BIRDS OF PREY #25 (New 52) - Zero Year

Previously...

Over in the pages of Batman, the titular hero's origins have been rewritten for the New 52.  One of the major moments of Batman's "Zero Year" is a city-wide blackout caused by The Riddler.  In November 2013, a number of DC comics tied into this event to show where characters like Clark Kent, Barry Allen, and Dinah Drake among others were six years ago.  What kind of characters were they during "Zero Year" and how did the events of that time shape the kind of heroes they would become?

Birds of Prey #25: "Sunrise" is a Zero Year tie-in set six years before the current events of the ongoing series, and extended to 28 pages at $3.99 instead of the usual 20 pages for $2.99.  The issue is written by Christy Marx, with art breakdowns by Scott McDaniel, pencils by Romano Molenaar and Daniel Sampere and Travis Moore, inks by Jonathan Glapion and Vicente Cifuentes, and colors by Chris Sotomayor.  Jorge Molina drew the cover... and what a horrible cover it is.  The idea is nice, showing a younger Dinah defending herself from a gang in what looks like a street-cycling prototype of her Black Canary costume.  But the colors drown out any sense of pop or dynamism about her costume.  Everything sort of washes and blends together.  And, my lord, what is wrong with her face?!!  That could be the ugliest depiction of a beautiful woman I've ever seen in comics!  Why didn't the editor laugh at this and pass it back demanding a redo?

...Okay, moving on...

Six years ago, Dinah Drake is teaching a martial arts class at her dojo in Gotham City.  There is an alter on the wall to a Sensei Desmond Lamar, who we'll meet later in the story.  Dinah's instruction is interrupted by a street gang running a protection racket.

Dinah quickly disarms and beats down the five thugs, showing her students exactly what they could accomplish if they heed her wisdom.  She sends the gang running, declaring that neither she nor her dojo will cower to criminals.

After class, she cleans the dojo, which is also her home, and later visits the grave of Sensei Desmond.  She is restless, at a crossroads in her life.  The dojo is failing as a business and she doesn't know what to do with her life.

We jump back even further into Dinah's past, to the moment when she first met Sensei Desmond.  Dinah had runaway from her foster home and scrounged food out of Sensei's dumpster when he found her and took her into his home.

He gives her a place to stay and a worldview that isn't full of anger and hatred toward other people.  Over time, she starts to pickup on the fighting lessons he teachers his students until she is old enough to be trained.

Sensei Desmond dies of brain cancer a few years later.  By that time, he was as much a father to Dinah as a teacher, and his death is devastating to her.

On the subway coming back from the cemetery, all the power goes out.  Dinah takes charge and helps get the commuters off the train and back to the street safely.

Hey, it's that woman again!  The old black lady, Miz Etie, who shared a table with Dinah back in issue #18, and then met Condor outside the bank in issue #22.  Who is this 99 year-old woman (although, I guess she'd be 93 in this issue), and why does everyone call her "Mother"?  And why is she so concerned with Dinah after all these years?

Elsewhere, the military is monitoring the blackout.  John Lynch, who will create Team 7 a year after these events, is told by a commander with what look like cybernetic parts on his head that the blackout was caused by an electromagnetic pulse set off by a terrorist.  The commander says someone named Ye tried to warn them of the EMP, and sends Lynch to Gotham to retrieve Ye.

Hang on, if it was an EMP how come the flashlights were working in the tunnels?  Wouldn't those be killed, too?

It's a blackout caused by an EMP--where's all the light coming from?  Dinah's running around the streets, saving Vietnamese grocers and stopping looters complaining about the lack of power or traffic.  But everything looks fine.  The lights are on!  I don't think Chris Sotomayor knew what he was coloring when he got these pages.  This shouldn't be more than a cosmetic mistake but it really bugs be because I have long complained about the editing on this series--without ever naming the editor(s).

Dinah finds someone in a nearby alley.  It's Ye, and he's been fatally wounded.  He passes the tracker with intel valuable intel for the military that was hardened against the EMP.  He tells her to find Lynch, but of course he dies before telling her who Lynch is or why she should do that.

Then the ninjas show up.  They killed Ye and they want the tracker.  They chase Dinah who employs her mastery of the various martial arts forms that Sensei Desmond taught her to defend herself, even taking a number of ninjas out so that the leader demands more forces be unleashed on her.

