To say Birds of Prey has been off to a shaky start would be an understatement. The book has an incredible team behind it, and while Leonardo Romero’s art sticks the landing every time, Thompson’s script has struggled to find its footing. Issue #6 doesn’t entirely solve those problems, but it does show some improvement in certain regards. The Megaera arc wraps up and Thompson begins to unveil a much larger plot which sparks more interest than the last.
Megaera’s design is still really good and the way Romero draws her throughout this issue ramps up the creepy, demonic atmosphere to this character. There’s something unsettling about this character’s design and it’s that unease that makes the character feel like this creepy, archaic entity that the script tries to tell us it is. Sin’s final square-off with Megaera is tied neatly in a package that seems a little too convenient and raises more questions than it answers.
When Sin was introduced, she was a skilled fighter and it’s been a little puzzling to see Sin presented as this helpless being in this book. Sin ends up bonding with Megaera and the two have this almost Venom symbiote-like relationship. While I’m excited for the possibility of more Sin Lance in the DC Universe, I also wonder why the Sinbiote resolution was necessary in the first place. It feels out of place for who that character is and the vibe of a Birds book, yes, but I also wonder why this was necessary when this was a character who could already fight. Dinah has superpowers but she’s also an incredibly skilled fighter and plenty of characters in the DC Universe operate on just that too. It’s not bad –I’m sure it could work– but it is puzzling for the time being. I wonder if she will come into play in later stories more or if other books will pick her up. Sin Lance’s return is still promising and after such a big change to her character, it’d be cool to see how her new character arc unfolds.
DC Comics
The ending of the book is a real mix of good and bad. When the team goes back home after rescuing Sin, Barbara shows up and is quite hurt by Dinah choosing not to fill her in on Sin. After all, Babs was there for the entire Sin Lance saga and repeatedly shown that she’d do anything to keep her in Dinah’s care, but she doesn’t yet know that Dinah had to keep her out. And if you’re thinking “you know who else was there for the entire Sin Lance saga and repeatedly shown that she’d do anything to keep her in Dinah’s care? Helena” you’d be right, but that’s just…still something we’re not supposed to think about I guess. This book really wants you to pretend Helena was not a Bird of Prey. But the worst part of this scene isn’t even the “pay no attention to the Huntress missing here” scenes, it’s that this scene could be really good, but I’m taken out of it entirely by Babs seeming like an entirely different character.
Kelly Thompson did not invent the concept of making Barbara Batgirl again and there are undoubtedly editorial blocks in place that prevent writers from reinforcing the status quo, but DC’s stupid hangup about Barbara actively ruins every book she touches. In 2020 we were told she would be resuming work as Oracle too, which felt bare bones but still a step forward to get back the character we fell in love with. Since 2020 I can recall maybe two or three writers who bothered to prioritize Oracle, her role as Oracle, or the fact that she’s an ambulatory wheelchair user these days. Barbara gets on the roof in her incredibly ugly costume that feels like it was bought from the children’s department at Macy’s and has a conversation with Dinah that is far too disorienting for even the most staunch Birds fan to care about. I don’t feel like I’m watching or listening to Barbara and Dinah talk — there’s a maturity that’s just missing from their bond and from Barbara’s character.
Barbara being on the Birds is exciting in theory, but two Batgirls on the Birds is incredibly unnecessary. Oh if only one of these characters also had a role that she occupied that was incredibly unique and central to all operations that the Birds of Prey run. There’s something about Barbara as a grown adult wearing the Batgirl costume with Cass that really feels like she’s the lady who keeps trying on her high school cheerleading uniform to show she’s still got it. It’s hard to be excited for the Birds of Prey with Barbara when this character barely resembles Barbara. Even her dialogue with Dinah feels off and less mature than how these two usually are.
DC
That being said, there are some writers who, as I mentioned before, do write Barbara more in line with the roles she occupied in the books prior to the New 52 relaunch that decided disabled people just weren’t worth writing anymore. Kelly Thompson could write Barbara in a more suitable and interesting role in this book and make it feel like an actual Birds of Prey title with how Babs and Dinah interact. I certainly hope she does in future issues and I won’t write her off as a writer for this character just yet.
The reason Dinah couldn’t contact Babs is finally explained as Thompson promised and the setup is as puzzling as it is intriguing in many ways. Maps Mizoguchi, who I still don’t understand why she’s here, tells Dinah she was the one who told her not to call Barbara –because all the previous times they called Barbara for this mission, they failed and she died. Maps informs her that someone from the future is targeting the Birds of Prey in the past and Barbara’s introduction here makes that plot so intriguing. Barbara is so necessary to everything that is the Birds of Prey as a concept that the idea of this plot existing without her just wouldn’t feel right. Dinah stepping in to protect her is also an exciting plot in theory that could yield great character moments a book like Birds of Prey is known for. Character moments and delving into the complexities of a relationship like Dinah and Babs’ is also something Thompson could excel at given her track record with titles, particularly her handling of Carol and Jessica in Captain Marvel.
Maps is still just a puzzling choice to make so central to this story. Who is this for? I still haven’t gathered who the target audience of this character and her inclusion in Birds is. Helena’s exclusion starts to feel really glaring here, especially when the run opened with Dinah crossing her name off of a list of potential candidates for her team. I still see no reason Helena wasn’t called or why she wasn’t mentioned or alluded to at all during the introduction of a plot about killing past members of the Birds.
With the first arc finished, Birds of Prey starts on a more promising footing for its next arc. The seeds are planted for something really interesting, but I’m certainly proceeding with caution.
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