Birds of Prey #17 (May 2000)

Previously in Birds of Prey...

Birds of Prey #17: "Nuclear Roulette" is written by Chuck Dixon with art by Butch Guice.  His cover, depicting Power Girl desperately catching or stopping a nuclear missile pointed at New York is exciting, but the text on this cover is a little bizarre.  "Where are the Birds of Prey?  Power Girl would like to know."  Um, is that question supposed to be rhetorical?  Because Black Canary and Oracle are all over this issue.  And Power Girl is with them, working alongside Dinah and getting updates from Oracle.  There is some tension between them, yes, but it's not like the Birds have disappeared or like they're not trying to stop the Joker's plan to murder everyone in New York City.

Anyway, the issue opens with Black Canary flying over the ocean looking for the ship carrying a nuclear warhead bound for the Big Apple.  How is Canary flying?  Well, it has a lot to do with Power Girl and her post-Crisis crazy-ass Atlantean origin and powers.

Power Girl and Black Canary find a Liberian ship and Power Girl scans it and knows that this is the ship they're looking for.  She tells Oracle to get off her back, so there is clearly some history between them and PG doesn't care for her.  The blondes drop onto the ship where they immediately come under heavy fire from the crew.

Power Girl is mostly impervious to the bullets so she takes the brunt of the crew's attack while Dinah fights her way to the bridge to interrupt the missile launch.  She arrives too late, though, as the captain presses the button.

Six missiles launch from the ship, one of them slamming into Power Girl who is hovering in the air.  The missile that bumped her careens out of control and detonates in the water.  Oracle screams at Power Girl to get away from the blast sight, but Power Girl tells her it was only a conventional missile, not a neutron bomb.

Black Canary decides to interrogate the ship's captain to see how many, if any, of the missiles are nuclear.

As Power Girl races through the sky to stop the missiles, Oracle updates her that only one of the five remaining is neutron capable.  Then Power Girl shows an embarrassingly poor understanding of rudimentary mathematics, so either she's an idiot or Chuck Dixon is.  But anyway, Power Girl takes out two more of the missiles, neither of them being the nuclear bomb.

Now it's up to Oracle and her back up plans to stop the three remaining missiles.

The second half of the book is some tense Tom Clancy stuff, full of technical jargon pertaining to the Navy and national security (and kind of an awkward slam against President Carter).  I won't go into as much detail because you lose a lot of the suspense, but it's a cool sequence.

Essentially, Oracle contacts Major Van Lewton at the Pentagon and coordinates attacks with the United States Navy along the Atlantic Coast and violates some international laws.  U.S. Warships shoot down two of the three remaining missiles.

For the last missile, Oracle takes control of several satellites and bounces a laser off more than one, doing a "bank shot from pool" in order to blast the last missile before it hits New York.  The day is saved, everyone rejoices even though no one can ever speak a word of what happened hear because they all violated laws and treaties.

Back at the ship, Power Girl talks cryptically about why she doesn't like Oracle.  I have no idea what this tension is about, because PG just worked with Oracle a couple issues ago and they seemed fine.  Also, Power Girl's white and gold costume in this issue is stupid and her Atlantean origin is stupid.

This was a better issue than the last one.  It was nice to see Oracle do her thing and do it well, but Black Canary was shoved to the way background for this chapter.

Come back next week for a review of Birds of Prey #18.

Birds of Prey #16 (April 2000)

Previously in Birds of Prey...

While the last issue of Birds of Prey set a newly raised bar for the title with the addition of Butch Guice on art duties, issue #16, "The Joker's Tale" takes another step in the wrong direction.  This time, writer Chuck Dixon wastes Guice's considerable talent by forcing him to draw 40 panels on about ten pages of the Joker talking to a wall in his cell.

We begin some time after the Joker addressed the United Nations as Qurac's ambassador where he apparently announced that everyone in New York City would die in a matter of hours.  The Joker has been captured, and he figures he's back at Arkham Asylum, safe from whatever doom awaits New York.  He doesn't know who is interrogating him, but he wastes a lot of time trying to talk about his origin and stuff.

When pressed, he suggests that New York will be rendered lifeless by a neutron bomb and kind of rambles about how the bomb came into his possession.  Then he talks about how he got to Qurac by murdering the ambulance crew transferring him to Arkham the last time Batman beat him up.

