Birds Of Prey #1

[superfangirl1]

Writer
Kelly Thompson

Artist
Leonardo Romero

Comments

[full_metal_ox]

Since the narrative leans heavily on names with religious connotations (“Sin”—spelled thus, rather than “Cyn”, giving Harley a cue for gleeful Mae Westian wordplay—and they’ve enlisted Zealot as well): is “Birds of Pray” the actual title?

(Sin being captive in some sort of conversion camp is a scarily topical scenario.)

[superfangirl1]

Good analyzation. But I just flub on the title. Lol

[shadowpsykie]

Sin was her name when Gail first created her. She calls her sister, but she was more Dinah's daughter. She was called "Sin" by Mother, a woman who trained both Dinah and Shiva. the name was meant to demoralize her. She chose, or was given the name Cynthia after meeting Dinah. Interesting catch though.

[shadowpsykie]

interesting... So are people not aware Barbara is Oracle?
Love that Sin is still alive (I mean if they folded in all the robins, superboys, and etc, this is no problem but still unexpected).

very interesting... i might be in on this iteration....

[zachbeacon]

It a weird situation, generally.

There are people that know Babs is Batgirl.
There are people that know Babs is Oracle.
Those groups don't always overlap.
I think there are even some people that just know Batgirl is Oracle

[super_fly]

It helps that Barbara wears glasses.
Batgirl doesn't wear glasses.
Oracle, glasses? Who knows.

Nobody would suspect a thing.

[thosefew]

Oracle is well connected, so she has contacts.

[super_fly]

boo

booooo

[zachbeacon]

Ha

[iamrman]

Seeing this is a Kelly Thompson book, I give it no more than 10 issues.

[thehood]

Didn't her Captain Marvel book last for fifty issues?

[iamrman]

Only because Marvel were so desperate to keep the copyright.

[thehood]

The previous Captain Marvel runs would have lasted just as long if that was the case. The truth is that Thompsons run was successful.

[john_drake1964]

Ah plaid, the bane of comic book artists, illustrators, and animators.

[zachbeacon]

"We can't invite Babs, she's busy not having her own comic and getting ignored for months at a time in Nightwing"

Weird not having Huntress too even if she wasn't actually part of the original team.

It's still so weird seeing the Wildstorm characters in the DCU. I can't look at Zealot and not think "that should have been Katana"

At least they remembered Sin.

[scorntx]

It's weird the Wildstorm characters are still in the DCU, and haven't just been shoved back out to another universe again.

[beyondthefringe]

That's because the Wildstorm characters just don't fit or have a specific niche in the DCU most of the time.

Some of them are just knock-offs (who needs Apollo or Majestic when you have Superman, who needs Midnighter when you have 12 Bat-family members, who needs the Coda when you have three tribes of Amazons) and some are just... seat-fillers in an already crowded universe.

Wildstorm characters were created to fill their universe's particular aesthetic and history, and trying to merge them with DC is usually pretty underwhelming, whether it's trying to make Stormwatch or the Authority feel important, finding a place for Grifter, making room for the Daemonites and Kherubim when there's already a dozen alien species living on Earth...

Waller vs Wildstorm isn't bad as an AU project where you can build from the ground up, but take the current WildC.A.T.S book, which is just such a mess of ideas thrown together and tell me they're really doing anything special in the DCU.

Nah, gimme a good Wildstorm universe rebuilt from the ground up with the classics--Stormwatch, Gen13, WildC.A.T.S, etc and assign it to some good creative teams (no more Warren Ellis, let's get a fresh visionary, eh?). Start small, get back to basics. Take that weird-ass conspiracy theory/shadow war/military-corporate exploitation vibe, update it for the more cynical and jaded 2020s.

(Milestone has the right of it: keep things small and contained, just a few books at a time, keep it to "seasons." Where they've fallen down is on choice of creators at times and scheduling.)

[zachbeacon]

Milestone also has the benefit of having a tone that fits with the DCU.

The Majestic in the DCU and Captain Atom in Wildstorm stories were enjoyable because they highlighted the contrasts between the universes.

Sure I guess they could try to shoehorn in WildCATs as yet another covert action team in the DCU (they are trying SO HARD to make Grifter happen and no one wants him) but any interaction between the JLA and the Authority that doesn't end with the Authority in prison means you didn't write at least one of the teams correctly.

It was VERY weird to have Superman's Warworld team include both Apollo & Midnighter AND Manchester Black (talk about a copy of a copy). The entire point of the Elite was to say "if the Authority existed in the DCU, they would be villains" and now the Authority DO exist in the DCU and Superman is fine with them.

[windleopard2]

Milestone also has the benefit of having a tone that fits with the DCU.

Static does at least. With the rest like Xombi, Icon and Blood Syndicate, it's debatable.

[zachbeacon]

Honestly I only ever really liked Static and Rocket but i don't see any reason they can't import, say, Hardware. The Milestone characters aren't much more extreme than some of the DCU's own attempts at 90s excess.

I'm not saying Blood Syndicate should have a monthly book (I thought the art was the main thing it had going for it anyway) but I could see them as DC characters without fundamentally breaking the DCU.

The Authority can't really be in the DCU without diminishing either themselves or the heroes or the DCU. If they aren't going around trying to overthrow governments then they aren't really the Authority and if the JL don't try to stop them they aren't really the JL.

As for Zealot... well it's already been said but, without the proper Wildstorm context, she's just another swordlady/amazon. I guess she fits but she's unexceptional and could easily be swapped out for Artemis or whoever. Most everyone else here is being recruited because Canary trusts them.

(Also Harley is there to boost sales.)

[windleopard2]

Speaking of 90s excess, I feel DC spent more time subverting, deconstructing or parodying extreme 90s tropes than playing them straight.

[windleopard2]

Dinah's list of potential recruits also included Talia, surprisingly enough.

[zachbeacon]

I guess she probably is the expert on having your kid kidnapped by ninjas.

Not sure an appeal as a mother* would actually work there though. Maybe with Cheshire...

*What's all this "sister" nonsense?

[windleopard2]

From my memory: Due to being raised by an abusive woman who only referred to herself as "Mother", Sin grew to hate the word mother. She insisted on seeing her as a big sister instead.

I'd like a Cheshire more akin to the Young Justice version than the Dragon Lady caricature the comic version devolved into.

[sinisterlink]

I’m not all that caught up on most Birds of Prey stuff, but was Sin the kid who was teaching Barda how to play Pokémon that one time?

[zachbeacon]

Yep

[lbd_nytetrayn]

No wonder everyone is so gung-ho to save her.

[super_fly]

There was a post here a while back but the image host fell victim to the ravages of time

https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/comments/xgo2tz/comic_excerpt_big_barda_plays_pokemon_birds_of

[huntleyhaverstock]

Kelly Thompson and Leonardo Romero's previous pairing on the Kate Bishop HAWKEYE book was off-the-charts good, so I have high hopes for this.

Really digging how Romero's accenting his usual Alex Toth bulletproof artistic craft with a healthy dose of Los Bros. Hernandez (which seems apropos).

[knight_moves]

I guess that little girl Harley blinded wasn't cool-ass.

Sucks for her.

[windleopard2]

When was this?

[cyberghostface]

https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/9207785.html

[starwolf_oakley]

"That ninja kid you adopted one or two reboots ago? I sort of remember that, though I'm not sure how."

Comic books are weird. I've said that, right?