Writing: Duane Swierczynski
Art: Jesus Saiz
While I've always really like the concept of Birds of Prey, an all female team headed by Barbara Gordon's Oracle and Dinah Lance's Black Canary, I'm generally kind of ambivalent toward the series' execution. Gail Simone's run was decent, but some of the changes she brought to the book, mostly all of the weirdness with Dinah and expanding the roster tenfold, just didn't work for me. I generally like Gail Simone's writing, and I really liked the idea of one of the few female writers in mainstream comics writing an all female book, but I think her talents were better served on Secret Six or Wonder Woman.
I enjoyed the rebooted book, with it's small team of just Black Canary and Starling for now, and with the twist that Dinah is wanted for "murdering a man with a punch." It makes it a little edgier, which I think it should be. It is a Gotham book after all. Barbara Gorden even made a cameo, showing that they did keep some of the history between her and Dinah intact. I'm pulling this book again next month, and I'll give it a couple of issues to see what pans out, because it has potential, but I can also see it going nowhere.
Ultimately, I want the Birds to be Black Canary, Huntress, and Oracle, but they've gotten rid of the Oracle character, so I could deal with it being Batgirl, as long as Barbara Gordon is involved in some capacity. But, I doubt they are going to do that with this book, at least not initially, so we'll see where it goes.
Writing: Brian Azzarello
Art: Cliff Chiang
Yet another Wonder Woman #1. I like Wonder Woman as a character, because I think she is really different from the run of the mill super heroine, but I think her stories aren't always handled well. She works when she is written as an Amazon, and when they have her dealing with the Greek Pantheon she emerged from. She doesn't work when they play her as a diplomat or a man hater, because then she's not interesting. She's too powerful to be fighting in the real world all of the time, and frankly, watching her play the diplomat is just plain boring. (Actually, I really like having Donna Troy as Wonder Woman, but that was never going to last. Diana is practically immortal, and she just doesn't work as a legacy character.)
All of that said, I really enjoyed this new story line, because it brought her back to her Greek mythological roots. There was stuff going on with the gods, which she got involved with. And they set up that this was a high stakes game, and that gods can die, which doesn't bode well for Diana, as an Amazon, not a god. A girl was pregnant by Zeus. Zeus is missing. And some other stuff I didn't really get. Centaurs? This is where I think that Wonder Woman really works, and one of the reasons I liked her in the first place. I also really liked the art, it was retro and different while still being intelligible and interesting.
I liked the first issue, and I can't wait to see what they do with this. It's refreshing to have a good Wonder Woman title again. I'll most definitely be pulling it again next month.
So far, I'm really enjoying the new DC stuff, as all four books I picked up this month were good. I can't wait for more Batwoman, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Wonder Woman. I never thought that there would come a time that I was only buying DC books without any Marvel (read: X-Men) titles to balance it out, but I think DC is just doing a better job managing its universe right now, and I'm not going to waste time and money on comic I don't enjoy. Yay Comics!
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