Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Birds of Prey

another great issue IMO !!

but as someone that only came on board half way through the series when ED BENES was doing the art [ was that GAIL's debut also ? ]

is there a reason why DINAH doesn't just use her canary cry all the time !!??

Matthew.

BIRDS OF PREY #95

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All in all, I'm glad this storyline is ending. The Shiva/Canary role-playing switch was a good idea, and has yielded a couple of plot points for the future. How long till we get to see Sin meet her 'cousin' ('niece'?), Lian?

Nice art, but I didn't care for the cover at all.

I'm kind of sorry that the Crime Doctor is dead. He made a good second-rank bad guy-- a supporting player for the villain's side that could pop up anywhere the more traditional villains do. Maybe a replacement will fill his role. Hmmm-- how about a doctor from India? That'd satisfy the DC push for diversity. Or- wait- does that apply to villains, too?

Not a bad start OYL. Babs has got herself one heck of a team now. Part of me wants to see Gail tackle a long, complicated storyline, ala Morrison. With these gals, you know it would be intense and exciting and worth the long read.

I just wish they 'd do something to distinguish Gypsy and Huntress' looks when they're out of costume. They look too much the same.

Lovin' all the girl power! Gypsy adds a unique power to the team, but I still want to see Vixen add some diversity. Please bring her back on board. Now that Gypsy is, maybe Mari won't be far behind?

BATGIRL!?

BIRDS OF PREY 96

Fun, fun, fun conversations between the reunited Birds. Their out-of-uniform scenes made the issue for me. But then, I don't really have a feeling for Black Alice. If I did, I'd probably think much more of the 'meat' of the book- which involves some villains and the Birds squaring off over/against the angst-ridden magically-powered teen. Oh, yeah-- there's a bit of a cliffhanger involving a red-headed gal with a pointy mask who *doesn't* look like Kate Kane swinging around the rooftops of Gotham City.

I'm torn about the Batgirl thing myself. I just... yeah. I dunno.

Black Alice is a character that... I liked her when she was first introduced, but I'm not really a fan of her evolution. As a character, I mean. Her powers are still kick arse.

I'm still really enjoying this book, though. I just hope that things pick up and go from status quo back to WOW soon. I have faith in Gail, though. She'll get us there.

For some reason I haven't been into this book anymore since 1YL. I don't know why, it's just not doing it for me.

It's still a well-done title-- but I agree, the spark isn't there. Or, at least, the spark's that there isn't one that I'm seeing. Maybe it's lighting someone else's fire, though.

The Batgirl subplot is definitely intriguing.

Recent solicits hint at lots of change in the Birds lineup-- that sort gives the next couple of issues 'lame duck syndrome'.

I think the main problem with this title is the inclusion of the other Birds. Before, we (usually) had three of them that allowed for tightly focused stories. Now, we have twice as many and it's diluted the book somewhat.

Jamie

I hate to agree with you, because I do LIKE the newer characters, but I really feel like Barbara, Helena, and Dinah are the most interesting and fully developed characters, and I would really like to focus more on them.

I do miss the Dinah/Babs focus. Huntress has always worked better for me as a Batfoil. Now more than ever she's Batgirl-like.

It sounds like we're getting a new cast for Oracle's crew. Seeing Dinah leave will be a shame, but the others can go and I wouldn't mind at all. Gail hasn't really developed them like the original two.

The series has also stumbled for me because it's strayed from characterization and been more plot oriented. Helena seems to have settled down, so what's there to do with her? Gypsy's been with the team for months now, but I feel like she's "just there" - I haven no sense of who she is and she doesn't bring any kind of character arc to the series (nor does Zinda, but she didn't need to before when the Big3 dynamic was on full steam).

I've been out of the loop for awhile, is there any Birds news I should know about? I'm looking forward to the 100th issue coming out on Wednesday.

