Birds of Prey #122

It's Wedensday! New Comics Day!! And reveiw one of my favorite books around day!!! As you people new to Chibis TOMB will get to know, Birds of Prey (DC) is one of my most looked-forward to pulls.

In this issue, Zatanna geusts when Manhunter's (fake, they were implanted by Visionary) memories turn into nightmares involving her son and Copperhead.

Tony Bedard, whose work on the series has been..... subpar to Mckeever and Simone so far, earns half a gold star for his use of continuity here, but I'm still waiting for him to tie up the Misfit plot he started in #118, his first issue.

Speaking of Misfit, some more new discoveries are made about her powers in 122, namely she can also teleport large objects aka Huntress's bike.

I really wonder though its been said in previous issues that Misfit can't teleport living things, would it be possible for her, with time and training, to do so? Just a thought.

Moving on now. Joker, who's the big bad for this BIRDS arc, has worked out a way to rope Oracle (who he thinks is *snicker* a "he") in. The team respond to an emergency at the local precinct, and while they do kick some ass, a tracker has been put on Lady Blackhawk that she doesn't discover until they're back to the cleverly disguised HQ.

Afraid the police will tie her team to the buissness, Oracle scatters them across the city in hopes the cops will spot them elsewhere, leaving her alone in the building. A "officer" walks into the building, and Babs suspects teh silicone Syndicate (local villians group) have tipped off the police and tries to think up excuses for the trace.

Turns out "Officer Slaughter" is about the furtheset from working with the cops as you can get.

All this is great set-up for the next Issue #123 "Face to Face Off". Both the art and the writing hold up, Helena and Zinda play off each other great, and it's all a very fun issue. There's even a panel where Huntress is taking off her shirt and there are some marks on her side, perhaps (yay continuity)

to indicate where she was shot by the Joker, but possibly just a random O'hare doodle.

My concern with the art, though Mike O'hare is an alright storyteller, is that his charachters often look too posed and stiff. this happened last issue, and it's happening again. Also, he needs to work a bit on defining the Birds.

My other concern is that in a plot like this one, where Oracle vs. Joker should be taking center stage, the secondaries crowd it and take away from that. Also, Oracle is a freakin' genius! Why the Hell does Bedard dumb her down and make her look as though she has very little control and is costantly going "why did I not think of that?"

All in All, solid, go pick it up, but nowhere near the Simone-Benes/Simone Scott days.