Customer Reviews

Birds of Prey, Vol. 2: Sensei & Student

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This trade focuses on Black Canary more than it does the others but that doesn't make this book any less brilliant.

Black Canary's former sensei has been murdered by an unknown assailant and she must team up with the worlds most skilled warrior Shiva to track down the fiend responsible.

Once again, Gail writes the woman as real women with the ability to kick ass. The banter is ever present amongst the BoP while the action is plentiful and the art is beautiful.

If you want to get into Birds of Prey, pick up Of Like Minds and Sensei & Student together. You won't be disappointed with either.

Gail Simone has rescued this series! This title has been around for a while, it floundered around for many years with different writers. Simone found the groove!

This is a solid, action-packed, well-paced story. I love the flashback story with the original Black Canary. This book really captures Huntress well too. Simone and her team of artists make this book sexy without it being crass, so I think guys and girls would like it.

Buy it!!!

I've just become a fan of the Birds two months back, but I really really admire the way Gail Simone writes the Birds. I just love the interactions between Dinah Lance and Barbara Gordon. Despite my note on the difference between the previous Huntress (e.g., the one I read in the Gods of Gotham story arc of Wonder Woman) and this Huntress in BoP, I still find that Birds of Prey really is the best heroine group of the DCU. Well, the only one, actually. Coz I don't count Wonder Woman and Catwoman as having a formal group affiliation with other female heroes, notwithstanding my love to both characters of Diana and Selina.

In this TPB, I was not only served with a great interaction between the three Birds, but also a rare treat of informal team of Black Canary and Lady Shiva, the world's most deadly assassin. As a fan of Wonder Woman, I was also very pleased to read the great interactions, albeit only 4-5 pages between Diana and Dinah while they were sparring at the JLA watchtower. Gail managed to catch the essence of Wonder Woman in such a short issue (i.e., Superman is the 'light' of human nature, Batman is the 'dark' side of human nature, while Diana encompasses both).

I was also excited to see Catwoman and Katana (and Gypsy) guest starring and helping Huntress and Black Canary to release Oracle from an 'illegal' prison. Again, Gail managed to grasp the essence of Catwoman in only several panels.

Way to go, Gail! Now, I have to save to buy some more BoP TPB...

Sensi and Student was my first introduction into Birds of Prey. let me tell you, it has been a great series and a fantastic introduction to the characters.

This trade if filled with some fantastic character moments, action, thrills, and humor.

I could rehash the entire plot for you, but I think you've seen or read it before. I can tell you that I really enjoyed this trade, and it is a bright spot in my collection. I wasn't let down one bit by this series.

The only reason it doesn't get five stars, is I hoped the trade would offer more than the collection of comics. perhaps the writer and artists comments/sketches. Something more than the books recollected.

A Little Sugar


Sensei and Student is the second TPB collecting the second arc of Gail Simone's Birds of Prey book. It involves one of the long time Birds of Prey going to Hong Kong to see her dying martial arts teacher. While there she meets Lady Shiva the DCU's deadliest assassin who used to also be a pupil of said teacher. The teacher gets killed and the book evolves into a long convoluted story that would be too long to rehash here.


I have been with this book ever since Gail Simone took it over. I was looking for a new book to collect and the addition of Huntress, one of my top favourite heroines meant that I would be collecting the book for sure.

Gail Simone is one of the few comic book writers in the business who tells stories the old fashioned way. Meaning she opens threads and keeps threads dangling to be addressed at a later date (you might want to read the "Of Like Minds" TPB before reading this book). Or to be frank she doesn't write for a trade. Something which many readers, including this reviewer, really appreciates. She has a lot of ideas and it shows in the book. She is also very good at writing action and the dialogue is crisp and a lot of fun.

But I find that the action is sometimes too frenetic and too fast paced. Things happen without any explanation. It's as if the author wants to get from point A-Z without examining the in between. Sometimes I feel as if I am reading the comic book version of Charlie's Angels (the movie not the TV show). But it was something that I was willing to overlook and dismiss as growing pains of the author. That is until I got to the last chapter of this story (issue #68). Which frankly made my hair stand on end and almost made me quit collecting the book altogether.