Then he tells a would-be origin story of murdering his abusive father on his eighteenth birthday, but his interrogator doesn't believe the story is true and doesn't care any.  The Joker is stalling, like Chuck Dixon is stalling.

Finally the Joker recounts how he addressed the United Nations and then luxuriated in his diplomatic limousine, believing he had immunity.  Then the diplomatic convoy is attacked by Power Girl.

While Power Girl takes out Quraci henchmen in her new yellow and white costume, the Joker makes a run for it.  But Black Canary chases him.

The Joker is struck by a pedestrian bicyclist and knocked into traffic, where he is finally caught and brought to Arkham.

Only he wasn't brought to Arkham.  Barbara Gordon surprises Joker by revealing she's holding him in New York so he'll reveal where the bomb is in order to save himself.

He tells her there are nuclear warheads on a ship in the mid-Atlantic.  As she starts to leave, he asks if he's the one who put her in the wheelchair so maybe he doesn't recognize or remember her.

Babs contacts Dinah and Power Girl...

... then she makes a surprise call to Major Van Lewton of the Pentagon's cyber-warfare devision.

I like the Joker, but does anyone really want to read 19 pages of him sitting in a cell, toying with his interrogators, occasionally flashing back to random acts of violence against people we don't care about.  After the joy of issue #15, this issue might be the worst Birds of Prey yet because nothing happens and it's not about the titular characters.

Come back in two weeks for a review of Birds of Prey #17.

Birds of Prey #15 (March 2000)

Previously in Birds of Prey...

Birds of Prey #15: "Face Time" turns a corner as Chuck Dixon finally gets an artist who can elevate his limited scripts into something special.  Butch Guice comes aboard as the regular artist and his first issue is possibly the best of the series for his involvement.

After spending the last couple months dealing with super-powered villains and other-dimensional landscapes, Dixon lets Black Canary and Oracle let their hair down a little and spend some free time on character progression.  Of course, Dixon's better angels can't shout down all of his problems as he still wastes precious comic page real estate at the beginning of the issue.  This time, thankfully, it's not an unnecessary splash page followed by an equally unnecessary double-page splash.

Instead, he devotes the first two and a half pages to TV news coverage of horrible violence in the nation of Qurac.  Guice does a great job rendering the ugliness of the war and its combatants, but then we pull away from the news footage to reveal a salesman hocking high definition TVs and computer monitors to Barbara Gordon.  She ends up rolling over his foot with her wheelchair.  Yeah, the first four pages are just set-up for a not-that-funny gag.

Babs has come to a tech convention, but not to shop for new products.  After months or years of dancing around cyber-dating, she has finally come to meet her online friend, "Bumblebeeb".

Meanwhile, Dinah Lance spends her day off retrieving piles and piles of junk mail from the mailbox of her apartment.  She complains to Henry, the doorman.  Another tenant comes home, and when she goes up the elevator, Dinah notices the woman has a black eye.  Henry tells Dinah the woman is Olivia Crichton, Dinah's next-door neighbor, and she's single but has one gentleman caller.

Later, Dinah goes to Olivia's apartment and makes up a lame excuse to get inside and check out the bruise on her face.  Olivia insists that she's fine and her situation is none of Dinah's business.  Dinah offers her friendship and any help she can provide before Olivia makes her leave.

Back at the tech convention, Babs avoids more cheesy product placements while the news talks about the United Nations new, mysterious ambassador from Qurac.  This is foreshadowing, so you know.  Then, at last, she meets her blind date.  Bumblebeeb reveals his real identity, and would you believe it  it's Ted Kord!  They awkwardly introduce themselves and make up some half-truth cover stories for their jobs.

Elsewhere in Gotham, Babs' ex-boyfriend Jason Bard goes to see her at her apartment.  But instead of Barbara Gordon, he finds her other ex-boyfriend Dick Grayson hanging around, making repairs to stuff damaged during the Gotham Earthquake.  Boy, that's a little awkward; two exes meeting each other at Babs' apartment while she's out on a date with someone else.

Meanwhile Dinah gets more junk mail as a menu is shoved under her door.

I love this page, not because of Dinah's skimpy outfit but because of the Toth's Gym shirt, a nice little reference to the work of Alex Toth who drew a gorgeous Black Canary in Adventure Comics.  Anyway, out in the hall Dinah notices Olivia's "gentleman caller" go inside with two bodyguards left standing by the door.

