From Themiscyra With Love: Reviewing ‘Birds Of Prey’ #3

Nowhere in the hero handbook is there a chapter on riding inside an ancient shark. No one told Harley Quinn that. It’s a plan that just might be crazy enough to work.

Birds Of Prey #3 moves Black Canary one step closer to their overall goal but confronts them with their nightmare scenario. Wonder Woman comes a calling in this stellar issue from Kelly Thompson, Leonardo Romero, Jordie Bellaire, and Clayton Cowles.

It will be said time and time again, till it cannot be said anymore: I love this series.

One of the biggest bludgeons that corporations are using against us these days is nostalgia. Repackaging things that once made us happy, warm, or comfortable but in aggressive often lesser and definitely more expensive ways. Creating this idealized version of the past while gaining more of our eager funds as we chase something that can’t be found and often never could. Right now, you’re probably wondering where I’m going with this whole seeming tangent.

Where I’m going is pointing at how to bridge the past and the present in the best way possible. Of course, the example I’m using is this series.

Everything about Birds Of Prey is taking place in the here and now with all the modern comic book sensibilities. Yet, much of the focus and the overall feeling is something akin to the past. There is a classic style energy permeating every beat of this book without making it feel like a rehash of those past books. An opposing example would be the various published series that are ripped right from the moment of a past run, often from the same writer/artist.

Nothing wrong with those books on the surface, but they are very much about capitalizing on part of the comic audiences’ love for the past.

This creative team knows how to tap into that well without fulling diving into it. The artwork that Romero and Bellaire are presenting is the top example.

So much depth, detail, emotional energy, and a flowing kinetic energy almost fluid like in effect. Everything feels tangible, giving the world such a presence. Weight & power are radiating off the later pages when we get a fight (of sorts) between Green Arrow and Wonder Woman (poor Ollie). It keeps with a lot of the closer point of view paneling, as the panels shift and grow as needed. While not quite actually dipping into that pool, the artwork is very evocative of Ben Day dots or many art deco styles.

Playing off this is the very heightened color palette choices. They are very vibrant yet toned down, heavy on almost neon like qualities. It makes things pop and gives it all a very distinctive unique look when compared to almost every other book next to it on the shelves.

Together they create something that feels grounded as some expect a comic to be, but also well beyond our reality. Just the right amounts of detailed and exaggerated occupying the same space. It reminds that comic books are a very expressive wild medium, where anything is possible.

Thompson has all of the voices down so smoothly, and allows the varied personality types room to breathe but also clash. Nothing is smooth or a given here, which is refreshing. In this day and age, it’s hard to get stories of characters interacting for the first time or a prolonged period. It’s all been done over and over in many cases. So, when we get a series able to engage in this and let us float in the team dynamics it’s a real joy.

We’re three issues in, and the pacing is pretty darn great. We got a fun full gather the team issue, then a fetch quest for the adventure issue, and then the overall quest in this one. There is more to come in the next, but a ton was accomplished in these issues. It would have been easy to drag the whole plot out even slower, taking three issues to gather or whatever, but that’s not Thompson. Also, that would have robbed us of so much of the solid character stuff.

Much like the Harley note of my last review, I have something to point to this time. Likely many will be all pissy about Barda’s responses to how a fight between her and Wonder Woman would go. Most want that “masculine” instinct to claim that a person could beat anyone they fight. Barda isn’t that character, and really most of the characters in here are not. It’s refreshing to have a character be so honest about how they likely would not be able to beat a character who they know is stronger/better than they are.

There is no shame in knowing our limits, and Barda displays that.

While Thompson writes the voices, and strings the story together, those voices are given spectacular life by Cowles. As much as the drawn figures showcase emotion and personality, it’s all felt just as much in the letters. Each voice is distinct, audible, and powerful. With but a thought and a glance at the words, I’m able to fully flesh out what these characters sound like in my head. By following the bread crumbs that Cowles has laid out with his work.

Every bit of dialogue or caption moves around the page, flowing like the rest of the art. Serious as needed, but colorful and light to match the shifting tones. SFX that meet these same moment goals, adding to the tangibility of the world but also fun of comics.

Birds Of Prey #3 is now available from DC Comics.