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Saturday 22 April 2017

Batgirl and the Birds of Prey, Volume 1: Who Is Oracle? Review (Shawna Benson, Claire Roe)


Oh Rebirth, you are so boring! Batgirl and the Birds of Prey (emphasis on Batgirl I guess because people like Babs and don’t give a fuuuuuck about Black Canary and Huntress – to be fair, I don’t either!) is another pile of wanky, tedious comic sludge. 

The Birds of Prey go looking for someone going by Babs’ old secret identity, Oracle, while fighting snake-themed baddies (cos birds and snakes are natural enemies, geddit?) and mafia goons. It’s so ordinary, uninteresting, and overall blah I was never once entertained. 

The sisterly writing team of Shawna and Julie Benson, writers of TV shows Emma Approved and The 100 (never heard of either), drearily go through the motions of a typical superhero team comic. I suppose the story is clear, which is something given that it’s an Afterbirth book, and each of the characters’ origins are retold for new readers’ benefits making this a decent jumping on point for them. For guys like me though who already know all that jazz, re-reading it all made me want to blow my brains out from boredom. And the answer to Who Is Oracle? is underwhelming to say the least. More like Who Fucking Cares?! 

Claire Roe and Roge Antonio’s art is dogshit. The first panel we see Babs, I thought she was in the middle of sexual reassignment, she looks so manly! And when did she get so unattractive? She’s suddenly got a weird horsey, Secretariat Jessica Parker face. And, Christ, that stupid mask – it conceals nothing! I can’t buy that Jim Gordon doesn’t know that Batgirl’s his daughter when they’re face to face in a lit room! I would’ve loved it if at the end of their conversation he turned away and said “By the way Babs, get a better fucking mask, you clueless dope – only a complete retard wouldn’t know it’s you under there.” 

Batgirl and the Birds of Prey is uninteresting, uninspired drivel. All it did was remind me that I liked Barbara Gordon better when she was Oracle. I’m starting to think DC stands for Dire Crap!

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