Book Review: Birds of Prey vol #2 (New 52)

Book: Birds of Prey volume #2: Your Kiss Might Kill (issues #8-12 and 0) by Duane Swierczynski

Illustrations by Jesus Saiz (issue #8), Travel Foreman (issues #9-11), Timothy Green II (issue #11), Cliff Richards (issue #12) and Romano Molenaar (issue #0)

Color by Javier Pina (issue #8), Gabe Eltaeb (issues #9-12) and Chris Sotomayor (issue #0)


Edition: Single Print Issues

Publisher: DC Comics

Description:

Black Canary, Starling, Poison Ivy and Batgirl. Together, as Gotham City's covert ops team, they're taking down the villains other heroes can't touch. They are the Birds of Prey. The Birds face a multitude of threats from outside and in! A dangerous new villains threatens to expose Black Canary's dark secret, and the Court of Owls sets its sight on everyone in Gotham for a "Night of the Owls" tie-in. Plus, the ladies bring a gravely injured POISON IVY to the Amazon hoping to help rejuvenate her, but they're going to need her help more to stay alive!


Rating: 2 stars

Review:

I would have given this higher ratings if the stories in these issues didn't feel as if everything was happening somewhere off page because what was presented wasn't bad it just felt disjointed. However, the writing was flat with stories that were going no where.

Issue #8 focused on Black Canary being sought for the murder of her husband, she along with Batgirl and Katana were being attacked by a mysterious group who were there to bring Dinah in. Meanwhile, Starling was sneaking around trying to find out more information about Dinah but she ended up finding out more than she was looking for after she broke into a secret hideout. This issue raised so many questions for me such as who were these guys that were attacking them? Because I have no idea who they were and the story certainly didn't tell me.

Issue #9 was a tie-in to the Court of Owls storyline, and had the Birds taking on one of the Owls' talons, a trained assassin. There was no real point to this story other than the Birds going from one location to the next fighting the Owls' trained assassin with Poison Ivy setting the focus for the next arc.

Issues #10-12 had the Birds heading to the rainforest to help revive Poison Ivy who sacrificed herself to help put talon in a deep freeze. While heading there, their plane was shot down and they were soon being attacked by these plant creatures. It all turned out to be some kind of trap/insurance of Poison Ivy's to get the team to help her stop several companies from destroying the environment. Some time later in the story after the team was fighting on a burning oil rig the scene then cut to Ivy in some sort of restorative tank. Next, the team was attacking Ivy after refusing to continue to go along with her eco-terrorist plans. This ends with a cliffhanger, was Ivy killed and will her plan continue even if she's dead?

Issue #0 told of how Black Canary first met Starling and Batgirl. She had gone undercover at Penguin's nightclub where Starling was also working to try to track down a bomb seller. However, her plan to stop the sell was nearly ruined when Batgirl showed up. With everything over with, it gave Dinah time to reflect, she was tired of being out there on her own and wanted to form a team. This was the start of that team, the reader also finds out something interesting about Starling and why she really joined the team.

Out of all of these issues the best one was issue #0 it was the only one with a complete story even though the writing was still flat. Similar to the first volume, Katana and Starling are still the only two characters that continue to be interesting. Despite issue #0 showing how the team was created, the Birds of Prey still do not feel like a team. They each have their own agenda and there is no real reason why they are even a part of this team. 

The art stands to be the best thing about this volume despite the multitude of artists. I don't understand why all the humor and fun was taken out of the New 52 comics. Most of the stories are drab and so are most of the characters. Birds of Prey used to be an amazing series but the New 52 version is truly a pale comparison.