Book Review – Birds of Prey vol. 1 (1990s – Chuck Dixon)

• Title: Birds of Prey vol. 1
• Author:  Chuck Dixon, Sherilyn van Valkenburgh, Jordan B. Gorfinkel, Dave Grafe, Gloria Vasquez
• Artists: Jordan B. Gorfinkel, Gary Frank, Stefano Raffaele, Matt Haley, Jennifer Graves, Sal Buscema, Dick Giordano, Greg Land, Albert T DeGuzman, Phil Felix, John Dell, Stan Woch, Wade von Grawbadger, John Lowe, Cam Smith, Bob McLeod, Wayne Faucher, Drew Geraci
• Line: 1990-Era (Early Modern Age)
• Characters: Oracle (Barbara Gordon), Black Canary (Dinah Lance), Huntress (Helena Bertinelli), Catwoman (Selina Kyle)
• Collection Date: 2015 (reprint)
• Collected issues: Black Canary/Oracle Birds of Prey 1, Showcase ’96 3, Birds of Prey: Manhunt 1-4, Birds of Prey: Revolution 1, Birds of Prey: Wolves 1, Birds of Prey: Batgirl 1 (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998)
• Publisher: DC Comics
• Date Reviewed on GoodReads: 11/24/2015

Birds of Prey is DC Comics all-female superhero team. The team is lead not by a male hero nor a male mentor, but by a woman: Barbara Gordon who was once Batgirl but after the events of Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke is now Oracle. Oracle is one of my favorite DC characters – after being paralyzed by gunshot – she returns to college, gets her MLS and becomes a librarian. However, not only does she remain independent with an excellent job, she’s also Oracle – the information hub for all the DC heroes especially Batman and Nightwing – and she runs her own organization of female heroes.

Birds of Prey Volume 1 is a reprint of several early Birds of Prey comics from the mid to late 1990s, written by Chuck Dixon. I hope DC reprints the entire run, because this volume gathers a number of specials, the stories are slightly disjointed. A few characters reappear, but really each issue within this volume could be read as a stand alone.

Other characters featured in the volume include: Black Canary (who’s awesome, has a much better new costume, and has dumped Oliver Queen), Catwoman (Oracle warns against working with her – Canary and Huntress do anyway), and Huntress. Featured villains include Lady Shiva, Mad Hatter, Spellbinder (who’s female) and corporate hack Nick Devine.

I enjoyed this volume very much, but it does have a strong, “Good start, where’s the rest?” feel to it. I would very much like to see more.