Birds of Prey #4 - Comic Review

 

The start of this new series of Birds of Prey promised readers that a new, deadlier team was needed for the mission Black Canary was going on. It's the kind of promise I'm sure comic readers are used to hearing, as each new creative boasts that their new villain or their story is going to be the biggest and baddest, or the most earth shattering. And a lot of the time this can fall flat, as the hype fails to deliver. But this issue really does demonstrate that this story is more than delivering on promises, as the birds go up against one of the toughest foes in the DC Universe, Wonder Woman.

With Wonder Woman having been treated as something like a spectre in the last issue, a threat that the team were trying to avoid. This issue, however, has Wonder Woman front and centre as the group have to try and survive not only an island full of amazons, but one of the most powerful people on Earth. 

The issue opens with Zealot clashing with the princess, before Diana flies off, leaving Zannah to fight a group of Amazons; testing her vow that she would not take an Amazonian life. As Diana pursues Dinah, Harley, and Sin, Barda comes into the fray, giving us a brutal smack down battle between the New God and the Amazonian princess. You can really feel the power of the two characters here, and their blows feel solid and destructive in ways that other characters in the book are just unable to do.

After Diana manages to subdue Barda she comes up against Cassandra, who has been lying in wait, preparing to take her on. This fight uses some of the old 'Batman could win if he had prep time' type arguments, as Cassandra uses uses traps and gadgets that she's scattered around the woods to try and slow Wonder Woman down. Smoke bombs, nets, and explosives do little to stop Diana, however, who manages to take Batgirl down in one punch. It does feel a little unfair, putting Cass up against someone so powerful, yet despite losing the fight she lasts a decent amount of time, and does better than probably any other regular person could against Diana.

Knocking Cassandra out seems to enrage Barda, who likes the 'little bat', and she and Diana clash again, in a fight that sees Diana use the lasso on the New God. Barda reveals the reason why they're there, and puts some doubt into Wonder Woman. Once the Birds are all captured, Diana begins to look into the reason that they were there, sure that the Birds believe that they were doing the right thing in breaking into Themyscira. This leads her and the Amazons to discover that Megaera, an powerful entity, has infiltrated the island. As the Amazons fall to the creature, including Wonder Woman, the freshly escaped Birds of Prey ready themselves to take it on.

This is easily the best issue of the series so far. The book is filled with action, and really well done action, the story advances in cool new ways, and the final moments set up nicely for an even bigger, wilder finale. I have to be honest, I liked the first issue, and found that the book slowed down a little come the second one, and was a bit unsure if I liked it or not. But the issue three and this issue have made me fall in love with this series. I really want to see more of this team, even Harley who isn't always gone that well. I honestly found everything Harley said this issue to be funny, and like how Dinah is warming to her.

The way that relationships have been building between the characters has been really good, and we're really seeing it come through in strong ways as they're having to fight together against the Amazons. The mismatched, kind of unusual group from the first issue feels like a fully fledged team now, and I want to see them hanging out as much as I want to see them charging into battle again. I don't know if the series has been renewed after issue six, but I really hope it has as this is a fantastically fun time.

Leonardo Romero does the art on the issue, with Jordie Bellaire on colours, and I think this might be the best in the series. The moments of action are wonderfully executed, and there are times where the fighting feels quick and precise, and others where it's brutal and all about the power. The art manages to illustrate the different styles of combat the team has, and there are some really fantastically designed moments, like Barda hammering Diana with dozens of punches, and smashing her over her knee like she's Bane breaking Batman, or when Diana takes her out with a single punch, the shock waves of the hit altering the shape of the panels. This book feels the closest to the big scale destructive fighting from something like Dragon Ball Z I think I've ever seen executed in a DC book.

I hope that we get more like this as we go into the final part of the arc, and with it looking like the Birds are Themyscira's best hope of surviving things seem set for a brutal, over-the-top action finale.

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