Birds of Prey vol. 1: Megadeath

Sin is in danger.  No, not the concept of sin, and definitely not the Marvel Comics character with that name.  This is Cynthia “Sin” Lance, sister to Dinah “Black Canary” Lance we’re talking about.  She’s been kidnapped by the Amazons for reasons unknown and Dinah is going to have to assemble a team to get her back.  Which should be no problem for someone who has Barbara “Batgirl” Gordon on speed dial, right?  Well, it turns out that Babs is the one person Dinah can’t get involved with here.  Which means that she’s going to have to get creative with who she brings on this totally-not-a-suicide-run mission…

As was the case with “Flash,” “Birds of Prey” is a series that has been around the DCU multiple times, and the reason I’m starting with this volume is because of its writer:  Kelly Thompson.  She brings a lot more of her winningly irreverent voice to this project than she did for “Captain Marvel” (and also compared to Matthew Rosenberg’s hugely disappointing “WildC.A.T.s” if we’re comparing “winning irreverence”) and gives us a team that’s chaotic enough to be fun while also seeming like it can still function.  Leonardo Romero also gives its many fight scenes a great sense of style, making them flow in a way you don’t normally see in mainstream superhero comics.

I do wish that a better explanation was given regarding this volume’s big bad, Megaera, and while I like this volume’s team I got the impression at the end that it was all setup for the real story Thompson wants to tell here.  Those are minor quibbles compared to my biggest issue with this volume:  Its coloring.  It’s drab in a way that dampens the excitement I should be feeling for seeing these characters in this story.  Where you’d expect to see the colors pop over Romero’s art, they come off feeling really bland.  I don’t know why this is the case, especially coming from Jordie Bellaire who is one of the best colorists in the business.  Whatever the case is, let’s hope vol. 2 gets the coloring job it deserves to make this series really sing.