Back in the alley, Lynch's team finds the dead Ye and one of the living ninjas, who kills himself rather than answer their questions.  Lynch starts tracking Dinah.

The ninjas chase her into a blind alley.  The leader gives her the chance to give up the package and walk away.  She calls his bluff and starts dropping his minions.

Eventually, their numbers overwhelm her.  Just before she is killed, Lynch arrives and the commandos kill all the ninjas except for the leader, who escapes.

How did she know he's Lynch?  He's just the first face she sees that isn't covered by a mask so she assumes he's the one random person a dead guy asked her to find?  God, why is she always so trusting of everybody?!!

Lynch drives Dinah back to her home while filling her in on some of the details, including the involvement of EMP-causing device called a Marx generator.

Wait, what--what, no, no... what the--WHAT?!!  Seriously, Christy Marx you're going to name a device in the comic after yourself?  REALLY?!!  MY GOD THAT IS SO ARROGANT AND STUPID AND--

Oh.  I just looked it up.  Marx generators are a real thing.

Never mind then.

Lynch pulls up in front of Dinah's dojo which is burning to the ground.  She's lost her home, her place of business, her only tie to the man she loved like a father.  She's utterly vulnerable, and that makes her an appealing target for Lynch.

Of course, Lynch isn't picking her up for a date; he offers her a job as a special ops agent, which will eventually lead to her inclusion on Team 7.

The Characters

Dinah is the only member of Birds of Prey featured in this issue and we really learn a lot about her.  Why it took twenty-five issues to get to this point, I don't know, but whatever.

Dinah was an orphan, abandoned by her mother and never knew her father.  She ran away from an unsupportive foster home and was living on the streets eating garbage for a while.  The timeline isn't specific, but based on the art, I would guess she was between the ages of nine and twelve when she first meets Sensei Desmond.  She's clearly a few years older when he starts training her in the styles of Jeet Kune Do, Wing Chun, Jiu-Jitsu, wrestling, boxing and Karate.  We also see him tutoring her in what appears to be book-style homework.  I don't know if she enrolled in school or had any formal education or if that was all Sensei.

Some years pass by the time he dies, and I'm guessing she's about 19 or 20 when this story takes place.  That would make her 25 or 26 in the current continuity.  That corrects an earlier problem I had with her continuity.  I thought to become the kind of high-tier special forces operative she was in Team 7 would require many years of training, which by my calculations would have put her in her mid-30s in the present.  What Marx has done with this issue is establish her extensive physical training over years in her childhood, so that even with only a year of military training under Lynch, he would choose her for his select team.

Impressions/Questions

There are problems with this story.  The art is mostly fine; the three different pencilers don't get in each others way, but the colors during the blackout really, really take me out of the story.  There's also the superficiality of the ninjas as antagonists in the third act.  There's nothing special about them and Lynch even blows off the answer so we don't really care.

Then there's the cameo by Etie, or "Mother".  It's kind of a nice nod to Marx's current story, but it's also a bit distracting because nothing comes of it later--unless she's the one who burned down the dojo!

Maybe the biggest problem, though, is how conveniently things come together in the end.  I know Marx was bogged down by the crappy continuity she inherited, but the union of Dinah and Lynch at the end is too fast, too simple, too contrived.

On the other hand, there is a lot to like about this issue.  I feel like I finally know who Dinah Drake is in the New 52.  She is not the Dinah Drake, or the Dinah Laurel Lance of pre-Flashpoint DC; she's someone else.  She's an orphan without family connections who was adopted by a loving sensei that taught her various fighting forms.  Then she was "adopted" by a harsh military man who taught her how to fight and kill for the government.  Then she fell in love with and married a man who helped her control her meta-human power.

Actually, that last one doesn't mesh.  She only used her power once before Kurt Lance supposedly died!  That whole bit of her history was screwed up by the end of Team 7.

This was definitely one of the best issues of the series, but considering I have never given a chapter from this series an A, that isn't saying much.  And I still won't.  This isn't the best, but it's pretty good.

Grade: B+

BIRDS OF PREY #20 (New 52)

Previously...

