I'd like to say that the new monthly Birds of Prey series is off to a blistering start. I'd like to say that. But so far, it's off to a rocky start but with a world of potential ahead of it. Full spoiler talk below. If you don't want to know the plot, go no...
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I'd like to say that the new monthly Birds of Prey series is off to a blistering start. I'd like to say that. But so far, it's off to a rocky start but with a world of potential ahead of it.
Full spoiler talk below. If you don't want to know the plot, go no further.
Issue #1 of the new Birds of Prey ongoing picks up where the Rebirth issue left off: Barbara Gordon has decided to get the band back together, so she approaches Dinah Lance – now the lead singer of a punk band – and asks her to help track down a computer hacker who has stolen the title of Oracle for him or her self in order to sell secrets to the mafia. Meanwhile, Helena Bertinelli’s time as the Matron of Spiral has come to a close, and she has assumed the identity of the Huntress to hunt down members of the mafia in a bid for revenge against those who killed her family.
There are very familiar elements here, and I’m honestly okay with most of them coming back into play. It’s a little weird reading this alongside the original Chuck Dixon run that began in 1999, but they’re different enough that I don’t feel like it’s just a retread of what came before. For one thing, Canary actually has the Canary Cry in this series.
I should also get this out of the way quick: the art in this series takes some adjustment. In some panels everything looks just fine, but then in others… well, how can I put this delicately? The cast will briefly become horrifying to look at, but then a few panels later it’s fine again. All the angles get a little too sharp and the the noses get really big and teeth get weird (see attached panels for examples of the weirdly angular art). There are even panels where Barbara, Dinah, and Helena look like men dressed in drag. I hope these are just growing pains that are ironed out as time goes on. It’s not a very attractive book.
So as I said, the Rebirth issue sets up the primary conflict going forward. Issue #1 proper is the beginning of the ‘Who is Oracle?’ story arc. Titled ‘Dead of Night’, the book begins with a flashback to when Barbara was still Oracle, helping Canary fight crime from the shadows. It then moves back to the present, where Barbara, Dinah, and Helena are chasing down the same mob man. When they catch up to him, they discover him dead in the driver’s seat of his car. He appears to have been bitten to death by some kind of animal.
Looking for a new lead, Batgirl and Canary hunt down another mob member who ought to have the information they need. Huntress has beaten them to the punch. Batgirl engages Huntress in combat to prevent her killing the mob man, but before their fight concludes, a new challenger appears: a meta human called the Asp. This guy looks gnarly, and he seems to be able to control poisonous snakes. Canary manages to fight him off using the Canary Cry, and then Barbara and Helena form a tenuous truce in order to hunt down Oracle.
On the final page, a shadowy woman is introduced. The Asp is revealed to be working for her, and she is revealed to be a client of Oracle. To be continued...
So far, Batgirl and the Birds of Prey is off to an alright start. It doesn’t have the charm of the Chuck Dixon or Gail Simone run from 1999 to 2009, and the art isn’t amazing, but it’s not awful by any means. And at this point, I’m just happy to have a more traditional Helena Bertinelli back on the page.
![Batgirl and the Birds of Prey (2016-2018) #1 by [Julie Benson, Shawna Benson, Nathan Fairbairn, Yanick Paquette, Claire Roe, Allen Passalaqua]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61d93g8TuNL._SY177_.jpg)
