Black Canary/Oracle: Birds of Prey #1
“One Man’s Hell”, 1996, written by Chuck Dixon, pencilled by Gary Frank, inked by John Dell, colored by Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh, lettered by Albert T. de Guzman, edited by Jordan B. Gorfinkel, cover by Gary Frank & John Dell
Talk about starting with a bang! Wonderfully sets up the entire premise of Birds of Prey milieu and unites our rather unlikely pair of heroines in a rather unlikely way. Black Canary — the undisputed senior superwoman of this duo — is pretty much hired by Oracle (formerly Batgirl) who proceeds to boss her around for the rest of the issue. As you might expect, Canary eventually gets a little sick of this and starts yelling back. This tension will come into play for the next several stories, and I hope the series will address this at least a little bit. No one — least of all me — is questioning Oracle’s abilities or expertise, but this IS a founding member of the JLA she’s hooked up with, and it isn’t as if Canary doesn’t know what she’s doing. A great story to start off a great partnership with the fabulous Gary Frank (who pencilled the first nine issues of Supergirl) giving the Birds a memorably mature and serious look. This issue features brief cameos by Bruce Wayne & Lucius Fox and brings in the character of Lynx, who first appeared in the Robin series, as one of the baddies Dinah has to defeat. Also, though this came to pass in the Green Arrow series and was supported by the storylines in the short-lived Black Canary monthly, it is firmly established that Dinah no longer cares about maintaining a secret identity.
Showcase 96 #3
“(no title)”, March 1996, written by Jordan B. Gorfinkel, layouts by Jennifer Graves, finishes by Stan Woch, colored by Dave Grafe, lettered by Ken Bruzenak, edited by Frank Pittarese, cover by Gary Frank & JLN
The Birds of Prey meet Lois Lane! Good story — another avenging-the-exploited plot which seems to work well for our heroines.
Black Canary/Oracle: Birds of Prey — Manhunt #1
“Where Revenge Delights”, September 1996, written by Chuck Dixon, pencilled by Matt Haley, inked by Wade von Grawbadger, colored by Gloria Vasquez, lettered by Phil Felix, edited by Jordan B. Gorfinkel, cover by Gary Frank & John Dell
Black Canary/Oracle: Birds of Prey — Manhunt #2
“Girl Crazy”, October 1996, written by Chuck Dixon, pencilled by Matt Haley, inked by Lowe & Wade von Grawbadger, colored by Gloria Vasquez, lettered by Phil Felix, edited by Jordan B. Gorfinkel, cover by Gary Frank & John Dell
Black Canary/Oracle: Birds of Prey — Manhunt #3
“The Man That Got Away”, November 1996, written by Chuck Dixon, pencilled by Matt Haley, inked by Cam Smith, colored by Gloria Vasquez, lettered by Phil Felix, edited by Jordan B. Gorfinkel, cover by Gary Frank & John Dell
Black Canary/Oracle: Birds of Prey — Manhunt #4
“Ladies’ Choice”, December 1996, written by Chuck Dixon, pencilled by Matt Haley, inked by Wade von Grawbadger with layouts by Sal Buscema, colored by Gloria Vasquez, lettered by Phil Felix, edited by Jordan B. Gorfinkel, cover by Gary Frank & John Dell
Terrific miniseries which also brings the Birds of Prey firmly into the Batman family by having them deal with the best of the Batman’s supporting women characters — Catwoman, Huntress, and Lady Shiva — as well as a truly repulsive super bad guy named Braun. The women characters all work remarkably well together and I especially hope we’ll see a rematch with Huntress (who is on the new JLA team with Oracle and who teamed up with Dinah in the last few issues of the Black Canary monthly — a fact which isn’t referred to in this mini) in the monthly series. Lots of martial arts fighting and at least for a few moments, we get a matchup between Lady Shiva and the Black Canary. Cool.