Birds of Prey, Volume 1: End Run by Gail Simone

Birds of Prey, Volume 1: End Run Reviews

• 
  Crystal Starr Light

  Bullet Review:
  
  You know that stereotype that all comic books/graphic novels are is just soft-core porn? A bunch of scantily-clad women in suggestive poses?
  
  Yeah, this book doesn't defy that stereotype one bit. The characters are great, from Black Canary to Blackhawk to Huntress to Oracle to Dove, each unique and special in her own way (or in Hawk's case, his own way). They are unique women, different and outstanding and defying stereotypical feminine stereotypes (meek, timid, shy - only Dove is somewhat like this, and even she has her breaking points).
  
  It's just that Every. Single. Female. has to wear bikinis and fishnets as their superhero costumes. Really? I mean, REALLY?! Does that make any sense, to have a woman kicking crime's @$$ in a bikini that offers little to no protection? I know I sound like a broken record, but it's stupid. It's particularly stupid when SO MANY SCENES were drawn with the obvious fanservice intent.
  
  Otherwise, the story and characters and writing are solid. Simone excels once again at writing women as women - not frilly delicate things that (some) men think are women, nor the robotic killing machines that (some) people think are the only way we can write kick @$$ women. I love how there are SO MANY women in this comic, how they have great interactions, how their concern is with fighting crime NOT who's in their bedroom.
  
  The writing isn't the strongest I've seen from Simone, and then we have the sexist art which combined to take away a full star. Honestly, this was more enjoyable than my first foray into the Birds of Prey - now we just got to give these ladies more practical costumes, instead of Miss Universe swimwear outfits!!
• 
  Chad

  Birds of Prey gets a slight reboot to tie into Brightest Day. Now Hawk & Dove are on the team even though they don't bring much to the book. It feels almost like Simone was forced to add them. Anyway, it didn't lessen my enjoyment of the book any. The regular cast of female vigilantes are all there: Black Canary, Oracle, Huntress, Lady Blackhawk. Even Savant and Creote return with their messed up relationship where even though one is a savant only Creote realizes they are a couple. The book is packed with action. Ed Benes is a very talented artist. However, his reliance on butt shots and swimsuits for costumes feels dated at best. Skeevy is more the word for it. It's a strange dichotomy of visually over-sexualized female forms paired with Gail Simone's strong writing of empowered women.
• 
  Sesana

  This was my first real exposure to Birds of Prey. Boy, was that ever a mistake. For the most part, I felt lost. So much backstory goes into this plot that I spend more than half the time going, "Wait, when did that happen?" It seemed fairly well-written, and I think it's true to the characters as I understand them from other books. The art itself is pretty unremarkable. I picked it up because the cover billed it as tying into Brightest Day. Um, it doesn't. But the good thing about that is that it's got me interested in the earlier days of the Birds of Prey.
• 
  Kuroi

  CAUTION: This book is not meant to be taken seriously. At least, I don't think it is. It's pretty much laughing at itself as it goes. Either that, or it falls into the category of pompous books that think cheese is wine.
  
  So the White Canary is back and mysteriously gets hold of everybody's data. By that, I mean she knows what brand of toothpaste Bruce Wayne uses on Tuesdays.
  
  Well, it's not so mysterious how she got it. She tortured poor Savant into giving it and I guess Creote was just watching from the sidelines and eating popcorn.
  
  Anyhow, she's out to get some honourable revenge for the defeat of her 12 brothers - you know, the ones in Silk ('cos I don't know) - by blackmailing Black Canary into fighting her. Or her substitute, Shiva. It's all honourable and full of integrity all round.
  
  That's the plot, and in between, there's a lot of Barbie-high-induced girl power friendship and tequila shots to go around. The Penguin spends most of his time providing the panels detailing everyone's pin-up girl fantasies of the team and then suddenly gets up to show that gushing arteries never stop true villainy. Only cleavage shots of Dinah.
  
