Big, Bloated, Broken, Cool: The Tough Call Of Cryptozoic’s The New 52 Trading Card Set!

The Good: Decent subject matter, Some very cool sketch cards
The Bad: Exceptionally expensive to collect, Overproduced, Damaged cards, Some esoteric choices in the bonus set, Some ridiculously simplistic sketch cards.
The Basics: Cryptozoic’s The New 52s card set makes for a big start to Cryptozoic’s possession of the DC Comics license, but their execution of the material is not ideal.


I was not actively collecting or dealing trading cards when Cryptozoic rose to prominence. While I was, essentially, “out of the game,” the trading card company Inkworks completely collapsed and Cryptozoic rushed in to fill the niche they left. Cryptozoic’s meteoric rise in the trading card industry allowed the company to secure some potentially lucrative licenses. The most personally significant to me (given my card collecting habits, past and future) is that Cryptozoic won the license to DC Comics. While I have recently reviewed the Women Of Legend set (reviewed here!), I finally managed to get my hands on a reasonably priced case of their first DC Comics-based release, The New 52.

Unfortunately, Cryptozoic’s first DC Comics-based trading card set is fraught with problems. The common cards had a production error that left an average of one card per pack damaged and the sketch cards were so numerous that it is virtually impossible to assemble a true master set of these cards! That said, some of the cards are actually very neat and the set illustrates a decent potential for Cryptozoic.

Basics/ Set Composition

The DC Comics The New 52 trading cards were originally released in boxes with twenty-four packs, packs containing five cards each. Properly assembled, the New 52 consists of 296 cards! Featuring cards that balance classic, recognizable characters in their New 52 Universe form and new characters and superhero teams unique to The New 52, the New 52 card set is already a good historical cart collection (several of the cards feature titles that have already been cancelled!). Properly assembled, the set features sixty-two common cards and 234 bonus cards (all but ten are available in the boxes of New 52 cards).

Common Cards

The New 52 is a 62 card set that features both characters and teams of characters in the New 52. As a result, cards that feature Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman and Catwoman are mixed in with cards that detail the characters of Justice League Dark, Stormwatch, Grifter, and Mirror. The sixty-two card set is made up of a title card introducing the New 52, sixty character cards and a checklist card.

The common cards are generally good, though not all of it is unique to the set. The Flash, for example, is just a copy of the cover of Move Along (reviewed here!). The artwork ranges from cards that look like comic book art (like the cards for Wonder Woman and Batman) and almost photo-realistic fine art cards, like the cards for Harley Quinn and Swamp Thing. The contrast in the cards’ quality borders on the ridiculous (the card for White Rabbit, for example, might have been quasi-pornographic if the artwork was not so cartoonish!).

Unfortunately, the arts quality is not the only issue. Cards in this set seemed to have been packed into their packs damaged. Usually the top card in each pack had a scratch or pressure mark, as if it were pressed and a seam down the front center was created as they went into the packs. That makes the average pack unfortunately overpriced as they have only 4 cards that are in collectible condition.

The writing for the New 52 set is good-enough. Fans of the DC Universe will not learn anything new or extraordinary by reading the backs of the cards, though they are clearly intended for fans of the New 52 (Wonder Woman, for example, is mentioned to be the daughter of Hippolyta and Zeus). The card backs are interesting for telling more casual fans about the obscure heroes like Grifter, Massacre and Starling.

Chase Cards

The New 52 set features an insanely greater number of bonus cards than common cards, though it is not uncommon these days for common sets to have vastly fewer cards than bonus cards. The New 52 set features 234 chase cards which range from simple foil parallel cards to exceedingly rare sketch cards (each of which are entirely unique). In the packs, collectors can find 224 of the 234 bonus cards. The chase card breakdown is thus: 62 foil parallel cards, 9 Lantern Die-Cut cards, 9 Work In Progress lenticular cards, 143 sketch and 1 Redemption cards. The most basic chase card set found in the packs are the foil parallel cards. The parallel cards replicate the common cards, but with mirrored accents. Some of the cards are extraordinary for how the foil enhances the image of the character the card portrays. The backs of the foil parallel cards are identical to the common cards, so when going through the packs, one has to look at the front of each card. It takes about a case to assemble a complete set of 62 foil parallel cards.

Found two cards per box are the Lantern Die-Cut and Work In Progress lenticular cards, each of which is part of a nine-card bonus card set. The artwork for both sets is unique to that chase set and the choices for both sets are somewhat esoteric. The Lantern cards focus on the Green Lantern corner of the DC Universe (an irony because the Green Lantern storyline actually continued unbroken from the original to New 52 universes!). The cards are die cut to be the general shape of a Lantern Battery (so they have curved sides) and they are very cool foil cards. However, the choices for the Lanterns are odd. John Stewart, Hal Jordan and Kilowog each get a card, so the set is weighted toward the Green Lanterns. There are no cards for Guy Gardner or Kyle Rayner. This set’s weirdness is accented by the fact that the other major Corps’ are represented – Sinestro, Larfleeze, Atrocitus, Saint Walker, and Star Sapphire each get a card. There is not a card for Indigo-1, but there is one for Black Hand and the Black Lantern Corps, which is a strange creative decision.

The Work In Progress Lenticular cards feature sketches of some of the most popular DC Comics characters in their uncolored form. Then, when one moves the card, they get shaded in until they are completely recognizable. This is an interesting set, though the cards are not exceptional and they do not appear to be in any meaningful order.

In the entire run of the New 52 cards, there were six Redemption cards for oversized artwork. While there were other redemption cards for sketch cards, the artists whose works were featured in redemption cards seemed to also have done standard-sized sketch cards within the packs.

The New 52 set is fleshed out with one hundred forty-three (!) sketch cards of characters and teams from the New 52 DC Universe. The sketch cards are produced by 143 different artists and each one is absolutely unique, so assembling a master set requires one to track down one from each of the one hundred forty-three artists Cryptozoic hired for the project. The quality of the sketch cards varies greatly between fine-art quality colored sketches and cartoonish, animated versions of the significant DC Comics heroes and villains.

Non-Box/Pack Cards

No matter how many packs or boxes of New 52 cards one opens, there are ten cards collectors will never find there. There was a promotional card for the New 52 set released at the San Diego Comic Con in 2012. The other cards that cannot be found in any of the boxes or packs are the binder exclusive promo cards. Those cards are only found in the binders of the New 52s cards. Given that most of the cards that cannot be found in boxes can be found in a single binder makes The New 52 one of the few sets of cards I’ve found in recent years that are actually easy to assemble with only boxes.

Overall

Outside the damage and the daunting idea of having to open 143 boxes (that’s a dozen cases!) of cards just to complete a true master set makes it hard to genuinely endorse the New 52 set. Cryptozoic proves with the New 52 that they can be ambitious, but unfortunately that ambition makes for a set that is not at all collector-friendly to collect.

This is a set of trading cards I sell in my online store! Please check out my current inventory of these cards at The New 52 Inventory Page!

