By Gail Simone (writer), Ed Benes (artist), Neil Ruffino (colors), Steve Wands (letters)
The Story: Oracle calls the Birds of Prey (and a few non-members) together when she receives files detailing all of the heroes’ personal information—secret identities, home addresses, families and friends. The team must work to discover who has this information, and prevent it from being taken public—or from being used against them or those they care about.
What’s Good: First issues are tricky, especially when dealing with already established characters. The writer has to maintain a delicate balance between giving the readers enough information to get invested in the characters and involved in the story without awkwardly shoehorning in back story that distracts from the main plot and bores the longtime fans. Fortunately, Simone does an excellent job bringing things up to speed, filling new readers in on important characters and their powers with text boxes while the main focus remains on establishing personalities and relationships through dialogue. This was the right decision, and one that Simone executes very well.
The story itself is a good one, and provides a (relatively) non-contrived reason to bring the old team back together. Some new blood is also injected (in the form of Hawk and Dove) to shake things up and give this volume of the series its own identity and flavor. The scene between the two is actually one of the best in the book; their interaction together tells us far more about both of them than a back-of-the-book primer ever could, and Hawk even makes reference to his recent, mysterious resurrection. The cliffhanger ending of the issue is unexpected, and definitely makes me want to read issue #2 (which I would do anyway, but having an incentive other than “I love Gail Simone and the Birds of Prey” is very nice indeed.)
I have to admit I was a little leery when I heard that Ed Benes was drawing this series. I’m familiar with some of his other work and have never been a huge fan. His work on the old Birds of Prey in particular did not impress me. His focus often seemed to be less on storytelling and constructing a good panel than it did on…how to put this delicately… on the physical attributew of the female heroes. While I’m sure (and actually quite understand) why that might make him quite popular with some sections of the comic fanbase, I am absolutely the wrong demographic for that, and so I wasn’t looking forward to seeing the return of one of my favorite super teams interrupted by gratuitous T&A. Luckily for me (and others who share my sentiment), he reigns it in to a much more reasonable level here. There’s still the occasional oddly proportioned or oddly framed shot, but on the whole the ladies seem far more realistic here than they have been under his pencil in the past. This makes the fight scenes (and, in fact, the simple act of the characters walking and standing upright) less physics-defying and much easier to enjoy. For this fan, that’s a positive step.
What’s Not So Good: There’s not a whole lot to complain about, really. I could have done with the BoP’s reunion being a little less teary-eyed and a little more practical (especially considering what was at stake for them), but on the whole it was a very strong initial issue. The writing is solid, the art is well done and the first arc seems to be heading in a positive direction.
Conclusion: I feel very comfortable recommending this as a buy to almost anyone. Unless you just don’t care for Simone’s style of writing (or don’t like the characters), you’ll find something in this book to enjoy. Seeing the Birds of Prey back together again is wonderful, and I really like the addition of Hawk and Dove—I’ll be interested to see just how integrated (or not) they end up being with the core four. Then there’s the big reveal at the end of the book, of course…but I’d rather not spoil it for you. Let’s just say I’m looking forward to seeing how the Birds deal with it.
Grade: B+
-SoldierHawk
Grade
Conclusion