Birds of Prey, Vol. 6: The Battle Within

Birds of Prey (1999) (First Editions)

by Gail Simone, Ed Benes (Illustrator), Tom Derenick (Illustrator)

With their Gotham headquarters destroyed, Black Canary, Oracle, Huntress, and Lady Blackhawk travel to Metropolis and beyond, searching for metahuman vigilantes who have gone too far in their search for justice.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Fiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2006

About the author

Gail Simone is a comic book writer well-known for her work on Birds of Prey (DC), Wonder Woman (DC), and Deadpool (Marvel), among others, and has also written humorous and critical commentary on comics and the comics industry such as the original "Women in Refrigerators" website and a regular column called "You'll All Be Sorry".

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

"We going downtown in the middle of the night . . . we laughin' and I'm jokin' and feelin' alright . . . Oh I'm bad, I'm nationwide . . . Yes I'm bad, I'm nationwide" -- ZZ Top

Simone - does she ever run out of ideas? - and crew serve up a super-sized Birds nest with a quartet of stories comprising The Battle Within. This time the kick-ass 'BoP' are just like a regular travelin' band, thanks to the always-welcome and occasionally shrewd Lady Blackhawk at the controls of their jet. After jaunts to Ohio (monitoring a troubled teenage girl with burgeoning superpowers), Kansas (a local boogeyman of sorts is causing deadly problems), and then back to Gotham City (for the usual street-level action/drama, involving a Jekyll & Hyde-type lady) the volume settles into its extensive main story, involving a dangerous Singapore crime family and their narcotics trafficking.

Even with the dialogue-heavy stretches it never gets boring and the pacing is pretty much efficient. There are two instances in the climax where friends band together to provide assistance - one was a fight scene, the other a delicate surgery - and the contrasting scenes made for an effective ending.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lady Blackhawk joins the team at the start of a new arc and new direction for the book. The Birds of Prey are taking their show on the road. Barbara is apparently traumatized from the events of War Games and doesn't want to come back to Gotham. So the Birds of Prey team up with Lady Blackhawk to fly around the world and right wrongs. In this opening arc they go after three vigilantes who are killing people, Black Alice (This is her first appearance BTW.), Harvest, and Thorn.

Huntress takes off to do her own thing with the Gotham mob while the rest of the team along with Wildcat go undercover as drug dealers in Singapore. They are trying to bring down the suppliers to Gotham. Meanwhile, Barbara has something dangerous left inside by Braniac growing inside of her. Everything's done well and the art's good.

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I'm starting to figure out what I love and dislike about Gail Simone's Birds of prey. Luckily, this volume hits more positives than the last two.

This hefty volume has a few different stories. From going on a road trip to stop some evil creature/woman from killing people. Another about a girl who can summon the powers of superheroes like Shazam and so on. Then we have one where Huntress breaks away from the team, but this time maybe for good? A story of Babs dealing with the aftermath of the Braniac invasion. Another of Diana dealing with her past and teaming up with Catman (He's awesome by the way). So a lot in this volume is going on.

Good: The art I've warmed up to a lot. I guess the sexy shots and such just kind of flow in. Least the fights look pretty great. I also really love the girls when they are being friends/family and kind of more down to earth. It flows so easy. Diana character growth is amazing and really well done, while Huntress and Babs grow they aren't as interesting but still enjoyable. The ending seems really interesting to where this goes next.

Bad: The main issue I'm having with this is Gail's needlessly dialogue heavy fight scenes. Don't get me wrong, they can work, and Gail has a magical talent for dialogue between characters when not fighting. It works so well and I love the emotional bits. But the fighting talkative bits are so overdone and honestly get in the way of the fights. Also, some stories feel to disconnected and almost like a weekly episode.

Overall a very solid volume. Liked it more than the last two. While not AS good as volume 3, it still up there. A 4 out of 5.

