March 2020 BotM - Batgirl and the Birds of Prey, Volume 1: Who Is Oracle?

[Mike, Host & Producer of IRCB!]

What did you think of Batgirl and the Birds of Prey, Volume 1: Who Is Oracle? by Julie Benson, Shawna Benson, and Claire Roe? How does this compare to other Batgirl stories you've read? Do you think you'll continue reading this series?

This month, you can listen to the IRCB team's discussion of this book on our Patreon. Once the episode is live, we'll post a link in this thread. Get your discussion points in ASAP to have them read on the show - Make sure to mark them as "OK TO AIR"!

[Nicholas]

I really liked this series. The art and story especially in this first arc hooked me in.

[Wayland]

I loved the early versions of Birds of Prey. This one wasn't bad, but I do miss Barbara as Oracle. The new take on Oracle was an interesting spin on things, and they did the story well.

[Lenny]

Gail Simone's run on Birds of Prey was one of my first favorite comic book series, but I won't judge this based on nostalgia. (Same goes for the newly released film, which was flawed but still pretty good.)

I think the most important part of this book was the dynamic between Babs and Dinah, and Helena to a lesser extent (since she was retconned as an original member for some reason?) But there's no spark or banter as best friends until way too late in the book, when things pick up overall, beginning with one of two unnecessary and forced Star Wars references. Huntress' slow turn was unoriginal, her family twist was predictable and she resolves things in seconds that would take a normal person years of therapy - so her character can, I assume, return to the status quo instead of having an opportunity to grow. It's an annoying trope in superhero books.

I wasn't a fan of the writing. The "villain to fanboy" Oracle reveal was very meh and gave me less reason to care. Fight scenes and dialogue got cheesy as the Birds fight their snake-themed group (because snakes...and birds...ugh) with punny one liners; also, do men, even if they are gangsters, still call women dollface? Is that a thing that still happens? Also, it is just impossible that Jim Gordon would sit in the same car or room with his daughter, who wears a mask that conceals nothing, and NOT figure it out.

And Roe's art was disappointing. Women shouldn't look super feminine and gorgeous to be superheroes, but this art was all over the place, especially with Babs. In some panels Babs had huge teeth, doe eyes and/or a prominent chin, a straight line for a mouth and then pouty lips....it was inconsistent and bizarre. BC and Huntress also had these issues, but it was less obvious than Batgirl. There were a few other noticeable, sloppy inconsistencies like a window with curtains turning into blinds. Granted, this book was far less gratuitous than most of the art in Simone's run (not a product of Simone and the artists, but the era, which still sucked); their costumes were better here, aside from Canary's, but the art still wasn't good at all.

Ironically, it was my love for the previous incarnation of Birds of Prey that kept me holding out hope and reading to the end. But aside from a few lines here and there, I couldn't find much to enjoy. I won't continue reading this unless someone convinces me it gets a whole lot better!

OK TO AIR (along with anything I wrote in my full review here)

[Chad]

Lenny wrote: "I won't continue reading this unless someone convinces me it gets a whole lot better!."

It doesn't.

[Adam]

I agree with a lot of what Lenny had to say about this book. It is a slow start and I honestly don't know that Black Canary was even necessary to this book. This was a Batgirl story with an attempt to introduce Huntress to new readers. The Huntress plot should have been compelling, but it wraps up so quickly you'd get whiplash.

The art here kind of middle of the road. I appreciated that heroes were muscular or athletic looking without being overly sexualized, but the women's faces in particular were oddly shaped and really inconsistent. The was dynamic action panels, but the types of fights got repetitive by the end.

The are bad puns, shoe-horned jokes and really lackluster dialogue. If I was a younger reader (who this could have been aimed at) this might have been a more enjoyable read. Even having been less familiar with this team or individuals backstories might have made this more fun. It really felt like a DC "Event" book where there was a lot compressed in so that new readers could jump on board without a lot of concern for existing readers.
-OK TO AIR-

[Mike, Host & Producer of IRCB!]

Hey folks - we're going to do a hangout on our Discord on Saturday, March 28th, at 1pm EST!

You can join our Discord by clicking this link.

Otherwise, look for our Patreon episode for this month's book coming out soon!