Review: Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #17
The many girls of Gotham, along with a certain reporting Out of Towner and a princess, club together to cure the men folk and stop the “Daughters”. Of course, with all involved, the book quickly degenerates into a fight……. for panel time.
The Daughters, led by patient Zero seem to have the upper hand; Batgirl, Batwoman and Harley are captured and the rest of the heroes are kind of standing around, talking, with not much going on until a plan of sorts is formed and its divide and conquer time. A couple of key points to consider occur here, which we will come back to. In the meantime, thanks to Batgirl’s “clever” keep them talking ploy we get the potted history of Zero which of course leads to, well I will let you figure it out.
This story contains pretty much the same hook from an old Justice League cartoon two parter that I am assuming writers Julie Benson and Shawna Benson hope new readers haven’t seen. Still, with the cast of thousands, the pair have the opportunity to caricature your favourite characters to a helpful Harley, a less than wondrous Diana, a bratty Spoiler and a Gotham Girl, that pretty much pays no resemblance to the troubled teen last seen in Batman. Still, at least they won’t have Poison Ivy, a plant specialist, work out that all the guys needs as a cure is oestrogen, right? I mean after all, Ivy is a botanist, not a physician.  And they definitely won’t have Spoiler saying “but if you use 
your powers you could die”, to Gotham Girl, despite not actually being given this information, right? Actually, both these things do happen and is screams poor editing! Sure they may not be the best story elements or dialogue, but goddamnit, editors really have to pick these glaring mistakes up, to give the writers at least half a chance!
The art is provided by Roge Antonio, who thank the comic book gods can draw costumes. After all, with the lack of details on any number of ladies, including blank faces and dots for eyes, the reader only has the costumes to rely on to let them know who is actually who! This is a massive problem, which detracts from some engaging panel structure. Antonio isn’t helped with the cast, as when there is just a focus on one or two characters, the art can look pretty good, if you don’t look too closely and notice bumps where there should be curves. Antonio is helped by colorist Marcelo Maiolo who also gets the costumes right.
I have mentioned how disappointing this book can be. Being a huge Batgirl fan, I liked the idea of her on this team, even back in New 52. But it is time for DC to realise that this book isn’t worth $3.99. It’s not even worth half that! There is a reason why Canary and Huntress are more interesting in other people’s books, (Green Arrow and Nightwing) than they are in this one. It might be something of a pipe dream, but I would like to see the sort of stories that Brian Michael Bendis would create for this book. That is the level of talent that is needed to resuscitate a book that has been in decline since Gail Simone left, the first time. Without that level of creator, DC should cut its losses, be happy with Canary and Huntress in other books as poorly conceived and produced books with female leads does absolutely zero for their laudable aims of diversity in the market place.
Writing – 1 Star
Art – 2.5 Stars
Colors – 3 Stars
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Written by; Julie Benson & Shawna Benson
Art by; Roge Antonio
Colors by; Marcelo Maiolo
Published by; DC Comics
Author Profile
- I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow
Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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