Birds of Prey #1 Discussion/Spoilers

[Rakzo]

I guess I'm not saying anything mindblowing with this: Birds of Prey is pretty much like the Suicide Squad at this point. Meaning that they didn't have the best of lucks with their titles from the last few years (although Suicide Squad might be even worse in that regard due that it had even more chances) and for the Birds this is pretty much since the New 52 started more than a decade ago (or maybe even before because even Gail Simone's second run was not that great). However, such luck might change because Kelly Thompson was chosen to handle this new team and direction and I remember enjoying her work at Marvel years ago (particularly her take on Hawkeye, Kate Bishop) so this might be the right time to give the title a new chance.

Unfortunately, it doesn't start the best way if I'm completely honest. The first thing I could notice is that the presentation itself is pretty mediocre, we open right away with Ollie and Dinah speaking about how she needs a team to save Sin and... that's it, no creative introduction into the idea of the book, no bigger or new insight into Dinah's mentality, nothing really, the only thing that seems "new" is that Dinah wants Barbara out of this for some reason and she can't even call Huntress now. I might be missing some details because I've been skipping a lot of extra books lately but still, as a brand new series that supposedly wants to get new readers, this doesn't really do that good of a job,

Second, the introduction of the rest of the cast is not that great. It basically is about most of them fighting a group of randoms and each member of the team praising each other for how "badass" they are and I prefer to see those things happening in the story with actually memorable moments, is a case of "tell, don't show" and ultimately is part of why the whole presentation is very underwhelming. Not to mention that I dislike Harley Quinn as part of the team and there's not a lot of reason to get her aside from that she's popular. Plus, the issue ends in a rather abrupt way without anything really important happening.

Leonardo Romero's artwork is pretty solid though, full of expressive characters, clean style and precise storytelling.

Average overall, not sure how it will go on.

[Godlike13]

This was kind of not good. I don't really care for when behind the scene stuff is explained as "reasons" that don't actually explain anything, or they make of up some contrived nonsense the doesn't make sense like we need an uncontrollable surprise "X factor" on this very important and personal mission where one would assume you would want little room for spontaneous nonsense. Cass fans are probably gonna lose their **** too btw. Who knew spoilers:

fish was her weakness lol

end of spoilers.

But maybe the next issue will be better with the explanations out of the way. Barda was quite enjoyable, the art is good, and hopefully they are done with all the vague contrived explaining. And i do have weakness for a certain someone who weirdly shows up at the end.

[Drako]

I was enjoying until Harley showed up. All the others make sense, but there is ZERO logical sense for Harley to be in this.
Everything is so forced to accommodate this character. Now she can almost beat Cass cause instead of going for something obvious, she goes for the goofy option. As if Cass would not be fast enough to react.

"We need a x-factor, someone people can't predict"

"One day i thought she was going for a frying pan but she went for a fish instead!! So unpredictable! She almost beat me!"

[Rac7d*]

I saw this unbiased but what is the point of saving sin? Congratulations the green arrow family is back together? But then what? Where will they go? Are they all gonna fit in one book? What happened to red canary? It’ll be just like the batfamily where 1/4 of them kinda float except we have 5-7 bat titles to rotate them through so their never gone, but is green arrow gonna get that much support?

[Konja7]

I was enjoying until Harley showed up. All the others make sense, but there is ZERO logical sense for Harley to be in this.
Everything is so forced to accommodate this character. Now she can almost beat Cass cause instead of going for something obvious, she goes for the goofy option. As if Cass would not be fast enough to react.

"We need a x-factor, someone people can't predict"

"One day i thought she was going for a frying pan but she went for a fish instead!! So unpredictable! She almost beat me!"

To be fair, writers seem to consider "attack without thinking" the weakness to Cass (and Shiva) ability to read movements.

That "weakness" have been taken advantage a good amount of times by different characters.

[Frontier]

This issue was great up until Harley showed up and became the most annoying and jarring part of the whole book.

Which is what I totally expected to happen when she was announced to be in it.

I saw this unbiased but what is the point of saving sin? Congratulations the green arrow family is back together? But then what? Where will they go? Are they all gonna fit in one book? What happened to red canary? It’ll be just like the batfamily where 1/4 of them kinda float except we have 5-7 bat titles to rotate them through so their never gone, but is green arrow gonna get that much support?

