Birds of Prey #17 Review

Writer Duane Swierczynski packs a lot of plot into Birds of Prey #17, tying up a few loose ends from the previous issue while leaving the door open on others. Some plot threads are rushed through for the sake of others, with Swierczynski opting to focus on the web of secrets the team is busy spinning about itself. Black Canary and Starling in particular are hiding things from the rest and one can sense that their house of lies is precariously close to collapsing on them all.

The team’s newest member, Strix, the former Talon, is proving herself to be one of the more interesting additions to the lineup. While the strong, silent, eerily perceptive type has been done before -- there are echoes of early Cassandra Cain to the character -- it's particularly resonant in an issue like this one, where people talk a lot but say very little. Her silent stoicism is a good balance to the fiery personalities of her teammates. The other new addition, Condor, is still a bit of a question mark and it's not clear what exactly he adds to the mix. Ostensibly, he's meant to provide comic relief and perhaps a touch of testosterone but he’s not great at the former and the latter feels a bit stale. It's been done before in earlier iterations of Birds -- and better, at that.

Romano Molenaar’s pencils are consistent even if the women of Birds of Prey all seem to share the same face. The action sequences are particularly effective and Vicent Cifuentes inks and Chris Sotomayor's colors are almost cinematic in their sophistication. All in all, it's a solid issue that drives home the idea that it's hard to build a house without a solid foundation and impossible to build a team when everyone is busy hiding their secrets from one another.

Melissa Grey is a lover of all things cats, comics, and outer space. She can be found on MyIGN at MelissaGrey or lurking on Twitter @meligrey.

Source : ign[dot]com