I’m a lifelong fan of Barbara Gordon and the extended Bat-fam, but I have little patience for DC’s constantly rebooting continuities. However, the new run of Batgirl and the Birds of Prey seems a promising opportunity for diving back in without having to catch up too much.
The late nineties Birds of Prey origin is still the same, as the story opens with a flashback to Barbara and Dinah Lance working together as Oracle and Black Canary. However, now Barbara is out of the wheelchair and back into her Batgirl duds, and she and Dinah are after someone using and abusing her old Oracle identity. The Huntress also joins the duo, albeit with parallel interests and a larger appetite for violence.
Writing team Julie Benson and Shawna Benson do a great job of incorporating backstory from the DC universe without making it seem like a prerequisite to enjoy the action and mystery as Batgirl and Black Canary go tearing around Gotham.
I have a great weakness for artists that can do really fun expressions without worrying that they make the character look less “attractive”, and Claire Roe certainly does that. Barbara’s face especially gets to run from grossed out to annoyed, to a very focused “serious face” mid-fist-fight. Contrastly, Huntress stays pretty composed, which is a great way to draw some visual distinctions in this issue, where the two of them clash ideologically and physically.
I really enjoyed this first issue, and if you get a chance I highly recommend checking it out; this definitely seems like a title to keep your eye on in the coming months.
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