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Birds of Prey: The Battle Within collects the next ten issues (Birds of Prey #76–85) of the 2003 on-going series and covers four stories: "Hero Hunters", "The Battle Within", "Knock-Out", and "A New Morning's Resolution".

"Hero Hunters" is a five-issue storyline (Birds of Prey #76–80) has Helena Bertinelli goes undercover at a school as a teacher as she with Dinah Lance as Black Canary spies on one of the students – Lori Zechlin as Black Alice, who has the power to usurp magic. Meanwhile the Birds of Prey unite for a terrifying showdown against the powerful, life-stealing vigilante in Harvest, who has the power to steal energy. Helena Bertinelli would leave the team at story's end.

"The Battle Within" is a three-issue storyline (Birds of Prey #81–83) has the Birds of Prey travel to Metropolis and beyond, searching for metahuman vigilantes who have gone too far in their search for justice.

"Knock-Out" is a one-issue storyline (Birds of Prey #84) has Helena Bertinelli returns home to find that Barbara Gordon has broken in and is waiting for her to apologize to Huntress. Meanwhile, Gordon gets checked out by Dr. Mid-Nite who finds that she has something cybernetic growing inside her that has been there since her encounter with Brainiac, which she decides to have it removed and Huntress takes out several crime syndicate members.

"A New Morning's Resolution" is a one-issue storyline (Birds of Prey #85) has as Barbara Gordon as Oracle risking everything to fight the Brainiac virus on her own. Meanwhile, Black Canary begs Huntress to rejoin the team as the future of the Birds of Prey hangs in the balance.

Gail Simone penned the entire trade paperback. For the most part, it is written rather well. Simone takes care to spotlight each of the primary cast, to provide them with a viable characteristic, and then turns this on its head brilliantly. What had been slightly more than run of the mill, not quite up to Simone's previous arcs, is fractured by a revelation and changes the book again, leading to a brilliant purge of embarrassment on Oracle's part.

Joe Bennett (Birds of Prey #81–85), Tom Derenick (Birds of Prey #77–78), Ed Benes (Birds of Prey #79–80), Joe Prado (Birds of Prey #76), and Eddy Barrows (Birds of Prey #85) penciled the trade paperback. For the most part, the penciling was done moderately well. Benes has vast talent and can work in a number of styles, yet he is a tad too gratuitous in over-sexualizing the female form. Despite this, when he's not around the art is generally lacking. Derenick keeps his women more within the bounds of reality, yet his page designs are nowhere near as interesting, and the same applies when Prado. Bennett has greatly improved, albeit the anatomy's still a little distorted, but the facial expressions and layouts are far better. Finally, Barrows has an interesting blockish look for his heroes with a seemingly constant surprised look on their faces.

All in all, Birds of Prey: The Battle Within is a good continuation to what would hopefully be a wonderful series.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another very well-written book by Gail Simone. The evolving relationships of the main characters matters as much as the adventures they share, which is really saying something in the comics of a decade gone by when you stop to think about it. Zinda and Helena are perhaps the most interesting of the group this time around. Too, the subtleties and suggestions of discussion advance the plot as much as the explosions do, which is cool. The art is what it is... very pretty, not too realistic... I'm not sure it's appropriate to say it's sexist when the male characters are drawn in an unlikely fashion as the females, and I'll admit that I always liked Benes' work. Anyway, I believe Simone's run on Birds of Prey is a high water mark in the history of DC.

[Chelsea 🏳️‍🌈 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty loaded volume. I double checked but it seemed to have twice the number of issues as the others which is odd. It went over a few different storylines.

The first is about a teenager with magic abilities to steal the powers of other magic users like Zatanna. Dinah and Helena rush to stop her from using her abilities to kill others.

The next was about a villain called Harvest who had the power to steal force from others. She was using them to kill murderers and heal sick children. Helena struggled to find a reason to believe Harvest wasn't doing more harm than good. I appreciated seeing her worry and get really protective over Dinah. Their relationship gives me life.

