, apparently, to exploit the weakness that she tends to knock out her opponents.  What a crutch she relies on!

Meanwhile, Starling has gone to an "undisclosed location" in South Dakota, which might be the base of operations for the Infiltrators, or at least close to it.  I guess South Dakota is a big state, but there's not a lot there other than Mount Rushmore.  Starling breaks into a safehouse looking for evidence that will either confirm or clear her friend Dinah of the murder charge against her.  That's when she's met by someone who looks like the investigator from the beginning.

Back in Gotham, the Birds and the Infiltrators have caused so much structural damage to the upper floors of the Cornwell Hotel that the walls are coming down and floors are collapsing.  At one point, another Infiltrator slaps a collar on Dinah, preventing her from using her Canary Cry.  This Infiltrator's name isn't mentioned (because: Swierczynski).  Dinah and Batgirl lead most of the Infiltrators down to the lower levels.  And then Katana joins them by riding Napalm down the elevator shaft.

Yeah, at first I was a little wowed that Katana was so casually killing another one of her enemies, but then I saw that the Birds brought down an entire luxury hotel!  Yeah, that entire damn building came down!  Think there's any chance that innocent lives were hurt or lost by that stunt?!!

But there's still another wall to knock down!

Next issue: Birds of Prey ties-in with the "Night of the Owls" crossover in all the Batman books.

The Characters

This version of Black Canary was married.  She was Dinah Drake, the name of the original Golden Age Canary.  Lance is her married name, but she didn't marry Larry Lance, as the original Dinah did.  She married a guy named Kurt Lance.

Also, she killed him.

Starling used to work for the Penguin.  We've been told that Starling is a spy, so maybe she was undercover at the time she was working for him.  Maybe not.

Katana kills.

Poison Ivy only appears on the cover of this issue.  She's not in the story.  This is a good thing.  Although, wasn't she dying at the end of issue #7?!!  Shouldn't that be addressed?

Impressions/Questions

This issue is a vast improvement over the last handful of installments of this series.  It still suffers from a lot of the same problems as before, though.

Swierczynski sets the table with the "anonymous tip" reference that is so cliche, so lazy, so stupid that it makes the characters seem dumb for going along with it.  As usual, the "mystery" element of these stories only works because the characters aren't smart enough to solve it.

There's also some confusion about the timing of events.  The opening is tagged as "three days ago", but Dinah killed her husband three years ago.  The impression I got was that the investigator in the opening scene was discovering Kurt Lance's body, but he says, "Dinah Lance has struck again."  This suggests she killed her husband and then three days ago killed someone else in the same way.  But his hair in the opening scene is a lot shorter than it is later on when he meets Starling in North Dakota.  So what's going on?  I'm assuming the caption on the first page is wrong: that it should have said years, not days.

The issue has some strong qualities, too.  Despite being really simplistic baddies, the Infiltrators are decent villains.  Flesh has a cool gimmick, and Head at least looks interesting.  I'm not saying these guys deserve more than one issue, but they're fun for these pages.  The action keeps the story moving at a pretty good pace.

Starling isn't annoying in this issue.  That's good.

Best of all, we're finally--finally--acknowledging the murdered elephant in the room.  Why is Dinah wanted for murder?  Did she actually kill someone?  Who and why?  I guess we'll find out next issue.

Oh, wait.  Next issue they fight the Court of Owls.  Damn.

Grade:  C-