Mister Freeze attacked the Birds, capturing Starling and offering to return her in exchange for Strix, former Talon of the Court of Owls.  The Birds agree to meet Freeze at the Court's laboratory where Strix was revived, but once there, they realize it was all a setup.  Freeze wants to possess the Court's secret of reviving the dead, and Starling is working with him.

Birds of Prey #20: "The Cruelest Cut" is written by Christy Marx with art by Romano Molenaar, and Jonathan Glapion taking over for Vicente Cifuentes on inks.  Molenaar and Cifuentes provided the cover, which was already drawn before Christy Marx took over writing the series, so her hands were kind of tied in terms of story direction.

When Black Canary met Starling roughly a year ago, the latter was working for a criminal.  Despite her secrets and mysterious background, Dinah chose to trust Starling and partner with her.  Just like she chose to trust Poison Ivy, like she chose to trust Condor and Strix without knowing them.  She trusts killers, thieves and mercenaries, and she has the nerve to act surprised when they betray her.  That's how issue #20 begins, with Dinah pissed off that yet another one of her hand-picked teammates turned traitor.

Starling tries to defend her actions, claiming that she owes Mister Freeze for some reason, and that the Court of Owls is a mutual enemy so why not work together to everyone's benefit.  While Dinah and Starling debate whether betraying your friends is a big deal or not, Batgirl tries to free Strix from the ice.  Freeze gets tired of talking, though.

As the fighting resumes, the two Court scientists make a run for it.  Starling tries to shoot them, but Condor uses his telekinesis to deflect her bullets.  Then Black Canary and Condor rush Freeze.

Meanwhile, Batgirl gets to live out so many fanboy fantasies... by beating up the always annoying, ever poorly written Mary Sue, Starling.

Black Canary and Condor are trapped behind an ice wall.  Condor encourages her to use her sonic scream to free them, but she is justifiably worried about losing control of her power and killing everyone.  Good thinking there.

Dinah remembers how her late husband, Kurt, helped her control her sonic scream before she killed him (which, if you read yesterday's review of Team 7 #8, you know he only helped her focus her scream one or two times, and she didn't kill him with the scream).  This is becoming a trend; whenever Dinah thinks of Condor, she remembers her husband.

While Dinah uses a thermite grenade to burn through the ice wall, Mister Freeze catches up to the Owl scientists.  He tortures and kills them to get the information he needs, which ends any need to continue fighting the Birds of Prey.

Starling makes a run for it as Dinah and Condor free themselves.  Dinah's anger gets the better of her and she lets loose with a "Canary Cry" at Starling.

Does Starling die?  It's unclear, but no she doesn't.

Then, because Dinah is tired and spent, she's able to use her sonic powers on a low enough setting that she can free Strix from the ice without harming her too much.

Dinah and Condor go looking for Mister Freeze while Batgirl takes Strix to the roof to warm up.  Once they get there, they find the other Talon, Calvin Rose, waiting for them.

The Characters

This issue is almost entirely action, so there isn't much in the way of characterization.  Black Canary is still worried about losing control of her super powers, but not so much that she doesn't use the power twice in this issue: one time, she overdoes it, one time she's fine.

Condor is inserting himself closer and closer into the role of love interest.  There's an obvious mutual attraction and I'd be surprised if they're not sleeping with each other a year from now.  I'd also be surprised if he doesn't turn out to be a traitor, too, since that's how this series does things.

Batgirl doesn't do much but fight Starling, and Strix is encased in ice for the majority of the issue.  Starling does a lot of talking to defend her treachery, and this would be a great opportunity to give her some humanity or some depth of character.  But since her reasons for working with Freeze are "secret", her defense is just whining that the others don't understand her.  It's really weak and unsatisfying.  Like everything about Starling.

Impressions/Questions

I guess this issue was one of the best of the series, because there was so much action that the characters didn't have time to be dumb or make me sad.  That said, the action wasn't very creative or interesting.

Grade: B-

BIRDS OF PREY #19 (New 52)

Previously...

Mister Freeze attacked the Birds in order to capture the silent assassin Strix so he can crack the secret of the Court of Owls' regenerative process.  The Birds defended their new teammate, but Mister Freeze captured Starling and escaped.  He demands a trade--one bird for another.