  
  
  Penguin's got his priorities straight.
  
  Oh right, Barbara Gordon, the Oracle, is there too. She's purportedly the premier info-jock of the DC Universe and can't stop a single TV broadcast from airing. Or find out where Sin is. She does, however, successfully manage to get Savant and Creote together, so maybe she should consider matchmaking services. MeetMyFuture.com and all that.
  
  Also worth notable mention is Zinda's faker-than-Kim-Kadarshian-slang and the generally cheesy events in the book.
  
  
  
  And the bird-brained jokes continue...
  
  Take Black Canary for example. She fights crime, tutors martial arts students and is the chairperson of the JLA, all without a mask, and you're telling me no ever noticed she looked a lot like Dinah Lance? No wonder that Asian gal got as far as she did with her vengeance plan.
  
  That case was pretty funny too. She's dressed exactly like Dinah, only in white and from the moment she appears, is busy kicking butt, but it takes a special arm-lock throw for Black Canary to realise who she is. Well, she wasn't known for her intellect anyway.
  
  
  
  That's right, Dinah. Tell your deadly foe your next move.
  
  Hawk and Dove are exactly what they sound like. The former is big, scary, frowning all the time and the latter likes to dress in white, has a fluffy chest and coos a lot. Inspired pair, they are.
  
  Really, I wasn't joking. Hawk has anger management issues, is the alter ego of Hank Hall and is called...Hawk. Does that sound familiar to you? The only difference is, no body hair (yay for Anne!).
  
  The art...is...lush. I actually like Benes' work, if you remember, but this time, everyone except the Penguin got their lips Botoxed to scary levels. The hair also has tendency to swish dramatically and grow to unexplained levels. And Huntress is wearing purple Fruit-of-the-Loom thingies.
  
  VERDICT: It's The Expendables with an all female cast and none of the explosions. It can be summed up in three B's - Botox, Boobs and Birds.
  
  And where is Batman while all this is happening in his own turf?!
  
  Get this review and more at:
  
  
• 
  Finn

  I can sum up this re-launch of the BoP series in three words: DAMN IT, BENES!
  Gail Simone isn't in her top form here, but I'd rather read average Simone than anything by most other writers in comics today. Sadly, Ed Benes' art just torpedoes the entire trade. There's page after page of his over-sexualized, nearly-identical women with as many gratuitous butt-shots as he can manage. The art totally undermines Simone's portrayal of the Birds as strong, competent women with vibrant personalities. Simone's worked with plenty of great artists in the past: Nicola Scott, Aaron Lopresti, Neil Googe, and Bernard Chang come to mind immediately. I can't help wondering how much more I'd have enjoyed the story if one of them had been behind the pencils.
• 
  Shannon Appelcline

  This wouldn't make a lick of sense to someone who hadn't read Simone's previous run. It's a nice continuation, but doesn't have the heft that something more original would.
  
• 
  Eli

  Loved this.
• 
  Chelsea 🏳️‍🌈

  This run doesn't have quite the same vibe as the last one. Aside from it lacking the look of the classic run, the line up felt a bit different. This team was made up of Oracle, Huntress, Black Canary, Lady Blackhawk and they're joined by Hawk and Dove.
  
  The plot felt a little scattered to me but I must admit, during the first part of this volume, I was extremely distracted by the art. The old run had some sexualized art but nothing too too bad. This had some impossible angles, a ton of ass shots and I just found it odd? Like it reminded me of that Emma Frost book I read a long time ago in that this is a series that women love reading and I would wager were a huge part of the fanbase. So, why this art that is so sexualized, it's not sexy? I think of Sunstone and how that book is literally about BDSM and sex is a big part of it. That art is sexy without being so cheaply sexualized. Ya get me?
  
  Anyway, the art changes for the last 2 issues which I appreciated.
  
