by Matt Sernaker, Managing Editor

The Birds of Prey are back in action! The Dawn of DC continues to impress as Dinah Lance gathers a new team for a very personal mission. Who will come to her aid when family is in trouble? You’ll find out a lot more about this surprising gathering of colorful characters when Birds of Prey #1 releases this week from DC!

Creative Team
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Leonardo Romero
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Clayton Cowles

When her sister Sin is in trouble, Dinah Lance will put everything on the line to save her. A rather diverse team must be gathered for this new cryptic mission, and it will take all of their unique skills in order for Black Canary’s plan to be a success. With Cassandra Cain, Big Barda, Zealot, and Harley Quinn on her side, their target is sure to be in deep trouble. 

The first chapter in this new series features the DC debut of Kelly Thompson, coming off of her recent run on Captain Marvel. Thompson seamlessly dives into the DC Universe, displaying a clear and clever set of characterizations for each of the BoP. As this was a “gather the team” type of chapter, we got to experience a bit of Dinah’s gravitas and confidence. The voices for each of the iconic characters came through with ease, demonstrating Thompson’s clear understanding of their respective strengths and personalities. The character dynamics proved to be my favorite part of the issue, as I never would have thought that a Batgirl and Big Barda combination would work so well. 

Leonardo Romero and Jordie Bellaire created one of the most engaging art styles that I have seen from a DC release. The pulp-comics and retro influences along with some Batman ’66 and Batman: The Animated Series vibes allowed for visuals that are absolutely bursting from the page. You will want to go back and examine every single panel again and again, because the details and designs are insane (in the best possible way). The splash page of Canary and Batgirl fighting the League of Assassins is a moment of pure joy, and the same goes for Harley and Batgirl’s first interaction. Any single panel or page from this book is worthy of framing and placing on your wall. The lettering from Clayton Cowles might be some of his best work yet, as the action packed book truly showcased his talents to perfection. If you are looking for a point of comparison for this series, I would say that it is in the same vein as the current run of Nightwing (and I say that with the highest compliments).

In a nutshell: Birds of Prey is good. Like grinning from ear to ear kind of good. Like tell all of your friends to go buy this book kind of good. I have never wanted to own pages from a comic as much as I do with this. This issue is a bold new take on the characters and I am planning to go pre-order the next several issues once I finish writing this review. We are only one issue in, and without any hesitation I can say that DC’s Birds of Prey has Eisner Award potential.

Rating:
ComicsOnline gives Birds of Prey #1 – 5 out of 5 Small Bats. 

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