Babs and Ted go to a diner to get to know each other better.  Ted tries to impress Babs by saying he  works in a similar law-enforcement capacity by designing nonlethal crime-fighting hardware such as gases, armor, and other kinds of deterrents.  She asks if he ever gets out in the field and he says no way, he's just in R&D.  Then she asks why he chose the avatar Bumblebeeb and he insists there is nothing significant about the name.

Meanwhile, Dinah watches TV in her bedroom in the fourth different outfit we've seen her wear this issue, and presumably only about an hour has passed.  She flips through channels and we get more foreshadowing of the mysterious, unseen ambassador from Qurac going to speak at the U.N.  Above Dinah's bed is a portrait of her father, Larry Lance.  A bump on the wall from next-door nearly knocks the photo on her head.  Sounds like Olivia is getting beaten by her man again.

After knocking out the bodyguards, Dinah hears gunshots coming from Olivia's bedroom.  When she sneaks in, she finds Olivia with the gun and the man lying dead on the floor.  Olivia sobs, saying she warned the man not to hit her again.

Babs and Ted walk through the lobby of the tech conference.  She confesses to knowing the truth about him, that he's secretly the costumed adventurer known as Blue Beetle.  He freaks out at first, telling her to keep it secret, but then he puts two and two together and realizes the only way she could know his double identity is because she had one of her own.  He stops her from rolling away and calls her Oracle.

They go back to the diner to start their date over again with their cards metaphorically on the table.

Then the news in the restaurant turns to coverage of the Quraci ambassador addressing the United Nations.  As he begins to speak, Babs is horrified that she recognizes the voice.

No costumes and no superhero antics, but still probably the best Birds of Prey story up to this point.  It's great seeing Babs and Ted Kord feel each other out on their date.  It reads like Barbara was legitimately surprised to find her date was Ted Kord, but once he introduced himself, she knew who he was.

Dinah, meanwhile, gets to kick ass and show her compassion for a victim of abuse.  The best parts of her story, though, are the artistic flourishes that Guice adds, such as the portrait of Larry Lance in the bedroom and the Toth's Gym shirt.  I am so glad Butch Guice becomes the regular artist for the next couple months.

Come back next Tuesday for a review of Birds of Prey #16.

Birds of Prey #10 (Oct 1999)

Previously in Birds of Prey...

Birds of Prey #10: "The Wrong Guy" is written by Chuck Dixon with pencils by Greg Land, inks by Drew Geraci, and colors by Gloria Vasquez.  The cover was done by Land and Brian Stelfreeze.

Last issue began with a splash page of the Iron Brigade, the high-tech-looking elite guard of the nation of Koroscova, pointing weapons at Black Canary.  This was followed by a double page splash of Black Canary standing there letting weapons be pointed at her, this followed by a fourth page of Black Canary taking out the Iron Brigade with as much effort as it takes to put on her costume.

This time we have the exact same formula, except on page two Black Canary is standing with a naked Guy Gardner, recently released from a genetic testing cell, and the mad scientist who put him there.  Also, the fourth page features Guy Gardner trashing the Iron Brigade while Black Canary tries to figure out how her former Justice League International partner got there.

Oracle tells Canary that the man isn't Guy Gardner, but rather "Joe" an alien clone created from Guy's DNA with Guy's memories.  Joe as much as confirms this to Black Canary and explains why he's in a Koroscovan prison instead of, like, a different prison.

Meanwhile, Koroscova is none too thrilled about a satellite super-laser being used against their property.  Koroscovan's government has a frank conversation with the President of the United States, and before long, the U.S. is putting Marines near Koroscova and the whole world is wide awake.

Back at the gulag, Oracle warns Black Canary that Koroscovan fighter jets are en route to bomb the place and kill "Joe".  At the same time, the more the mad scientist Popolynsklinov speaks, the crazier and nastier he sounds.  On a hunch, Oracle calls the humanitarian organization that hired her to rescue Popolynsklinov, but the woman she speaks to says they have no record of him as a political prisoner.  Afterwards, the woman leaves her office and meets a mysterious stranger, confirming that she did her part to set Oracle up.

Oracle now suspects Popolynsklinov wasn't a political dissident as she was led to believe, mostly when he says he volunteered for the chance to experiment on an alien clone and gave it super powers!  She does a little more research and discovers he is a legit mad scientist wanted for war crimes.  And she freed him, whilst violating international boarders and, y'know, laws.