There's a story that was a bit hard for me to follow but Dinah travels to Singapore and goes undercover with a drug smuggling ring in efforts to help Helena with her ploy to stop mobsters in Gotham.

As this is happening, my favorite bits are (of course) the character work between the ladies. Helena is still struggling to feel like she belongs and apparently is (perpetually) on Batman's bad side. Dinah actually calls a meeting with Bats to pressure him into being nicer to her which was wonderful to see.

Babs' plans to manipulate Helena into making better decisions is discovered and Helena is heartbroken. She quits the team and refuses to ever work with Babs again.

Here's something interesting: we have Dinah asking Helena to forgive Babs. Dinah also yells at Babs and tells her its her job to fix this and get Helena back on the team. We then have Babs meeting with Helena to tell her its okay to be mad at Babs but not to take it out on Helena. So, this volume was a lot of Dinah and Babs trying to protect each other and fix their interpersonal relationships... behind each other's backs. Have I mentioned they're married?

Anyway, I liked seeing everyone come together to support Babs in the hospital. It was especially cute seeing Dinah camped out in the chair at her bedside. Again, my favorite parts of this series are the relationships between the ladies.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know. I want to like this book more than I actually do. Part of the problem is the ridiculous art. It's the kind of art that gives superhero books a bad name: women with oddly round and hard breasts wearing painfully unsupportive clothes, men with a hundred muscles per square inch and no necks. The storylines, particularly the last one, are lackluster. Very little in the way of introspection by any of the characters, especially when they need it. About the only thing that affected me was the barely acknowledged subplot of Ted Kord's disappearance, but that's because I know where that one's going.

[Liz.Loki · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

The first few issues were hard to get through, too many side quests I didn’t enjoy, but it recovered nicely in the end. My favourite parts were when the story started focusing on Babs’ cybernetic illness, it made me really emotional how every superhero fought for her recovery. She’s so loved.

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truth be told: most of my favorite fictional characters, whether in books, comics, tv or movies, are men. There are exceptions, of course, but very often in popular culture*, female characters are written in such a way that I find them either bland, annoying or stupid, most of which doesn't have to do with their gender than with the fact that a lot of writers don't seem to know what to do with women, or what they are like (and this, sadly, applies to female writers as much as to male writers). Sometimes I feel bad about this, because hello, I love women (in every way, as people who know me should know), and I want to get excited about female characters. But it's not always as easy as with "Birds of Prey", where I love all the women so much omg. Ahem.

Oracle, Black Canary, Huntress and Lady Blackhawk kick ass. They're on a mission, and sometimes they win, sometimes they don't. But what I love most about this team are the little moments where it's obvious they care about each other (even though it takes some of them a while). And their interaction feels feminine without being like a bad chick-flick. So if you're looking for a great book with interesting and likable female characters, this is it.

*That is to say, I'm talking about the kind of things I tend to get excited about, not the things I admire - it's usually a difference.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The previous volume of Birds of Prey featured an amazing bar fight and Huntress peacing out. Getting the band back together takes a little longer than I wanted, but integrating Helena's mob past as part of her operative usefulness proved a good call by Simone.

[Andromeda M31 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Birds of Prey the Battle Within is the fourth volume of Gail Simone's run on Birds of Prey. This is a big collection, containing 10 issues!

Zinda Blake, Lady Blackhawk, pilots the Huntress, Black Canary, and Oracle to different parts of the country and the Birds of Prey track down three vigilantes that have crossed the line. After dealing with Black Alice, Harvest, and Rose and Thorn, Huntress breaks with the group was she realizes Barbara is manipulating her into being a 'reformed super heroine'. Striking out on her own, Huntress gets a new costume with PANTS and NO BELLY WINDOW, and tries to infiltrate the Gotham Mob. Canary and Oracle are trying to stop drug shipments into Gotham via Singapore, but unfortunately Oracle's Brainiac infestation was never full rooted out...

