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.

Nightwing, Vol. 7: On The Razor's Edge

In Bludhaven, the head of its criminal element is the massively strong super villain Blockbuster. Thanks to some surgical enhancements, Blockbuster is a lot smarter than from his first appearances that pitted him against Batman. He's still as unstable as ever and even more ruthless and cruel. He's also at his wit's end. Since his arrival in town, Nightwing has taken an impressive bite out of Blockbuster's empire. To stop this, Blockbuster is testing out some new talent to pit against Nightwing: the assassin Shrike, who has some history with the hero from his days as the Boy Wonder. 

Meanwhile, Dick Grayson has finally made it to the ranks of the Bludhaven Police Department. It's long been Grayson's goal to clean up the BPD which rivals Gotham's police department as the most corrupt law agency in the country. Now if the rookie cop could only get an 'in' with the dirty cops on the force. Grayson thinks he might have that opportunity when his new partner, Officer Any Rohrbach, invites him to meet a special group of people. Only, this group of cops is unlike anything Dick Grayson was expecting. They're honest!

In the middle of all this is some pent up sexual tension. First, Nightwing encounters Catwoman in town to commit a heist against a very powerful crime lord. If there was ever a way that Dick Grayson could ever irrevocably betray Bruce Wayne, it would be hooking up with Selena Kyle. This story very well could be the flame that leads to a powerful explosive of passions. 

Then Oracle, with assistance of Black Canary, comes to Nightwing's rescue after escaping the clutches of Shrike. Babs Gordon and Dick Grayson have always been made for each other. This story proves just that. When will DC finally give the readers what they want and have Dick and Barbara get married?!

Chuck Dixon's writing on Nightwing is phenomenal as ever. I wish I could say the same about the art of Greg Land. Some pages, he's fantastic. In others, I feel like I'm watching scenes from the X-Man Beast's family reunion. It's so inconsistent! Especially in the action-packed scenes.

Another gem I inherited from my late, great best friend.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Nightwing, Volume 5: The Hunt for Oracle

Trying to make some room in my vast collection of 10,000 plus comic books and graphic novel, I was determine to choose between the 1990-2000s run of Robin or the 1990-2000s run of Nightwing to cut. My Robin read by Bill Willingham (Fables) blew me away. So, I was more than willing to say farewell to Nightwing after I read some of my trades. Blast if The 'Nam's Chuck Dixon didn't do an insanely good job on the post-Batman adventures of Dick Grayson!

In this trade, reprinting issues 41-46 of Nightwing and a pair of issues of Birds of Prey (1999-2009), Dick Grayson is set to become a cop having graduated from the academy. But because the police force of Bludhaven is so corrupt, nobody is willing to take on such a boy scout as Dick in their precincts.

This gives Grayson plenty of time to be Nightwing. However, the hero is finding the city to be a little crowded as he meets a loose-canon vigilante going by the name 'Nite-Wing.' Seeing potential in the lad (and hopes that he'll change his name), Nightwing decides to train this up-and-comer. 

Meanwhile, Oracle has run afoul of Bludhaven's major-domo, Blockbuster. Using her computer prowess to cull funds from the villain's coffers one too many times has resulted Blockbuster putting a bounty on Oracle's head. With her Birds of Prey indisposed, Oracle will have to rely on Nightwing to save her neck. But he's got his hands full with Blockbuster's new partner, a gorilla named Grodd!

While I am on the Nightwing wagon more than ever before, this book didn't really win me over to giving Birds of Prey a try. I like Barbara Gordon/Oracle and I'm okay with Huntress. But Black Canary has irked me for the longest time. For one, there's the extremely confusing origins that DC has given the character. First she's a golden age hero. Then Black Canary is a founding member of the Justice League of America. Then it's her mom who did all this. Then it's not.  Plus, I can't figure out how to correctly pronounce her real name, Dinah. And I think that's the part that aggravates me the most about the character!

Anyways, this volumes ends on a cliffhanger. Normally, I would be upset at not having the issues to complete that run. But 'The Hunt for Oracle' is completed in Birds of Prey, Volume 3 and I don't really care to know how that transpires. Yes- that's how much I despise Dinah Lance!

Chuck Dixon hit a home run with this issue. Plus there's the great art by Bruce Guice, Patrick Zircher and Greg Land. There's so much action and adventure in this collection. But what convinced me that I had found a winner was how the writer and artists made me nervous and concerned for the squirrel pet of one of the villains. If it had died at the hands of Blockbuster, I was going to be so pissed!

If a team of talent can make me care so much about a fake forest rat, then imagine how much they've made me care for Nightwing and his allies?

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.