Birds of Prey #110

Birds of Prey #110
Um, yeah, I'm still not feeling it. Although this issue is OKAY, I can't see how Bedard is going to manage this type of issue every month. Hell, this issue is only OKAY because it focuses on one Bird in particular. Which makes this type of story antithetical to a team book. Which means that this can't last. Which means that I miss Gail Simone even more.

Birds of Prey #109

Birds of Prey #109
I really don't know what to make of this title.
On the one hand, I love the Birds. On the other hand, the Black Canary miniseries sucked.
On the one hand, the women in this book are drawn looking like real women. On the other hand what's up with their faces (as drawn by Nicola Scott)?
On the one hand, it's interesting that someone should be hunting Fourth World characters. On the other hand, it pisses me off that DC is about to off every single last one of them, including Scott Free and Big Barda if the solicits are to be trusted.
On the one hand, it's cute to see Sin playing Pokemon. On the other hand, Sin's playing Pokemon?
On the one hand, it's nice to see that Barbara cares enough about Dinah, her best friend, to make sure that she knows what she's doing by marrying Ollie. On the other hand, I've had friends dating or engaged to people who were no good for them, and putting them on the defensive certainly is not the best way of making one's point.
I guess what I'm trying to say here is that while, on the one hand, this issue is filled with neat ideas, on the other hand, its execution is all wrong.
Still, it's OKAY, but if this keeps up, Bedard is certainly not going to be getting good ratings from me.

Black Canary #1
Really, not that good. I was sincerely hoping for more. The scenes with Dinah interacting with Sin are competently executed, but I just can't bring myself to care much about the overall plot, probably because it involves characters that I am either unfamiliar with, or just don't care about much. I'm speaking, of course, of Dinah's ex-husband (what?) and Merlyn, respectively. Merlyn was a member of the league of Assassins? Huh. Whatever. Who cares? Also, though he claims to have come by most of the GA paraphernalia in his office "the hard way", what does that really mean? That he fought GA for a picture of him and Speedy? That he got beat up and Ollie left behind one of his action figures? Really? Sorry, that makes no sense!
Why is Dinah's motel room GREEN? And WHY is she staying in a MOTEL? She's been asked to wed one of the richest men in the DCU, and she's slumming it? WHY?
And is it just me, or does it seem at all strange to anyone that Dinah apparently uses her costume as jammies? It's actually quite disturbing. Dinah's getting ready for bed, Sin goes out to the ice machine, gets approached by a stranger, and Dinah shows up in full regalia to kick his ass. Isn't that odd? IS it just me? I suppose that fishnet stockings must be very comfortable to sleep in.
EH, whatever. Too bad this wasn't written by Gail Simone, it'd have been ten times better.

Birds of Prey #106

Birds of Prey #106
I've had this review sitting around, because I forgot to publish it:

Dark Vengeance! SSSS!!! The only bad point in this issue is not enough Ice. Otherwise, KICKASS!! EXCELLENT.

Birds of Prey #107

Birds of Prey #107
Ice proves it really is she. I love Gail Simone. A great fight between Simone's two super-teams, and a nice team-up at the end. Snarky dialogue as always, and tight plotting that I'll miss once Simone leaves the title. And have I mentioned how much I love Misfit? I love Misfit! "Dark Vengeance! Sssssss!" VERY GOOD.

52+ fixes

Scipio Garling of the Absorbascon posted a list of 42 (then 43) items which need to be addressed by DC in order to completely fix the stupidities they've perpetrated over the years, not to mention conflicting origins, timeline errors, misinterpreted characters, bad writing, and awful storylines. You can find his list here.
He issued a challenge to his readers to come up with 10 (then 9) additional elements that require changing by the DC PTB's.
I've expanded the list to 58.

Here are my additions:
44. Get rid of Millennium.
45. Get rid of Zero Hour too.
46. Get rid of Argent's Teen Titans.
47. Get rid of saying that Mxyzptlk comes every 90 days. That's just stupid, and it continually throws the timeline into flux. Just let him come whenever he wants to.
48. Get rid of anything Bruce Jones has ever written. And don't let him write anything in the main DCU ever again.
49. Get rid of Superman Red/Blue and Electric Superman.

