DCU Comic Book Reviews

BIRDS OF PREY #113

The Blackest Sea

February 2008

Written by Sean McKeever

Pencils by Nicola Scott

Inks by Doug Hazelwood

Cover by Stephane Roux

Synopsis

On the freeway to Metropolis, Huntress is chasing Tabitha Brennan, who is driving a 18-wheeler Oracle fears contains explosives.  Huntress is able to get close enough to the truck to get onboard, where she learns that the truck itself is the bomb.  While Huntress tries to talks some sense to Brennan, Oracle orders Blackhawk into the air to shoot it down.  However, when the truck reaches its intended target, it turns into a Transformer-type robot.  Misfit, who had been with Oracle, teleports into the robot, and knocks out Brennan.  Thinking she is helping, Misfit pushes one of the buttons.  The robot then explodes, destroying a good portion of Metropolis.  The next day, Superman pays a visit to the Birds of Prey to chastise them for their actions.  He then tells them all he will be watching them.  Meanwhile, Oracle wonders how everything got out of control.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

It took me a long time to come to grips with this issue.  I just wasn’t sure how I felt about it.  On the one hand, I found it to be a compelling story; I was shocked at the ending.  I was not expecting the explosion, nor Superman’s stern warning and Oracle’s despair at her failure.  It was well written and new series writer McKeever manages to re-introduce all of the major characters in the series and to nail their different voices.  Plus, he brought back a character from about a year or so ago from one of Gail Simone’s stories and continued with her story.  I always appreciate it when a writer sticks with current continuity rather the ditching everything before to start fresh.  On the other hand, what happened with the truck and how the events all transpired, did not seem like it was a Birds of Prey book.  It didn’t feel like Oracle was running a tight ship, as she says at the end.  I appreciate the attempt to show how things can go wrong with the squirrel, but I truly believe Oracle would’ve done more than just place one (count ‘em:  one) camera in a tree.  Oracle is extremely intelligent and can handle most contingencies.  And even when things do go wrong, Oracle would not have stood by and watched, she would’ve called in the cavalry.  Even if Superman were not around, there is Supergirl.  Or Power Girl.  Or Green Lantern.  Or a host of other heroes that could’ve contained the bomb. 

After thinking about it a little bit, I am firmly convinced that the explosion or whatever it was that destroyed a city block of Metropolis will probably be forgotten in short order.  I think that the event was simply a means to an end, the catalyst for McKeever to get the characters to where he wants them to be.  I don’t know why, but I get this feeling that the Birds of Prey are going to be undercover, deep undercover, that will occupy a number of different arcs.  And to get the group to go undercover, the explosion was the method to get them there.  Of course, I could be wrong, but that is just the feeling that I get. 

Why is the robot built like a woman?  I mean, seriously, if you were building a robot that could transform into a truck, would you put breasts and long hair on it?  And doesn’t it look just a little too big for the truck it once had been?  Am I nitpicking?

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