Birds of Prey #19: "A Cold Day in Hell" is written by Christy Marx with art by Romano Molenaar and inks by Vicente Cifuentes and Julio Ferreira.  Ardian Syaf provided the foldout cover in the same fashion as all of DC's "WTF" comics from April, 2013.  In this case, like many of the covers from that month, the foldout spoils the big cliffhanger moment of the issue, making reading the twenty pages in between kind of pointless.

Mister Freeze has given Black Canary's crew one hour to hand over Strix in exchange for Starling.  The tradeoff is to be at the Court of Owls lab where Strix was revived.  Condor acts overly defensive, insisting that he's not a traitor when neither Dinah nor Batgirl accused him of anything.  However, this is as good a segue as any to reveal what the ladies know about Condor for his benefit as well as that of the readers.

Condor might be Native American?  So, I guess this is the New 52 Black Condor... Okay, I'm cool with that, but I still don't like his costume any better.

Also, this characterization is clearly for the readers who never learned a damn useful thing about Condor back when "the other guy" was writing this comic, because all of this intelligence should have been shared by Dinah and Batgirl back when Condor first joined the team weeks ago.

While the ladies provide a Who's Who entry for Condor, Strix runs away in fear of returning to the mad scientist lab that spawned her.  Condor and Batgirl track her down, while Dinah "puts some gear together" and reflects on the first time she met her late former missing husband, Kurt Lance.

Two things.  First, she says she first met Kurt after she and Amanda Waller joined Team 7.  Well, that don't square with Team 7 #0, in which she and Kurt were already a couple when Lynch recruited them for the team, and Dinah and Kurt recruited Waller together.

Second, if she hated her codename "Canary" she probably didn't come up with it herself.  That means she was assigned that codename.  Um... Canary's are known for being sacrificial animals that go into dangerous situations to die.  I would have some concerns if that was my assigned codename.

Elsewhere, Batgirl finds Strix on a rooftop crying like the tortured little girl that she is.  Strix is afraid of going back to the lab.  Batgirl plays big sister and assures her that she will be protected.  And Stryx is all like, okay, let's go, but in a totally silent way!

Condor carries Black Canary, who can't help but enjoy the feel of being in a man's arms.

To their surprise, they don't find Mister Freeze waiting for them in the lab, just a couple of cosplayers from San Diego ComicCon wearing Owls masks.  The lab is still being used for the Court's crazy experiments.

Yeah, Dinah, thank God it's not your friend, just some random dead girl.

Batgirl realizes they weren't meeting Mister Freeze here, they were leading him.  That's when he attacks.  He freezes Strix and Condor with his cold gun, but when Dinah gets the edge in their fight...

...she is ambushed by...

Yep.  Starling is a traitor working with Mister Freeze.  Total shocker, right?  Unless, of course, you looked at the cover.

The Characters

We get more characterization for Black Canary, but once again it's a little forced, a little cliched, and not that compelling.  She "met" her husband by fighting in a training session.  Okay, been done, but not awful.  They had a competitive relationship, I guess, but we've never seen anything like that because despite his eight or nine appearances in Team 7, we still never really knew anything about Kurt Lance or cared about him.

Strix shows some emotional depth, some fear, some courage, some rage.  That's about it.

We know more about Condor.  He's probably the best character in the book by default just because he doesn't act like a fool, just sort of a cavalier macho cowboy type of superhero.

Starling's betrayal is surprising only in that she claims to be working with Mister Freeze.  But we already knew she was a traitor...except she was working with Amanda Waller.  I'm glad her duplicity has been exposed because I don't like her and I want her to leave the book, so...whatever.

Impressions/Questions

So far, the two Marx-written issues have been vastly superior to those written by "the other guy".  I get the sense that Marx really wants to flesh out Dinah and the others and make them deep, interesting characters.  That's great, but it shines a harsh light on how horribly mishandled the comic has been since the start.  That's not all on the previous writer; a lot of that is on the editor(s).

The threats seem forced or lacking or boring, and the characters still feel off.  Mostly, this book has yet to find its identity.  Why does this comic exist?  Why are these people a team?  What are they fighting for?  Why are they together?  Why should I care about them?  Because I don't!

Grade: B for boring.

BIRDS OF PREY #18 (New 52)

Previously...

It took way, way too long for DC to put someone other than Duane Swierczynski on Birds of Prey, and initially they announced Jim Zubkavich as the book's replacement writer.  Of course, for reasons that have nothing to do with creating good comics, that never came to be.  Instead, DC signed Christy Marx to write the continuing saga of Black Canary and Company based on covers that were already drawn.

