2018.003 Batgirl And The Birds Of Prey Vol 2: Source Code

I'm continuing to enjoy this book very much, but I've come upon a couple of realizations.  I don't know if the Bensons have ever written comics before.  This is my first experience with them.  I think they're going a decent job with the book, but I think the way they write, this book would be enjoyed more monthly.  I say that only because I feel like when they're telling a story that gets published over six months, reading it over six months makes it feel like it's going at the right speed.  Reading it in one fell swoop makes me feel like the story is rushed.  Six months may have passed in the real world, but in the story, maybe six days have passed.  Does that make sense?  I'd like to have seen this story as maybe the third arc of the book.  It feels like too much has happened too soon to me.

My only other gripe about this story is Huntress.  It feels like they don't know who she is.  She felt very empty.  Lacking personality.  Like, they could have had any character in that role and no one would have noticed a difference.  Again, I wonder if this is part of the issue I mentioned above.  They're trying to turn her from who she was in Grayson to who they want her to be here and it's too much, too quickly?  I don't know.

But don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the fuck out of this book.  I look forward to more.

Also, I'd be remiss not to mention the amazing variant covers collected at the back of the book by Yanick Paquette.  Amazing, amazing stuff.

Batgirl And The Birds Of Prey Vol 2: Source Code

Written by: Julie Benson, Shawna Benson

Illustrated by: Roge Antonio, Claire Roe, Breno Tamura, Yanick Paquette

DC Comics

077 Batgirl And The Birds Of Prey Vol 1: Who Is Oracle?

I loved this book.  Cover to cover.  I loved the story.  I loved the art.  I loved everything about it.  Rebirth Birds of Prey is so much better than New 52 Birds of Prey, I can't even tell you.  And I'm not quite sure, but reading this makes me think that New 52 Birds of Prey has been retconned out of existence.  It builds more on pre-Flashpoint BoP than anything else.  But it's not pre-Flashpoint.

Anyway, Batgirl and Black Canary are together again and they're trying to track down and figure out who usurped Batgirl's old Oracle identity.  It also brings into the mix The Huntress, fresh from her run in Grayson.  And not only is BoP building on the foundation laid down by the pre-Flashpoint BoP, the Huntress has her roots in the origin of the pre-Flashpoint Huntress.  It's a fun story to read, it's great watching the dynamic between all three main characters, and it's fucking awesome watching them burn up the streets on their motorcycles.  

I really, really, really, really can't recommend this book enough.  

Oh, and I forgot to mention this in my Justice League post, but Yannick Paquette has turned in some of the best covers of his career with this book.  He did the variant covers for JL, but the main covers for this book.  They're all amazingly beautiful, at least to me.

Batgirl And The Birds Of Prey Vol 1: Who Is Oracle?

Writer: Julie Benson, Shawna Benson

Artist: Claire Roe, Roge Antonio, Yannick Paquette

DC Comics

041 Batman: Night Of The Monster Men

The first official Batman Family crossover of the Rebirth era.  I thought this might have come too soon into Rebirth, but it was clearly planned out to happen when it did and didn't feel like it was shoehorned into the schedule at the last minute.

This crossover was set up (almost to the point of overkill) in the first Batman Rebirth trade.  Mentions were made to something going on throughout that story, which led right into this.  I love that the whole crossover took place throughout a very small period of time which kept the story moving quickly.  All the elements that have been laid down so far in Batman, Detective and Nightwing were not ignored and this whole thing felt very organic.  You don't always get that in these kinds of crossovers.  

Most importantly, though, this story is part of setting up something even bigger.  It ended with the death of Tim Drake, Red Robin.  This is sure to set into motion a lot of different stories.  It's certainly tied into the bigger picture of Rebirth as well.  I'm very anxious to see where this goes from here and how it's all going to unfold.

Batman: Night Of The Monster Men

Writer: Steve Orlando, Tom King, Tim Seeley, James Tynion IV

Artist: Riley Rossmo, Roge Antonio, Andy MacDonald

DC Comics

023 Grayson Vol 5: Spiral's End

Grayson.  The final volume of his series.  One of the better series DC has put out.  And probably my least favorite volume of the book.  It was a fine story, but it felt a little rushed to me.  I'm guessing that Rebirth was in the full planning stages and the book was put on the cancelled list, so things needed to be wrapped up and wrapped up quickly.  And that's what we got.  A big, kind of off-feeling wrap up.  Tim Seeley and Tom King were only involved in the first chapter of this book, so maybe that contributed to it feeling off?  I don't know.  I'm assuming they plotted the whole thing out, but only worked on the first part.  

The series ends with an Annual, written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, the same team who wrote the rest of the series.  The Annual felt like such a waste of time.  There was really no point of it.  It wrapped up loose ends that were quickly created so they could do an annual.  Whatever.

This volume was okay, but not quite up to snuff if you ask me.

Grayson Vol 5: Spiral's End

Writer: Tim Seeley, Tom King, Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly

Artist: Roge Antonio, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Geraldo Borges, Natasha Alterici, Christian Duce, Flaviano, Javier Fernandez

DC Comics