For other artwork-based trading card sets reviewed by me, please check out:
SkyBox Star Trek Master Series
SkyBox Star Trek 1994 Master Series
Rittenhouse Archives Star Trek The Original Series Portfolio Prints

4/10

For other trading card reviews, please visit my Trading Card Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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My First Full Cryptozoic Set: DC Comics The Women Of Legends Is Unfortunately Erratic!

The Good: Interesting concept, Some genuinely nice artwork, Some wonderful/creative bonus cards
The Bad: Overproduced, Some dull chase cards, Some ridiculously simplistic sketch cards.
The Basics: Cryptozoic’s The Women Of Legends card set is a decent concept for a trading card set, though it is executed in an underwhelming way for card collectors and (especially) fans of DC Comics.


The last month of my life has been a wonderful turnaround for me. I went from working a terrible job that I absolutely loathed, that underpaid me and undervalued me and worked me to the bone to completely revitalizing my business as a trading card dealer. It has been a wonderful change for my family and I and it has left me in a place to take advantage of a number of great deals that appear before me. One of the deals I was able to enjoy as a result of having more investment capital was the 2013 Cryptozoic release for DC Comics, known as The Women Of Legend trading cards. I was excited about the Women Of Legend trading cards because – for me – it represented the ability to branch out beyond the Star Trek cards I have long collected and sold. While I have had a few random packs of Cryptozoic cards cross my path before now, the Women Of Legend set was the first Cryptozoic product that I have broken down by the case. Sadly, it was a less incredible experience than I hoped it would be as a fan of the DC Comics universe.

Basics/ Set Composition

The DC Comics The Women Of Legend trading cards were originally released in boxes with twenty-four packs, packs containing five cards each. Properly assembled, the Women Of Legend consists of 240 cards! Featuring cards that span the recent DC Universe and the New 52 Universe, the Women Of Legend card set is written (mostly) as a New-52 Universe set that focuses on the Women of the DC Universe. Properly assembled, the set features sixty-three common cards and 177 bonus cards (all but three are available in the boxes of Women Of Legend cards).

Common Cards

The Women Of Legend is a 63 card set that features both the most popular women of the DC Comics Universe and the significant team-ups between those characters. The common set has an introductory card with the most recognizable women of DC (Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Catwoman, etc.) in their “New 52” renderings, 46 cards featuring significant women from the DC Universe, 15 cards that feature significant pairings of those heroines and one checklist card.

The common cards are an unfortunate mixed bag. The artwork varies between incredible renderings, like the title card and the nightmarish painting of Harley Quinn (card 17) and cards that have ridiculous, cartoon versions of the characters (like cards 18 and 19, of Terra and Hawkgirl). While the Women Of Legend set is all oriented in the portrait form for all 63 cards, the quality and subjects vary incredible amounts. There is a cartoonish version of Saturn Girl, an obscure heroine from the Legion Of Super-Heroes (set centuries outside the primary DC Universe), but no card for Silver Swan (a popular villain instantly familiar to fans of Wonder Woman, like me!).

The writing for the Women Of Legend set is good-enough. Fans of the DC Universe will not learn anything new or extraordinary by reading the backs of the cards, though they are clearly intended for fans of the New 52 (Wonder Woman, for example, is mentioned to be the daughter of Hippolyta and Zeus). The card backs are interesting for telling more casual fans about the obscure heroines and the team-ups they might not be familiar with, but they do not feature any incredible spoilers for recent stories or information that is not particularly revealing.

Chase Cards

The Women Of Legend set features more bonus cards than common cards, which is not at all uncommon for contemporary trading card sets. The Women Of Legend set features 177 chase cards which range from simple foil parallel cards to significantly rare sketch cards (each of which are entirely unique). In the packs, collectors can find 174 of the 177 bonus cards. The chase card breakdown is thus: 63 foil parallel cards, 9 Gail’s Picks, 9 Katie Cook Sticker cards, 3 Totally Fabricated, 89 sketch and 1 Redemption cards. The most basic chase card set found in the packs are the foil parallel cards. The parallel cards replicate the common cards, but with mirrored accents. Some of the cards are extraordinary for how the foil enhances the image of the character the card portrays. The backs of the foil parallel cards are identical to the common cards, so when going through the packs, one has to look at the front of each card. It takes about a case to assemble a complete set of 63 foil parallel cards.

Found two cards per box are the Gail’s Pick and Katie Cook sticker cards, each of which is part of a nine-card bonus card set. The artwork for both sets is unique to that chase set and the writing for the Gail’s Picks set is a little more extensive than for the common cards. The Gail’s Picks cards are a foil-enhanced bonus card set that focuses on the women and female teams that writer Gail Simone most likes. The set features characters she wrote for – Wonder Woman, Black Canary, the Huntress – as well as others she just seems to like (Supergirl and Lois Lane, apparently). The writing on those cards does not provide much in the way of insights from Simone, which is unfortunate. Gail Simone could have written that backs of the cards and told people why she loved the different characters, but Cryptozoic did not go that far with the bonus card set. Similarly, the Katie Cook sticker set (which, honestly, I have not been able to peel apart to discover if they actually are stickers) features no insightful writing, though they all have artwork from artist Katie Cook. The artwork is simplified and cartoonish, like Katie Cook did a “Muppet Babies” version of the DC Universe heroines.

The Totally Fabricated cards are a “hit or miss” concept card for fans of the DC Universe heroines. Costume cards are immensely popular trading cards these days and as the subjects of the Women Of Legend set are comic book characters, there would seem to be no costume cards that could be produced for the set. Cryptozoic did not let that stop them. Instead, they produced the “Totally Fabricated” bonus cards and the Women Of Legends set has three such cards in the boxes and packs. Found one in every 175 packs, the Women Of Legends set features admittedly fake fabric swatches (not really) from the costumes of Catwoman, Wonder Woman and Supergirl. I think the Totally Fabricated cards are a neat idea and they are executed incredibly well. Cryptozoic, to its credit, did not overproduce the Totally Fabricated cards and only did them for the very most popular characters in the DC universe.

In addition to the Totally Fabricated cards, there is an exceptionally rare redemption card for a piece of Wonder Woman’s invisible plane. After almost a year, only seven of the existing twenty-five redemption cards have been redeemed, which suggests either many are still out there or DC Comics fans, like Star Trek card collectors, consider the redemption card a legitimate part of the set.

The Women Of Legend set is fleshed out with eighty-nine sketch cards of women of the DC Universe. The sketch cards are produced by eighty-nine different artists and each one is absolutely unique, so assembling a master set requires one to track down one from each of the eighty-nine artists Cryptozoic hired for the project. The quality of the sketch cards, like the common cards, varies greatly between fine-art quality colored sketches and cartoonish, animated versions of the significant DC Comics heroines.