If there is one transgression I will not tolerate, is a writer coming on board a book and writing a character out of their prescribed character. Willy nilly changes to a character without any reason is something I find incredibly irritating. And unfortunately that was what Gail has done in this book. It seems that the author has a story in mind that she wants to tell, and she is going to write each character in a way that will fit with her story. As opposed to allowing each `Bird' to breath on their own.

This greatest fault of this lies in Simone's portrayal of Huntress. She has not only ret-conned the characters past (Helena got fired for going AWOL not for showing up at school with bruises). But has also changed the characters personality. For some reason Simone has decided that she wants to portray Huntress as a clichéd one dimensional soap opera/ B-movie femme fatal given to loose behaviour. That is NOT who Huntress is, and it is not the same character I've admired and respected for the last four years. If it were I would not be a Huntress fan and I would not be reading BoP.


Some BoP fans, mostly fans of Barbara "Oracle" Gordon, are annoyed that Huntress has been added to the team. Since the two women have never gotten along and Oracle has been shown to openly dislike Huntress. They argue that it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever for Oracle to call upon Huntress for help when she has access to such a wide network of allies. I on the other hand argue that Huntress has no business being in the group especially after the shabby way that Dinah and Barbara are treating her in this issue. Huntress has previously been portrayed as a very no nonsense and proud woman. Part of the reason she is not in the Bat group was because she couldn't tolerate Batman's arrogance. So I am supposed to believe that she would willingly stand by and allow Dinah and Barbara to disrespect her this way? And not mention Josh. Huntress' whole behaviour in this incident is not only out of character it's completely absurd.

However I must praise Simone for coming on board and not writing Barbara as a neurotic mess, at least I could see where the change came from and was addressed.

Anyway this is all academic and might in itself not bother readers who are unfamiliar with the character. Or who don't mind a character being written out of character or who are just looking for a sugar fix and a fun read.


While I am not completely pleased or happy with what Simone has done to Huntress. I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt for now. Because faults or not she's one of the few good writers in the industry who can still tell a comic book story the old fashioned way. And that is to be appreciated.

Birds of Prey is a long-running comic starring the wheel-chair bound computer expert Oracle (the former Batgirl Barbara Gordon) and sexy crime fighter Black Canary. In this book they are joined by the Huntress (a more violent take on the Batgirl idea) and the assassins Cheshire and Lady Shiva. When Black Canary's sensei is murdered in Hong Kong it sets off a series of events and unlikely alliances as she tries to solve the murder while watching her back. Meanwhile Oracle has been captured by shady government agents.

It's a fun thriller with tense action, good dialogue and very little in the way of superheroics. Take away the costumes and this could almost be a straight mystery/action story. Gail Simone really does a great job here.

The main problem is the art. Ed Benes is one of those artists with a lot of superficial style but lacking some basic skills. He can draw pretty faces, nice butts and tight costumes but he gives every woman in the book the same face, the same body.

In a story with many Asian characters he really can't make Asian faces look different from his other faces. The few times he tries he literally gives them slanted eyes, eyes that are tilted 45 degrees! Later there's a quick scene in Times Square, which looks nothing like the real Times Square. It's one of the most famous and photographed places on Earth! How hard is it to find a reference? Or if that's too much, just change the scene to 'Gotham Square' or some other generic location.

This is a fun book and even Benes' art is not bad, just very limited. It's worth a quick read but really is not worth seeking out or keeping. I give it a 3/5.

... simply rocks.

Sensei and Student was the second major arc of Gail Simone's when she was writing Birds of Prey. Simply put, it is essentially everything good about comics. Great action, great pacing, great dialogue. it is all there. Not to mention that the series stars female characters... something you rarely see in comics, let alone done well. Gail makes her characters ones you can relate to, a hard task given the genre.

Lady Shiva, Cheshire, Huntress . . . guest stars galore in this collection. Lady Shiva is perhaps the most deadly martial artist in the DC universe and a well-known assassin. To make matters worse, Black Canary will have to team-up with her if she wants to find the answers she seeks!

And it bears mentioning that some of these guest stars become more than guest stars later down the road.

Did I mention the artwork by Ed Benes. It doesn't get much better than this.