Zinda is more fully cemented as a member of the team in this volume (and she's very fun), and I was introduced to Catman, one of Dinah's father figures and a boxer. Ed Benes art continues to be... too much. Rose and Thorn gets the worst of it, as her outfit is literally a green bikini (ug). But I can't say how happy I am that Huntress gets a new costume, and now looks like a real member of the Bat family.

Barbara Gordon/Oracle fight with a tech infection feels extremely 90's, but it's nice to see it propel her into reaching out to Helena and for the reader to see her supported by so many characters across the shared multiverse. I'm always a sucker for parental moments between Barbara and Commissioner Gordon.

I really enjoyed this volume, for the shear amount of stuff going on if nothing else. I feel great affection for all these characters and Simone always delivers character beats that leave me satisfied but wanting more.

[Rummanah (Books in the Spotlight) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

The illustrations and the male gaze bothered me a lot in this volume so much so that I found it distracting from the narrative, which is quite good. I love the strengthening of friendship between Barbara, Dinah, and Helena. I also enjoy seeing Dinah grow as the volumes progress and I end up liking her character much more.

[Haviva Avirom · Rating 3 out of 5]

How does anyone justify this art? It's ridiculous in its pandering to the lowest common denominator. Even the characters know it.

[John of Canada · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found some of the story line confusing. The artwork is something I would have drooled over when I was a high school student.

[Ari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Without a doubt, Birds of Prey is one of my favorite series especially when Simone is the main writer. This is another great installment in the series. It introduces Black Alice who will later become an incredible character who will be missed. Yet my highlight of this collection involves a villain named Harvest.

Birds of Prey: The Battle starts off strong returning to the daily lives of the girls as The Huntress does her best to help a girl named Alice who recently lost her mother. The relationships between all the women in this series is always the best. Gail Simone does an excellent job at crafting friendships in this series. Black Alice's struggle to fit in is no different. She is truly a pariah and as they help her the more interesting she becomes. It's a shame the series couldn't spend more time after her but soon after Alice, Harvest is introduced.

The action packed collection involves one villain after another yet none of them are quite villainous until the drug dealers introduced in the very end. After Alice, there is Harvest and Thorne. My favorite would have to be Harvest who is called upon when somebody has sinned. Somebody writes down a name and she kills them. Yet Harvest has a few secrets of her own. As the mystery unfolds, Black Canary's and Huntress's pasts also become even more fascinating. Yet the questions that revolve around Harvest are not answered until later creating an addicting read. I couldn't put any of the issues down during this arc. In addition, Harvest is the one who remains with me.

While I mainly reflect on Harvest, the way Black Canary and Huntress react to Thorne is memorable, too. I find it impossible to hate any villain for what they do. I want to support all of them. There is so much pain and no justice for so many of them. Apart of me doesn't want the Birds of Prey around to stop them.

It isn't until the end when Black Canary and Wild Cat go to Singapore that the story starts to slow down and looses its interesting points. While there are moments especially with Oracle's and Huntress's involvements, most of the story falls a little flat. It's a shame. I think the reason is because the chemistry is thrown off by introducing Wild Cat as Black Canary's partner instead of the actual members of Birds of Prey. Therefore, it is a bit of a struggle to pull through these parts and to the end. Still, this arc is almost as strong as the others. All it lacks is the dynamics and friendship between all the women of Birds of Prey yet there are valid reasons for them being seperated.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay so I remember watching the tv show of this and thinking "This is so nearly good but not". I thought it was a problem with the show. Wrong. The comic fails on so many levels it's hard to even tell where to begin. I love Gail Simone, she's awesome! So why is this so terrible? True, I am dipping into the series late on, but that's true of pretty much anything I start reading. This is just bad. Firstly the artwork is ridiculous. I don't usually complain about big bosoms but I'm about to here. The women in this don't look like an 'unrealistic ideal', they look stupid, like bad photoshop. Their globe-like boobs seemed tacked to their bodies even when they're not in costume and supposedly wearing day clothes. The men actually make me wanna laugh. I'm looking at a panel of Batman and going, "What is that muscle? How many muscles do you think there are in an arm? Have you seen the human body?" Honestly, just stupid. Then the dialogue, pretty much all the writing is bad. That's it, there's no other word for it, just plain bad. So much so the characters seem interchangeable and hollow. It's like sock puppet theatre with globular breasts. Then thematically - oi! The girls are tracking down other 'heroes' that 'go too far', and turning them onto the right path. The notion of vigilantes hunting vigilantes because they consider them to have gone too far beyond the law is ridiculous. It's laughable. And frankly, even Simone doesn't seem to realise it. There is no dwelling upon the hypocrisy at the crux of their actions, nor introversion of any kind. This is a book absent of thought bubbles. And even the author seems unaware of what a ludicrous plot she's written. No thinking on either side of the pen. All in all, disappointing. Never thought I'd say this but stick with Supergirl, you'll be better served in every department.