  This run had several of the elements I loved in the last one:
  - Babs leads the team as Oracle and she's so wonderful under pressure
  - Helena and Dinah continue to support each other
  - This continues to be a team of women supporting women
  - The action is entertaining
  
  The plot lost me a few times but the emotional moments really landed. Oracle getting through to Savant and understanding where she let him down. Creote finally getting Savant to realize how much he loved him. (I don't think they were allowed to show them kissing for some reason). Dinah leaving the team to fight for Sin. Helena sacrificing herself for Dinah because she didn't think anyone would need her the way they needed Dinah. (I love their relationship the most, I think).
  
  It's pretty entertaining and has a lot of the same heart the last one did so, if you liked Gail's last run of BoP, give this volume a shot.
• 
  Cale

  It's not the best of the Birds of Prey run; the presence of Hawk & Dove don't really add much to the dynamics, but Black Canary and Huntress and Zinda all are on their stride. The villain, White Canary, is a callback to a previous series, but she doesn't stand out as a prominent antagonist. The art is a bit on the cheesecake side, but the saturated colors are beautiful. The relationships between Huntress and Oracle and Black Canary are pretty strong, although Oracle doesn't have nearly enough to do in this arc.
• 
  Miss Susan

  guys! did you know dc has this character named zinda who's a wwii fighter pilot who somehow ended up in the present day? all i want is for christmas is a dc/marvel crossover where she hangs out with captain america, like just give me that and we're golden
  
  (i don't actually celebrate christmas but that's no reason to get in the way of a good sentence)
  
  anyways i think i'm going to have to peace out of dc comics now. this volume pretty much maxed out my tolerance for the male gaze, if i never see another t&a pose inflicted on a female superhero again it'll be too soon. if i were in charge of the world i'd set a quota on this sort of thing. straight boys only get two blatantly fanservice oriented titles a month and they'll be clearly marked so the rest of us can go enjoy something else. 2 stars
• 
  Scott

  Damn, these 'Birds' are badass women - there's A LOT of knock-down, drag-out action in End Run. Of course, I don't pass up an opportunity to read ANYTHING featuring my DC fave Black Canary.
  
  But sometimes it was the quieter moments that really made the volume shine. An injured Penguin's hallucination (or was it a daydream?) was amusing in its sudden appearance. Lady Blackhawk and her continual 'can-do' gumption never gets old or cloying. Then there was a late scene where a character knelt down and she offers a brief, sincere prayer of thanks to God before heading into several pages of a fairly graphic / possibly fatal fight. It was an unexpected but inspired and endearing bit of modesty.
• 
  Alan

  Gail Simone, and the title, returned after a bief hiatus, and it almost seems as if Simone felt that she had a mandate to ramp up the action scenes and to leave behind the personal interaction that highlights her best writing.
  
  Yes, the action goes at the pace of Quentin Taratino, and much of it, until the final two chapters, feels and seems senseless. Story wise things pick up a little bit with the TPBs last couple of chapters.
  
  Because we begin to get the character work at which Simone is so good. Creote and Savant return, possibly the best Gay duo ever written in mainstream U.S. comics (even thoug Savaant doesn't know it). Helena Bertinelli's mission statement seems to be, "This is my family damn it, and you do not f--- with them." Zinda is the groups party girl, but she remains level headed throughout much of the book.
  
  This TPB does tie a couple of hanging loose ends. The primary one being Dinah's daughter.
• 
  Craig

  This isn't the best of the Birds that Simone wrote or that Benes drew, but it's still a pretty fine comic. It's the first of a rebooted sequence, and the girls seem a little unsure about some of their chronology. (I know I was confused.) Once things start happening and Dinah gets her game on I stopped worrying about it and just went with the story. Zinda Blake, Lady Blackhawk, has joined Oracle, Huntress, and Canary, and is a delightful addition to the crew. Hawk and Dove are there, too, with less success, but it's one of the Brightest Day titles so I guess they had to be. Penguin guest stars as the villain's foil, and is portrayed in a peculiarly pitiable (and vile) manner. I thought the art was excellent, though I understand some people find it offensive; they can ably judge by the cover and move on to something they like better. When it comes to Simone's writing I don't think anything in the field often gets better than this.
• 
  Sarah

