Birds of Prey #15 – Review

By: Marc Andreyko (writer), Billy Tucci & Adriana Melo (pencillers), JP Mayer & Eber Ferreira (inkers), Nei Ruffino (colorist)

The Story: They just can’t get him out of their heads.

The Review: Simone brings such a strong, distinctive voice to her writing, and such a high level of craft, that you find it hard to swallow anyone else’s work once she departs from a project.  This seems especially true with the Birds of Prey, her first high-profile title for DC, one still making her reputation to this day.  Still, Andreyko seemed a good candidate for the job; he has plenty experience writing strong superheroines from his formidable Manhunter ongoing.

So why do the Birds sound so uncharacteristically fraught?  Oracle snaps, “I’m doing everything I can here, Manhunter!”  Kate’s professional response?  “Well then do something else!”  These women have gone through some pretty harrowing experiences (and in fact, the arc just before this had a particularly grisly one), so their testiness in this issue seems a tad forced.  Sure, two of their own are in danger, but again, nothing new there (the previous arc also had that plotline).

This may have nothing to do with the fact that Andreyko’s a man, but you feel more aware of the Birds’ gender this issue.  Their banter has an unnaturally flirty, Sex in the City quality that has almost nothing to do with their personalities or types: “Hey, big guy!  Can we play, too?”  “Oh, and a wordsmith, too?  Are you single?”  “S’OK, handsome.  I like it rough.”  These lines come in stark contrast to the textured, dimensional dialogue these ladies usually come equipped with.

Birds of Prey #14 – Review

By: Marc Andreyko (writer), Billy Tucci & Adriana Melo (pencillers), Billy Tucci & JP Mayer (inker), Nei Ruffino (colorist)

The Story: These dames aren’t here to mess around—they’re out to kick Nazi butt!

The Review: One of DC’s greatest strengths is its long, incredible history, especially its rich beginnings.  Once you add up all the properties DC has assumed from other publishers over the years, you’re looking at a rather inspiring cast of legacy characters, some of whom continue to operate today, either in an elder statesman status like much of the Justice Society, or with younger generations taking up their names and icons.  Call me hopelessly sentimental, but I think that’s nothing short of marvelous.

Besides our usual flock of Birds (plus guest Manhunter), we also get to see in action Golden Age bombshells Dinah Drake (the original Black Canary) and Sandra Knight (the first Phantom Lady), with Lady Blackhawk an anachronistic link between the two generations.   Considering the tremendous credentials of all these ladies, we have evidence that from the start, DC has been a pretty good place for heroic women.

The story splits between the past and present, but the plot is nonetheless light and predictable: long-thought-finished antagonists rising again to haunt his former defeaters.  Andreyko goes for a jingoistic, rah-rah America tone (“Guns are fer [sic] grownups, Hitler youth!”) as he sends the pre-Nixon heroines into Argentina to recover a mad-scientist Nazi.  They encounter resistance in a swarm of blond-haired, blue-eyed adolescents, a kind of Aryan Children of the Corn.

Birds of Prey #12 – Review

By: Gail Simone (writer), Jesus Saiz (artist), Nei Ruffino (colorist)

The Story: The Birds tackle their latest mission, Charlie’s Angels style.

The Review: Ever since this title relaunched, it’s been hassled by the distractions of Brightest Day, and though good stories have come out of it, none have really captured the magic from Simone’s original run on Birds.  But now that the crossover material’s out of the way, Simone has the freedom to tell the stories she wants, the way she wants.

Almost no one in the comics biz writes the scene macabre as convincingly as Simone, and for good reason: most dance around making their characters “dark,” but Simone will take darkness by the throat and shove it in your face.  The opener offer no direct info about who the characters are, but some choice words (“What.  Do you see?”  “A woman’s entrails still steaming, fresh from an evisceration.”) tells you volumes about who you’re dealing with.

As graphic as they can be, Simone’s characters also never fall into caricature territory.  Beneath whatever depravity they possess, there’s humanity as well.  Lethal as the twin women undeniably seem, they’re also vulnerable.  Their attempts to appear “normal” for what they hope will be a “normal” job has an almost endearing sincerity, and even when one of them admits she sees in the Rorschach test a woman’s skull she’s stomped on, there are tears in her eyes.