Leap Before You Look: Reviewing ‘Birds Of Prey’ #9

A friend will watch you vanish in a mysterious portal. Best friends will make the dangerous leap right behind you. No one can say that the Birds of Prey are not best friends.

Trap or not, the hunt for the missing Oracle begins with Birds of Prey #9. Dive into a dark new realm alongside Kelly Thompson, Jonathan Case, Gavin Guidry, Jordie Bellaire, and Clayton Cowles.

While this series is telling a long-form story — this mystery about something or someone gunning for Oracle — the amount of variety in these first nine issues sure is something. At the heart of the story is the relationship between Canary and Oracle, as well as those relationships through the rest of the assembled birds. Around that though, Kelly has allowed the series to deal with other realm markets, action versus Amazons, ancient evils, clothes that cause robberies, beefcake lingerie modeling shows, and now a dark nightmare fantasy dimension.

Despite it all feeling so different, the character heart allows everything to connect together solidly. Thompson just is a great writer. Able to weave together plot and character development like no one’s business, allowing the audience to feel and thrive or worry right alongside the characters. Birds Of Prey as a concept has a particular flavor that many are expecting to receive, for better or worse. Suffice it to say, Thompson delivers that feeling in her own unique way rife with her particular energy.

This is truly just a delight of a book to jump into month after month.

Dual artists are not an uncommon thing these days, with books having rough schedules or other uncontrollable world issues. Sometimes though it works out in a really great story related way, such as this book. Having a story taking place in two different dimensions qualifies for double artists, with Case and Guidry delivering.

Their styles are so different in many respects, which is just what you need in this case. I first encountered Case’s work over on the recent Batgirls series. Then I noted that his style is very much one that has a very classic energy to it while very much feeling of the modern age. Which is great, because that’s something I’ve been able to say about this series as a whole since it began, with the work of Leonardo Romero and Bellaire.

Here the work has a very smooth sort of nature to it, with a pinch of rough energy. Taking place in a realm that is very black and dark means lots of shadows and less lighting on the characters. Case leans into that ominous feeling, using the varied paneling style to keep the action and story moving at a great pace. Plenty of solid details and depth, giving the space an adequate sense of scale and life. With each character’s facial and body language telling so much.

On the other side, Guidry has a bit more than a pinch of sharp roughness to his work. Tapping into an almost 3D like energy, as if looking at 3D artwork without the glasses. A kind of doubling up effect with a bit of blurriness that creates a fun effect on the art. Especially since we’re following around the almost glitchy like Meridian in the real world.

Characters have good presence and weight on the page, Zealot’s facial expressions striking terror in the heart. Just the page with Meridian, Zealot, and Grifter is so great because the paneling choices really make the overall joke being played out across the page hit harder. They’d work if done through a couple of wider more crowded panels, but the way Guidry chooses to bring it to life is way better.

What connects them are the still great colors of Bellaire, but really it only connects them a small bit. That’s because she approaches each style of artwork so differently. As noted, those main team pages are in a very dark realm so a lot of the color is not there outside of blacks and grays, tons of ominous tonal choices working with those shadowy colors. We get pops here or there from the fake Batgirl/Oracle and a hilarious appearance by Megaera. All the colors feel heavy and muted, fitting of a nightmare realm.

On Guidry’s pages though things are more like they have been before. Very heavily neon inspired, splashes of very real and very out there colors swirling around the page. They play into that aforementioned blurry 3D effect, giving the pages even more depth along the way.

Lettering is such a fun aspect on comics, and Cowles always delivers. Giving different characters their own styles to really maximize their voices and the style or personality behind them. Dropping in ways to really highlight or emphasize particular beats, while setting a very neutral tone in other spaces so we feel the difference. Even just the way that fake Barbara’s bubbles change from standard affairs to very jagged ones to showcase the shift from ‘good’ to evil, as we watch the character morph before our eyes.

Birds Of Prey #9 is now available from DC Comics.