50. I like the portrayal of many of Batman's rogues gallery as individuals having a difficult time keeping their hands clean, as opposed to homicidal psychopaths. Keep Ivy (not to mention Woodrue) the champion of mother nature, no matter the costs. Keep Harley out on her own. Let the Penguin continue to operate his enterprises just the other side of shady. Let Two-Face be a district attorney who occasionally resorts to dirty tactics to get convictions. And please, please, please, let Riddler remain the celebrity detective he was born to be.

51. Evil Batgirl has got to go.
52. Likewise, Identity Crisis has got to go...while we're at it, how about forbidding Meltzer from writing anything for the DCU ever again?
53. Anything beyond the initial arc in Superman/Batman has got to go. [Edit: Oh, all right, you can keep Kara if you really want to.]
54. DC should get rid of Bart becoming the Flash. He's just not ready, and neither are we. Bart needs to be a kid. That's part of his charm.
55. The Steve Niles creeper needs immediate erasure.
56. Likewise the "New Skrull on the Block". J'onn is too rich a character to relegate to second rate stupid plots.

57. Speaking of J'onn, figure out his origin already, for God's sake! I'm going with Ostrander's. Make fire for J'onn sort of like yellow for Green Lanterns - dangerous, but only if he cannot overcome his fear of it.

58. And one more thing: undo War Games so that we can have Stephanie back. She was, like, my favorite Robin...ever!

Notes on Scipio's list and associated comments:
2. ...if Jason must be around. Otherwise, let him stay dead. Better yet, erase him altogether.
8. ...but Barbara should remain in a wheelchair, or at least a chair. She's indisposable as Oracle.
9. Emperor Joker did have its moments. It was a cute story.
39. Firestorm hasn't been as good since Dan Jolley left the new title.
43. Of course there's a Doctor Polaris, he's Grant Emerson's "uncle"!

Constantine and Swamp Thing aren't denizens of the DCU proper any more? What? Why? Does that mean that we've lost Constantine's relationship with Zatanna as well? Noooo!

Birds of Prey #105

Birds of Prey #105
A really GOOD issue. But I really wanted to know more about how Tora can still be drawing breath, when I remember her funeral!? Yeah, I know, comic book death, and all that, but I guess I'll just have to wait. I could've used a few more pages of knock-down drag-out fighting between Hawkgirl and Scandal. And what the hell is up with the satanic rituals? So that's how Communism lasted for so long! I'm interested in seeing where the Spy Smasher vs. Oracle plot takes us next. And I love little miss wannabe showing up and calling Babs her BFF. And any book with Manhunter in it has got to be good. That's the final word. So, GOOD - not VG, because we don't really get any new info here, just a lot of fun scenes.
Dear DC, please don't ruin next month's awesome cover by putting all kinds of indicia, upc, title, numbering, month, etc. information all over it. This might just be one of the greatest covers I've ever seen.

Birds of Prey #104

Birds of Prey #104
I love this book. I love this book! I LOVE THIS BOOK!
Gail Simone bemoans the fact that everyone since Dan Vado has been pissing all over Giffen and DeMatteis' JLI since they left the title, and then, in a move I never would have expected, not in a million years, she brings Tora back!!! It might just be a ruse, as was "Ted Kord"'s return in the pages of Manhunter (ewwwww), but ohmygod! Gail Simone sure knows how to write a fun book. I want her to be the next writer on JLA. What a fun JLA that would be, eh? Hell, get rid of Meltzer right now!

There's so many other things I love about this issue:
Kerimov saying to Creote "I always suspected you were a devourer of women". (In case you don't remember, he's gay.) Curiously though, I seem to remember his lover Savant declaring that he'd never work for Oracle again, following his torture at the hands of the Calculator's minions (BoP #90). I would assume that Creote's working with Babs would put some strain on their relationship. But no matter, it was a great line.
I love Helena's budding interest in Catman. He licks her! And yet, she comes back for more!
Kay and Scandal together at a formal event, making zero attempt to hide their relationship.
Helena, the meatball queen, flinging one at Blake.
Oracle: "Good job attempting to pump Blake, Helena."/Helena:"HEY! I didn't...we didn't even..."/O:"Wait! Bad choice of words." Priceless dialogue that you only get from Gail Simone on any sort of consistent basis. (BTW: Quote of the Week!)
Oracle rewards Hawkgirl with her own sportscar for taking part in the mission.

Have I told anybody lately that I love this book?
EXCELLENT.

[This post has been reprinted over at Sequart.]

