Art by: Javier Pina, David Lopez
Colors by: Jordie Bellaire
Letters by: Clayton Cowles
Cover art by: Leonardo Romero, Jordie Bellaire
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: April 2, 2024
Birds Of Prey #8 completes Vixen's fashion show plan just in time for a swarm of symbiotic monsters to attack the Birds of Prey. Oh, and Big Barda gets naked for some reason.
Is Birds Of Prey #8 Good?
Yeah, the issue as a whole is as confused, chaotic, nonsensical, and messy as the description above implies. In a very bad impression of Marvel's Models Inc., Kelly Thompson took this title from uneven to unreadable in the blink of an eye.
When last we left the Birds of Prey (BoP), the gal pals sought the help of Vixen to find out who or what was manipulating Time to kill Barbara Gordon because Meridian's (Maps from the future) tech is somehow tied to the Green while the imperceptible adversary's tech is tied to the Red... or something. To get to the bottom of this situation, Vixen created a plan where the BoP would go undercover as participants in a swimsuit/lingerie fashion show for some inexplicable reason.
Now, the show proceeds as planned. Barbara monitors a strange energy reading she can't pin down during the show when suddenly, the male models collectively referred to as "the beefcake" leap to the attack under some form of mind control... maybe. Barda tears off her bikini because she thinks it has something to do with mind control. Vixen tears off the banana hammock of one "the beefcake," and the fabric oozes into the form of a symbiote-type monster. Chaos ensues.
Eventually, Black Canary blows away the gooey demons just before Batgirl (Barbara) shows up. With high fives all around, and the playful promise of where to go for Lunch, an energy portal opens in the middle of the room and sucks Barabara in. The rest of the BoP follows.
What's great about Birds Of Prey #8? Pina and Lopez's art is an improvement over Romero's, which is a relief since this issue is fairly action-heavy, and Romero's style doesn't lend itself to high-energy movement.
What's not so great about Birds Of Prey #8? The entire plot, if you could even call it that, is a series of disconnected developments that don't make sense or fit together in any coherent way. In a brief bit of self-awareness, even the BoP admits nothing makes sense. If Thompson's goal was to create a story that's nothing but confused noise, mission accomplished. However, confusing noise is the exact opposite of well-written, entertaining storytelling.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
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Bits and Pieces:
Birds Of Prey #8 is a confused, chaotic mess of a comic from beginning to end. Even the Birds Of Prey don't know what they're doing, why they're in this situation, or what's happening. I predicted the BoP was not in capable hands, and unfortunately, that prediction has come true.
3/10
