Hidden Oracle

Birds of Prey (Volume 2) #10
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Inaki Miranda

Cassandra Cain gets name dropped again as Tim asks why she doesn’t have access to Kord Tower. I don’t know that I am completely satisfied with the answer that she has too much going on now because well…we are never shown what the hell she has going on. I hope this wasn’t a throw away line and Gail or DC editors plan to show us what is going on with Cass soon enough. This was an otherwise fantastic issue that showed off how tough the Birds are and how it was a good plan to fake Oracle’s death. Loved the bit with Catwoman too!

Birds of Prey 8 and 9

Birds of Prey (Volume 2) #8
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Guillem March

Black Canary is in trouble and as always the Birds are in a terrible situation. That is one thing that is great about the Birds – they always seem to be in these situations where I have no idea how they are going to get out of them but they always succeed. That is what makes them great to read about. Huntress’s reaction to seeing Bruce was great too!

Birds of Prey (Volume 2) #9
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Inaki Miranda

I like these Inaki Miranda’s art. I know she or he is not staying on this title but DC should put him or her somewhere. Anyways, this was a good issue as Dinah proves too strong for Mortis and Calculator believes he has killed Oracle (But we all know he hasn’t.)

Kord Tower

Birds of Prey (Volume 2) #7
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Ardian Syaf

This was a great issue as we learn more about the new Birds base: Kord Tower – it is pretty damn awesome and apparently Oracle wants to fake her own death. Hmmm…how? Mortis has an interesting power for a supervillain and the Birds go to a strip club! Great stuff! I was sad to see Cass left off the list of people that have access to the tower – but I suppose we can chalk that up to her being in Hong Kong now it wasn’t needed.

A Good Friend

Birds of Prey (Volume 2) #6
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Alvin Lee and Adriana Melo

 

The Huntress shows just how good of a friend she is by deciding to fight Lady Shiva in the place of Dinah. This is pretty much suicide and I loved the moment where she turns to God – Helena has always been a strict Catholic and Simone really got her characterization well here (as she always does) and it was great to see Sin again and I am glad she is alive and well. Can’t wait to see what the next arc will be like!

Needs A Consistent Artist

Birds of Prey (Volume 2) #5
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Alvin Lee and Adriana Melo

 

Well this certianly got odd quickly. The art is all over the place and a confusing mess even without Benes. Can we just have once consistant artist on this book please? Anyways, Black Canary heads to Bangkok and is followed by Huntress and Lady Blackhawk but they soon discover that Black Canary is now wearing the White Canary costume and being called a mistress by a bunch of students??? What the hell is going on? Interesting and Gail’s writing is still top-notch but damn they need a new art team for this book. I love that Oracle is now working out of Kord Tower – a nice nod to her relationship with Ted Kord. I wonder if we will ever see Platinum Flats again though?

Sister In Silk

Birds of Prey (Volume 2) #4
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Ed Benes and Adriana Melo

Black Canary defeats White Canary using her sonic scream in a freaking awesome moment you won’t want to miss. I loved it! The intensity of this story arc was amazing. If only it had all been handled by an artist that drew backgrounds! Ugh! We find out who White Canary is and it is a big pay off for long time fans of the Birds. In fact, this whole story arc had really been a look back at Gail’s previous run on the book with Savant and Creole and Dinah’s training in Singapore and all that. Now that we know Lady Shiva is involved it can only get more crazy.

Penguin Party In My Pants

Birds of Prey (Volume 2) #3
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Ed Benes and Adriana Melo

 

Shit this is the most intense suspenseful edge-of-your seat comic DC is putting out right now. Every page was filled with revelations and shocking moments. Creole and Savant alive and working for the White Canary! The White Canary is somehow Sin! (I think) The Penguin is also working for the White Canary and financed her plans! Hawk is injured! The GCPD have a tank! It’s all so awesome, go read it! Cassandra Cain gets another mention and Dinah knows Cass wouldn’t say she would piss on corpses, loved that! Oh and I loved how Penguin hallucinates and declared a Penguin Party in his pants haha the only downside to this is Benes still won’t draw backgrounds ugh.