At least Dinah doesn't care about any of that but saving Sin.

[Rac7d*]

This issue was great up until Harley showed up and became the most annoying and jarring part of the whole book.

Which is what I totally expected to happen when she was announced to be in it.

At least Dinah doesn't care about any of that but saving Sin.

I know its about the journey more then the payoff bt like i already forsee whats gonna happen becasue were are experiencing it now. All thease large family cant and wont be supported.

[Frontier]

I know its about the journey more then the payoff bt like i already forsee whats gonna happen becasue were are experiencing it now. All thease large family cant and wont be supported.

I'm assuming Thompson will come up with a place for Sin or she and Williamson have talked about her.

[Rac7d*]

I'm assuming Thompson will come up with a place for Sin or she and Williamson have talked about her.

like Red canary? or Lin Harper

[M@Bowers2014]

I don't know what book ya'll read but I thought this was a great first issue. It was kinetic and fun and I thought the characters' voices were all on point. If you go into this wanting to not like it you probably won't. If you go into it with an open mind you probably will enjoy it like I did. This was written more like a crime caper than an old school BOP book. The art is even better than I thought it would be with tons a little details for your eyes. Loved the cameos by Ollie and Grifter. IDK but I was originally on the fence on whether I'd buy more than the first issue. Now I can't wait for the next issue. BTW this DOES NOT come off like the Suicide Squad at all. I would suggest to read this issue and not let others scare you off. Especially if you're a fan of these characters on their own.

[Aahz]

I'm assuming Thompson will come up with a place for Sin or she and Williamson have talked about her.

i feel that having an aged up Lian, Emiko and now Sin is a bit much for the Arrow franchise.

Unless this incarnation of BoP is popular enough to keep going. On the other hand having both Sin and Cass on the team might also a bit redundant, unless the make Sin much younger than Cass.

[Frontier]

I don't know what book ya'll read but I thought this was a great first issue. It was kinetic and fun and I thought the characters' voices were all on point. If you go into this wanting to not like it you probably won't. If you go into it with an open mind you probably will enjoy it like I did. This was written more like a crime caper than an old school BOP book. The art is even better than I thought it would be with tons a little details for your eyes. Loved the cameos by Ollie and Grifter. IDK but I was originally on the fence on whether I'd buy more than the first issue. Now I can't wait for the next issue. BTW this DOES NOT come off like the Suicide Squad at all. I would suggest to read this issue and not let others scare you off. Especially if you're a fan of these characters on their own.

I think it comes off like Suicide Squad in the sense that Harley is basically doing what she always does in team books, for better or worse.

[M@Bowers2014]

I think it comes off like Suicide Squad in the sense that Harley is basically doing what she always does in team books, for better or worse.

Maybe those couple of story arcs where Harley was leading her own SS team. Definitely not the classic Suicide Squad though. Like I said in my earlier post this has more of a crime caper/heist feel to it. And I'm digging it way more than I expected. I've been enjoying so much of the Dawn of DC so far but not all of it.

Misses so far for me:

Hawkgirl
Steelworks
JSA (and I really hate to admit that and I will continue to buy it)
Cyborg (I don't hate it but it's just not doing it for me so far)
City Boy (even though I like the character and concept)
Spirit World (even though I like the character and concept)
The Vigil

Hits so far for me:

Green Arrow
Doom Patrol
Shazam!
Titans
World's Finest
World's Finest: Teen Titans
Superman
Green Lantern
Adventures of Jon Kent
Batman: Brave and the Bold
Birds of Prey
Fire and Ice: Welcome to Smallville

[SiegePerilous02]

Aside from Harley, I thought this was a solid start. This is already showing more promise than the Birds have had since Gail's first run.

[Mantis-Ray]

Overall decent start, aside from Harley, pretty great art.

Though Goddamn is the whole "we need an unpredictable element" excuse to justify Harley's involvement so fucking tired and nonsensical. No one wants a wild card, thats stupid as Hell. When your constructing a team full of people you can at least trust and rely on, the last thing you want is someone you have no way of controlling or relying on.

It makes more sense if they just did the mission, Harley happens to be there, and they are forced to work together for mutual survival. Thats how most wild card's join the team, generally by complete accident.