Birds of Prey: Sensei and Student

Black Canary is summoned to Hong Kong. Her sensei is near death and she's come to pay her last respects. There's another student coming to bid farewell to the martial arts master: Lady Shiva! It looks like these two foes are going to battle it out until the sempai calls for peace between the two. 

An uneasy truce between Black Canary and Lady Shiva is arranged until the mentor's death. However, when their teacher is murdered by an unknown assailant, the two rivals become allies to avenge the senseless killing of a man already near death. Only this unlikely pair have differing ways of finding answers. One is willing to let her hands and feet talk for her. The other is willing to take a life in order to get answers.

Meanwhile back in Gotham City, someone has hacked into Oracle's mainframe, claiming to know her secret identity. With Canary overseas, Barbara Gordon must rely on the Huntress. But with Helena Bertinelli's past romantic history with Dick Grayson, there's more than enough bad blood between the two. Now with Barbara in the custody of Federal agents for terrorism charges and violations of the Patriot Act, the Huntress might be Oracle's only hope, whether she likes it or not.

This is a book that's been sitting on for a very long time. I inherited it from my best friend after he died over a decade ago. I just couldn't bring myself to read it. Not out of mourning. Mostly just cause I wasn't really a fan of this series. But I figured I'd give it a try someday. That day just happened to be recently.

The events in this book seem to be occurring during a transitional time for the Birds of Prey. One of the team just left and while I know that Huntress joins them, at this period in time Canary, Oracle and Huntress kinda all hate and distrust each other to varying degrees. So I'm not really sure if the book follows the formula of the issues featured in this book or if they start to trust and rely on each other. (This volume also doesn't inform me if the series prior to this time of change was any good or not.)

The writing by Gail Simone was decent. But man are those birds a trio of biddies. Lots of action. But too much of a pissing contest. I thought this was bad in the books that primarily starred alpha males. But here, it's down right annoying.

The art is also decent. provides some very alluring art along with some action packed images led by Michael Golden and Ed Benes. Unfortunately, some of these artists draw in that beefy style of late 90s-early 2000s DC where you can't tell if the more muscular characters are well built or eating too much pie. Superman: Our Worlds At War was notorious for this look and it isn't becoming here either.

The Greg Land covers, like the one used for this volume, are breathtaking!

The ending was fantastic. It's a who's who of characters affiliated with the Birds of Prey as they answer the call to save Barbara Gordon and her Oracle secret identity from a corrupt politician with a damning past and a connection to the original Black Canary! Now that's a series I want to read more about as the pre-modern era filler story was much more interesting despite a bad case of convenient plot device at the middle of that segment.

I'd give the Birds of Prey another try if I found them at the library or something like that. But I'm not going out of my way to find more volumes, nor will I shell out any cash for it either.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Fantastic Four Wedding Special #1

2018 was a year of mostly downs for Marvel. But there were a few bright spots for the House of Ideas. Spider-Man was by far their best line of properties, including the amazing new stuff that was being done with Venom. Another bright spot for 2018 was the return of the First Family of Marvel, The Fantastic Four. However, due to the X-Men wedding debacle in which we were all ready for Kitty Pryde to finally marry Colossus and the whole bait and switch with Rogue and Gambit tying the know instead, I waited a little bit before I decided to buy this special issue.

Once the nuptials were confirmed and Alicia ended up not being a Skrull (at least for now), I ponied up the $4.99. Don't worry, it's an over-sized book, slightly. Plus, it's well worth the money.

There's a trio of stories here. The first shows the shenanigans surrounding Alicia's bachelorette party. Written by Gail Simone (Wonder Woman), the opening adventure was quite funny, a little naughty, and had a very touching ending to it. It guest stars She-Hulk, one of my all-time favorite Marvel ladies. But when did Jennifer Walters start to become more primal (again) when she goes green?

In the second story, current Fantastic Four scribe, Dan Slott, has Ben Grimm visiting Alicia's father, The Puppet Master, for his daughter's hand in marriage! Of course, old baldy is going to say no! SPOILER- he doesn't! The reason why was straight out of the late Stan Lee's playbook! I loved it!

Lastly, living legend, Fred (he actually writes me an annual Happy Birthday message on Facebook) Hembeck does a small feature on the tumultuous history of the Puppet Master and The Thing as only Fred can do it! And yes- the knees still have spirals on them!

The art of this entire book was also very good. Marvel has gotten a lot of due flack for the lessened quality of new artists. But Laura Braga (Harley and Ivy Meet Betty and Veronica) is a real talent. And Mark Buckingham, who has been a favorite of mine since his Fables days, brings a real 70s flair to the Thing/Puppet Master story. (I don't care what you think- to me, the 70s was the best stylistic time for the FF!)

Lastly, we come to the cover. There were several to choose from. But I went with the regular cover. It depicts The Thing getting ready to smash a glass with his foot. Being a Jewish wedding tradition and married to a beautiful Jewish princess, you know I had to pay respects to the Tribe! 

Be sure to take an extra look at the cover! Our photographer is obviously Peter Parker! But look at the awe-inspiring tribute touches added by cover artists Carlos Pacheco and Romulo Fajardo Jr. Just below Parker's elbow is The King, Jack Kirby wiping away a tear. North of Peter's shoulder is Stan Lee making one final appearance in the lives of his most important creation. (Is that Fabulous Flo Steinberg next to Stan the Man?)

The Fantastic Four Wedding Album is a treat not to be missed. I can't wait to save up some money for the actual ceremony that takes place in Fantastic Four #650. My guys at my favorite LCS have it on hold for me. If it's half as good as this one, then I will be in for one hell of fun read!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Catwoman/Tweety & Sylvester Special #1

In this DC/Looney Tunes crossover, the witches of the two franchises are having their Witches Conclave. During this gathering, a bet is made as to who would ultimately win if given the chance to fight to the death- the Tweety Bird or the Puddy Tat? But even when both are given the chance to finally off the other, the two enemies never can seem to finalize on their opportunities.

In order to accomplish this feat, once and for all, both Tweety and Sylvester are granted champions who will do the deed in their place. For Sylvester, he's paired with Selena Kyle- the Catwoman. For Tweety, he's teamed with Dinah Lance- the Black Canary. Though both heroines don't really want to participate in this blood feud, they are compelled. For you see, if Tweety dies, then birds of all sorts will died with him. That includes bird themed superheroes. The same happens for Sylvester. If he used up all nine of his lives, it's night-night forever for Selena too!

Though I had to read the first 3 pages about 10 times to understand the mumbo-jumbo of those in the Witches Conclave, I liked this book. There's tons of surprises in this special. Gail Simone and Inaki Miranda pulled out all the stops in this one!

I also enjoyed the Looney Tunes style back feature. It has both Sylvester and Catwoman trying to break into Granny's apartment. The Puddy Tat wants Tweety of course. The cat burglar wants some of Granny's ice, as in diamonds. It was a laugh out loud adventure that I would love to see done as an actual animated short.

The DC/Looney Tunes crossovers are always great fun and this one is no exception. Too bad the DC/Hanna Barbera pairings aren't as fun. Maybe it's because they try to reinvent the wheel that are the HB properties whereas these specials capture some of the original heart of the Looney Tunes gang.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.