Non-Box/Pack Cards

No matter how many packs or boxes of Women Of Legend cards one opens, there are three cards collectors will never find there. Non-Sports Update Magazine released a promotional card for the Women Of Legend set. Similarly, the actual card for the fragment of Wonder Woman’s Invisible Jet (which might just be an empty costume card, a high-quality image of one has not been made available) is only available by redeeming one of the redemption cards. The other card that cannot be found in any of the boxes or packs is the Batgirl Totally Fabricated card. That card is only found in the binders of the Women Of Legends cards. Having only three cards that cannot be found in the cases is actually not bad at all.

Overall

I have long decried the use of redemption cards, but the fact that the Women Of Legends set features only one is not bad. The set only holds value for the sketch cards, but Cryptozoic did a decent job of making an interesting set with the Women Of Legends cards. While fans like me would hope for more consistency, Cryptozoic’s erratic effort at least does what it promises which is to highlight the incredible women who make up the DC Comics universe.

This is a set of trading cards I sell in my online store! Please check out my current inventory of these cards at The Women Of Legend Inventory Page!

For other artwork-based trading card sets reviewed by me, please check out:
SkyBox Star Trek Master Series
SkyBox Star Trek 1994 Master Series
Rittenhouse Archives Star Trek The Original Series Portfolio Prints

5/10

For other card reviews, please visit my Card Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Team Assembles Under Gail Simone’s Pen With Birds Of Prey: Of Like Minds!

The Good: Great “voice” for the characters, Interesting characters, Generally good artwork
The Bad: Utterly mediocre plot
The Basics: Kicking off her run on Birds Of Prey, Gail Simone starts with a banal hostage situation that tests Oracle, Black Canary, and the Huntress in Birds Of Prey: Of Like Minds.


It does not surprise me to learn that Gail Simone, in many ways, put Birds Of Prey on the map, at least in the comic book form. Simone, who first came to my attention when I read Wonder Woman: The Circle (reviewed here!), is a decent writer who has a wonderful voice for writing witty dialogue. Her books tend to have snappy one-liners, quick banter and generally interesting characters who seem to either defy or comment upon many of the established conventions of super hero comic books. So, being a fan of Simone’s work on Wonder Woman and Birds Of Prey, it was something of a delight for me to go back to the beginning of her tenure on Birds Of Prey to see how she made her female superhero team famous. The book she started with was Birds Of Prey: Of Like Minds.

Birds Of Prey: Of Like Minds is an utterly unremarkable trade paperback anthology that is only saved from a pure “average” rating by the level of dialogue in it. Sure, it is hard to go wrong with a team of women who look like they just stepped off a model shoot running around in tight outfits that leave little to the imagination (or rolling around with a pretty sexy brain and great hair!), but Gail Simone makes sure that the team is more than just an assembly of token women. From her first lines in the pages of Birds Of Prey: Of Like Minds, the Birds Of Prey – Oracle’s superhero team – are cool.

On assignment from the Oracle, Black Canary puts the fear of meta-humans back into one Andrew Fisher, a corrupt businessman who is about to drain his employee’s pension funds and go on the run. It appears Black Canary is too good at her job as evidence quickly comes to Oracle’s attention that he is going to kill himself. Black Canary is dispatched to save his life, but quickly finds herself in a trap laid by Savant and his thug, Creote. Her legs broken, Dinah Lance is tied to a bed and tormented for the identity of the Oracle. Unwilling to let her field agent be so tortured, Barbara Gordon calls in the Huntress to recover Black Canary.

Following the incident with Savant and Creote, the Oracle is forced to rely upon the Huntress again as Black Canary is out of commission with her broken legs. As Dinah recovers from her injuries and begins to learn more of the technical skills needed to keep her alive in the fights to come, the Huntress impersonates Black Canary to meet with a corrupt Senator who wants files he believes that the Oracle took from Savant.

Birds Of Prey: Of Like Minds established the essential Birds Of Prey team for the bulk of Simone’s tenure on the book: Oracle, Black Canary and the Huntress. It also takes the time to develop the villainous Savant, a blackmailer who recurs several times and who becomes important for the character arc of Dinah Lance. Oracle is characterized by excessive compassion and a leadership flaw that makes her exceptionally vulnerable. In Birds Of Prey: Of Like Minds, the Oracle is characterized as exceptionally intelligent, but also dangerously attached to her field operatives. She becomes vulnerable based on the idea that she is unwilling to let one of her team die, even for the sake of protecting her secrets and the mission.

Interestingly, Birds Of Prey: Of Like Minds also creates a moral code for Dinah Lance that will take years and books to be seriously challenged. Simone takes the time to have Lance draw her line in the sand: she will not kill. What The Huntress’s limits are in this regard are less clear – Simone writes her as a smartass ass-kicker who wields a crossbow and it seems hard to believe that with such a weapon one is always aiming just to incapacitate. Moreover, when one uses a motorcycle as a weapon, they clearly are not overly concerned with the lives of the people in the car they are using the motorcycle against. Birds Of Prey: Of Like Minds is a good establishing book that works on that front quite well.

Similarly, Birds Of Prey: Of Like Minds also takes the time to reasonably establish the adversaries for this title. By the end of the book, Savant’s essential weakness – an inability to distinguish the passage of time in a meaningful way – is not only exposed, but effectively exploited by the Oracle. As well, Creote’s quiet love for his partner is established and observed by both Black Canary and the Huntress. Gail Simone starts her tenure by painting a pretty colorful canvas and knowing where it goes, Birds Of Prey: Of Like Minds is a worthwhile starting point and necessary to understanding the full depth of the stories that follow.

The artwork in Birds Of Prey: Of Like Minds is generally good. The colors are vibrant and the sense of movement Is good in the panels and between the panels. The only real gripe I have on the artwork front is that it is occasionally inconsistent. For example, when Dinah and Barbara are gushing over food they are eating, when Black Canary falls down, she takes on the sudden appearance of being an animated character. Something about her eyes and the proportions make her look more like a characters from Archie Comics as opposed to Birds Of Prey.

Even so, Birds Of Prey: Of Like Minds is a fast read with good establishment of interesting characters who talk like smart geeks do. It is the essential starting place for those who want to start what might well be the Golden Age of Birds Of Prey.

For other Birds Of Prey books, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Black Canary/Oracle/The Huntress: Birds Of Prey
Between Dark And Dawn
Perfect Pitch
Blood And Circuits
Dead Of Winter
Metropolis Or Dust
Club Kids
Platinum Flats
End Run

6/10

For other book reviews, be sure to check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the book reviews I have written!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Distant Tangent To Brightest Day, Birds Of Prey: End Run Fails To Engage.

The Good: Decent “voice,” Good artwork
The Bad: Does not provide the promised sense of closure, No real character development, Rooted in prior stories, Doesn’t “pop.”
The Basics: My interest in Birds Of Prey: End Run as both a fan of the Brightest Day Saga and the Birds Of Prey series left me disappointed and surprised.


This past year, I found quite a bit of time to write at the boring and sometimes loathsome job I held down. While it initially seemed like a good fit for me, that job proved to me that it actually matters to me who I work for. So, I found myself reading a lot at work and one of the series’ I got into was Birds Of Prey, largely because of my affinity for the writing of Gail Simone (at least, what I had read of hers at that point). Between being biased toward the works of Gail Simone and being an enthusiast for the Brightest Day Saga, I had been looking forward to Birds Of Prey: End Run for quite some time.