Birds of Prey: Wanted

Birds of Prey (Volume 2) #2
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Ed Benes and Adriana Melo

Um pretty much EVERYTHING goes to hell for the Birds of Prey in this issue. Black Canary is blamed for the death of the Iceland guy from last issue and is now a wanted criminal and the Birds ended up fighting the cops. The White Canary is pretty awesome whoever she is and seems to be behind this. I sure hope it is not Cassie (But I don’t think it is anyways). Creote and Savant are murdered. There goes another gay character. Come on Gail, you of all people are not who I would expect to be killing off the few gay characters in the DC Universe. That bothered me. Oracle decides it is time to go to war with whoever is behind all this and Black Canary’s secret identity is revealed to the world! I have a feeling this has something to do with Sin. Could Sin be the White Canary somehow? I don’t know. The only bad thing about this issue was the damn art. Benes couldn’t even finish the issue and he didn’t draw backgrounds for the pages he did run. They are in Gotham and we are supposed to believe their are no backgrounds!

The Birds Are Back In Town – And Maybe Cassandra Cain Too!

Birds of Prey (Volume 2) #1
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Ed Benes

 

Okay first of all let me get something out of the way, I am still really annoyed that no one is mentioning that Hawk – before he died and came back to life – was fucking Extant! The genocidal mass murderer why is he being allowed to act like a hero and no one is mentioning it! That better be explained soon. That being said, I fucking adored this issue! It is so great to have the Birds back and Simone really brought them back in style. She reintroduced them for new readers and made sure that old readers would enjoy all the references to their past. I did not realize how much I missed this team – they just work together and they need to be part of the DC Universe. But the greatest part of this issue, the one that makes me want to kiss Simone write on the lips – was the reveal at the end of the “White Canary”. An asian woman who Dinah guesses is either Lady Shiva or —- Cassandra Cain! Now I don’t think she is Cassie but I love that Dinah knows that if they were fighting  Cassie  – “There is a good chance neither of us will make it out of this alley tonight.” That shows that  Simone respects Cassandra Cain and this is the first respect we have seen from a writer since well – Frank Tieri on Outsiders. I am sooo happy right now.

Death in the DCU

Green Lantern (Volume 4) #43
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Doug Mahnke

If this issue doesn’t get you excited for Blackest Night the nothing will. This was an excellent issue detailing the history of the Black Hand, the murder of his family, and suicide and then his rise from the dead as the first Black Lantern and embodiment of the Black Lantern Corps. Mahnke’s are is as gorgeous as ever and I think he may be my favorite artist at DC for event books. I love the DC Universe and its continuity and it was so exciting to see Mahnke draw all the heroic deaths over the years. My only complaint is story-wise, why the fuck no mention that Kyle was basically the entire Green Lantern Corps for a decade! It’s just another example of DC favoring silver age old-fuck heroes. Oh and fuck Didio by the way and his stupid ass DC nation column about the Justice League. Am I being a little mean with this review? Sorry. Let’s go back to the positives, this was an amazing issue that brings us right into what will hopefully be the greatest event DC has had in a long time.

Booster Gold 2 – 12

Booster Gold (Volume 2) #2
Written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz
Art by Dan Jurgens

The second issue of this amazing series is just as good as the first. We see Booster Gold preventing Sinestro from meeting Guy Gardner way before he should and therefore cleaning up some other holes in the timeline. I love the interconnectedness of seemingly unrelated events in this series….it reminds me of the movie, Butterfly Effect, which I enjoyed a lot. One thing that confused me is they showed Dan Garett getting the scarab and becoming Blue Beetle in 1939 when I am pretty sure he is considered to debut in the Silver Age. Continuity error or mistake by me?

