Birds of Prey (issues #86–90 and #92–95) by Gail Simone and various artists

I think it’s to my shame that I haven’t read any Gail Simone comics. Apart from reading her very funny You’ll All Be Sorry column, I haven’t picked up any of the actual comic books that’s she’s written. Not through anything planned, just a mix of limited funds and choice of titles. It doesn’t help that I’m not a huge DC fan. So, when my library had this collection of on its shelves, it was my chance to rectify the omission in my reading experience, even if it does jump into the latter half of her run.

My first read was a bombardment of info: this is a very busy comic – Barbara Gordon (Oracle) is recovering from injuries, Dinah Lance (Black Canary) is being mentored by Shiva, Helena Bertinelli (Huntress) is knee-deep in mob stuff, Zinda Blake (Lady Blackhawk) is trying to adapt to the present (after an anomaly in time has brought her forward to the present) in her very short skirt uniform, the villain Calculator (formerly a bit of a joke) is working for Luther as a villain equivalent of Oracle by compiling information for the villain community and selling it, and there is lots of talking (and that’s not a sexist ‘all women do is talk’ comment, honest; I think it’s a DC thing, where the page is filled with lots of word balloons. Or maybe I’m used to Warren Ellis talking about a maximum words per panel based on old comics.) The wealth of word balloons is not to the comic’s detriment – Simone does good dialogue. She also has a good handle of the characters and putting them into action stories that are relevant to them, but it is her gift for natural and enjoyable dialogue that is one of her strengths.

The art is uneven – it’s mostly in the DC house style, competent but not necessarily inspired; it tells the story but not in a dynamic style, making it feel like it’s slowing down the pace, even in a fast book like this. At least it avoids the T&A trap it could easily fall into (and probably did when Ed Benes drew the book). I rather liked the work of Paulo Siqueria (who reminds me a little of dearly missed Mike Wieringo), even if it still needs a polish. Of course, I love the Dodson covers, so that might affect the comparison with the interiors.

I assume that the missing issue is something to do with the Countdown/One Year Later thing, because we jump straight into the new status quo in the second half of the book. The story of Dinah/Shiva swapping positions is interesting, if a little odd, with Dinah learning from Shiva’s instructor in the original village and Shiva taking Dinah’s place in the Birds of Prey, but with the promise of not killing anybody. However, the rest of the story rattles along again, and Simone makes you care about the characters; perhaps not enough to make me buy the comics but I might read more via the library system.