It is hard to describe my level of disappointment in the book, then, as it is only tangentially related to the Brightest Day Saga (very distant tangent!) and it seems so deeply rooted in some distant past story of Dinah Lance that it robbed me of what enjoyment I ought to have felt at the return of Creote and Savant. Birds Of Prey: End Run promised to be the return and the end of the Birds Of Prey team, but it did not even live up to that. Instead, it is a messy story that focuses on three groups of villains reuniting Barbara Gordon’s team to . . . test it in a very typical way.

Barbara Gordon calls in Black Canary (Dinah Lance), the Huntress (Helena Bertinelli), Lady Blackhawk (Zinda Blake) and the newly resurrected Hawk (Hank Hall) and his partner, Dove (Dawn Granger). She reveals to Black Canary and the Huntress that she is in receipt of exceptionally detailed files that include information on all of Gordon’s friends, family, superhero coworkers, etc. With the threat that one will die each hour until the person making the threats is stopped, a threat they appear to make good on when Creote contacts the Oracle to inform her that Savant has been killed, Black Canary and the Huntress head off to try to stop the would-be killer.

They, along with Hawk, Dove, and Lady Blackhawk, encounter Oswald Cobblepot (The Penguin) as he is attacked by a mysterious figure. Rescuing the Penguin, Black Canary and the Huntress engage the villainess in hand to hand combat while Black Canary strains to identify who the amazing combatant is. But the team is forced to withdraw when Dinah Lance is publicly outed on the Gotham City news and the team runs into hiding in Cobblepot’s club. Things quickly go from bad to worse when the Oracle is abducted by the people she tried the hardest to rehabilitate. With the life of the girl who would have been her adopted daughter on the line, Black Canary goes into a fight that may well force her to kill.

The main “End Run” story is four chapters and Birds Of Prey: End Run is capped off by a two chapter follow-up that it is impossible to discuss without ruining most of the middle and end of “End Run.” But, on the analysis side, it further weakens the idea that “End Run” is an earth shattering story for the Birds Of Prey team and is rooted deeply in the main problem that the main story has.

The fundamental problem with Birds Of Prey: End Run is the villains. Like the Birds Of Prey, the villains in Birds Of Prey: End Run are working as a team and from pretty much the moment the Penguin appears in the pages, that seems obvious. It is, as a result, no surprise at all when the Penguin turns on the women who are helping him and tries to hold them hostage. One of my immediate gripes with Birds Of Prey: End Run, though, was solved easily enough by the fact that it is only a delusion of Oswald Cobblepot (that problem being that when one opens the book, there is artwork of the female members of the Birds Of Prey posed in an obviously sexualized, coquettish and kittenish layout that seems more the masturbatory fantasy of teenagers than it would be anything substantive or real in the Birds Of Prey universe – and it is, it’s Cobblepot’s fantasy, so it makes some sense).

But the main villain is the real problem. Much space and time is wasted with Black Canary’s internal monologue of her trying desperately to figure out exactly who this new fighter is. Black Canary, in the DC Universe, is supposed to be second at hand to hand combat only to Lady Shiva and Lance’s bafflement as to who this new player could be and how she might have risen to such proficiency without Black Canary ever hearing of her is ponderous. It seemed strange to me that Dinah Lance would be so convinced that a new fighter could exist without her knowing about her; it’s a big world, why would she know every martial artist in the world?! And ultimately, all the space wasted with Lance wondering who the new threat, dubbed White Canary is, is inconsequential in so many ways. The revelation is unsatisfying and seems deeply tied to a story I have not read. Or, more accurately, the identity of the villain seems exceptionally important to one of Dinah Lance’s past adventures, but only as a very distant tangent to that story. In other words, even if I had read that story, I think I would have been disappointed with how Birds Of Prey: End Run related to it.

And, while I can completely respect a character whose power and determination give them a presence that allows them to defy the conventions of reason and realism, I was unable to buy the final sections of the book. The Huntress holds her own against an adversary that she should have been killed by with a single hit and that wore on me the longer that fight went on.

The artwork in Birds Of Prey: End Run is good, though the coloring is inconsistent (at least with the Huntress’s uniform). Still, Birds Of Prey: End Run mostly looks good, but given that the characters are mostly model-like women wearing skimpy outfits running around kicking ass and shooting guns, it is pretty hard to be surprised by that.

On the character front, the best arc involves Barbara Gordon and I would get excited about the apparent new direction the book leaves the Birds Of Prey headed in, if I did not know that the “New 52” reboot of the DC universe did not follow up on that direction.

Fans of Brightest Day can easily pass Birds Of Prey: End Run by as well; this book is such a distant tangent – with only the presence of Hawk making it even a tangent story to that Saga – that it is not worth picking up.

For other Brightest Day works, please check out my reviews of:
Brightest Day - Volume 1
Brightest Day - Volume 2
Brightest Day - Volume 3
Brightest Day: Green Lantern
Brightest Day: Green Lantern Corps - Revolt Of The Alpha-Lanterns
Green Lantern Corps: The Weaponer
The Black Ring - Volume 1
The Black Ring - Volume 2
Green Arrow: Into The Woods
Justice League: Generation Lost – Volume 1
Justice League: Generation Lost - Volume 2
The Flash: The Dastardly Death Of The Rogues

3/10

For other book reviews, be sure to check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the book reviews I have written!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Assembling The Female Super Hero Team: Black Canary/Oracle/Huntress: Birds Of Prey Still Underwhelms!

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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Birds Of Prey: Blood And Circuits Finds The Team Breaking Apart And Getting Taken Over!

The Good: Dialogue, Moments of character, Moments of plot
The Bad: Very inconsistent artwork, Plot is erratic (transition volume), Much more plot-focused than character-based.
The Basics: When Dinah Lance leaves Metropolis and the Oracle’s team, the Oracle falls prey to an old adversary in Birds Of Prey: Blood And Circuits!


There is some irony to me in the idea that during my Flash Year, I have made my way through almost the entire library of Birds Of Prey graphic novels. Truth be told, I am discovering that I am glad that I have; they have generally engaging characters and interesting stories, even if the artwork seldom seems to be consistent or at the top of the DC Comics food chain. The latest book in the series that I have gotten ahold of is Birds Of Prey: Blood And Circuits. Birds Of Prey: Blood And Circuits fills in some significant gaps I had in the stories I had read, including the arrival of Charlie and the usurping of the Oracle’s team. Birds Of Prey: Blood And Circuits is also the volume where Dinah Lance leaves the Oracle’s super cool team of women.

Unfortunately, that makes Birds Of Prey: Blood And Circuits something of a transition book and it is an awkward time for Barbara Gordon’s team. Instead of being a solid story with a clear mission, Barbara Gordon flounders as Dinah Lance finds her own way with her new adopted sister-daughter. As the Oracle works to assemble a new team, the process is troublesome and Birds Of Prey: Blood And Circuits feels entirely uncertain as a result.

