Book Review: Birds of Prey Vol. 2: Death of Oracle

Book: Birds of Prey Vol. 2: Death of Oracle (trade issues #7-13) by Gail Simone with various artists

Description:

Oracle, Black Canary, Lady Blackhawk, Huntress and Dove: A collection of the world's most notable heroines, and one of the DC Universe's most impressive superteams. In an effort to conceal her identity from the world at large, the data specialist Oracle plans to fake her own death, but we all know what happens to the best-laid plans of mice and women...

When her evil, scheming mirror image, the Calculator, hires a team of superpowered heavies to take out his nemisis, Oracle's plan puts her teammates right in the line of fire. Has the world's premire infojack completely lost control, or is it part of her master plan? Only the Oracle knows for sure.



Rating: 5 stars

My Review:

I didn't read the trade edition, I read the individual issues #7-15. These were the last nine issues of Birds of Prey before the reboot. There were three sets of stories and one stand alone story.

The first story (issues #7-10) "The Death of Oracle" had Barbara Gordon coming up with a plan to kill off her alter-ego Oracle. However, the Calculator has his own plans to kill off Oracle. I really liked this story a lot, it was amazing and very well written, full of action and I love the interaction between the Birds. I really thought the villain Mortis was interesting and a little creepy but she was a great addition to the Calculator's team.

The second story "Which Reason Knows Not of" was a stand alone piece. It focused on Huntress (Helena Bertinelli) and Catman (Thomas Blake) who try to track down jewel thieves who also have hostages. Along the way the two attempt to rekindle the romantic sparks that have formed (from older issues of BoP). I thought this story was cute but also a little dark but it was very well written. The end of this story holds a twist. Since this version of Huntress doesn't exist anymore and there has been no mention of Catman; for now this is probably the last time you will see any romance between these two again.

The third story "Hostile Takeover" has a team consisting of Black Canary (Dinah Laurel Lance), Lady Blackhawk (Zinda Blake), and Hawk (Hank Hall) & Dove (Dawn Granger) attempting to go undercover to gather information to figure out who the new big bad guy is in Gotham. Meanwhile, Huntress is hitting the sewers with The Question (Renee Montoya) to stop the sell of illegal drugs. However, problems arise for the team undercover, having Huntress and The Question racing to help them. This was great. I really liked this story.

The last story "War and Remembrance" (which is not included in the trade edition) was not written by Gail Simone, but instead by Marc Andreyko. It focused on Lady Blackhawk, Black Canary's mother the original Black Canary (Dinah Drake Lance) and the original Phantom Lady (Sandra Knight) when they were fighting the Nazis in Argentina. The story began with Lady Blackhawk, Black Canary (Dinah L. Lance) and Phantom Lady honoring veterans for a charity event in the present. However, unbeknownst to them there was a Nazi sleeper cell in the works. After Zinda and Sandra were abducted, the Birds along with Manhunter (Kate Spencer) go into action to locate them. This story was very interesting and although Gail did not write this it still had the feel of Birds of Prey. I also like that you got to see the flashback scenes of the ladies fighting the Nazis as well as seeing that Phantom Lady despite being older can still kick butt.

I thought these last issues were great way to end the series. This was one of my favorite series and I'm sorry to see it end.