DCU Comic Book Reviews

BIRDS OF PREY #122

Fear Itself

November 2008

Written by Tony Bedard

Pencils by Michael O'Hare

Inks by John Floyd

Cover by Stephane Roux

Synopsis

After Visionary implanted false memories in Kate Spencer (aka Manhunter) to erase 2 weeks of time, Oracle calls in Zatanna to magically restore her back to normal.  Meanwhile, Visionary and joker set in motion a plan to flush out Oracle by attacking a police station.  Zinda, Infinity, and Huntress rush to the rescue.  They tell Misfit to stay behind.  In the fight, one of the attacks manages to place a tracer on Zinda’s back.  At the moment, Misfit teleports into the action with Huntress’ motorcycle.  The distraction is enough for the police to capture the attackers.  When the women return to Oracle’s hideout, the sensors pick up the tracer.  At that moment, a police car arrives.  Oracle sends the team away and prepares to greet the police as Barbara Gordon.  However, it is not the police, but rather the Joker. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

“Officer Slaughter, Miss...I'm here to see the Oracle.  And, no, I don't have an appointment.”

Now this is more like it, as Bedard backs away from the Misfit in school storyline and focuses instead on the Birds of Prey in action and the fight against the Silicon Syndicate.  This issue had some good action, a few fun moments, and was a swiftly paced story that continued and expanded on the main plot as well as the various stories percolating in the title (most notably Misift and her powers and role), which is exactly what I would expect from a good comic book issue.  And this is good stuff

What was the deal with the opening sequence with Manhunter and Zatanna?  While it does manage to tie up some loose ends from earlier in Bedard’s run, I am not really sure anyone was clamoring for those loose ends to be tied up in a bow.  I suppose in the trade the sequence will read better than it does in this single issue.  In terms of the 22 pages I just read, the opening sequence completely sticks out like a sore thumb; it really has no connection to the rest of the story (unless Barbara’s vision of the Joker at the end is caused by Visionary, which would then make the opening very relevant) and the two characters are not even mentioned again. 

I always find it interesting when a writer puts in a cliffhanger in an issue and then the next issue completely ignores it.  In this case, Bedard introduced Black Alice in the last issue and not only is the character missing, but I don’t think she is even mentioned.  Obviously Bedard has plans for Alice, but I’ve got to wonder why introduce her so soon or before he is ready to deal with her.  Did Bedard not have an ending to the last issue and tossed in Black Alice to fill space?  It just doesn’t make much sense to me. 

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