Following the events of Infinite Crisis (reviewed here!) and 52, Barbara Gordon’s team is reassembling. They visit Ted Kord’s grave where Barbara reveals a previously unmentioned relationship between herself and Kord. While Dinah acclimates Sin to life with things like pancakes, the Oracle learns that several members of the Injustice League are converging on Dayton, Ohio and the home of Black Alice. While Dinah, Zinda and the Huntress descend upon Black Alice, to prevent her from falling in league with the society of villains, in Gotham Batgirl is spotted saving the life of a couple.

With the Dayton mission a loss for both the heroes and villains, the Oracle’s team returns to Metropolis where Dinah makes the choice to care for Sin and leave the team. This leaves Barbara, Zinda and Helena somewhat adrift, with an important mission to accomplish. After Barbara sends virtually every known adult super heroine an invitation to join the team (getting quiet rejections from the likes of Wonder Woman, Power Girl and several I did not even recognize), the Oracle’s new team – with Gypsy, Manhunter and Judomaster added – go to Mexico to a corrupt prison. There, they liberate a mobster’s daughter and jailbreak an unlikely prisoner whose presence might well get the team killed by an old adversary of the Oracle!

Birds Of Prey: Blood And Circuits is essentially a downward spiral that helps Birds Of Prey find its footing in a post-52 DC Universe. As Final Crisis (reviewed here!) slowly looms, the Justice League is getting an overhaul that required Dinah Lance. So, Gail Simone and fans of Birds Of Prey lost Black Canary and the pretense is a decent one. It seems like Black Canary wants out of the superhero game and after the Black Alice mission to Dayton, there is a decent interlude story that has Dinah Lance packing everything up while talking with Sin.

As a result, what character development there is in Birds Of Prey: Blood And Circuits focuses on Barbara Gordon, the Oracle. The Oracle is frustrated through much of the book, first by the appearance of Charlie whom she has to break of the desire to take up the mantle of Batgirl and then by the loss of Dinah Lance. As the Mexican prison mission takes a horrible turn, it is Barbara who faces the worst repercussions. After an uncomfortable dance with Lois Lane, the Oracle confronts Spy Smasher, a ruthless personal and professional adversary. Having read some of the Birds Of Prey books out of order, I know that what is set up here in Birds Of Prey: Blood And Circuits gets a surprisingly quick resolution.

Unfortunately, the conflict between Oracle and Spy Smasher is revealed exceptionally late in the book, making it inappropriate to spoil in the review. Needless to say, Spy Smasher is a hefty foil for the Oracle and she works well, at least for the purposes of this story. Oddly, though, the Charlie (Misfit) seems hardly as annoying in Birds Of Prey: Blood And Circuits as she does in some of the subsequent volumes. In Birds Of Prey: Blood And Circuits, she is introduced well and Barbara is able to put her in her place, which helps to illustrate Barbara’s strength and authority. Considering that by the end of Birds Of Prey: Blood And Circuits, Gordon is essentially powerless and before that she is rejected by every major superheroine in the DC Universe, the victory with Charlie is one of the Oracle’s few victories in the book.

Birds Of Prey: Blood And Circuits, then meanders through and what saves it from the low ratings, as opposed to an average rating is the dialogue. Writer Gail Simone has a great sense of humor and the exchange between Huntress and Judomaster about Barda’s Mega-Rod is laugh-out-loud funny. Simone has a sense of humor, which makes some of the most perilous moments in the book a bit more palatable than had they been done deadpan with an overwhelming sense of seriousness.

Unfortunately, once again, Simone’s writing prowess is not matched in the artwork. Several panels throughout Birds Of Prey: Blood And Circuits are overly simplified with characters looking very simple or cartoonish, as opposed to well-defined or well-shaded. Birds Of Prey is not one of the top-priority books in the DC Universe and the artwork in Birds Of Prey: Blood And Circuits occasionally reflects that (especially during the jailbreak scene as Barda is being liberated). Similarly, some of the panels have a real lack of movement within and between panels.

In the end, Birds Of Prey: Blood And Circuits is an average transition book that sets up better works without ever rising to notable on its own.

For other Birds Of Prey books, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Between Dark And Dawn
Perfect Pitch
Dead Of Winter
Metropolis Or Dust
Club Kids
Platinum Flats

5/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please visit my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the graphic novels I have reviewed!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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In Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats, Barbara Gordon Comes Into Her Own While Her Team Is Mercilessly Hunted!

The Good: Very cool character conflict, Good artwork, Decent plot, Awesome plot development
The Bad: Unfortunately predictable in some ways, Unclear aspect of Gizmo, Artwork for the Calculator and Curator.
The Basics: So far, the best Birds Of Prey book I have read, Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats finds the team directly confronting a criminal syndicate . . . including the Joker.


Right off the bat, (pun intended) it is worth noting that even though reading it initially disturbed me, I was very glad that I had read Batman: The Killing Joke (reviewed here!) before reading Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats. The reason for this is very simple. In The Killing Joke, the much-alluded to shooting of Barbara Gordon occurs. Barbara’s life takes an abrupt turn and as a result, she goes from being Batgirl to the Oracle, paralyzed as she is by the Joker’s bullet. That event is referenced in the character notes at the beginning of virtually every Birds Of Prey book, but the full magnitude of what happens after the shooting is not. Why is this so important to Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats? It’s quite simple: Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats, in addition to having a pretty kick-ass conspiracy plotline, features a confrontation between Barbara Gordon and the Joker. If I had not read The Killing Joke, the full magnitude of the heroic quality of the Oracle in Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats would have been lost on me.

Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats is easily the best Birds Of Prey book I have yet read and even though there are references I did not quite get (involving peripheral characters like Black Canary), the book was the first since Black Canary left the team that the new assortment of heroines actually worked for me. Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats continues a storyline begun well before this book and it has the Oracle’s team sniffing out a criminal syndicate unique to this team in a new DC Universe location. And it all works. Even the parts with Charlie (Misfit) work pretty well.

Barbara Gordon (the Oracle) and her team – Zinda (Lady Blackhawk), Helena (The Huntress), and Charlie (Misfit) - move to Platinum Flats, a California city dominated by tech start-up companies. Apparently an idyllic place, Gordon has sunk her considerable financial resources into the move on the word of the Calculator. The Calculator, desperate to save his own life, has contacted the Oracle and revealed the presence of the Syndicate, a criminal enterprise making billions off of the tech companies as an organized mob working so far behind the scenes that no one else in the superhero community has even heard of it. In Platinum Flats, Charlie enrolls in school and Helena becomes a teacher at the same school. Contracting for the Oracle, Manhunter runs in with Black Canary, while Gordon’s other new operative, the mysterious Infinity infiltrates one of the tech companies. In the back laboratory of the tech company, Infinity encounters Gizmo, who is not as dead as he appears.

