Review: Birds of Prey #5

(This review was originally posted on September 20, at Population GO.)

BIRDS OF PREY #5 "Aftershock"
Written by Gail Simone; art by Alvin Lee, Adriana Melo, Jack Purcell and J.P. Mayer.

In a recent post at 4thletter!, David Brothers asked, “Why do people read Birds of Prey?” It’s a fair question. Since the book re-launched last spring, I’ve been reading it with a mixture of trepidation and frustration. 

For those not familiar with this title, the Birds of Prey team consists of core members Oracle, Huntress, Black Canary and Lady Blackhawk, now joined by the recently resurrected (in Brightest Day) Hawk and his partner, Dove. Immediately after regrouping as a team in the first issue, the Birds have been hit by a non-stop barrage of inter-related problems: a PR nightmare when Black Canary was publicly accused of murder, blackmail from former villains-turned-allies Savant and Creote, attacks from the Gotham police who now consider them outlaws, sneaky manipulation from the Penguin, and a deadly new villain known as White Canary. All these threats reached a climax at the end of the last arc. This issue picks up right where the last one left off, with some of the team members heading to Bangkok to deal with some unfinished business between the Black and White canaries. 

Gail Simone’s writing is sharp – she has a good handle on the characters and a great ear for dialogue. A lot of the plot threads in this story have been picked up from her run on the first volume of the title, and for those of us not familiar with all the back stories, the payoff sometimes feel a little slim, but it’s nothing a few quick Google searches can’t fix. 

The main source of frustration with this book has been the art. Opinions vary on whether Ed Benes is a talented artist or not. I’m inclined to side with those who defend his technical abilities. I think he’s quite capable of drawing a good-looking comic, but unfortunately he has the annoying habit of constantly drawing women in ridiculous poses that serve no purpose other than to emphasize their asses and crotches.

Don’t get me wrong – I understand that comics are all about good-looking people with idealized bodies in sexy outfits. I think sex appeal is part of why most people read comics, whether they are willing to admit it or not. But there’s a fine line between sex appeal and bad taste, and too often, unfortunately, Birds of Prey crosses that line.

Even apart from the excessive cheesecake, the art has suffered on this book since the re-launch. Due to some health problems, Ed Benes has been unable to complete any of the issues except the first one, which has led to some less-than-stellar art from fill-in artists rushing to complete the books. In a word, the art has been spotty at best, and this seems to be the consensus even among fans of the title; in the comments to David Brothers’ post mentioned earlier, most people agreed with his suggestion that fans enjoy Gail Simone’s script, while merely tolerating the art.

With issue #5, Ed Benes has been taken off the title completely and replaced by penciller Alvin Lee. Now I’m not familiar with this guy’s previous work, but I was disappointed to find that (a) he wasn’t able to complete the art on his first issue (Adriana Melo, who helped finish Benes issues, fills in here as well), and (b) the quality of the art has actually decreased significantly with this latest issue (most of the faces look worse than what you would expect from an average amateur fan artist on Deviant Art), and (c) the camel toes, low-angle crotch shots and asses pointing at the camera are as present as ever. Now I really have to question whether Ed Benes really was to blame for all that cheesecake. Are the new artists just continuing in the same tradition for the sake of consistency? Is this an editorial mandate? Or is Gail Simone including specific instructions for these kinds of shots in her scripts? Who knows? 

It’s a bit of a shame, because it gives the impression that DC doesn’t care about the art in this book. Maybe Gail Simone is a big enough name that doesn’t need a grade-A artist attached to sell the book. And in terms of the story, this really is good. I’m excited about where these various characters are headed, especially Creote and Savant, who it seems will now be working more closely with Oracle at the Birds’ headquarters. (Speaking of which, HQ has conveniently moved out of the Bat cave in anticipation for Bruce Wayne’s eminent return.) The first arc was a bit chaotic, but things are starting to fall into place. 

If the art improves over the next few issues, this title has the potential to become one of DC’s strongest. I have enough faith in Gail Simone to keep reading, knowing that on a story level it will probably pay off. For that reason, I recommend the book, in spite of the inconsistent art.

