Birds of Prey by Kelley Thompson and Leo Romero

[Mantis-Ray]

It's sad to see Babs again pushed out of the team she founded. Maybe Taylor didn't want to share her character more or something and we don't know all the details, or it is simple as them not using her because she wasn't in the BoP movie, but it is now back to back BoP series where Babs isn't in the book. At least this one isn't called Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey like the last ongoing, lol.

I don't really like modern Harley Quinn, but it was obvious she was going to be on the team. The BoP movie wasn't that long ago and even if it didn't do well that is still by far the biggest exposure for the property in its existence. It is difficult to pivot away from that, but people need to be honest about why Harley is there. She is there because Harley's actress decided to make a BoP movie over a Gotham City Sirens one and turned the BoP IP for the movie into a Harley Quinn promotional vehicle, and I think everyone that sees her on the team and kind of envision what role she will have on it. Which is either a selling point or a turnoff depending on what you think of modern Harley.

At least the Harley promotion has died down some compared to its peak. She's overtaken the Suicide Squad brand where she is the face of the IP now, but it was a handful of years back where DC was pushing her in everything it felt like. She was being billed as DC's 4th Pillar by Jim Lee I think. She was defeating Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman in Heroes in Crisis, Bendis was using her in his JL run, she was a mainstay in the Batman book, they morphed Ivy into being Harley's girlfriend over being her own character first it felt like, and all that was on top of having several different ongoing books. Both in the DCU and in OGNs.

Overall the team is an odd mix. I'm actually very surprised there is no black female hero or one of color. I can't remember the last DC team book that didn't have at least one black hero in the book. I assume one will show up if the team's cast will rotate some then and Vixen and Onyx were in consideration.

Man I hate how she's virtually taken over the Suicide Squad property.

At least with Deadshot he's lowkey enough not to be obnoxious while Captain Boomerang is obnoxious but he's a fallible jackass who routinely gets the crap beaten out of him.

Harley is the worst of both parts, an obnoxious spotlight hog and is always written as overpowered so she's never in state of weakness who always gets the best endings out of everyone.

[MajorHoy]

The phrases “personal mission” and “extraction of their asset at any cost”, coupled with Babs not being on the team makes me think Babs is the asset. Too obvious? Maybe. Probably. But, y’know? It’s a guess.

But Dick / Nightwing is the one with the "asset".

[Nite-Wing]

Glad Harley got a roster spot

It's sad to see how far the BOP have fallen and this is finally a chance to establish the brand properly with her

I know most of the haters want to drop the book off her presence alone but I see this as a chance to finally separate the real fans of female centric teams from the fake fans who only support the books with the same boring characters ad nauseum

Kelly Thompson is a good writer as well hopefully this run lasts a while

[a moment closer]

If Bachalo were doing the interiors this would be a must for me, even with Harls on board.

Well all the hype is dead.

Incredible how one character can just suck all the air out of the room.

Only thing worse would be Batman or even Joker joining.

Exactly! Any other female character would've been preferred. Hell! Ivy should be on the team instead and Harley could guest appear and that would've been acceptable for me. I just can't now. I hope it's good and people enjoy the hell out of it cause I love the property but it isn't for me this time.

[ZeroBG82]

And with the Harley confirmation I am 100% out. Nope, no way, no how.

Literally any other character would be preferable.

But DC just can't help themselves. Oh well, less money out of my pocket.

[SilverScarlet]

As a long time BoP fan ~ I’ve bought everything from the original one-shot up to the last Harley-included run ~ as well as a big fan of Kelly’s (her Captain Marvel has been brilliant!), this book is a no-brainer for me.
Am I happy about Harley? No....much like Deadpool or Wolverine, she has a tendency to take over a book like weeds in a garden.
Would I have preferred Onyx or (especially!) Vixen? Most definitely!
But I trust Kelly.....she has this line-up for a reason for THIS story. She could very well have Dinah teamed up with a totally different team for the next arc.
One of the biggest problems in comics todayis that there’s no long term goal/plan....it’s all about the current arc or filling the latest trade.
I trust Kelly’s long term plans.

[Frontier]

Glad Harley got a roster spot

It's sad to see how far the BOP have fallen and this is finally a chance to establish the brand properly with her

I know most of the haters want to drop the book off her presence alone but I see this as a chance to finally separate the real fans of female centric teams from the fake fans who only support the books with the same boring characters ad nauseum

Kelly Thompson is a good writer as well hopefully this run lasts a while

I don't think people disagreeing with Harley being on the team automatically makes them non-fans.

[Primal Slayer]

Kelly revealed that she was surprised at how popular Huntress is with the BoP fans and wasnt expecting nearly as many requests for her to be on the team again.

[Frontier]

Kelly revealed that she was surprised at how popular Huntress is with the BoP fans and wasnt expecting nearly as many requests for her to be on the team again.

She wasn't there from the beginning but I think many see her as integral as Dinah and Babs.

[HumbleMumble]

Wow Harley announced and then pages and pages of hate. Hopefully the book gets dropped soon, Harley propping up unpopular teams is not fair to the character.

[Godlike13]

Glad Harley got a roster spot

It's sad to see how far the BOP have fallen and this is finally a chance to establish the brand properly with her

I know most of the haters want to drop the book off her presence alone but I see this as a chance to finally separate the real fans of female centric teams from the fake fans who only support the books with the same boring characters ad nauseum

Kelly Thompson is a good writer as well hopefully this run lasts a while

Yes, finally the opportunity to separate the real fans of all female teams with hot blonds in short shorts…i mean “female centric” teams

Harley is totally not one of those generally appeasing characters they add on to make readers more comfortable and accepting because she is so commonplace or anything.

[Confuzzled]

Honestly if there's no Oracle, it's not BOP. The team is really her legacy and triumph that DC didn't realize while pushing Barbara back into the tights.

I will be picking up this book because I want to see Barda and Cassandra interact. I just wish it wasn't named Birds of Prey though.

As for the no WOC outside of Cass comments, Barda and Zealot are aliens who are two-dimensional illustrations. We don't need to assume they are 'white' by default.

[Godlike13]

Kelly revealed that she was surprised at how popular Huntress is with the BoP fans and wasnt expecting nearly as many requests for her to be on the team again.

Seriously. Again the point of BoP wasn’t just we are all female, Huntress coming in after what she went through in NML was brilliant. A real fit. Of course people want her there, she was the first real expansion.

[Agent Z]

Thompson has said that Barbara's lack of involvement in the Birds of Prey is a plot point.

https://twitter.com/79SemiFinalist/s...RmNkUwl6Q&s=19

She has also said the line up will be reshuffled after the first arc.

https://twitter.com/79SemiFinalist/s...EsNNr0pbA&s=19

Glad Harley got a roster spot

It's sad to see how far the BOP have fallen and this is finally a chance to establish the brand properly with her

I know most of the haters want to drop the book off her presence alone but I see this as a chance to finally separate the real fans of female centric teams from the fake fans who only support the books with the same boring characters ad nauseum

Kelly Thompson is a good writer as well hopefully this run lasts a while

You really don't see the irony in saying this in defense of a character that is already pretty exposed?

[Agent Z]

Honestly if there's no Oracle, it's not BOP. The team is really her legacy and triumph that DC didn't realize while pushing Barbara back into the tights.

I will be picking up this book because I want to see Barda and Cassandra interact. I just wish it wasn't named Birds of Prey though.

As for the no WOC outside of Cass comments, Barda and Zealot are aliens who are two-dimensional illustrations. We don't need to assume they are 'white' by default.

I don't know how else you would classify them.