Review: ‘Birds of Prey’ #1 has a Harley Quinn Problem

Kelly Thompson makes her highly-anticipated DC Universe debut and reunites with her Hawkeye creative team of Leo Romero on art and Jordie Bellaire on colors to kick off a new series with this week’s BIRDS OF PREY #1.

TL;DR

The issue focuses on Dinah Lance/Black Canary rounding up some of the most fearsome fighters in the DC Universe to help save her sister, Sin, from an ominous fate in Themyscira. She convinces Cassandra Cain, Big Bard, Zealot, and (unfortunately) Harley Quinn to join the team and the fivesome come together to learn about their mission.

REVIEW

If I went into this book without knowing the name of it, and thus the history of the team known as Birds of Prey, I probably would have liked this a lot better. And if Harley Quinn wasn’t on the roster, I might have been able to enjoy the other characters. Unfortunately, I couldn’t move past the fact that this didn’t feel anything like a Birds of Prey book and Harley Quinn sucked up all the oxygen in the room whenever she was present and left nothing for anyone else.

I didn’t understand Dinah’s reasons for why Barbara Gordon couldn’t know about what she was up to in forming this new team. Was it Kelly Thompson’s way of letting reads know to not expect Oracle to show up in the series? Or is it the basis of a future plot point? At least Babs gets mentioned. We only see Huntress, another iconic Birds of Prey staple and someone with a connection to Sin, in a panel where her name is crossed off as Dinah reviews her list of potential teammates. Why did Dinah think she wasn’t the right choice? I understand the desire to offer a fresh team roster, but it was an odd choice to include past members in such a forced manner, especially since Cassandra and Big Barda have previously served on the team and the only real net new members are Zealot and Harley.

That leads me to my biggest complaint about the issue, which actually takes shape in two ways. The first is the way Dinah is “convinced” by Cassandra to consider Harley for the team. Are we really supposed to believe Harley could take Cassandra in a fight? And are we really supposed to believe Dinah would trust Harley with her own sister’s fate because of one encounter Cassandra had? Again, this choice felt forced. The second complaint about Harley is probably the most obvious one — once she showed up this basically could have been called Harley Quinn & the Birds of Prey. It was all Harley, all the time. And the bad kind of Harley. They Harley that has no self-reflection or filter. DC is using Harley as much as they can across various media and her inclusion here felt like a means of getting sales for this book more than anything else.

Aside from these team construction complaints, I actually thought Thompson writing showed a ton of promise, save for Harley. Big Barda constantly using some version of “Small Bat/Little Bat” to address Cassandra? Hilarious! Zealot being completely nonchalant about everything? Perfect! I wanted more of these characters and so much less of Harley.

As expected, Leo Romero’s art is gorgeous. Every action sequence is so fluid and natural that you feel like you’re watching pages in motion. His designs for each of the characters is distinct and he’s able to capture the more dramatic moments well with descriptive facial expressions. It’s going to take some time getting used to the color palette used by Bellaire for the main story. It has an overexposed approach to it, or what you’d expect a comic book from the 70s or 80s to look like now after decades in a longbox. There were moments it worked and then moments it felt really jarring. However, I LOVED the color palette for the flashback scene when Cassandra talks about her fight with Harley. The pinks, purples, and dark yellows look so good together and I’d love to see an entire Cassandra story in that look.

FINAL VERDICT

I’ve been so excited for this series when it was announced months ago. Then Harley Quinn was revealed as part of the roster and my worries crept up and, unfortunately, those became realized now that we’ve seen the debut issue. I would never bet against Kelly Thompson though, so if she can tone down the use of Harley Quinn and focus on the rest of the team that’s actually present, I will be right back anxiously awaiting this series every issue.

Rating: 5/10