I was WAY excited to get this; the return of Gail Simone and Ed Benes to Birds of Prey, and while the jury is still out, I have to admit I don’t think it lived up to the expectations that I had built up in my mind.

Cover image from Birds Of Prey #1

See, I don’t mean to say that it wasn’t a good issue, in fact it was just fine. The introduction of the Hawk and Dove characters adds a nice twist, and I am happy to see that Ms. Simone has picked up where she left off with Lady Blackhawk, (a character I think has a ton of potential, but is entirely under used,)  it is just when they came on the book during its last run, they totally stripped down the characters of Black Canary and Oracle, and got to the root of what these characters are, where as this issue is just another, “Let’s get the band back together,” (actually in the comic,) first issue.

I guess though that this is my own expectations not being met. Again, Ms. Simone has a better grasp on these characters, especially Huntress and Oracle, then any other writer out there, (and i hope as the series progresses, we can hope that the time is taken to really probe the Huntress character, I have always felt there was a TON of potential, yet very little execution with her,) and Mr. Benes still draws some of the sexiest woman around, and since his first go round with these characters, he has grown tremendously as an illustrator. His attention to backgrounds and detail, along with a beautiful color job by Nei Ruffino, makes this argueably the most stunning book Mr. Benes has every produced.

There is one thing that really bugged me about this book, I hated the lettering. The caption boxes for Black Canary are overly complicated, and frankly, if the reader ever notices the lettering, then the lettering is over done.

All and all, it was a solid first issue, I am oddly intrigued by Hawk and Dove, two characters that I have never cared for before, and it was good time issue (though I do want to know where Misfit is,) and, I am totally on board for the foreseeable future.