Joe Gardner continues to wreak havoc with his new powers by throwing jeeps around the gulag and blowing crap up.  When Black Canary tells him they need to leave before the MIGs blow them all to hell, he grabs her and the doctor and flies away.

Joe leaves Canary and Popolynsklinov on a mountaintop for safety, but before he leaves he pulls Dinah in close for a big kiss.  Then he flies off toward the jets.

Dinah is so disgusted that Basically-Guy Gardner kissed her she might not even notice the fact that he's punching jets out of the sky and waging a war against Koroscova.  Koroscova, on the other hand, has no doubt taken notice.  As has the rest of the world.  The issue ends with Oracle watching the news as the United States, Koroscova, and any other interested player get ready for war.

As usual with a Dixon/Land comic, this issue took about ninety seconds to read.  There are some interesting developments--I like that Oracle is being manipulated so we know she's not infallible.  I also like how Dixon didn't spend too much time on the overly complicated history of Guy Gardner up to this point.  It's not important, and I wouldn't want to be more confused than necessary.

Greg Land's art isn't as offensive in this issue as in others, but there are still a ton of big panels and splashes that speed up the story without giving the impression of added value.

Come back next Tuesday for a review of Birds of Prey #11.

Birds of Prey #9 (Sep 1999)

Previously in Birds of Prey...

Birds of Prey #9: "Girls Rules" is written by Chuck Dixon with pencils by Greg Land, inks by Drew Geraci, and colors by Gloria Vasquez.  The cover was done by Land and Brian Stelfreeze.

Dixon and Land open this issue with a splash page of some high-tech security guards pointing guns and calling themselves the Iron Brigade.  Then a double-page splash of Black Canary standing nonchalantly in her cool new outfit with guns and laser sights pointed at her.  Now her one-piece jumpsuit covers her legs and she's got a leather jacket again; and because this comic did come out in the '90s, her jacket and jumpsuit has plenty of pouches and padding.

The Iron Brigade soldiers are the defenders of the nation of Koroscova, whose sovereignty Black Canary has violated.  She doesn't seem too concerned about the soldiers, though, because she can rely on her Canary Cry--not the sonic scream she used to have, but a sonic-weapon that looks a lot like a thermal detonator from Return of the Jedi.

Standing amidst the unconscious bodies of the soldiers, Dinah turns her communication devices back on, having spared Oracle's equipment the harsh feedback of her sonic bomb.  Then a Koroscovan gunship targets Dinah and opens fire.  She sprints across the field into the woods, dodging bullets and missiles and trying to convince Oracle that she's not in any real danger.

Black Canary loses the helicopter by diving into the river.  Oracle tells her that's good because the river will take her to her target and they're in a time crunch.  Black Canary continues on foot, thinking about the last target Oracle sent her to rescue (back in issue #8).  She overhears Oracle getting mail from her cyber-boyfriend, the mysterious Bumblebeeb.

Finally, Black Canary arrives at her target destination, a military prison compound.  She feeds Oracle the layout of the place, especially noting the highly combustible parts of the joint so she can line them up for a shot.

A shot from what?  Well, that brings us to the Pentagon and the characters I have never asked to see more of, Major Van Lewton and his aide, Lieutenant Providence.  The lieutenant tells Van Lewton that someone has accessed Whitehorse, a super secret satellite weapons project.  Van Lewton's cyber-security team figure that the satellite has been hacked by the same person who hacked their network, too.  All Van Lewton and the others can do is watch as Whitehorse is taken over.

At that point, the skies over Koroscova are lit up as a supermassive laser from space shoots down and destroys the fuel plant by the prison.

Black Canary tells Oracle to target the power generators, too, and another blast from the satellite destroys the power station.  Canary heads for the prison while Oracle tells her that Jason Bard should get his sight back eventually.  She also tells her that the target is a science whiz of some sort, and, after Dinah beats the crap out of some prison guards, Oracle gives her the target's cell number.  I mean the number of the prison cell, not his phone number.

Back at the Pentagon, Van Lewton's men tell him they have reacquired control over the Whitehorse satellite.  The project was supposed to be a deep, deep secret so he hopes nobody notices.  At the same time, the premier of Koroscova is woken from sleep by aides telling him about the catastrophe at the Brnsko prison.  The premier guesses the target is Linus Popolynsklinov.