Following that encounter, the Joker arrives in town and joins the Syndicate. While the other members of the Syndicate are wary of the Joker’s influence, they go along with his first psychotic plan to draw out the Oracle. After a gunfight with the Syndicate, Lady Blackhawk inadvertently brings a tracking device back to the new headquarters. While her team flees, the Joker visits Barbara and does not recognize her. Following her frightful encounter with the malevolent man who crippled her, Gordon puts her faith in the Calculator to entrap the members of the Syndicate. When the Calculator draws off the rest of the team, the Joker and Barbara square off again!

While it might seem like Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats is a repetitive trade paperback anthology, writer Tony Bedard actually makes it work. The story is essentially two parallel repeated scenes. In both, the heroines of Birds Of Prey square off with the Syndicate’s goons or the Syndicate itself while Barbara Gordon encounters the Joker. While the lead-in to these two conflicts helps to establish a more rounded sense of the mission, the focus in the book is surprisingly tight (outside the conflict between Manhunter and Black Canary).

Outside the overlap with a Black Canary story not made entirely clear, Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats suffers from only one real major issue. In Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats, Gordon puts her trust in the Calculator and that is a terrible idea. How someone who is otherwise so smart, tough and resourceful ever lets the Calculator near a computer after bringing him into protective custody is an unfortunate oversight. Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats has two smaller issues, which do not seriously detract from enjoying the book. The first is that Gizmo appears to have been killed by Sivana, which is pretty cool (I actually have read a book or two where Sivana is an integral villain, so I always like hearing about some of the villains in context), yet he is reanimated when Infinity does her mental scan trick. The issue is that Gizmo has clearly been shot in the face and was dead, so what his actual status is is very unclear in the book; is he a reanimated corpse, a cyborg with rotting organic components, a magically reanimated creature? Who knows?! While the artwork in Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats is some of the best of the series, the artists make the Calculator and the Curator look virtually identical (in this book, the only differentiation between them is the Calculator has stubble). That is problematic and reeks of a lack of imagination on the part of the artists.

That is possibly the only example of a lack of imagination on the parts of the artists. Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats has otherwise amazing art. From the usual drawings of the fabulous-looking heroines of Birds Of Prey - including a strangely flirty panel of Black Alice – to the disgusting visage of the Joker, the artists get so much right in Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats that it looks like DC actually invested in the franchise for a change! And Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats has a story worthy of great artwork.

In addition to the wonderful character moment when Barbara Gordon must confront the Joker without any backup, Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats features a bevy of intriguing new villains. While the Calculator is predictably duplicitous and has been around for a little while, Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats is fleshed out with new villains who are very creepy. From the mob that follows a metahuman who has the ability to erase memories and replace them with nightmares – a trick he pulled on Manhunter prior to this volume – to the creepy cyberstalkers of the Syndicate, Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats starts assembling a rogues gallery for just this team to come up against.

And the villains are not at all PG in Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats. There is the Matchmaker, a pedophile who helps connect sexual predators with children on the Internet. There is Kilg%re, a creature created by the Internet who has the ability to transform all mechanical objects it encounters. The Curator is barely seen, but he is a man who has an obsession with collectibles remaining in absolutely mint condition and he abducts victims to his perfectly preserved subterranean neighborhood. Then there is Gizmo, a cyborg genius who is armed to the teeth and able to levitate, despite being (apparently) dead.

While half of Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats is pretty straightforward combat involving model-thin women toting cool weapons to take out the members of the Syndicate, it is in no way vacuous entertainment. Instead, Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats features real character development. Charlie is beginning to learn to use her powers, a surprise even for Oracle when she teleports Huntresses motorcycle (in “Club Kids,” her power was revealed to have disastrous consequences when she teleported with other people, so there appears to be some real growth for the character here). As Charlie slowly becomes more of a team player, she still has her sullen moments, but they hardly seem as bratty as before. So, when Charlie sees Black Alice at school, it does not come across as nearly as whiny and annoying as such scenes previously did.

What really rocks in Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats is the character development for the Oracle. Barbara does not whither or cower. In fact, when she takes a moment of pleasure in actually landing a blow against the Joker, she becomes concerned about what that means, but she does not back down at all. That is a very cool character trait. Moreover, what she is able to do against the Joker is very impressive and her resolve at the end of Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats is equally cool.

In Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats, Barbara Gordon’s team becomes the hot, badass chicks worth reading. Finally living up to its potential, Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats is a worthwhile read.

For other Birds Of Prey books, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Between Dark And Dawn
Perfect Pitch
Dead Of Winter
Metropolis Or Dust
Club Kids

8/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please visit my organized listing of them by visiting my Graphic Novel Review Index Page!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Birds Of Prey: Metropolis Or Dust Has Much More Interesting Stories Than Characters.

The Good: Artwork, Decent stories, Good sense of continuity and consequences
The Bad: The team is fractured and weaker than in most Birds Of Prey books, Young characters are annoying.
The Basics: In Birds Of Prey: Metropolis Or Dust, Misfit defies Oracle which leads to a significant crater in Metropolis!


It actually surprised me to learn that when I finished reading Birds Of Prey: Metropolis Or Dust, I was almost entirely through the current library of Birds Of Prey trade paperback anthologies. I would not have guessed that there were so few books with an all-female superheroine team. After all, what’s not to love about Birds Of Prey? It features smart, powerful women, atypical stories and characters who could use more attention. Unfortunately for that ideal, Birds Of Prey: Metropolis Or Dust reveals some of the problem with the franchise; with a roster that changes frequently, it has its ups and downs. Birds Of Prey: Metropolis Or Dust finds the characters in an awkward transition period.

Birds Of Prey: Metropolis Or Dust features Oracle (of course, it is her team!), the Huntress, Lady Blackhawk and Misfit. Manhunter makes a brief appearance and part of Birds Of Prey: Metropolis Or Dust is preoccupied with introducing Black Alice to the operation. Birds Of Prey: Metropolis Or Dust was initially engaging to me as a story of a very flawed character and how others work to fix her mistake. Unfortunately, the story quickly fractured into something else. Alas, that something else was an annoying bickering match between two teenage metahumans and a remarkably straightforward hero/villain conflict story. While I like learning more about Lady Blackhawk for that b-plot, it is not all that it ought to have been.

The Huntress is trying to stop a young mobster wannabe, who is driving a heavy truck of weapons straight into Metropolis. But when she cannot find a way in, the Huntress and Oracle begin fearing the worst, that the girl is planning to set off a bomb in the heart of the city. The situation goes from bad to worse when it turns out to be some form of magical robot, which Misfit actually manages to teleport near to distract the driver of. Unfortunately, this causes the robot to detonate and Misfit is in shock. When Superman comes down hard on the Oracle, Barbara begins driving herself very hard.

That means that the Oracle, in addition to pushing Misfit hard, turns to another teenage girl, Black Alice, to try to find clues as to what the weapon was that blew up in Metropolis. The Huntress and Zinda (Lady Blackhawk) leave Metropolis suddenly when Killer Shark shows up looking for Lady Blackhawk. But Zinda’s attempt to stop the man who once drugged and raped her puts both her and the Huntress in a fight for their lives, while the Oracle has to tend to the girls.

