Birds of Prey #12

Heartbreak and Vine

I've never been a huge Birds of Prey fan. I like the concept, I like Barbara Gordon, I'm generally up for anything that centers around Batman, and I know Birds of Prey has had some excellent writers over the years, but I guess I have never picked it up at the right point.

It appears that all of that is irrelevant because the history of the Birds of Prey seems to have been wiped out in the reboot. Instead of being a team formed by Oracle and Black Canary a few years ago, Black Canary founded the team by herself only a couple of months ago, and recruited all the members of the team. Batgirl, Katana, Poison Ivy, and Starling are certainly an eclectic team of...heroines, but has the writer been able to make this team into something worth reading?

In this issue, Poison Ivy begins to go rogue and pursue her own goals of environmental terror rather than help the team fight to save lives.

The Unknowns

There are too many unknowns in this comic for me to fully understand what is happening. Good writers catch their readers up to what is going on in every issue, but though some background information is provided, Swierczyski definitely left new readers partially in the dark. At the beginning of the issue, Starling shoots some corporate executive in the throat with a sedative dart, yet it seems the team is upset with Poison Ivy. What happened right before the issue started and why the team was even there is left a complete mystery. At many points, a plague of some sort is referenced, but other than the fact that they are trying to stop the plague, nothing about this is explained. It is clear throughout the issue that the Birds have struck a deal with Poison Ivy to get her aid in stopping the plague in exchange for helping her with her terrorist activities, but no explanation is given for how Poison Ivy's help is so invaluable. I assume they need her due to Poison Ivy's immunity to toxins, but who knows?

The Stupids

Did you catch what I said a moment ago? Our team of heroines is helping Poison Ivy complete terrorist activities. How stupid is that? I can see this 24-esque style deal with the devil if there were an immediate worldwide threat which would kill millions. Though it would still leave a sour taste in my mouth, I can understand destroying an off-shore drilling facility in exchange for stopping that. However, Poison Ivy has been on the team from issue one which leads me to believe that this plague threat has been going on for quite awhile. Furthermore, if they even have time to help a terrorist attack, the plague is obviously not an immediate threat. With all the heroes and resources available to members of this team, I'm sure they could find someone to help them who would not require acts of terrorism.

After getting upset with Ivy in the CEO's office, Black Canary realizes that alliance with Ivy is over, yet she waits until they are about to jump from a plane on the mission to destroy the oil rig before confronting her. After battling in the air with each other for several minutes, the girls decided to go ahead and complete their mission, and they only continue the feud with Ivy after the attack is over. If you knew the alliance was over, why did you complete the attack wiping out millions of dollars of assets, endangering lives, creating an oil spill, driving up the price of gas, eliminating the livelihood of the oil workers, and wasting precious time , dumb-a***? I like Black Canary, but her leadership in this issue was horrible, and the error falls with the writer who apparently thought this arrangement was remotely sensible, and then tried to keep Dinah from looking like a complete fool when things turned south. Well, you failed Swierczynski.

Fashion Faux Pas

I've heard a lot of criticism for the costume design work on Birds of Prey, and I'm afraid the criticisms are well deserved. Black Canary looks like she is wearing a workout uniform that a nine year old girl would put together if she really loved comic books, while Starling's outfit looks pretty good except it is a little generic and it leaves an impractically large amount of her boobs exposed. I cannot decide what I think of Katana's outfit. It does look kind of cool, but at the same time, it feels a bit excessive, and it seems like she would have trouble breathing. Batgirl's outfit actually looks good, and contrary to most people's opinion, I actually like Poison Ivy with the black leotard and the green leaf design, but beyond these two exceptions, the outfits are bad.

While on the subject of visuals, the art bugged me in a few ways. In general, it is just mediocre, but I was annoyed by Dinah's Canary Cry. It should be sound waves, but the way it was rendered reminded me of the internet meme "ima firin mah lazer." Also, all the boobs in this issue were improbably large and all exactly the same size. Obviously, women's frames are often exaggerated in comics, but I was surprised by the fact that all the girls seemed to be the same cup size. It know it is odd, but it actually drew me out of the issue when I noticed this.

Ect.

In one last note, wasn't Katana a lesbian? In this issue, she makes reference to her dead husband. I assume this was a change of the reboot, but it seems odd when DC has obviously been courting the homosexual population by creating more gay characters. Why change the sexuality of an already gay character?

I did enjoy Starling. She had an attitude that I really enjoyed at least in this issue, and I hope she continues to be a compelling character.

Also, when did Poison Ivy begin to grow plants out of her back?

Conclusion

I do not recommend this issue to anyone. It is not worth three bucks.