Birds of Prey #100

Birds of Prey #100
I've been looking forward to this issue for several months now. Although it isn't as good as I had expected it would be, it's still quite EXCELLENT, all the more so since it did not neglect the interaction between Canary and her new sister/daughter Sin. That's the one thing which I may miss most about her departure from the team. The Birds of Prey have always been about the chicks of the DCU, although never exclusively, recalling Beetle's tenure with them, as well as their attempted recruitment of the new Blue Beetle. I agree with Paul's comment as to breasts being, apparently, the only qualification for inclusion on this new team. That said, it surprises me that Babs would have sent out so many invites before whittling the selection down to her top picks, especially when some of those she invited were certain to refuse, as did Power Girl. And since Babs is now going on a recruitment drive, I find that it calls even further into question the decision that she made regarding her treatment of the new Batgirl. I would think that that would have been a perfect place to start beefing up the roster, especially since one of her goals used to be the training of superheroines. With a teacher of Helena's caliber on the permanent roster, her group would be an excellent place to accomplish that. Sort of like a school for metas. Some of her choices seem extremely obscure - I've been reading this series since the days of Gorf, and I still can't figure out who many of the invitees are. I love the inclusion of Kate Spencer on the team, especially since she functions entirely within her civilian identity on it. Barda mystifies me - is that "Big" Barda or the "Little" Barda that was introduced in Teen Titans? It's never made clear. I would assume it to be Big Barda, since she acquits herself competently, but I may be wrong. Anyways, like I said, this issue is quite EXCELLENT. I do hope that the Canary and Sin story is not allowed to fall by the wayside. Even without any sort of superheroing, it's still an interesting relationship.

Robin #155, Birds of Prey #99

Robin #155, Birds of Prey #99
There seems to be a theme in last week's Bat-titles - that newbies shouldn't get into the superhero game, ever. To my mind, this poses a problem. If the only individuals entitled to fight crime are those who are already established, the world will get old very quickly. Robin #155 "dodge"s the issue, because Robin was obviously a newbie at one time, and he pestered Batman to train him until he acquiesced. Likewise, Birds of Prey #99 dodges the issue as well - Barbara was a kid when she started as Batgirl, and although for a long time Batman tried to dissuade her from her activities, he eventually relented and began treating her as an equal. So why do both Robin and Barbara refuse to entertain the idea of training new superheroes? Why are Dodge and the new Batgirl unworthy of being heroes too? Sure, Dodge is a whiny brat, largely unskilled, and he puts very little thought into his actions. Rather, he reacts. But this is why he requires training! Batgirl is obviously very skilled, and she thinks before she acts. The only negative factor regarding her is her teeny-bopper-speak, and her enthusiasm for superheroing, which she treats as a game. But she approaches her self-appointed role quite competently, and she obviously has excellent detective and technical skills as well. So why won't Babs let her be a Bird? It's time for some new blood. And I really don't see why these new characters can't be incorporated into the family. In my opinion, they would add some elements which are currently missing. Robin used to be about a kid in training. Now, Tim has become so exceedingly competent in his job that it's merely about a teenager trying to fit teenage life into his superheroing. And Birds of Prey used to be about people learning to work together. But the current team has been established for such a long time that it's become somewhat stale. Obviously, Gail Simone realizes this as well, which is why she's having Dinah leave the team. I understand her reasoning, but Canary is too good of a character to relegate to the obscurity of longboxes. Sure, Meltzer may occasionally showcase her in Justice League, but probably just to rape her. Back in the early 90's, Canary's solo title faltered, because at that point the most exciting things about her were her relationship with Green Arrow, and her occasional participation in the JLI. But Simone has made her into a very deep character, one who is currently learning the joys and pains of motherhood, and I would like to see more of that. Unfortunately, it's probably not the type of subject material that's very well suited for its own miniseries, let alone an ongoing title, which is why it was perfect filler material for BoP. Hopefully, Gail will recognize this and give Dinah and Sin the occasional cameo, even if Canary is no longer a part of the team. The funniest thing about this all is that with the departure of Canary, there is not a single member of the Birds of Prey who actually have avian code names (as Jaime Reyes so astutely pointed out when they tried to recruit him).
That said, each of these issues is very EH, not really up to the standards which have been set on either of these books, certainly not BoP. Robin concludes the kidnapping plot, and wraps the Dodge subplot up as well, by putting him in a coma. BoP has a fight between Babs and Batgirl wherein each holds their own, shows Dinah getting out of shape, and features the departure of Canary from the book - boo hoo :(
I hope next month's issues are better.