Black Canary finds Popolynsklinov and frees him from his cell, but the scientist refuses to leave the prison camp without freeing one more prisoner.  He leads Black Canary to a laboratory where someone has been imprisoned in something that looks like a bacta tank from The Empire Strikes Back.

Oracle asks what is going on?  Who is coming out of the tank?  And Dinah tells her it sure looks a lot like former Green Lantern Guy Gardner.

Dixon and Land turn the action on in this issue which distracts from the thinness of most of their stories.  Land likes to draw big splashy pages and Dixon writes pretty quick scripts, so I guess they work well together.  The first seven pages or so is Black Canary beating up guards and running from explosions and talking to Oracle about stuff we already know.  I don't care about Van Lewton's team in the Pentagon and had hoped he would go away after Blockbuster handed him his ass.  The final reveal is interesting, but I think it's a misdirect.

I had forgotten who Oracle's online beau was, but I'm almost positive it turns out to be Blue Beetle.

Come back next Tuesday for a review of Birds of Prey #10.

Birds of Prey #8 (Aug 1999)

Previously in Birds of Prey...

Birds of Prey #8: "On Wings" is written by Chuck Dixon with pencils by Greg Land, inks by Drew Geraci, and colors by Gloria Vasquez.  The cover was done by Land and Brian Stelfreeze.

The issue begins with Black Canary trying to contact Oracle only to hear a man's voice pick up the communicator.

Dinah has picked up on the stranger's reference to "Babs", the closest thing to a name she has for Oracle.  She asks the man we know is Nightwing if he's friends with Babs, or "more than friends".  It turns out, the answer to that question isn't so simple.

Nightwing thinks back to the last time he saw Barbara Gordon.  She came to visit him in Bludhaven and they got dinner and a show.  Not a movie, though; this is Dick Grayson.  When he takes someone to a show, he means the circus.  For Dick Grayson, revisiting Haly's Circus brings back all the joyful sights, sounds, and smells of his childhood.  But for Barbara, the circus brings back much darker memories.

Barbara teases Dick as much as she can, but he knows she's having a good time.  Though Dick is the owner of the circus now, he introduces her to Mr. Haly, the manager and one-time surrogate uncle.  Haly tells Dick about the hardships they've had lately and then bids them goodnight.

Barbara asks Dick if it's painful for him to return to the place where his parents were murdered.  He says no; he still thinks of the place as a second home full of good memories.  Dick says he's at peace, maybe because the man who killed his parents met justice, unlike the man who killed Bruce's parents or the Joker who shot Barbara.

Barbara tells Dick that she has dealt with her pain and she's moved on.  She won't dwell in the past and feel victimized like she thinks the "Batguys" want her to.  She has a new life and a new direction; it's different but it fulfills her.  Dick respects her words, but asks what's the one thing she misses most about having full mobility.  She describes swinging from a rope as Batgirl.

Dick can make this particular wish come true.  After the bigtop has been cleared out, he changes into his Nightwing costume and puts her in a leotard.  They swing from the acrobatics bars and he runs her through the routine that The Flying Graysons used to perform.  Then Dick drops away from her, bounces off the trampoline and grabs a ladder.  He climbs up to the next platform leaving her to swing alone.  She has to swing and let go for him to catch her--a flying transfer he's performed hundreds of times.

But she hasn't done this, certainly not since she was paralyzed, and she's scared.  And angry.  But she trusts Dick, and she swings alone and let's go at the right moment.

Alone on the platform after their death-defying tricks, Barbara and Dick kiss... and perhaps more.  When he takes her to her car, he asks if they can see each other again and often.  Barbara says she had a great time but she doesn't want to date him.  Their relationship can never work because of the lives they live.

Dick ends his reminiscence thinking of how much he loves her when Dinah presses him for more details.

So... this was an issue of Birds of Prey in name only.  Really, this was a Nightwing story.  Nightwing narrated it and it was about Dick's feeling for Babs.  Black Canary appears in the first and last pages, but doesn't do much.  Barbara Gordon is a major character in the story, but she's not being Oracle, she's being Dick's ex-girlfriend.

Apparently this is an important issue because of what happens in the Nightwing series after this story.  That should be further evidence that this story was misplaced.  The only thing of significance for Black Canary in this issue is that she realizes her boss is dating Nightwing and Nightwing called her boss "Babs".  Will she be solve the mystery of Oracle's identity on her own?

