Birds of Prey #6

[aeka]

So remember that guy who kissed Black Canary in issue #1? We finally learn more about him and the Cleaners in general!









This issue actually reminded me of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse series where a specific phrase is utilised to activate a person into "kick ass assassin" mode.

Comments

[kamino_neko]

This issue actually reminded me of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse series where a specific phrase is utilised to activate a person into "kick ass assassin" mode.

That's a pretty common trope - it (or, rather a close variant - seeing a Queen of Diamonds) is used in The Manchurian Candidate, for instance.

[junipepper]

Bourne Identity...

[kamino_neko]

Never read the Bourne books, nor seen the movies, so I wouldn't know. >_> They never came up in my search for more examples...which eventually lead to this TV Tropes page, which took a while to find, since I was looking for 'sleeper agents' (which are a real concept) in general, rather than thinking to 'Manchurian' it up to find the particular fictional subset of sleepers.

[razsolo]

This is up there with Swamp Thing and Animal Man as one of my favourite books of the relaunch. I have read the past three issues in one sitting and am impressed that I can't really tell what is real and what is my head being messed with, and it's not at the expense of the story.

The re-imagining of the characters has been awesome on all fronts. I love Starling. I love that this book is set in Gotham without being Batman-centric. I love that the Birds are all capable fighters who are also sexy, and not sexy women who also know how to fight.

If I had to find something to nitpick, it would be that the coloring tends to make everyone look like they have a head cold at times with their little red noses...also, given that some of the plot has hinged on us being able to recognise bit players the Birds have encountered in past issues, it would be nice if Saiz could expand his repertoire of faces a bit. These are extremely minor issues though, the art otherwise is great and more than makes up for them.

[meowshi]

A lot of people dislike Starling, actually. They say she's some kind of perfect, Mary Sue; who never makes any mistakes, always has an wise comment, and looks like she stepped out of a suicide girl photo-shoot.

I just think this makes her awesome, but I suppose I can see where they're coming from at least.

[aeka]

I actually think it's kinda sad that when you finally get a strong, self-confident, intelligent female heroine who actually loves life, has a sense of humour, and is skilled at the things she does best, she's automatically a Mary Sue.

Similarly, I find it just as equally annoying that there are people who think a female character needs to have some kind of dark, tragic past and self-loathing in order to be considered complex and compelling.

[kamino_neko]

Granted, Ev's got one of those, too (without the self-loathing, though she was quite severe with herself when she noticed she was caught in a trap), but she seems to have adjusted quite well.

[aeka]

True, especially where her Uncle Earl is concerned apparently. Though I'm not sure if having a history of abuse necessarily means a tragic past. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

[halloweenjack]

I think that any time you replace an older character with a new one in an ongoing series, you're going to have a backlash from fans of the old one that will find any excuse to hate on the new one. (If she'd made rookie mistakes, then she must be a fuck-up and they should just bring Character X back, right?) There are a lot of things that I still don't like about the New 52, but trying out new characters isn't one of them.

[gerardotejada]

Is not nearly as good as the Simone's run, but yeah they didnt screw this up

[althechi]

Of course, all such ideas essentially come from...

Err, wait a sec, I got a call.

"Why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?"

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(For the baffled, see here)

*Judo fighting with kamino_neko*

[glprime]

What was althechi doing with their hands?

*kamino_neko chops a table in half*

What was althechi doing with their hands!?

[arbre_rieur]

Does anyone else suspect Starling's scientist friend, something Cahill, of being Choke?

[darkknightjrk]

I dunno--I think Choke is related to the Court of Owls, personally.