Birds of Prey #18: "Burning Cold" marks the debut of new series writer Christy Marx, with art by Romano Molenaar and Vicente Cifuentes.  Chris Sotomayor colored the issue and Emanuela Lupacchino provided the cover, which features yet another Batman villain infringing on this series.  "Mister Freeze Demands Vengeance" the cover proclaims.  Oh yeah, has he been reading this book for the last eighteen months, too?

The issue begins with a Talon held captive in ice, being tortured and questioned.  The opening image isn't dramatic enough to warrant a full-page splash, but given Marx only had fifteen minutes to write this issue, I'll let it go.  Mister Freeze has captured the Talon and demands to know some vital bit of intelligence that the Talon isn't coughing up.  Considering who Mister Freeze is and what his driving motivation has been for the past two decades, we can probably assume that he's after the Talons' regenerative secrets so that Freeze can save his beloved Nora.

Knowing that he won't get the answers from this Talon, Freeze lets his unseen partner execute their captive with a shotgun while they proceed to target another Talon.  And if I had to hazard a guess, I would think they're talking about Strix, the latest Bird to join Black Canary's team.

We then transition to the Birds of Prey's hideout, which is identified as Black Canary's dojo.  Hey, I think that's the first time we've ever been given a specific location for where these people meet other than rooftops.  (Because, you know, the previous writer sucked!)  Strix is combat training with Condor, the other new member, while Batgirl asks Dinah to let the formerly murderous Talon who very recently tried to kill Dinah live with her at the dojo.  Starling, for her part, just stands around looking grumpy.

Christy Marx does something interesting in the beginning of this scene.  She has Dinah think about the other characters and form conclusions about them as well as herself.  This is what people who get paid to tell stories call characterization, and it's something this series never really had before now.  (God, the previous writer sucked!)

Anyway, Strix gets a little carried away during their sparring session and throws Condor into a full-length wall mirror.  This upsets Dinah because, hey, that shit's expensive, which leads Strix to lash out and fight Dinah.  Then Batgirl has to come in and put Strix down.  Everyone is fighting because that's the kind of relationship these characters have.

Oh, okay.  I've thrown people into glass because I needed to get some buffalo wings in my face, too.  No hard feelings.  And seriously, there are none, because the next thing you know, Condor is taking Strix into the kitchen to make omelets.  Batgirl leaves because she has a life and friends and goals and consequences and stuff, all in her own self-titled series that probably doesn't suck.

Then we get a moment between Dinah and Starling that reminds us how much the previous writer sucked.

Right, right.  When we left our main character, she was a liar and a coward.  She refuses to take responsibility for the damage and bloodshed she has caused because she cannot control her super powers.  And the one person who is able to confront her about it--her friend, supposedly--Dinah refuses to acknowledge.  This is painful to read, but at least it's consistent so I can't fault the new writer.  Also, Starling walking out on Dinah is probably her best moment in the series.

Then we get another first in the series.  We see Dinah going to get a coffee.  She's not punching somebody in an invisibility suit.  She's not putting her trust in Poison Ivy.  She's not admonishing Katana for using lethal force.  Nope, she's sitting in a diner and reflecting on her life.  We're actually getting introspection and evaluation that we never got in the previous issues.

Dinah is approached by an elderly black woman, who, if you've ever seen TV or movies, you know is always a source of cosmic wisdom.

It's not terribly original, but for this series it's enough.

Yeah, she's evaluating her life choices while looking in a broken mirror.  Original? No, but it's as deep as this book has ever gotten.

Then the whole team returns to the dojo, claiming that Dinah sent out an emergency distress call.  I think this kind of trap was used back in the first story arc when they were all brainwashed, but whatever.  As they realize they've been duped, Mister Freeze comes a-callin'.

There's a bit where Starling shouts, "Freeze?!" and he replies, "That's Mister Freeze to you."  It's stolen from Batman: The Animated Series.  Just pointing that out.

Freeze's cold gun proves too much for the combined fighting prowess of Black Canary, Batgirl and Strix, as well as the Canary Cry and Condor's telekinesis.  But when Freeze realizes he cannot capture  Strix, he escapes with Starling instead.