While Birds Of Prey: Metropolis Or Dust is initially engaging, the book quickly turns into an unfortunately whiny tome where a bunch of girls are yelling at one another. Neither Misfit nor Black Alice seem terribly age appropriate. I write that having experienced Club Kids (so I know their character’s relationship, as the title story of that book actually comes after one of the stories in this volume). Black Alice seems like she has the potential to be interesting, despite being a jailbait pin-up for the Goths, but Charlie (Misfit) just seems troublesome in Birds Of Prey: Metropolis Or Dust. What could have been an engaging character study following her mistakenly blowing up part of Metropolis quickly degenerates into a very silly, childish arc.

This is starkly contrasted by the Lady Blackhawk portion of the story. In that story – complete with Zinda running around in her underwear – it is revealed that back in World War II, Zinda was repeatedly drugged and used as “Queen Shark.” It does not take any real reading between the lines to get that Zinda was drugged and repeatedly raped by Killer Shark, even if she does not remember the details (though, this would explain her drinking so heavily in all the prior books quite nicely!). The discontinuity between the Huntress trying to rescue a brainwashed Lady Blackhawk and the kids having temper tantrums is unnerving, at the very least.

What works in Birds Of Prey: Metropolis Or Dust is the fact that Barbara Gordon stands up (metaphorically, she is still wheelchair bound and I seem to have missed whatever story connected her getting movement in her feet back to her losing that ability) to Superman. In a very cool sequence, the Oracle tells off Superman and that earns her all sort of street cred with her team. Sure, it makes her moody and obsessed with finding the cause of the explosion, but it works.

Birds Of Prey: Metropolis Or Dust also features very good artwork. Oddly, when the stories and characters were consistently engaging, DC did not seem to want to spare decent artists, but with much shakier characters, Birds Of Prey: Metropolis Or Dust suddenly gets very clear, vibrant artwork all the way through. While this is not usually enough to get me to recommend a book, it is enough to save Birds Of Prey: Metropolis Or Dust. Birds Of Prey: Metropolis Or Dust has just enough to it to make it worth reading.

For other Birds Of Prey books, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Between Dark And Dawn
Perfect Pitch
Dead Of Winter
Club Kids

5/10

For other book reviews, please visit my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the books I have reviewed! Thanks!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Things Look Bad For Women Around The Time Of Final Crisis: Birds Of Prey: Club Kids Is A Fractured Bunch Of Vignettes From Then.

The Good: Moments of humor, Interesting characters, Generally decent artwork
The Bad: Not a real team book, Not a real “graphic novel,” Sense of direction is flailing.
The Basics: Birds Of Prey: Club Kids leads into the darkness around Final Crisis with a series of one-shot stories that has the team pretty much fractured.


As I eagerly await my next batch of graphic novels for my Flash Year, I picked up another book in the Birds Of Prey line, Birds Of Prey: Club Kids. After finishing this exceptionally quick read while waiting for a co-worker to come let me into work, I was left sitting, feeling remarkably little. This is the first volume of the franchise I had read by Tony Bedard. And, unfortunately, my reaction to it was to feel underwhelmed. Birds Of Prey: Club Kids is a potently average anthology.

Unfortunately, there should be no pretense made in calling Birds Of Prey: Club Kids a “graphic novel.” Alas, Birds Of Prey: Club Kids is a loose collection of only five Birds Of Prey comic books. Birds Of Prey: Club Kids wraps up a few loose ends, teases a tangent story to Final Crisis (reviewed here!) and ultimately is average. This book is not really even a Birds Of Prey book; it features characters from Birds Of Prey, but this is not about Barbara Gordon deploying her team of women around the world. Instead, the women are separated, doing their own things and because most of the books allude to other things, there is an ultimately unsatisfying quality to Birds Of Prey: Club Kids.

Following closely on the heels of Birds Of Prey: Dead Of Winter, the first story in Birds Of Prey: Club Kids finds Barbara Gordon and Dinah Lance having an intimate conversation following the mission to Azerbaijah. Gordon recalls meeting the Green Arrow and getting flirted with and tries to use the experience to convince Dinah not to marry Oliver. While Barda learns how to play Pokemon with Sin (much to Misfit’s chagrin), Knockout and Scandal make love. Contemplating the breakup of the Secret Six, Scandal makes an off-handed remark that leaves Knockout storming from her bed to go kill Barda. But there is someone hunting escapees from Apokalips and en route to Barda, Knockout is attacked!

The idea that the Secret Six broke up did nothing for me; I found them buffoonish in Dead Of Winter, but Killshot and Scandal seemed interesting (not just because of their lesbian relationship, but because they seemed the most professional of the bunch). So, discovering their fate was marginally interesting. I write “marginally” interesting because Killshot is an ancillary character in Birds Of Prey: Club Kids and her tangent seems mostly to be to direct attention toward Big Barda. Barda, still pretty new to my reading experience of Birds Of Prey was just growing on me in Birds Of Prey: Club Kids.

The first chapter, then, is highlighted by both a quick flashback to Barbara Gordon as Batgirl and then the discussion between Barbara and Dinah about Oliver. I like this. It’s an intimate character moment, no real sense of movement (so it does not use the medium especially well), but it reads as very real and very true. In a universe filled with a lot of big action, this conversation is cool to illustrate the humanity of the heroes.

The Huntress is the subject of the second story in Birds Of Prey: Club Kids. A remarkably straightforward story, the Huntress is given a directive from the Oracle to stop some kids who have an old supervillain’s weapon primed to detonate if the villain is not released from prison. Unfortunately for the Oracle and Metropolis, the Huntress is currently engaged with stopping a bus that was hijacked . . . with children still aboard!

This story is exceptionally straightforward. The artwork is fair, but it does have a pretty decent sense of motion, which is important when most of the story involves a speeding bus, Huntress on her motorcycle and limited hand-to-hand combat. Oddly, the story features strange cuts wherein the reader does not see several panels of implied violence. This story seems solely to exist to illustrate how the Huntress has grown and to provide a few moments of amusement over the idea of various would-have-been members of the Birds Of Prey that could never have worked out as well as the current crop!

The slow-building storyline with the Calculator comes to what appears to be a conclusion in the third story in Birds Of Prey: Club Kids. In that, Barbara Gordon visits a software convention occurring at the corporate headquarters of one of the major software companies. Her purpose is to get the last remnant of the Gotham Towers fire that could tie Barbara to the Oracle. Unfortunately, there she runs into the Calculator and his goon, Hellhound. While both Barbara and the Calculator go head to head in the virtual world to acquire the same data, the rest of the team listens in.

The “Nerds Of Prey” story is an enjoyable one, though it is hardly the definitive chapter on the Oracle/Calculator conflict. I actually enjoy Barbara and the Calculator flirting, entirely ignorant of who the other person is. It’s a fun sequence and while it could be executed in an unfortunate or cliché way, it actually works remarkably well in Birds Of Prey: Club Kids. And, despite the digs at what is probably the Birds Of Prey fan base, the story is a good one.