Review: Superman #700

SUPERMAN #700

Superman's "giant-sized anniversary issue" doesn't suffer from any of the problems that made Batman #700 such a frustrating mess. While it carries the same inflated $5 price tag, we get a full 42 pages of story, instead of a thrown-together bullshit pin-up gallery at the end. And instead of a high-concept convoluted tale spanning past, present and future, we get three fairly simple but contrasting stories, each by a different creative team. It's not as ambitious as the Batman anniversary issue was, but it ends up being a much more satisfying read.

First story: "The Comeback"
by James Robinson and Bernard Chang

The first story is a sort of epilogue for James Robinson's epic run on Superman, which lasted a couples of years and culminated with the "War of the Supermen" (a.k.a. the 100-minute war). I haven't followed any of this sprawling epic, but I know it involved Superman going away on a big intergalactic mission for a long time and this story deals with his return after that long absence, focussing on his relationship with Lois Lane. In a long opening scene that takes up about half the story, Superman saves Lois from Parasite, punching him through several walls and knocking him unconscious. This random fight feels a bit inconsequential, as it's merely a device for setting up Lois and Superman's dramatic reunion. The second half of the story shows the couple relaxing in their apartment and talking about their relationship, and then going out for a night-time romantic fly over Metropolis. Although nothing groundbreaking happens in this story, it's a nice little character piece and a pleasant read.

Second story: "Geometry"
by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund

This was my favourite story of the three in this issue, which says a lot about my own biases, considering it's mostly set in Gotham City and Superman is almost more of a guest character in it. It's set in the early days of Dick Grayson's career as Robin. While Bruce Wayne is busy at an important stockholder's meeting, Robin disobeys his orders and goes out on his own to stop an illegal shipment of weapons coming in from Metropolis. Of course, Robin gets in trouble, and Superman shows up just in time to save him and stop the bad guys. There was a nice laugh-out-loud moment at the end when Superman helps cover-up Dick's escapade by finishing his geometry homework for him at super-speed behind Bruce's back. Then in the last scene, Clark Kent is back at the Daily Planet office and receives a hand-written note from Bruce, showing he's not easily fooled. It's another nice light moment, giving us a glimpse of the always-interesting dynamic between Bruce and Clark, which is something like a playful rivalry/partnership. Bruce's note is perfect, because it's his way of saying "thanks for saving Robin" without saying it, while at the same time pretending to put Superman in his place and telling him no to pull this kind of shit again. The smile on Clark's face is also perfect, showing that he doesn't take Bruce's posturing too seriously.

Third story: "Grounded prologue"
by J. Michael Straczynski, Eddy Barrows and J.P. Mayer

Just as the first story served as an epilogue for the previous creative team's run, this last one is a prologue for the new team's big story arc, which starts next month in Superman #701. I was pretty curious about Straczynski's run on Superman, and one of the reasons I picked up this issue was to get a sense of what to expect from him. Unfortunately, this pretty much convinced me not to put this title on my pull list.

The concept behind the year-long story arc "Grounded" is that Superman is going to walk across America in an effort to get closer to his roots and reconnect with the people, after spending all this time away on his intergalactic epic. Based on that description alone, I'm already feeling pretty skeptical about the whole thing, but this prologue confirms just how cheesy this is going to be.

At a press conference, Superman gets slapped in the face by a grieving woman whose husband died of an inoperable brain tumor while Superman was away. She says that he could have saved her husband with his X-ray/heat vision. Then Superman chats with Batman and the Flash, then flies into space to contemplate the Earth from above, then flies back down to a parc, where he grabs a handful of dirt from the ground and contemplates it with an intense look on his face. A couple of boys look at him and wonder what he's doing. As he's walking away, they wonder why he's not flying away. "I don't know," one of the kid says, "but it must be important." BARF!

To make matters worse, there's going to be some kind of interactive aspect to this story, as readers are invited to send essays to DC explaining why Superman should visit their home town. I hate interactive art and this whole thing just sounds like a terribly lame gimmick. It's really too bad, because I actually want to read a Superman comic right now, but I have no interest in this year-long arc and he's not going to feature prominently in any other titles for a while, as Action Comics is going to focus on Lex Luthor instead (which, admittedly, sounds like a better story than "Grounded").

In any case, this anniversary issue was all right. I enjoyed two of the three stories, and I'm glad the third one was included as well, as I can now save my money and avoid buying #701. The art was decent on all three stories and much more consistent than on Batman #700.