DCU Comic Book Reviews

BIRDS OF PREY #120

Mad Science

September 2008

Written by Tony Bedard

Pencils by Michael O'Hare

Inks by John Floyd

Cover by Stephane Roux

Synopsis

In Star City, Black Canary takes exception to Manhunter spying on her family.  In Platinum Flats, Infinity infiltrates the offices of Macintech.  Oracle is overseeing the mission when Black Canary barges in the door, upset Oracle was spying on her family.  Oracle tells her that she might need Speedy’s help and wanted to make sure everything is okay.  Dinah angrily leaves, telling Oracle all she needs to do is ask.  Meanwhile, Infinity makes it to the laboratory at Macintech, where she finds Gizmo of the Fearsome Five in suspended animation.  Or more precisely, a reanimated corpse.  Gizmo attacks Infinity.  Huntress comes to the rescue.  At Findster headquarters, Visionary receives a visit from...The Joker.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Other than the annoying opening sequence in which we get heroes fighting each other for no particular reason, Bedard continues to weave a great story of the Birds relocation to Platinum Flats.  At this stage of the story, we are still in exploration mode as Oracle continues her recon of the city, which allows Bedard to show the reader what is going on through her eyes.  Or in the case of this issue, through the eyes of Infinity.  As far as I can tell, this is a brand new character and based on this quick glimpse, I hope she sticks around a little bit.  She has some interesting powers and I am curious to learn more about her past even as I am curious to see her become a bigger part of the book. 

It took me a while and a little bit of struggle to find something to say about the appearance of the Joker at the end of this issue.  And what I came up with is that I don’t have much to say.  In terms of the developing story, I like it since it adds a wild card to Visionary’s tight control of the city.  But the Joker in Birds of Prey means the Clown Prince and Oracle will eventually come to face to face.  For some, the confrontation between the Joker and the Oracle has been building ever since the Joker shot and paralyzed her.  For me, I am not sure such a confrontation is needed.  I don’t know.  It is not like the Joker would care on way or the other what happened to Babs.  And unless Babs decides to forgive him, what she does to him can’t (and won’t) be much worse than he did to her.  So no matter what she says, it would not have much impact on him.  It just feels like spitting into the wind, a conversation that should mean something that will mean nothing when it happens. 

As I said earlier, the fight at the beginning was useless and wasted space that could’ve been saved for more about Platinum Flats.  Having said that, I do like the outcome, with Oracle hinting around Sin’s supposed death.  While I am not sure how Speedy’s recruitment into the Birds would reveal anything about Sin, to me it made sense that Oracle would question Sin’s “death” and would want to protect whatever secret Dinah might be keeping.  And I also buy the fact that Dinah would keep the secret even from Babs, knowing that the less people know, the less likely they will reveal the truth.  It will be interesting to see where this leads.  I would guess that Dinah would have to tell Babs.  I can’t imagine that DC editors would undo Sin’s “death” (which seemed to be a case of undoing Simone’s decision to bring her into Dinah’s life) this quickly, but who the hell knows with DC. 

Comic Connection

The character of Sin first appeared in Birds of Prey, issue #92.  Black Canary would adopt Sin and attempted to raise her, but the League of Assassins wanted Sin for themselves.  So, with the help of Green Arrow, Sin “died” and then was sent away for her own protection.  These events occurred in the Black Canary miniseries. 

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