By Gail Simone (writer), Ardian Syaf (pencils), Vincente Cifuentes (inks), Nei Ruffino (colors) and Travis Lanham (letters)
The Story: Bruce and Oracle have a discussion regarding the Birds and their future as a part of Batman Inc. (after some nifty ass-kicking of street thugs on both their parts.) Barbara also discusses the “death” of Oracle. Her logic: so many people know of Oracle, that someone close to her is going to get hurt, sooner or later. Elsewhere, Mammoth and Mortis attack a club that the rest of the Birds are patronizing for the night.
What’s Good: The Barbara/Bruce interaction is what carries this issue for me, and it’s clear that that’s where the attention was during the creative process. While the opening scene, with its musings on the nature and motivation of Gotham’s more notorious criminals, is excellent, and while the reveal of the villains—and for that matter, the interactions between the off duty Birds—was good, the small but fundamental change in Bruce and Barbara’s relationship (from Bruce acting as a mentor and overseer who might chew Barbara out for going out alone, to a more level partnership where they simply help each other because they’re on the same team) is excellent. I’m not quite sure I buy Bruce out and out asking her for a hug (especially while in costume as the Dark Knight), but other than that, the character work for both of them was stellar.
What’s Not So Good: (Almost) all comics jump around from scene to scene at least a little bit; it’s the nature of the medium and that’s fine. Birds of Prey has seemed particularly “jumpy” to me since issue #1 though, and that still hasn’t abetted. I’m not sure if it’s an editorial decision, or simply the nature of all the information and events that need to be fit in, but I would appreciate the pacing of the story not slowing down, but being more focused. This issue would have been very well served, for example, by focusing on Barbara and Bruce for the majority of the pages, and simply laying the groundwork for the other events, to be focused on in the next issue. Simone usually has impeccable story pacing, so it’s probably just the info/event dump aspect that’s making the scenes seem more like a checklist than crafted storytelling, but I do hope it can be addressed and rectified in future issues.
Conclusion: A very solid issue that brings the Birds of Prey into the Batman Inc. fold and sets up what could be a pretty big change for the nature of the way Barbara/Oracle operate. Despite the pacing issues, there’s plenty here to keep fans coming back for #8.
Grade: B-
-SoldierHawk
Grade
Conclusion