Booster Gold (Volume 2) #3
Written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz
Art by Dan Jurgens

Haha seeing Booster Gold drunk is worth the price tag alone. Westerns don’t interest me in the least bit, so I really didn’t care for this issue as much the last two but it was still good.

Booster Gold (Volume 2) #4
Written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz
Art by Dan Jurgens

Supernova is reavealed to be Booster’s Dad this issue – I do not know much about his Dad, but he sure is an asshole. I am excited for the next issue, but I know there is no way that they are going to save Barbara Gordon the fate of being paralyzed.

Booster Gold (Volume 2) #5
Written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz
Art by Dan Jurgens

This was a particular powerful issue dealing with the rules of Time Travel. So apparently Rip sent Booster back to save Barbara because he wanted to teach him a lesson. No matter how hard Booster tries Barbara Gordon will always be shot and paralyzed by the Joker. I like that because it is definitely one of those pivotal DCU moments that should never be undone.

Booster Gold (Volume 2) #6
Written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz
Art by Dan Jurgens

Hmmm I don’t know if I like the idea of Ted Kord being a Time Cop with Booster but we will see. I doubt that Ted is sticking around for very long…something fishy is going on here. It was fun to relive Countdown to Infinite Crisis….probably one of the most exciting times to be a DC reader.

Booster Gold (Volume 2) #0
Written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz
Art by Dan Jurgens

Crossing over with Zero Hour fourteen years after the crossover ended is just awesome and totally fits in with the time traveling aspect of this series. Granted, the crossover was brief, it was still pretty damn cool. I never read Zero Hour…maybe I should check it out sometime.

Booster Gold (Volume 2) #7
Written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz
Art by Dan Jurgens

I love how these stories are a real treat for long time DC fans yet are easily accessible by newbies (but unlike most bloggers, I could care less about accessibility….people should do their homework). Seeing Catherine Colbert and the London Embassy was really cool. I can’t wait for next issue.

Booster Gold (Volume 2) #8
Written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz
Art by Dan Jurgens

I had no idea that Pantha didn’t have an origin. I guess that this is Johns’s atonement for writing her death in Infinte Crisis. The Blue and the Gold together are a great combination. Can’t wait to see the JLI back too.

Booster Gold (Volume 2) #9
Written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz
Art by Dan Jurgens

Wow if Ted Kord hadn’t of died things would be really fucked up. I hope Booster is learning his lesson becaus

Booster Gold (Volume 2) #10
Written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz
Art by Dan Jurgens

So it was Mister Mind behind all of this – that is one crafty worm. Anyways, I am glad that Ted isn’t staying in the book….and he is making the right choice but it was very sad to see him say his last goodbyes to Booster. Oh and could the Black Beetle be Paco in the future?
Booster Gold (Volume 2) #1,000,000
Written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz
Art by Dan Jurgens

What a perfect way to cap off Johns and Katz’s run on this title. Booster gets his sister back, Batman finally gives Booster some respect, and things are looking up for Booster Gold. Gotta love the last page of this issue. Johns and Katz’s did a great run on this book and I look forward to Jurgen’s run.

Booster Gold (Volume 2) #11
Written by Chuck Dixon
Art by Dan Jurgens

While some of the time travel stuff in this issue could give one a head ache, it was a nice follow up to the Johns-Katz run and continues what they started. There are some continuity blips such as I am sure Booster has been to the batcave before in Infinite Crisis, but that doesn’t really matter too much. It was kind of shocking to see Alfred just blatantly shoot someone though.

Booster Gold (Volume 2) #12
Written by Chuck Dixon
Art by Dan Jurgens

This issue kinda confused me. I may have to read it again. As always though, the art is amazing and the dialogue is fantastic. I don’t know how I feel about going back to this period in Batman’s career since well, it’s been done a lot. Elongated Man’s surprise appearance should be fun though.