The Characters

Black Canary is still a liar, a coward, a killer, and a dumbass, just like before.  Only now, she seems to recognize the problem, which is the first step to solving it.  Will she redeem herself?  We'll see.  Or we won't.

Condor has the potential to liven this book up with humor and a dash of machismo, but he doesn't do much this time.

Strix seems more like a plot device than a character, which is always tricky with someone who cannot communicate or even emote.

Batgirl continues to serve no purpose in this series other than wearing the bat symbol on her chest and supposedly bringing in more readers.

Impressions/Questions

This issue reads better now than it did months ago when I first read it.  It's still not great, but it takes steps in the right direction.

The book still feels like it's clinging to Batman's coattails instead of trying to walk on its own.  Not only do we have another Batman villain in Mister Freeze, but the story is rooted in the Court of Owls/Night of the Owls saga.  That crossover already created one sort-of heroic Talon in his own solo series.  Why did we need Strix thrown into this book?  Her existence makes the other guy less special, and vice versa.

The action piece that takes up half the issue isn't that exciting or well-crafted.

What hurts this book the most, though, is that it doesn't depart enough from the dreck that came before.  It still feels like a Swierczynski story, or maybe the editor's story, with Marx's dialogue written over it.  Which it is, really; that much she admitted.  The stink of past failures lingers on this new issue, which tries very hard to seem fresh.

Grade: B-

BIRDS OF PREY #17 (New 52)

Previously...

I hate this series.  I hate the writer.  I hate myself for choosing to review this crap every week.

Birds of Prey #17: "Heartstopper" is the last issue written by Duane Swierczynski (thank Christ).  The art once again is provided by Romano Molenaar with Vicente Cifuentes on inks and Chris Sotomayor on colors.

Last issue, during a mission to capture a weapons dealer for the (probably terrorist) organization known as Basilisk, Black Canary lost control of her sonic powers and unleashed a devastating "Canary Cry" that leveled a power station and plunged Gotham City into a blackout.

Yeah.  A blackout.  In Gotham City.  Riots, looting, jailbreaks, death, destruction.  All of that is on Dinah.  Intentionally or not, she just caused damage to the city's infrastructure that could easily cost upwards of ten million dollars and probably dozens if not hundreds of casualties.

That is ALL. ON. DINAH.

How will she deal with it?

Oh.  Oh no.  No no nononono.  No.

"It's nothing for you to worry about," she tells Starling.  Nothing for you to worry about.

Let's review the events that "the writer" clearly didn't: Dinah lost control of her powers.  Said loss of control just brought the building in front of them to the ground, causing a citywide blackout which will result in incalculable damage and death to innocents.  And any or all of her teammates could have been among the wounded or dead.

But it's not something Starling needs to worry about.  And it's not something Dinah's teammates need to know about.

Since issue #1, I have wanted "the writer" to provide some insight into the characters, especially the so-called leader, Black Canary.  I have wanted to know who she is and why she does what she does.  Well... now I know.

She's a coward and she's a liar.  In issue #9, Batman called her "sloppy and dangerous".  He was right.  Dinah should be in a prison cell.  This is what "the writer"--what the New 52--has done to Black Canary.

I... I don't want to go on reviewing this issue, because it's going to get worse.  Much worse...

Anyway, Batgirl and Condor don't realize that Dinah brought the power plant down, but Strix sure does and she lashes out physically at Dinah, who lashes back verbally, saying the silent assassin has no cause to judge her.  Y'know, the sort of defense a coward and a liar would mount.

Everyone keeps returning to Dinah's horribly bad decision to recruit Poison Ivy, but no one ever seriously calls her on it.

Meanwhile, in another part of the rubble, we find the weapons dealer the Birds came here looking for--who, after three appearances, I don't believe ever gets a name, because why would "the writer" bother with something like that?  Pulling himself out from under a building, his first reaction is to dig out the weapons he was going to sell and have them target nearby people.

Why?  **** you, that's why!

The weapons are little floating robots that detect human hearts and stop them with electro shocks.  They're called "heartstoppers".  This little bit of super villain mad-science is too specific to be anything other than absurd.  If you could invent something that could fly and detect the specific biological or rhythmic patterns of a living, beating human heart, why would you make it shoot out little snake-like tendrils like a police taser?  Why not, oh say, a missile?