  Gail Simone writes a kick ass Birds of Prey story. This may, in fact, be my favorite Birds of Prey story ever. The writing is tight and the girls are in top form -- both in terms of fighting and having well rounded personalities. It also sees the return of two of my favorite BOP side characters, Savant and Creote, who are AWESOME in this story. Savant in particular has some awesome stuff in here and finally Creote confesses his feelings (ftw). Bringing this huge sweeping story back down with their moment in the rain keeps the book emotionally grounded.
  
  The only thing that keeps this from getting 5 stars is the art. I've never read anything by Ed Benes, but he draws all the women WAAAAY too similar and with a bit too much gratuitous t&a for my taste.
• 
  Angela

  You forget how good a writer Gail Simone is, and then you read the latest Birds of Prey. There are character moments, twists, shocks and emotional involvements in this volume. Birds of Prey is back, as good as it ever was.
• 
  saïd

  Gail Simone's Birds of Prey is the only comic ever.
• 
  Artemis Crescent

  This comic has quite a few glaring flaws - in its artistic freedom and story department - which I'm sure have nothing to do with me not having read any other 'Birds of Prey' works beforehand. But by the screaming canaries was the volume a lot of fun to read. Fast-paced action, great characters who’re each given panel time - and for some even whole chapters - to develop, a dark tone, and progressions and twists to the plot that are well balanced and flow evenly.
  
  As it turns out, Gail Simone can write not just one or two believable and relatable female characters in one comic volume. She can write several in one solid issue. The whole flock (apologies for the bad pun) of the Birds of Prey are memorable and engaging in their own way.
  
  But the star of 'Birds of Prey, Vol. 1: End Run' is Black Canary, aka Dinah Lance. She's one of the best martial arts experts in the world, and she can sound a building-shattering banshee shriek (try saying that ten times over). She even once defeated twelve born-and-bred assassins. Black Canary is resoundingly cool, with a sympathetic side brought up by a past involving a broken superhero family, an ex-mayor husband in jail, and a missing foster daughter. So her outstanding resilience in nearly every dangerous situation imaginable is not overblown to make her look awesome for the sake of it. Rather, it is to show how strong she is; coping despite all the terrible things happening around her, like all the information on her friends and family being leaked online, leaving them wide open to deadly assassins. This heroine is not invulnerable; she’s just experienced enough to endure these things as a superhero with a misguided and violent past. Black Canary is implied to be harbouring a death wish as well as a vow of not using senseless violence, but she refuses to give up where there is hope. Then there's her friends, the Birds of Prey. Everything about this lady screams high-octane, and I love it.
  
  The one who brings the Birds together is Barbara Gordon, aka The Oracle, aka the former Batgirl before being rendered handicapped. This computer genius and hacker is as wonderfully-written as she is in Gail Simone's other comic, 'Batgirl, Vol. 1: The Darkest Reflection', even if she is a little too trusting and forgiving in this one. But even at her worst disadvantage she never caves over; Babs always uses her head and takes everything at face value, with a heart striving to understand better. She is the one who inspired Black Canary’s resolve not to kill or grievously injure others again.
  
  Other Birds of Prey include:
  
  Lady Blackhawk, aka Zinder: a confident, sweet-talking, legendary fighter pilot who I sometimes got confused with Black Canary because they both have blonde hair of the exact same style (they even wear black leather), but their personalities and dialect are different at least.
  
  Huntress, aka Helena Bertinelli: another heroine I knew very little about before reading this volume, and she doesn't get a lot of development until the last quarter. But like the other Birds she can kick arse and take names like nobody's business. She is an impulsive, act-now-think-later type of person, but she clearly loves her fellow Birds of Prey dearly. I love her sisterly relationship with Black Canary, whose life she would literally die to save.
  