Where are you up to date with Arachne? (SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT) Basic rundown of the plots since the OYG issues started (off the top of my head...) goes something like: during the OYG Dinah left the Birds to go and train with Shiva's old mistress so as to take her taringing to the next step while Shiva took her place in the Birds (as Jade Canary). While she was there she took a little girl under her wing who was being trained as the next Shiva. Dinah left and took the girl with her (I'm blanking on the girls name though) and rejoined the Birds. Shiva left the Birds on bad terms (it was odd that she ever joined to be honest though) but took the Crime Doctor's rather twisted daughter with her to train her up as an assassin. Neither have been seen since but you know they'll turn up again at some point. Various fighting went on with the Secret Society and Deathstroke and such, both the Birds and the Secret Society went after Black Alice to try and get her on their side but Alice was having none of it and banned all superpowered peeps from her home town and left them in no doubt that if anyone tried to come for her (good or bad) then it'd not go well for them. In the most recent issues Dinah decided to leave BoP (and returned to her mother's costume) so that she could look after her newly adopted daughter (the proto-Shiva girl), but also presumably so that she could be in JLA although that was never mentioned explicitly in BoP. As of #99 BoP consists of Oracle, Huntress, Gypsy (although as Drake says she hasn't really done much) and Zinda. With #100 we're getting a recuitment drive and Babs is going to be looking to have a network of agents that she can fit to each mission rather than just a couple. Sounds like a big change in the dynamic of the title but also sounds like it could be very good. Savant and his bodyguard guy also left the group a while back but could be brought back fairly easily.

That's the main points I think, although obviously I've missed out a lot of the rest of the stories. #100 sounds like it'll probably be a good point to restart with the book and if the preview pages are anything to go by the new art team looks pretty bloody good.

Thanks. I've got the back issues now. I was more afraid that I'd find out Gail was quiting or something. I hope Savant comes back some time. He's kind of the anti-Oracle when you think about it. Babs has Batman skills but she's crippled physicaly. Savant has Batman skills but crippled mentally. It'd be interesting to see that played up more.

And we've got #100!

First off, big hugs props/kudos/whathaveya to the art here. Gail's has a lot of artists since she took over, but Nicola Scott really makes this a good looking issue.

And with Oracle going all "Big Three" on her choice of operatives, I'm seeing s common theme in the DCU. Babs is looking to beef up her team, making it more of an organization. Gail does a fine job of picking agents suited to the mission at hand too. I'd like to see her take on a lot of these characters.

I really lliked it, too. I would've prefered it if it was the whole issue, though. Not that there was anything wrong with the Canary back up, I'd just rather see what happend next.

Speaking of the back-up, does Green Arrow still have his own book? If so, will Canary be going over too it? The ending kind of hinted at that.

Black Canary is in the new JLA book (with no mentions of Sin) as, I believe, a member of the team.

That's cool. I hope the writer's been reading BoP, though. Whoever it is probably didn't have the latest news on her when he started. Peter David was talking about that in a recent issue of X-Factor. He said that he didn't know about Banshee's death until after that issue came out like everyone else.

I don't know how I feel about a rotating cast (even with a core group). I prefer to stay with a fixed team and see them develop. And if Nicola Scott is the new regular artist, I don't see myself picking up another issue - I really don't like her style. I waited around for the #100 issue to see if I wanted to continue this book and I don't think I will. I also feel there needs to be a reason why Oracle seems to be interestd in using only female agents. It's a cool theme for a book, but I don't understand the internal logic at this point.

I'm not sure what the purpose of the backup was exactly - final closure to her leaving? It seemed pretty clear already why she was leaving and if anything, makes it more confusing why she would join the League. I hope Meltzer or someone makes sense of Canary's motivation and can reconcile the two.

The ladies only club might get old fast. When it was Dinah and Babs, they were friends. If it's going to be a rotating cast, Babs knows better than to limit her options.

I don't have any problem with the ladies only concept. Boys are stupid, superpowered boys are more stupider. If I had a superteam, it would be only women also. Maybe not for the same reasons...

They've had boys guesting before namely, JAson Bard, Metamorpho, Nightwing, Robin even deathstroke

Picked up #100 to see what all the hype was about. It was an okay read but not one that would likely pull me in as a regular, though I might pick up an occasional issue depending on the cast.

One question I have that hopefully regular readers can answer. When the invitations went out, Power Girl is portrayed as if she has a grudge against Babs (or was it Huntress...I'll have to go back and double check). What's this about?