Following the death of Big Barda (not actually shown in Birds Of Prey: Club Kids), Zinda goes on a bender. Paired up with an Indian cab driver, she leaves Metropolis for Edward’s Air Force Base. While the cabbie is unnerved by the distraught woman with the gun, Lady Blackhawk has a good thought in her heart. Unfortunately, she is being hunted by a shapeshifter who needs proximity to take her form. The shapeshifter, working for the Calculator, moves in for the kill in an abandoned area, forcing Zinda and her new friend to flee . . . awkwardly.

Falaseface, the shapeshifter in this story, is an interesting-enough villain. I like villains and heroes who are not invincible, so that she has some limitations is pretty cool. The struggle to get close to Lady Blackhawk makes for a pretty engaging road trip type story. While the artwork is pretty good within panels, the sense of movement between panels is often more irregular than I would like (like when Zinda leaps from the buggy to the horse). It’s basically a buddy comedy interlude and another story that does not add up to anything.

Similarly, the title story for Birds Of Prey: Club Kids is another disconnected solo story. Misfit, having been abducted by Boss Dark Side, fights in gladiator matches while doped up. When Black Alice appears, the drugs and programming from Granny Goodness prevent Misfit from joining Black Alice in an escape attempt. So, Black Alice makes an attempt to flee and in the process, learns something important about her and Misfit.

This final chapter is a crossover with Final Crisis and is appropriately dark as a result. Unfortunately, it is also pretty insular. Misfit has been a background character and I haven’t gotten attached to her at this point in reading Birds Of Prey. So, that she is abducted by a cult that is going to attack everyone eventually did not really do it for me. Moreover, the entire plot is lifted from an episode of Angel.

Ultimately, Birds Of Prey: Club Kids is very average and does not sufficiently advance any of the stories of the Birds Of Prey.

For other Birds Of Prey books, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Between Dark And Dawn
Perfect Pitch
Dead Of Winter

5.5/10

For other book reviews, please visit my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing by clicking here!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Dark Mission Into Russia Leads To Genuine Intrigue In Birds Of Prey: Dead Of Winter!

The Good: Wonderful artwork, Good dialogue, Engaging story.
The Bad: A jumble of new characters, Not the greatest character development.
The Basics: Birds Of Prey: Dead Of Winter finds the team of Barbara Gordon in Russia for a mission that goes horribly wrong, but brings an intriguing character back to the DC Universe!


Every now and then, I find a delightful parallel between something I have enjoyed and something I am just now discovering. So, for example, while I have been fairy neutral to Birds Of Prey from my experiences with Between Darkness And Dawn (reviewed here!) and Perfect Pitch (reviewed here!), I actually enjoyed Birds Of Prey: Dead Of Winter quite a bit. I was, as with the prior volumes I had read, on the fence about it, until about a quarter of the way through the book when Ice appeared. Tora, a.k.a. Ice, was one of the heroines of Justice League: Generation Lost (volume one is reviewed here!), which I enjoyed immensely. In fact, Justice League: Generation Lost might well have been one of the last true surprises to me in graphic novels that I actually loved.

So, Birds Of Prey: Dead Of Winter got quite a bit of street cred with me the moment the story started to involve a character I was actually interested in. Ice was a fairly interesting character and I had a passing interest in how she came back from the dead, knowing that her resurrection complicated things for both the Justice League International and Guy Gardner. Birds Of Prey: Dead Of Winter is, at its heart, the story that gets her back into the DC Universe.

Barbara Gordon’s team has been revamped and turned around. Dinah Lance is gone, leaving the Huntress and Lady Blackhawk joined by Big Barda, Manhunter, and (in the frozen wasteland of Azerbaijan) Hawkgirl. With the organization compromised by Spy Smasher, who has something on the Oracle, Creote joins the Birds of Prey in a former Soviet country. There, the team encounters a disciple of Rasputin who is trying to create a weapon. Spy Smasher appears to want only to acquire advanced weapons technology, in the form of – oddly enough – a Rocket Red armor suit. But when trying to extract the suit, the Birds Of Prey discover that Tora (Ice) is inside it and inexplicably alive. Trying to get her out of Russia may well get her killed, though, as the Secret Six attack Gordon’s team as they try to get Ice out of the country!

The latter part of the book follows Barbara dealing with the fallout of the Russian mission and her confrontation with Spy Smasher.

Right off the bat, it is worth noting that Birds Of Prey: Dead Of Winter looks phenomenal. I’m not just saying that because it contains ridiculously good looking comic book heroines. Instead, it looks like Birds Of Prey finally got artists who were prioritizing the property. Birds Of Prey: Dead Of Winter features well-rendered characters on each and every page. Every panel has a decent sense of movement within them and the colors are vibrant and rich. In sharp contrast to every other Birds Of Prey book I have read so far, Birds Of Prey: Dead Of Winter looks like it was drawn and colored by people who wanted to give the book their full attention. The artwork, as it turns out, services a pretty wonderful story.

Birds Of Prey: Dead Of Winter is a little muddied by the sheer number of characters that one has to keep track of. There is something irksome about having so many undercover agents in formalwear at one time. Writer Gail Simone makes it relatively easy to keep track of the various individuals who populate Birds Of Prey: Dead Of Winter, though for most of the book I did not particularly care about any other than the characters I already knew. In fact, when Simone uses the Secret Six as adversaries, despite her wonderful use of banter, I was not sold on them. I won’t be picking up a Secret Six book based on my experience with Birds Of Prey: Dead Of Winter!

That said, Barbara Gordon, the Huntress and even Lady Blackhawk are all given enough to keep my interest through Birds Of Prey: Dead Of Winter. While Barbara is plagued by a young new metahuman, she deals with her well-enough. Actually, it speaks to Gordon’s character that she does not sent the minor – who is an incredible teleporter – in to the Russian mess to save her team. Despite the characters being interesting and progressing an intriguing spy story, Birds Of Prey: Dead Of Winter is not especially rich on the character front.

Birds Of Prey: Dead Of Winter actually made me care about Zinda, Lady Blackhawk. In prior volumes, Lady Blackhawk is a minor, quirky character who looks good in a short skirt. But in Birds Of Prey: Dead Of Winter, she becomes a viable character with a strong moral core that makes readers actually care about her. More than any member of the Secret Six, Birds Of Prey: Dead Of Winter made Zinda interesting and fun to read and that is a feat.

As an, apparent, fan of Ice, Birds Of Prey: Dead Of Winter is a good reintroduction of her character into the DC Universe. The story is short, fairly direct and engaging enough for any reader to enjoy.

For other works that feature Ice, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
The Sinestro Corps War, Volume 2
Green Lantern Corps: Ring Quest
Justice League: Generation Lost, Volume 2

7/10

For other book reviews, please visit my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing of all I have reviewed!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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