Writer Gail Simone has continued her exclusive contract with DC Comics, and it’s easy to see why the publisher would want to hold on to her. Birds of Prey, Simone’s highest-profile comics work to date, is probably the best super-hero book DC produces.
The flexible premise allows for a range of stories. High-tech information broker Oracle (Barbara Gordon, formerly Batgirl) has teamed with adventurers Black Canary and the Huntress to, for lack of a more original description, fight crime and protect the innocent. Though it isn’t underlined, they take a more proactive approach, investigating unusual situations Oracle encounters through her network of sources.
This is an advantage if you tire easily of stories featuring villains acting specifically to aggravate or harm a comic’s protagonists. (Simone doesn’t avoid that kind of story entirely, but she keeps those kinds of events in proportion.) It’s refreshing to see heroes act to protect the public as opposed to the kind of damage control that results from more predictable grudge matches.
It’s one of a number of smart choices Simone has made with the book. Another is the recent distancing from the stable of Batman-related titles. Spinning off the events of the recent Gang War crossover, Oracle and company have left their Gotham City headquarters behind for a mobile base of operations. This ups the level of flexibility and frees the book from obligatory crossovers coming out of the Bat office. Along the same lines, Black Canary has broken off her relationship with unfaithful bastard Green Arrow, freeing the heroine of some baggage and rooting her more securely in Birds.
That said, Simone clearly delights in the vast playground that is the DC Universe. She makes appealing use of guest stars like Vixen, Gypsy, and others, and she’s always cognizant of her characters’ rich backgrounds. Continuity is an opportunity, not a burden, and the book strikes me as very friendly to new readers. (I’ve seen readers who are largely indifferent to DC back story say this about the book, too.)
Part of that accessibility has to be attributed to Simone’s focus on characterization. The cast is composed of experienced, mature adventurers, and they generally respect each other as such. There are conflicts – both Oracle and Black Canary show a worrying tendency to underestimate Huntress, though they’re getting better – but they stem from differences in philosophy. Oracle has a tendency to keep secrets, and Dinah’s peacekeeper nature is leavened by a judgmental streak. Huntress has traditionally (and I think disproportionately) been the black sheep of the vigilante community, but she’s downplaying her defensiveness in favor of a more cooperative approach. Any character combination pings nicely with natural chemistry because each character is strongly defined.
I’m particularly taken with Simone’s work with Huntress, who has been the morally inferior punching bag for Batman and his clique roughly since she first appeared. I’ve never really gotten the distinction Batman seems to see, and I’ve always attributed his disapproval to resentment of the fact that Huntress won’t fall into lockstep. Simone paints a more balanced picture in Birds. She plays Huntress as a more violent breed of vigilante, but Huntress is also committed to making her current situation work. She’s grateful to Black Canary and considers her a friend, and she and Oracle are gradually building a better relationship, despite some uncomfortable shared history. (They’ve both slept with Nightwing, and Huntress had a short, unsuccessful stint as Batgirl.) Huntress is proving her value to her colleagues, earning their respect. It’s a lot more rewarding than seeing her sulk over her daddy fixation with the Bat.
Simone has earned a reputation for folding comedy into solid super-hero storytelling. Some of her set pieces in Marvel’s Deadpool and Agent X are justly legendary (from Rhino being turned into a key chain to twin Hello Kitty assassins). The comedy here is more character-based, coming from three quick-witted women who often find themselves in extreme and absurd situations. It accentuates the action nicely, giving the adventure set-pieces and fight scenes an added dimension.
There’s a lot of talk about whether visuals by regular artist Ed Benes really serve what Simone is doing with this title. Some find them too reliant on cheesecake, and I have to say I fall into that camp. It’s too bad, because Benes is capable of truly spectacular action sequences that don’t need tits and ass to be impressive. He can also draw extremely sexy characters, both male and female, so it’s disappointing to see him get anatomical about it. Simone has rightly said in interviews that Benes includes wonderful “acting” in his illustrations. His figures and faces are varied and expressive. Still, he has a worrying tendency to cross the line from kinetic and sexy into ineffectively titillating. (It has the odd effect of suggesting a gene-spliced artist, half Cameron Stewart, half Paul Gulacy.) But that complaint is coming up with decreasing frequency, as Benes moves more to the Stewart end of the spectrum and gets better in synch with Simone’s style and tone.
And, ultimately, it’s Simone’s book, which is a very good thing indeed. She really strikes a wonderful balance of action, character, and comedy, even folding in fairly complex moral issues without getting maudlin about it. (Is Oracle right to keep secrets? How far will Huntress go to protect innocents or resolve a crisis? Who’s entitled to redemption?) As a result, Birds of Prey is a wonderfully mature entertainment that doesn’t feel the need to pat itself on the back about it. DC’s very lucky to have Simone locked into its roster for a bit longer, as she’s one of the best storytellers they have.