You'd be hard-pressed to find a bigger fan of Gail Simone's work than me. The personality, action, energy and emotion she brings to super-hero storytelling is delightful, and she's definitely got her own unique voice. But this issue of Birds of Prey isn't her best work, and there are a number of reasons I had problems with the issue. Mind you, there were a lot of things I really enjoyed about it as well, and my interest in this title and Simone's work hasn't faded at all. This issue may set up a new status quo for the title team, but it's hardly required reading for those who wish to follow the series or even begin reading it. There are those who will want to pick it up, though, and they are Bruce Timm completists.
Dinah Lance, AKA Black Canary, helps her colleague and friend, Barbara Gordon, AKA Oracle, move into her new digs in Metropolis while she recovers from her recent surgery and health crisis. Something unexpected but pleasant awaits Barbara in her new home, though. Meanwhile, Lady Blackhawk has had team jackets made up and even has a suggestion for the name of the team. She also hopes the Huntress will return to the hold, but she has some personal business to attend to. And Canary fills in for an absent Superman when an unusual gang targets TV news reporters for an untimely demise.
The main appeal of this issue is Bruce Timm's participation. He delivers the same kind of cartoony, sexy mix we've come to expect from him. The art is full of action and personality, and it is undeniably fun. However, Timm's work, when contrasted with Melo's and Lopez's styles, is jarring. The other more conventional super-hero art dominates the issue, and Timm's seems like a poor fit (though it definitely suits the tone of the chapter he illustrates). Melo's efforts in the first chapter are awkward. She doesn't get anatomy quite right, and the atmosphere of the party isn't all that warm at all.
I was impressed with Lopez's work. He's demonstrated his ability to capture strange and dark characters in Peter David's Fallen Angel, and the Huntress is a natural fit for that style. He conveys the grounded plot elements just as well as he does the more extreme ones. The muted color palette employed for Lopez's sequence really drove home the dire nature of the story nicely.
The Huntress's verbal defeat in that third chapter stands out as the strongest bit of storytelling in the book. It was also a bit surprising, as Simone bucks the stereotypical vigilante plot direction for something a little different. However, the Huntress's decision at the end of the sequence regarding Zinda and Barbara's offer comes too suddenly.
The pacing is all off in this issue. Really, this read like two issues' worth of plot crammed into a trasitional fill-in episode of the series. I really enjoyed how Simone incorporated a rather obscure Superman villain into the story as well. The script isn't the most accessible one that Simone has offered up, especially when it comes to peripheral characters such as Savant and Creote. 5/10
