Retro Review

Gail Simone’s Birds of Prey was one of my favorite comics, one of the ones I had on order and would read first when I got home. The stories were thrilling and fun, and the art was always excellent, but most importantly, the characters were excellent. Each character had their own voice and role, and all were allowed to grow through her 4½-year run on the book. The character interaction was great: the strong friendship and love between Barbara Gordon (Oracle) and Dinah Lance (Black Canary); the initial mistrust Helena Bertinelli (Huntress) showed to Barbara and vice versa, and their falling out that nearly shattered the team; their subsequent reconcilliation; Zinda Blake and Helena’s friendship; Dinah and Lady Shiva’s mutual respect despite their lack of understanding of each other. Each interaction was believable, and the dialog rang true. The arc of Barbara and Helena’s relationship stands out in my mind as a long-planned and carefully realized story.

Naturally, Gail Simone couldn’t write Birds of Prey forever. Much as she admitted to loving the characters, she felt the need to move on, but says that she misses the characters. Well, I think if the characters were real, they’d miss her too: I certainly miss her hand on the book.

Tony Bedard is a good comic book writer. He did good work on several books in the past. However, in his current work on Birds of Prey, he has displayed a lack of understanding of these great characters he’s inherited. It feels like he never read Gail Simone’s run, and only skimmed Chuck Dixon’s. Barbara and Dinah behave like they barely trust each other, as if all of Gail Simone’s stories never happened. Barbara treats Helena and Zinda in an off-hand manner, with none of the respect they’ve earned. A new character is introduced with basically the same powers as an existing member of the team, who seems to have been written out. Kate Spencer (Manhunter) behaves like a charicature of herself. The only good moment of characterization is that Helena is finally out of that dreadful Jim Lee-designed midriff-baring costume that she’d been sporting, and back into something that seems like what she would wear.

I can forgive a writer for playing with minor points of continuity if it helps tell a great story. Geoff Johns proved that continuity could be flexible in his first run on JSA. However, a break in continuity of character is something that I can’t stand. None of the growth that the characters went through was preventing anyone from telling great stories; it wasn’t as if Gail Simone had turned Dinah into a villain (stand up and be counted Maxwell Lord) or Zinda into a nun (take a bow Andromeda). 

I will give Tony Bedard’s Birds of Prey till the end of the current arc, to see if there’s some reason for the current behavior, some twist to the storyline that explains why everyone has been acting so oddly. In the meantime though, I can’t help wishing that Gail Simone could come back and tell us it was all a dream.

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