  There is also the saintly, more feminine Bird: the peacekeeper Dove, aka Dawn Granger, whose only main characteristic is that she’s non-violent and angelic to the point of childlike naivety. She hasn’t any strong development or much panel time here – do superhero writers struggle with “pacifist” heroes, I wonder? - but she gets her moment of awesome when she punches the Penguin in the face, so I’m happy. And there’s Dove’s partner (and lover?) Hawk, aka Hank Hall, the only male Bird of Prey. He's a soldier on his second life - literally - and is Dove's more violent, polar opposite. Even he gets much more development than the little blue and white Bird. (=sigh= Maybe “happy” isn’t the word I’m looking for after all.)
  
  I like how Gail Simone writes these characters so that, even to a novice like myself, I really felt their connection and understood their relationships with one another – formed through many years of fighting crime and social injustice. Despite the team's time apart prior to 'End Run', the friendship they share - especially between Oracle, Black Canary and Huntress – is authentic, and not without effort. Their interactions and witty dialogue exchanges show not only how much they care for each other, but how human these superhumans are. Sometimes being part of a team of understanding friends is better than fighting solo – both externally and internally.
  
  Now for the downsides.
  
  'Birds of Prey, Vol. 1: End Run' has its share of silliness, there is no denying that. Like the scene with Penguin's blood-loss-induced, perverted fantasies that practically paint "Fanservice" on every panel they're in. I ask, what is the point of this scene? I hope Penguin being included in the comic at all wasn’t so that the fanservice could go all-out, even if it is only for a couple pages (I am suspicious because his role could have been filled by any villain).
  
  Towards the end, it seems Black Canary has met her match with the assassin, White Canary. She clearly states in narration boxes that her next mission must be her last and she'll never return to Gotham City. However this, plus the build-up towards fighting the “world number one martial arts expert” Shiva to the death, has no real payoff. Black Canary barely even gets a chance to do anything. The “final fight” results in an anticlimax in the last few pages of the volume. Maybe more will be explained in the next volume, but I was still expecting a better wrap-up. On the bright side, it does keep the friendship-and-sacrifice theme intact.
  
  Now let's talk about the artwork. The comic is drawn crisply and cleanly, with lines and shadows that brilliantly convey a dark atmosphere befitting the story. There is overall impressive detail on every page.
  
  Maybe too much detail, especially with the anatomy of the female characters. There is an abundance of adult female characters in 'End Run', and only two-or-three of them actually wear pants. A few or more wear fishnet stockings. And all of them have, uh, very healthy-sized breasts. Also, expect the artist to draw tightly-clothed butt-shots at any opportunity. I won't fault Gail Simone on this since I'm sure she hadn’t much input when it came to the art, but the fanservice contrasts greatly to how well she writes her female characters as human beings and not sexualised models for the male gaze (I'm sure I remember at least some the Birds of Prey wearing high heels during chase scenes and their run from the law too. How amateurish). It is for this reason that I am reluctant to label this comic as "feminist" or "feminist-friendly".
  
  But still, the fanservice isn't too excessive, thank goodness, and it didn't distract me too much. It could have been a whole lot worse. I still liked all the characters in all their flawed and repentant glory.
  
  'Birds of Prey, Vol. 1: End Run' - not perfect by any stretch, but it's fast-paced, action-packed, exciting, intelligently-written (for the most part), and accessible to anyone just getting into comic books. The artwork may be off-putting in some places, but Gail Simone's character-writing and ability to up the stakes in an already intense storyline is impeccable. It can get cheesy, but it's a guilty-pleasure flavour of cheese; similar to 'The Expendables', only with a female cast and stronger emotional resonance and character development.
  
