Review: Birds of Prey Vol. 1- Trouble in Mind

Quick Summary

Pros: The characters here are wonderfully unique and consistently entertaining. Each character brings a secret to the table that will leave readers wanting to discover more. The collection’s plotline gets better as more mystery is introduced.

Cons: The Birds of Prey’s formation is rather generic. The end of the collection features poor writing and some major inconsistencies. The artwork is average at best.

Overall: The first volume in this series in fun and compelling in some places but rough and boring in others. Its main draw comes from a well written cast of characters and a narrative that gets interesting about halfway through. However, the first half is overwhelmingly average and the end has a number of problems. Give this collection a chance if you are looking for some fun thrills from some well written characters.

Story

Birds of Prey Vol. 1: Trouble in Mind, by Duane Swierczynski, provides readers with a few reasons to stick with this new series but struggles a bit in doing so. The bulk of the positives come from the book’s ability to combine fun action with some tantalizing mystery. This is mainly done through the characters themselves, who all bring a decent level of charm and interest to the table. However, the actually storyline is not that compelling and the writing gets pretty sloppy towards the end. This turns the book into something that has potential but, right now, fails to be anything greater than average.

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The course of the book follows the rough assembly of the titular Birds of Prey. This plays out in a way that is neither unique nor overly compelling. Black Canary manages to convince some members to join the team with ease, while others take a little more convincing. Any tension over membership feels feigned though since the story plays out exactly as readers would expect. This means that, eventually, everyone is brought aboard and the script has few deviations from a standard team’s formation.

The positives though, come from the members of the team themselves. Swierczynski is able to give each character a distinct personality that allows them to shine in their own unique way. Starling is chaotic and fun, Katana is mysterious, Poison Ivy is a delightfully evil, Batgirl is noble, and Black Canary is a born leader. Every character brings something to the table and it is easy to connect with all of them.

Apart from being entertaining to watch, the characters also each bring a compelling level of mystery to the story. Each member of the team harbors secrets that are either hinted at or downright addressed, at some point in the volume. These secrets are then balanced in a way where just enough is revealed to get readers interested but not enough to tell anything truly significant. This helps readers to further develop a connection with the characters and gives everyone a reason to come back for the second volume.

Mystery is also one of the major positives in the otherwise generic storyline. The main villain is enigmatic and relies on altering memories and controlling minds in order to accomplish his goals. This leads to a narrative that jumps around as characters struggle to decipher missing blocks in their memory. Often times, narrative jumps like these only manage to confuse readers, but the way they are handled here is straightforward enough to provide mystery without overly complicating the story.

The mystery here would be enough to raise this volume from average to above average quality, if the collection’s finale wasn’t written so poorly. At the end of this book, characters’ actions and morals are completely different than they were at the beginning. While the Birds of Prey killed without hesitation near the start, Black Canary is suddenly adamant that they do not kill anyone. In addition, characters become hostile over memory gaps despite being well aware that the main villain has the ability to alter memory. Inconsistencies like these would be less noticeable over the course of a longer series but are major negatives when packed into a single volume.

(spoilers end here)

Art

Like the beginning of the collection’s story, the artwork seen here fails to really rise above average at any point in time. Artist Jesus Saiz does well in complimenting the fun action with bright pages and expressive movements. However, detail is typically lacking and there were few moments that really stood out as impressive or unique. This is noticeable in panels where characters attempt to express more extreme emotions, which just end up coming across as strained or simply odd. Overall, this isn’t a terrible looking book but it also isn’t good either.

Continuity

Birds of Prey Vol. 1: Trouble in Mind starts the Birds of Prey New 52 series. This means that this is the first volume in a brand new continuity, so there are not many references to previous books or the Birds of Prey’s history.

The story here continues in Birds of Prey Vol. 2: Your Kiss Might Kill (Review).

• Black Canary mentions that Batgirl has not always been operating as Batgirl. She stopped for a while because of what happened in Batman: The Killing Joke.
• Batgirl started crimefighting again in Batgirl Vol. 1: The Darkest Reflection (Review).