Title: Birds of Prey: Sensei and Student
Publisher: DC
Writer: Gail Simone
Pencilers: Ed Benes, Michael Golden, Joe Bennet, Cliff Richards
Inkers: Ed Benes, Michael Golden, Alex Lei, Ruy Jose, Scott Hanna, Mike Manley
Collects: Birds of Prey #62-68
Price: $17.95

The cover of this trade is adorned with praising remarks from Entertainment Weekly, Wizard Magazine, Mark Millar, and other. After reading the book, I can easily see why they give it such high praise. This is a really high-quality book in terms of writing, pencils, inks, colors, and everything else. The main characters, Black Canary, Huntress, and Oracle, are all intelligently written and beautifully illustrated. One of the comments on the cover of the trade advertises it as a "guilty pleasure," and that's not far from the truth. While the story may be good enough to sell the book, the women inside are drawn in such a way as to leave you feeling a little guilty for reading the book. No, there's no nudity and very little in terms of mature themes, but the artists on the title sure can make these women look good!

In this story arc, Black Canary and Lady Shiva both travel to Hong Kong to see their mutual sensei that is near the end of his old life. While in Hong Kong, their sensei is murdered and the two team up to track down and punish the killer. Meanwhile, back in the state, Oracle has a serious computer problem. Someone has hacked into her impenetrable system and is sending her misinformation and threatening her. Soon, Oracle finds herself kidnapped along with other women - each one of whom has been targeted as possibly being the real secret identity of Oracle. Barbara has to use her considerable brain power to get help from the outside before it's too late for her.

Guest stars in the book include Catwoman, Kitana, Cheshire, and other feminine heroes from the Batman corner of Dc's universe, and all of these characters are included into the storyline in a way that doesn't seem contrived. Appropriately enough, the female leads all use their wits, rather than brawn, to get out of difficult situations, of which there are plenty.

What I liked most about this book was the interaction between Lady Shiva and Black Canary. The two characters have a similar set of physical talents that originate from their shared teacher, but the two have very different views of the world and of themselves. While they clearly don't like one another and are wary of each other, they have a great respect for each other. In fact, Lady Shiva offers Black Canary the opportunity to train under her. Seeing Black Canary mentally weighing the moral implications of this offer and the future ramifications of accepting the offer was an interesting read, and Gail Simone really shows us the strength of this character. Simone also includes several instances of humorous scenes and witty dialogue in the story, which only make it that much more appealing to the reader.

I usually have a pretty good amount of disdain for TPBs containing a story arc drawn by a large number of different artists. There are several reasons for this: 1) The artists often have their own unique style of work, and this throws off the entire look of the book. It's like wearing clothes that clash. 2) Often times, one or more of the "fill-in" artists does a below-average job of illustrating their part of the story. Again, this clash of good and bad can ruin potential greatness. 3) The collective of artists that are drawing the comics are not working together in the same place, so you tend to get some inconsistencies in the way character's costumes and faces are drawn, and even the environments can look very different. Anything like this that forces the reader out of the story is a bad thing. I'm happy to say, though, that this book is the first one I've read (drawn by many different artists) that didn't bother me. Because all of the artwork is so good and almost seamlessly woven together, I didn't notice any of the things that usually bother me. In most instances, I had a hard time noticing where one artist stopped and another began. The only part that's really noticeable is in the flashback scenes, but that's done intentionally. I've seen this used in other titles to do the flashback scenes, and that doesn't bother me. The colors on the book, done by Hi-Fi studios, are also worth mentioning, as they were superbly done. This book almost scored a 10 from me on art, which is amazing considering it was put together by so many different artists.

I kind of wish I would have read the first trades before reading this one, however, I found this book to be pretty accessible and I enjoyed it enough to make plans to read the other trades offered. I'll most likely write up reviews on those at some point in the future.

Writing: 9/10
Artwork: 9/10
Cool Factor: 10/10
Overall: 9.3/10

This is the second compilation of Gail Simone's Birds of Prey. In this set, Black Canary travels to the orient to visit her sensei. unfortunately, he is ill and will soon die. shortly after meeting with him and reuniting with Lady Shiva (the world's premier assassin)who was also a student of his; they find he has been murdered. Thus begins a treacherous journey to discover who is responsible as well as uncovering a murderer from her mother's (the original Black Canary) past.
Gail Simone has a great sense of characterization, dialogue and drama with this series. needless to say, this book also shows how great Barbara Gordon, the former Batgirl still is. If you are a comic/graphic novel fan, I highly recommend this series.