One other note: the first panel on page 8 where Barbara says circuses are corny and goofy... Greg Land has drawn her face many times since then.  He's a tracer and frequently reuses the same poses and pictures for other stories.  I can't find the exact image, but I know he's used that shape for a woman's face since then.

Come back next Tuesday for a review of Birds of Prey #9.

Birds of Prey #7 (July 1999)

Previously in Birds of Prey...

Birds of Prey #7: "The Villain" is written by Chuck Dixon with pencils by Peter Krause, inks by Drew Geraci, and colors by Gloria Vasquez.  The cover, once again, was penciled by Greg Land over a Brian Stelfreeze sketch, who then inked over Land's pencils.

General Garanza of the sovereign nation of Bosqueverde has been captured in Markovia and slated to be executed for war crimes.  Thing is, Markovia wasn't too concerned about Garanza's right to a trial, so Oracle sent Black Canary on a one-woman mission to rescue Garanza and bring him back to his homeland... so they could put him on trial for war crimes.

When we find Black Canary, she's throwing the general in the back of a Stryker infantry assault vehicle and crashing through a Markovian barricade.

Oracle feeds Black Canary directions to her extraction point, but the counterattacks force Dinah and the General to take a different course.  And then, a local driver in a suicide vest forces them out of the IAV.

As Black Canary and Garanza take their escape to the rooftops, her conversation with Oracle fills in the backstory I already summarized above.  We also learn how Dinah feels about this mission: she ain't thrilled.  She thinks Garanza is a Pol Pot-level monster, and if he died unglamorously during their escape, Dinah would call it righteous and sleep just fine.

Then a sniper challenges her resolve by shooting the general from a building across the street.  She pulls Garanza out of the way and says, "One Canary Cry coming up."  Of course, Dinah lost the use of her sonic scream in The Longbow Hunters, so when she refers to the Canary Cry this time, she's talking about a weaponized grenade that fires off damaging sonic pulses.  Just like the device used by Canary in Arrow.

When she gets back to Garanza, she finds that he was wearing a bulletproof vest that saved him from the sniper's round.  Oracle tells Black Canary that her window of escape is closing; the authorities are beefing up security, but the media revealed Garanza's escape and now mercenaries are flocking to the area hoping to kill him.

Black Canary and her charge make it to the subway, but instead of keeping a low profile and staying off the police's radar, they engage in a heated shouting match about the people he killed.  Garanza defends his actions because the Bosqueverdan citizens he executed were violent separatists who themselves would have committed crimes against humanity if he didn't put them down.  Garanza is actually hoping for a trial in his homeland because his people will vindicate him whereas the world media condemned him.

Naturally, a cop engages them, drawing everyone's attention to Garanza.  Some assassins open fire, killing the cop and forcing Black Canary and the general to run.  The gunmen follow them into the subway tunnel, but Black Canary uses the dark to her advantage to takes them out pretty quickly.

Garanza shoots and kills the gunman who got the drop on Dinah, but she doesn't sound grateful, no, sir, she all mad.  She accuses him of murder while he debates the morality of killing an enemy.

They take the argument all the way to the building where Oracle set up their extraction, but when the elevator door opens, a man inside pulls a gun.  Garanza pushes Dinah out of the way and takes three bullets to the chest.  I guess these bullets went around the vest or he took it off, but it definitely looks like they tagged him.  Black Canary takes out the gunman.

After the general dies, Black Canary makes her way out of Markovia using an ultralight aircraft.  Now she's all sad about the guy she hated and wanted dead dying for her.  Oracle tells her it wasn't her fault, but Dinah thinks she let her emotions cloud her judgement and that's why she didn't see the final gunman until it was too late.

The last three issues of this series felt atypical, what with the time-travel and the sea monsters.  This one, however, is like the quintessential Birds of Prey adventure from Dixon.  It's a smaller, simpler version of the one-shots that preceded the ongoing series.  Oracle's position is clearly defined by her intellectual attachment to law and order.  General Garanza, however evil, deserves the same rights as anybody.  Black Canary, on the other hand, comes from a more emotional place.  Her loyalty is to the innocent dead, but she'll do the job out of respect for her boss.

It's not a complex story, which is good, because Dixon doesn't excel at complex stories.  Peter Krause's art is a nice change from Greg Land; Krause might not draw as photorealistic beautiful a Black Canary as Land, but his panel construction and action beats feel more organic.

