Batgirl and the Birds of Prey: Rebirth #1

   As a fan of the Birds of Prey, I'm glad to see the team making a comeback, this time with Batgirl headlining.

   Of course, most of Barbara Gordon's involvement with that team was in a supporting role as the computer wizard Oracle, back when she was partially paralyzed (she, uh, got better).

   This Rebirth issue brings back Black Canary (who's busy these days, as she also guest stars in Green Arrow) and introduces a new Huntress (well, she's new to me).

   This version of the character is different from the Earth-2 version - Helena Wayne, who crossed over with Power Girl and co-starred in the most recent version of World's Finest.

   The new one is very much a throwback to the original version of the character - a tough as nails vigilante.

   The question is: is this version a hero?

   The team is gathered by a new menace with a familiar name and a new mystery - just who is playing the part of Oracle now?

   So, lots of questions to be answered as the new series starts up. It's a promising (if somewhat dark) start for the new series.

Grade: B+

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Black Canary #1

   Having already grumped about the new Justice Society comic, now I get to beef about the new title starring one of that team's former members - the Black Canary.

   Longtime comic fans know that, in this business, nothing succeeds like excess - and if a new kind of a series succeeds, then the comics company will start cranking out copies.

   So what we're seeing here is the "Batgirl-ization" of Black Canary.

   When the "New 52" launched, a new Batgirl series was part of it - but it never really took off with the readers. So back in October, that series was rebooted - and the character within was barely recognizable as Barbara Gordon.

   The characters were all young and hip, hanging around with college-age students, living a fast life of nightclubs, no money and offbeat, ground-level villains.

   Now they're giving Black Canary (who appeared in several recent Batgirl stories) the same treatment. She's now the gritty and determined lead singer for a band named Black Canary. She has no money, so she needs to succeed with the band - but she keeps getting involved with fights, and that's hurting the band's reputation.

    I think every comics character can use the occasional change-up to keep things fresh and interesting - but you have to keep some connection to the character's past.

   You see none of that here. In personality, look and behavior, this fighting songstress has nothing to do with the beautiful, determined, confident Black Canary who's been fighting the bad guys since the Golden Age.

   The approach worked (mostly) with Batgirl, but I'm afraid lightning isn't striking twice for me. Perhaps this series will draw in female readers - I'm all for that - but it definitely isn't aimed at me.

   I'd rather read about Dinah Lance.

Grade: B-

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Classic Comics - Brave and the Bold #61

In Wednesday's review I talked about Carmine Infantino being one of my all-time favorite DC artists in the 1960s. I should add that he had lots of serious competition, including Gil Kane, Curt Swan, Nick Cardy, Joe Kubert, Russ Heath and Neal Adams - among others.

But if you had a gun on me and forced me to name the single DC artist from the '60s whose work I enjoyed the most, I'd have to admit that my favorite was... Murphy Anderson.

His solo artwork is actually somewhat rare, since he was most often used as an inker (and an excellent one, at that) - but he also did loads of covers, especially for the Justice League of America (almost always uncredited), he did outstanding work on the new adventures of Hawkman and many other titles, but I suspect some of his favorite jobs were working on the Justice Society of America heroes.

In the mid-1960s he revived the Spectre and tackled four (I think) one-shot team-up appearances by heroes such as Dr. Fate and Hourman, and he did the art for two issues of The Brave and the Bold featuring Starman and Black Canary.

What a labor of love these issues are! Anderson's work is lush, showing the strong influences of the great Hal Foster and Alex Raymond and doing both masters proud. His characters are lively and animated, his Starman is the heroic ideal, and his Black Canary beautiful and capable, whether in a bare knuckles brawl with invisible henchmen or racing to rescue her teammate.

The story is by the great Gardner Fox, and it's a fun bit of business, as a wave of mysterious crimes is tracked to a most surprising source - the Black Canary!

Throw in a classic villain with The Mist, and it's a great "done-in-one" issue by Fox and Anderson.

It's mostly memorable for the art and the characters, but it was a rare chance for Starman to shine (no pun intended).

Sadly, the JSA-based issues must not have been a big success, because they quickly went back to only appearing in their summer crossover with the JLA and occasional guest spots in Green Lantern and the Flash - but what gems these issues are!

Grade: A

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