  I enjoyed this first outing into the 'Birds of Prey' world. Really, why isn't Hollywood making concrete plans to make a movie about these awesome ladies? They have the potential to be the next Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy. With the various announcements of female-driven superhero movies being made and released in the coming years (finally!), 'Birds of Prey' shouldn't be passed up. As long as the movie's writer(s) can write women, of course.
  
  Final Score: 3.5/5
• 
  Danielle

  I hate that I'm kind of in a rut right now, because I want to love all of these heroine-led titles, but they just aren't clicking.
  
  I love the concept of Birds of Prey - I love all of the women in the group and I'm super interested in checking out their other titles. Here, however, it feels like everything is being thrown at the wall like something might stick.
  
  Simone has spoken out against the oversexualization of female characters, but that's very prominent in the art here. I was also set off by other plot points - like Oracle outing a character to another "for love," and Black Canary guessing that an unknown Asian character is either Asian Character 1 or Asian Character 2 (Asian Character 1's mother). There's so much about this that makes it clear it's kind of early 2010s-feminism - super basic and kind of problematic.
  
  I'm hoping that titles featuring these characters improve in the future, but I'm kind of glad this run only has two volumes.
• 
  James DeSantis

  A solid comeback for Gail.
  
  She had left the Birds of Prey title after years of crafting something special. With New 52 not far from now, she returned to the title of Birds of Prey to give these girls the much needed boost. This time Black Canary facing against WHITE Canary, Barbara dealing with past sins, and Huntress, well Huntress just being a badass.
  
  Some really fun fights here, lot of good emotional payoff. I'd say the weakest part was probably Barbara's story but by the end it had a interesting resolution. Not sure where to go from here but enjoyable so far return for Gail on the Birds of Prey title. A 3.5 out of 5.
• 
  The Lost Dreamer

  This book collects the first six issues of Gail Simone's run on Birds of Prey and I think I only actually enjoyed the two last ones. It's my fault, as I approached this series expecting some female-led heroism, forgetting that these stories target are usually males who only want to see hot chicks kicking asses in impossible ways. Unfortunately, the plot doesn't help much: there are some good ideas, but they get far too many pages. Everything feels too long, to boring. I'll try to read some of the next issues, expecting it might improve a little bit. But I expected more.
• 
  Roman Colombo

  Some of Simone's best
  
  I was going to just read one issue and continue with it the next day...instead, I got so enthralled with it, I read it all in one night. I hope DC releases more of her Birds of Prey run in trades.
• 
  Morv

  I have never read Birds of Prey from DC comics before, but I found myself loving Black Canary and after a bit of research I decided that I should try reading a comic involving a team that she is involved in, considering that it would also introduce me to other characters in the DC comics world.
  
  The volume is essentially forcing the team to pair up with an enemy of Gotham City, given that all their lives are at stake here, and they need to make a choice, give themselves up or have their darkest secrets revealed to the whole world.
  
  If you are already a fan of the Birds of Prey, you would find this rather interesting, there is a few problems I was having with this volume though. The main one is that I had no idea who these characters were at all, I had read up on Black Canary and yet the woman I was reading about in the comic seemed nothing like she was on the pages I found.
  
  To make it worse, although the costumes many of them are wearing, most notably Huntress and Black Canary, wouldn't be suitable for fight crime with but it's a comic world and it's not real so certain logistics can be taken away in that case, but it does become overly sexual later on, granted we learn why it is like that a few pages along, but it does beg the question - did we need to see that? Does it add to the plot at all? Because I found it didn't, it didn't even add any humour to it either, it just came across as a bit of fan-fodder for people who want to see these woman in more of a sexual context.
  
  The plot doesn't seem to work out well, the main focus for the whole story is Black Canary rather than any other member of the team, which leads me to wonder why this couldn't have been a solo for Black Canary? The other characters just seem to make the plot slow down, although there are moments when you do see that the character's all care for each other and will do anything to help each other out.
  
