The Good: Social conscience, Decent initial characterizations
The Bad: Unextraordinary artwork, Characters repeat their characterizations in inorganic ways, No larger statement.
The Basics: Black Canary/Oracle/Huntress: Birds Of Prey is the origin story of the Oracle’s superhero team . . . and what an underwhelming beginning it is!
As my She-Hulk Year begins, I actually find myself cleaning house of a few other graphic novels I have read lately. The first in my cache is Black Canary/Oracle/Huntress: Birds Of Prey. I’m not sure why I was reticent to sit down and read this trade paperback anthology; I like Birds Of Prey. I can only assume that I still have a negative association with Chuck Dixon based on the G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra Prequel book he wrote (reviewed here!) and that seeing that he wrote Black Canary/Oracle/Huntress: Birds Of Prey, I was just not excited.
As it is, Black Canary/Oracle/Huntress: Birds Of Prey is the apparent beginning to the modern Birds Of Prey team and the problems with it are what, if it were a television show I would call “pilot problems,” could easily be written off as starting franchise issues. Black Canary/Oracle/Huntress: Birds Of Prey is a decent initial idea, but it does not have a strong sense of what it wants to be or where, exactly, it is going with it.
The Oracle contacts Dinah Lance, who is behind on her payments to all of her bills following an aimless period after her leadership of the Justice League Of America and her breakup with Oliver Queen (Green Arrow), to help her discover what is going on with a series of terrorist attacks against financer Nick Devine. The Oracle uses Black Canary to get information on the dam project Devine has in the works that she fears will be attacked by the same terrorists. In combating the one-eyed Lynx, Black Canary enforces Oracle’s sense of justice and exposes the business plans of Devine in an unlikely way.
Following that, Black Canary breaks up a white slavery ring, a mission that leads her to come into conflict with Braun, a villain whose mundane life has intersected with the Huntress and Catwoman as well. When trying to fight Braun, who is able to effectively take on the formidable Lady Shiva, Black Canary and Huntress begin to bond and the Oracle realizes the three have potential to work well together.
Most of Black Canary/Oracle/Huntress: Birds Of Prey is focused on the budding relationship between the Oracle and Black Canary. Perhaps it is a lack of patience on my part given that I know how the dynamic develops later on and I am eager, as a reader, for it to get there already, but so much space in Black Canary/Oracle/Huntress: Birds Of Prey seems to be spent with asserting the initial characterizations of the two main protagonists. Barbara Gordon, the Oracle, is still reeling from the events of The Killing Joke (reviewed here!), which left her paralyzed from the waist down. Similarly, Dinah Lance is characterized as headstrong, but for someone who has been living in deep debt for a while, she does not seem to show a realistic sense of appreciation for how the Oracle is offering her a chance at stability and financial security. The result is that Lance reads as incredibly ungrateful and more foolhardy than compellingly strong-willed.
Dixon’s gag that Lance and Helena Bertinelli (the Huntress) recognize their common womanizing adversary from their appreciation of his butt is a cute idea that is well-executed. However, most of the artwork in Black Canary/Oracle/Huntress: Birds Of Prey is mediocre. The colors lack realistic subtlety or shading, though they are bright. Moreover, most of the panels feature surprisingly static shots, with little sense of movement within each frame and a choppy transition between frames. The art is not terrible, but it is not one of the key selling points of this particular book.
Black Canary/Oracle/Huntress: Birds Of Prey is a beginning, a beginning muddied by the insertion of Catwoman, an interesting and compelling character in her own right, but a distraction when trying to establish the group dynamic between the characters who are in the process of forming the Birds Of Prey. That the Huntress, Oracle, and Black Canary reluctantly accept her participation in their mission in Black Canary/Oracle/Huntress: Birds Of Prey, yet show her no loyalty at the conclusion of the adventure is somewhat problematic; it seems like they are happy to use her, complain about her, and then ditch her or let her go her own way when the threat of Braun is neutralized.
Black Canary/Oracle/Huntress: Birds Of Prey is an uninspired, though well-intentioned, start to the Birds Of Prey team.
For other Birds Of Prey books, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Between Dark And Dawn
Perfect Pitch
Blood And Circuits
Dead Of Winter
Metropolis Or Dust
Club Kids
Platinum Flats
3.5/10
For other book reviews, please check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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