Birds of Prey (2003) #1: Batgirl/Catwoman

Birds of Prey (2003)

by John Francis Moore, Darick Robertson (Illustrator), Jimmy Palmiotti (Illustrator)

While investigating the deaths of various women in Gotham City, Batgirl becomes involved with Catwoman. Together, they discover that they are the work of supposed philanthropist Ryder Burnham and they team up to take him down. One of his near-victims, Val Lewton, idolises Catwoman and is angered that Catwoman chose to work with Batgirl rather than her.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Batman

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

John Francis Moore is comic book writer known for stints as writer on such Marvel comics series as X-Force, X-Factor, Doom 2099 and X-Men 2099. He also wrote Elseworld's Finest and co-wrote Batman/Houdini: The Devil's Workshop, with Howard Chaykin, for DC's Elseworlds series, and was the writer for Howard Chaykin's American Flagg! series. He wrote some episodes of The Flash and Freakazoid television series.

Reviews

[Andrew Shapter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine story, but 48 pages was far too few to do it justice. We know the two lead characters but to really understand Valerie and the "bad guys", we needed more time with them , not just cursory generic panels.
Looking forward to the second part nonetheless...

[John Yelverton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was fun, but it was a far cry from the standard of excellence that I've come to expect from "The Birds of Prey".

[Nico D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another team-up featuring Barbara Gordon and Selina Kyle. I live for those.

On the short side, but with less problematic elements than the chronologically first team-up featured in Batman Confidential: The Bat and the Cat. Babs and Selina are definitely familiar with each other, and they fall into an tenuous alliance fairly easily. I love the way these two women contrast one another, and their relationship is this close to friendly which is elevated by some fun banter.

I had no issues with the plotting or pacing, with the exception of wondering what could have been if the story had been twice as long and had a little more room for interpersonal development between our leads. It, and the ending which is clearly setting up sequel events, are minor nitpicks which do not harm the overall experience much.