**** you, that's why!

The heartstoppers attack Dinah, Batgirl, and Condor, but Strix slips under their radar because she doesn't have a living, beating heart.  Hey, that's convenient: almost as if it was planned that way!

Away from the battle, Starling checks in with her handler, Amanda Waller, revealing Dinah's part in the devastation.  Then a SWAT team shows up, because, y'know, someone blew up a power plant outside a major American city.

Oh, Dinah, you're hilarious!  I keep forgetting you're the devil-may-care smart-ass of the group.

Now you don't dare open your mouth?  What about all that dialogue you just delivered?

After Strix destroys some more of the trying-too-hard-to-be-clever-it's-just-stupid robots, Dinah jumps to a ridiculous conclusion.

How does she know it's Basilisk technology?  And why does she assume that in the wake of an entire building coming down that the dealer is still alive just because somebody activated the machines.  Doesn't matter.  Now it's Batgirl's turn to be stupid.

The last time you left Strix and Dinah alone, Strix tried to kill her.  And that wasn't a long time ago and like they've made up and bonded and stuff.  That was five minutes ago!  Also, Strix was trying to tell you that Dinah is dangerous.  She started writing it in the dirt and you just forgot about it, Batgirl.  I thought you were smart!

So as soon as everyone else is out of earshot, Strix grabs one of the robots and threatens to kill Dinah unless she comes out with an explanation.

Strix lets her live.  I don't know why.  Maybe she understands something about not having control and feeling like you've been co-opted to kill everything.

But that doesn't change the fact that Dinah is still, by her own admission, a "walking weapon of mass destruction".  By her own admission, she cannot control this destructive power, and even suspects she might be going crazy.  Shouldn't something be done about this?

During this scene where Dinah reveals her secret to the conveniently mute woman who can't repeat it to the others, we learn that Batgirl and Condor stopped the Basilisk guy--off panel--and Starling got Amanda Waller to call off the authorities--also off panel.

Then it's time for levity.

Gotham City is still in a blackout.  Stores are being looted.  Crimes are being committed.  People are being robbed, raped, murdered.  That's all on Dinah.  And she and the rest of the Birds are walking off together, smiling, talking about getting a drink.  Why don't they go help?  Why don't they try to save somebody?

**** you, that's why!

This is how "the writer" concludes his run on the book, with the characters ambivalently ignoring the giant cluster**** they created.  How fitting. 

The Characters

At the beginning of this series, Black Canary was a fugitive, wanted for murdering her husband, Kurt Lance.  Later, she as much as admitted to her friends that she was guilty.  She killed her husband.  She believed he was dead and she was at fault, but she never surrendered to the authorities or accepted any form of punishment.  Instead, she dressed up in a costume with her vigilante girlfriends and fought crime-ish.

Now, a year and a half later, Black Canary is responsible for a disaster that will doubtless cost many innocent lives.  Dinah knows it's her fault, but she never surrenders to the authorities or accepts any form of punishment.  She lies to protect her own ass, keeping it a secret even from her teammates.

Black Canary: liar, coward, killer.

Oh yeah, she also trusted Poison Ivy.  Add dumbass to the list above.

Impression/Questions

I have had dozens of questions about this book since the first issue of the New 52.  I have even more today because "the writer" never answered any of them.  I won't bother restating the questions now because there isn't a point.

But the lack of answers and the offensive characterization are only some of the problems with this issue.  Here's another one:

Dinah calls herself a "walking weapon of mass destruction" because she cannot control her powers.  That might have been interesting sixteen months earlier, but now it has no meaning, no effect, no danger because we have seen it before.  Twice.

The first story arc of this series saw people, including Dinah, being used as biological weapons of mass destruction.  Living bombs.  The second arc had Poison Ivy betray her team, turning them into biological weapons of mass destruction.  Living chemical bombs.  And now we're left with Dinah incapable of controlling her Canary Cry, making her a self-proclaimed biological weapon of mass destruction.  Living sonic bomb.

That's not a recurring theme.  That's "the writer" literally having no other ideas, just using the same plot device over and over and over again.

Duane Swierczynski, you suck.  Your writing on this book was horrible and you should be ashamed of it forever.

Grade: Why bother even giving it a grade?

**** you, that's why!

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-