Written by Gail Simone
Art by Paulo Sequeira; Adam Riggs; Hi-Fi; & Jared K. Fletcher
Cover Art by Jerry Ordway
SUMMARY:
Published by DC Comics for September 2006, the original Birds of Prey series sets this issue a year out after Infinite Crisis and Black Canary’s fateful Far East mission. Meeting up for breakfast, Dinah “Black Canary” Lance integrates her young surrogate daughter, Sin, with her close friends Barbara (Oracle); Helena (Huntress) & Cindy (Gypsy).
Meanwhile, the nefarious trio of Talia al Ghul, Felix Faust, & Cheetah discreetly scout the gothic teenager, Black Alice, at her Dayton, Ohio high school. She is their next possible recruit for the Secret Society. Oracle sends in the Birds (including Dinah & Blackhawk Zinda), but their surveillance job re: Black Alice is sabotaged. The villains have manipulated Alice into “defending” her neighborhood from the Birds. Duplicating Wonder Woman, an enraged Black Alice nearly overwhelms the veteran Birds. This showdown continues into the next issue.
REVIEW:
Kudos to Gail Simone for a very entertaining effort! Besides sentimentally depicting Dinah’s newfound sense of motherhood/big sisterhood with Sin, the relationship between Black Alice and her oblivious blue collar dad is plausible enough. The Ted Kord-related memorial segment is poignant, but perhaps too poignant, as it teeters on being over-played. Simone also works in an amusing cyber-sex gag, but again its unnecessary repetition gets old fast.
As expected, Simone delivers believable buddy chemistry between Dinah, Barbara, and Helena — it certainly maintains this issue’s cohesion. Paulo Sequeira’s artwork is mostly B+ caliber, but one might not recognize his Talia & Felix Faust without help from Simone’s dialogue. Still, their creative teamwork makes Birds of Prey # 96 a solid enough read.
ADDITIONAL CONTENT:
Senior VP/DC Comics Executive Editor Dan DiDio plays up the San Diego ComicCon with some helpful tips in his “DC Nation” column.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 7 Stars
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