Spoilers for this week's Batman ahead... consider yourself warned. I have been reading "War Games" by proxy (which is to say, friends have been reading and telling me about it), and what I've heard, I generally have hated. The gratuitous torture and murder of yet another female DC character, the glorifying of another of their villains at the expense of the heroes' credibility and, to top it off, a pretty badly written and out-of-character scene in which Oracle detonates her watchtower and acts like a victim so that Batman will save her. Why do I bring all of this up in my introduction to a Birds of Prey review? Because Birds of Prey is the exception to my general disdain of the Batman books right now, and because the destruction of Oracle's headquarters had me worried that it would be dragged into that particularly nightmarish little subgroup. Instead, Simone and company use it as an excuse to reshape the book a little bit, with a new headquarters, a new mandate and a new team member, and I'm quite pleased with all three.
When Simone first came onto this book, it was at a time when the Birds of Prey TV series was just taking off, and as a result, the characters seemed pretty well grounded to Gotham for the time being, in order to be more like their TV counterparts. Simone also added Huntress, in another nod to the TV continuity. Thankfully, while the TV show was abysmal, Simone turned these (presumably) editorial mandates into strengths, making Huntress a more interesting character than many writers have managed and spinning some interesting tales that centered on Gotham but also got in a bit of globe-trotting, most notably in the excellent "Sensei & Student" arc. This issue, she turns another possible detriment ("War Games") into a positive by using its events to push the characters in different directions, and she also very strongly re-establishes the notion that Oracle and her operatives work on a larger field than Gotham. As I always preferred the more mobile, preferably globe-trotting, version of these characters, I'm very happy to see that latitude returned to the book.
Even without the deliberate change of mission statement, which we won't really see until next issue, this is a really good issue by any standard. While there's more than a little unintentional misogyny going on at DC these days in terms of the way their female characters are treated, Birds of Prey is a welcome exception, as Simone has added a little bit to this book's mission statement, such that it serves to make DC's female characters cool again. This issue, she brings onboard a new team member, one who had a prominent role with a male-dominated team, and her role as the last member of that team and the new member of the Birds of Prey team makes for a fascinating backup tale. Simone comments on the corporate glass ceiling as well as the ageism commonly directed at women, and she does it in a story that doesn't preach or mope, but instead has the same bounce and fun style that Simone brings to most of her work.
The primary story, however, is the reaction to the destruction of the tower, and the resulting shake-up in the team's mission. There's a lot of talking in this issue, a lot of introductions of new characters and new technology, but Simone doesn't let that get in the way of the story, and in fact she serves up a delightful little action sequence that shows off the skills of all her main characters and reminds readers of the function that they have served in Gotham. Having Oracle go into action physically is also a nice reminder that Barbara Gordon has remained an active superheroine despite her crippling by the Joker, which both makes her a strong character and serves as a nice metaphorical retort to those writers who can think of nothing better to do with female characters than have them maimed, raped or murdered.
In terms of artwork, this is one of the strongest Birds of Prey issues in recent memory. Ed Benes, handling his own inks (for the most part, as Alex Lei gets a "special thanks"), looks better here than he has in any previous issue, and he really conveys the emotional intensity that Barbara feels at the loss of her home as well as doing some amazingly tight flashback storytelling to the events of "War Games." There's also a beautiful pin-up style shot of Batgirl and a look at the new headquarters that shows off Benes's design skills and the more flashy elements of his style. In addition, the cheesecake, such as the super-short skirt of the new character, seems toned down and more playful than exploitative, and it's quite clear that Benes has really grown into his role on this book. The backup artwork is by Eduardo Barreto and Andrew Pepoy, two consummate professionals who turn in work reminiscent of previous Birds artists like Butch Guice, Greg Land and Dave Ross. All told, this is one of my favorite issues of Birds of Prey so far. 9/10