Come back next Tuesday for a review of Birds of Prey #8.

Birds of Prey #4 (Apr 1999)

Previously in Birds of Prey...

Oracle sent Black Canary to investigate a kidnapping and ransom cartel in the nation of Rheelasia.  Black Canary was captured, but eventually escaped and helped bring down the kidnappers with the help of Jason Bard, a former boyfriend of Oracle's.  Meanwhile, the beautiful and deadly assassin called Cheshire has put together a team of female mercenaries and killers called The Ravens.

Birds of Prey #4: "The Ravens Strike" is written by Chuck Dixon with pencils by Greg Land, inks by Drew Geraci, and colors by Gloria Vasquez.  Land's cover looks fittingly like a poster for a James Bond movie, but it leaves me with a few questions.  Is that supposed to be Black Canary in the scuba gear?  If so, why does she look like a red head?  If not, who is she?  And why is the series title "Birds of Prey" printed twice on the cover along different edges?

The issue begins with some animal-on-animal action as the Ravens--the team comprised of Cheshire, Vicious, and Pistolera--launch a merciless attack against the forces of Kobra.  Vicious and Pistolera are catty and joke about killing each other off to collect the other's share of the score, which happens to be half a billion dollars for killing Kobra Prime.  Cheshire reprimands her partners for their unprofessional conduct while leading them on a killer rampage.

Kobra Prime doesn't seem too worried about the attack, though.  More intrigued than anything.  Is that because he's not their true target, but their employer?

Yes, the entire attack was merely a test of the Ravens' abilities and Kobra Prime approves of their talents, so he hires them to retrieve something for him.  The what is unknown for now.  The why is that whatever it is is valuable as a weapon of terror.  And the where is Lake Mackichitahoo, Minnesota.

And would you believe it, that's exactly where Dinah Laurel Lance is heading to recuperate after her captivity in Rheelasia.

Every week I'm reminded that for the first couple years of their operation, Black Canary didn't know with whom she was working or from whom she was taking orders.  Their "partnership" was one-side blind; so despite the friendliness of of their chats, it's hard to see them as true friends when Oracle doesn't trust Dinah enough to reveal her secret identity.

Dinah arrives at the Lutefisk Lounge at Lake Mackichitahoo, drawing lots of attention from the men at the resort.  Almost as much attention as the Ravens attract when they arrive.

Meanwhile, Barbara rolls around her apartment, chewing on the anger over Black Canary asking for a date with Nightwing.  Of course, that wouldn't happen if Babs told Dinah who she is and what her real connection to Nightwing is.  But that's not the important part of this scene; what's of greater concern are the people spying on Oracle.

At the same time Oracle is continuing her anonymous internet flirtation with someone named Beeb, Dinah flirts with the concierge of her resort, a nerd named Gary.  Gary shows Dinah to her cabin and tells her about the local tourism boom that has accompanied sightings of the "Lake Mackichitahoo Monster".

At the Pentagon, the Air Force division assigned to electronics security may have finally traced the hacker who has been piggybacking on the military's memory and data.  Is it Oracle they're tracing, or someone/something else?  We ought to find out soon because the Air Force is getting closer to their target.

Back at the lake, the Ravens wait until nightfall and don scuba gear before diving into the water and finding their own target.

On the surface, Dinah walks the dock taking in the night air and enjoying the peace and tranquility of Lake Mackichitahoo when something stirs beneath the wooden planks.  She glances down, catching the faint outline of something monstrous... Then she gets a closer look.

I could give this issue the benefit of the doubt and call it a transitional issue that's used to set up a new story arc, but that would feel too generous.  The fact is, this hardly seems like a Birds of Prey comic at all.  Dixon devotes twelve out of twenty-two pages to the Ravens, who I don't care about.  He spends another page on the Pentagon, and a page on whoever is spying on Oracle.  That leaves only a third of the book for Black Canary and Oracle, and all they really do is flirt with boys and gab about dating Batman and Robin.  It's hardly stimulating stuff.

Land's art is inoffensive but unremarkable.  He likes big, splashy panels, but the characters always seem so posed and lifeless, like they're not really part of their environment.  All told, this was mostly a boring issue.  I liked Dinah and Barbara's early conversation, but that was all I enjoyed in the whole chapter.

Come back next Tuesday for a review of Birds of Prey #5.