Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Batgirl & the Birds of Prey #2: A Review

By Zak Edwards
September 17, 2016 - 13:21

To say that Batgirl & Birds of Prey had a rocky start is a bit of an understatement. Between its controversial retreading of Barbara Gordon’s traumatic history with the Joker to the last’s problems with plotting, characters, and art, the issue has consistently underwhelmed critics and fans. But, as I said in a few of my previously reviews, the story’s elements were strong, it was setting them up that’s been the problem. Now that the pieces are in place, the series is improving.

The new art team delivers an action-packed car chase right from the start.

This issue also welcomes two more people to the art team, artist Roge Antonio and colourist Hi-Fi (who may or may not be a company). While Claire Roe’s cartoonish and vibrant art has been more or less a lot of fun, it has also been inconsistent from page-to-page and even panel-to-panel. Antonio’s art is different from Roe’s, something you can see in many of this issue’s pages (especially around the halfway mark), but the overall look is much better and, curiously, more consistent. This may have something to do with Hi-Fi’s addition as well.

The art really shines at the book’s outset with a high-energy car chase. Almost every moment in those first few pages is worth putting up, but I think I’ll just put up two and let it speak for itself. But seriously, Batgirl taking out a motorcycle with a gun and Black Canary being generally badass makes this issue almost worth it in those first few pages.

Just like the art, the writing is starting to catch up with the series’ potential as well. The opening car chase is simply a lot of fun and is easily the best sequence in the issue, but it’s the last time we have the team working coherently. Afterwards, Barbara essentially goes on a couple of sidequest conversations (I guess her name is in the title) while Huntress picks a fight with Black Canary for seemingly no reason other than sheer boredom.

The Batgirl and James Gordon team-up is pretty awesome, too.

Barbara’s scenes offer her some much-needed characterization and it’s always a delight to see her fight for her beliefs. Plus, watching a twenty-something tell Batman off is always satisfying. The team’s trip to a server farm also gives her a chance to show off her tech skills, even if the bomb is an arbitrary non sequitur of a plot device.

As for the other two, their rooftop sparring session is supposed to be a bonding exercise but, like Black Canary, I was left a little bewildered as to why it happened at all. Huntress’ motivations don’t really seem set up for such a juvenile attempt at making a friend, but perhaps this is more my inexperience than the characterization in general. As it stands, it came across like the little boy who pulls a girl's hair because he likes her. Except, y'know, superheroes.

In retrospect, the team has found at least part of their footing fairly quickly considering this is only their second issue (those Rebirth specials are mostly throwaway). The series looks better, reads better, and may actually get on track before this first arc is out. Plus, this:

Black Canary, being herself. Art by Claire Roe & Roge Antonio.

tl;dr review: Batgirl & the Birds of Prey #2 is an action-packed romp with some pretty amazing characters. The pieces are falling in place here, and that’s making for a much more interesting, and better-looking, read.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12