DC Relaunch: Birds of Prey

Gotham is a big city. There’s a lot going on there, and it’s been a long time since JUST Batman patrolled its streets. It’s complicated, movement throughout multiple networks going in and out, legal and criminal, and as you might imagine, Batman can’t handle everywhere and everything. So if the Birds of Prey are handling things on the covert-ops side of things in Gotham, that just makes his job all the easier.

Birds of Prey hasn’t always been covert ops, but it has always been mission based. Whereas before, Oracle ran the missions with Black Canary, Oracle seems to be gone (to be explained both in Birds of Prey and Batgirl, or so we’re told) and Black Canary is running things with a new partner, Starling. The name “Birds of Prey” was given to the book at its inception, but it should be noted that the team has never used the name except in a joke or two, and that only occasionally has Oracle referred to them as her “birds.” Black Canary has gone through a lot in her life, and while she has the super-power of a sonic scream, she really prefers not to use it. She is an extremely skilled martial artist, ranking among the best. Little to nothing is known about Starling at this point, she appears to be a new character.

Rounding out the group on this first cover is what appears to be Katana, an expert swordswoman and bearer of a blade containing (from the solicit for issue 2), the soul of her dead husband. And apparently she’s able to talk to him. Also on the first cover is Poison Ivy, a long time Bat-villain who has strayed into greyer and greyer areas in recent years. Her involvement is difficult to say just yet. The new mixture of covert ops and the new takes on familiar characters should bring a new dynamic to this fan favorite series.

Duane Swierczynski will be writing the book with Jesus Saiz on art. Swierczynski has mostly done work for Marvel in the past, completely well received runs The Immortal Iron Fist, Cable, and two stories for Punisher: Frank Castle. He’s also a rather established crime and mystery novelist. Jesus Saiz has most recently been the new artist on Birds of Prey, and has previously worked with J. Michael Straczynski on The Brave & the Bold, and Checkmate with Greg Rucka.

Gail Simone’s long run on Birds of Prey has been the most notable, and so I can’t help but note the favorite of mine within those collections:

Birds of Prey: Of Like Minds by Gail Simone & Ed Benes
Birds of Prey: Blood & Circuits by Gail Simone & Paulo Siqueira
Birds of Prey: Dead of Winter by Gail Simone & Nicola Scott
Birds of Prey: Endrun by Gail Simone, Ed Benes, & Adriana Melo

Many have wondered where Huntress went to. Much like the Penguin mini that was revealed at Comic Book Resources, Newsarama hit on a pretty big exclusive with the reveal of the The Huntress 5 issue mini. This will be written by Legion of Super-heroes scribe Paul Levitz, with art from Marcus To & John Dell. That all is here, at the bottom of the October Bat-solicits. http://www.newsarama.com/comics/dcnu-october-2011-batman-titles-110711.html

Tomorrow! Moving along with more of the women of Batman, we’ll be taking a look at Catwoman.