  It doesn't make me want to read the next volumes of the books, which is fine, since the relaunch is 52 and everything has changed, so it might be worth my time going to check them out instead. Here's hoping it will be better than this.
  
  
• 
  Gavin

  It was a fun read, like seeing women characters who aren't just dumb T&A... However, there was enough to make them seem easily defeated...Oracle made to look silly, and the costumes so overly sexual, nearly an insult. I'm not sure that all the hugs and tears were realistic or overdoing it a tad...but the writer is a woman...were it a man I'd say it was just mockery.
  Good characters, though I was more interested in Hawk being back from the dead and all...also how his dynamic is with the 'new' Dove.
  I suppose it was important not to have any major bat family involved as well...
  Though I'm very confused about how busy Gotham must be with heroes/crime...so many people operating...
  Decent book. I think there was only about another 6-8 issues before everything ended for New 52...
• 
  Imogen

  When the New 52 started, I looked at the options and an all-female superhero group had me interested so I picked up Birds of Prey. My brother then gifted me these old runs so I could read the history and I was excited.
  I've been watching Gotham so I liked seeing some grown-up Penguin and I love Oracle as a character. It's so nice to see disabled representation. I had a review that I had written just after I finished it all written out, but it got accidentally deleted and I honest to gosh can't remember much about this book. I enjoyed it but it hasn't left much of an impression.
  
  
  Review originally posted on Imogen’s Typewriter.
• 
  Ari Odinson

  I have to decide what to read first: Batwoman, Batgirl or this volume of Birds of Prey.
  
  I wasn't able to finish picking this up single issue wise even though I was madly in love with the series and Gail Simone in general. Maybe it'll be a nice addition to my collection. The problem is I'm looking for something to read on my Nook. I can live with the first two options being a digital format, but this is hands down a favorite series of mine. I want to hold it, touch it and hug it.
• 
  Sarah

  Simone picks up where she left off when moved off the Birds of Prey back in the day. She completes Canary's journey as a potential heartless assassin, and gives Huntress possibly the greatest moment I've ever read in a superhero comic. Babs doesn't get as much to do, and the intrusion of Brightest Day antics doesn't help the story, but Lady Shiva's still hanging around, so all is right with the world.
• 
  Vishualee

  You don't mess with the Birds of Prey!
  
  This was not the usual superhero team up we see on comics, but a family who watch each other's backs. With initial hiccups, the team learns to stay afloat and stick for one another through to the end. The story in this volume reminds me of those martial arts movies, where the protagonist is haunted by an unknown enemy, and he/she travels far from his home to a new country for a final showdown.
  
  This volume introduced me to characters I have never heard of before. Babs, Huntress and Sarah Lance weren't new to me. The rest of the team were nice to know about.
  
  There were moments in the book when the pictures caught me off guard. It was when the Penguin was fantasizing about the Birds of Prey. The artwork was alluring. Cut to the last frame on the page, the only male member of the team, Hawk, breaks the fourth wall and says the most hilarious dialogue. Or was it to the other character, Dove. I don't know. If the dialogue was directed to the read, then it was the highlight of this volume.
  
  The last page of the book left me with questions. Who was the guy with the "D" symbol on his torso? There were White Lantern symbols reflecting off from his irises.
  
  I look forward to reading the next volume.
• 
  Amanda T

  I must say, I prefer Barbara Gordon as Oracle. Here, she's taken over the Bat Cave (as something has happened to Batman) and it's hinted at that Batman has been gone a while. What she does to get herself out of trouble is great.
  
  I also prefer Huntress as Helena Bertinelli instead of the lovechild of Batman and Catwoman. She's a lot of fun in this collection.
  
  Like the new 52 Birds of Prey, Black Canary comes off as the difficult one in the group. I'm not sure if this common for the character or just it happens that the only two BofP comic collections I've read feature Black Canary being a royal pain. Which is unfortunate because she certainly wasn't this way in the "Young Justice" animated series.