[Oliver Hodson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loving this series, and although the impossible curves can be a bit too much, it still comes in as a good story with appealing art. It might be gradual wins, but I like how huntress has fabric covering her belly and she became the first DC hero to use the word sex (as far as I can remember) without blushing. It is awesome how these characters think about how they use people and its not always in a good way, as the dynamics between babs and huntress show.

Canary has developed too, and her natural friendship with wildcat was cool as was the fact that she could call on a wide range of friends with complex relationships to her to help her fight a large enemy.

The integration of a wide range of supporting characters like josh, savant, and lady blackhawk has been very effective.

[Victor Orozco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice little look on what the girls have been doing. Finally get to see the birds with Helena and Zinda. Helena is... interesting but of the Helenas I prefer Wayne than Bertinelli as Huntress. To much drama out of Bertinelli.

Zinda is really cool, sort of a fish out of the water having grown up in the 50s.

Barbara here and there is particularly bitter at times. I have to admit even though she was a death's door I wasn't very moved.

Dinah was excellent. Hot as lava. I like how the artists make her look so hot. She does go a little overboard at times with the drama.

Nice inclusion of Ted Grant in that interesting adventure in Singapore. C+

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was surprised how much this disappointed me. There are two stories told here and neither hit the mark for me. Going after vigilantes who went too far seems odd given the fact that Huntress and Savant are on the team. The three vigilantes they come across are decent though. Savant's story makes little sense. The other story was a weird curve ball and repetitious based on a recent trip to Asia. As is most things OMAC, I didn't like the developments with Babs. The art was good throughout. Overall, I really enjoyed the dialogue as Simone has got their voices down but the plot here was very subpar.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are several good storylines going on in this collection. The title seems to refer to both the battle Oracle is fighting with the cyber-parasite within her, and the struggle for the Birds to remain a team. This collection is thicker and meatier than the previous collections. There is a lot going on and it is more enjoyable than the last (Between Dark and Dawn). I would have liked to have seen a little more of Lady Blackhawk, but perhaps she will get a stronger role in the Birds as the story progresses.

[Talkswithwind · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book represents the issues that drew me into Birds of Prey in the first place, and where I fell in love with the character of Black Canary. All thanks to this person. I particularly like the arc of Black Canary, her time learning to live in the footsteps of the Assassin, and her attachment to the girl Sin. Very well put together, and was a great introduction to Gail Simone's storytelling.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am familiar with Gail Simone's reputation for writing a variety of female superheroes who actually interact with each other in interesting ways, and I can now confirm that it is, indeed, deserved! I could wish that they were not all drawn as being absolutely interchangeably Barbie-shaped, but you can't have everything. (And a set of Birds of Prey Barbie dolls would be a fun project, if I were craftier.)

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harvest was a really interesting villain - I loved the introduction of a bunch of new villains and the move to new locations in these story arcs. I didn't really care for Brainiac, so I was sad to see that come back.

The art was a little more all over the place in this volume - a lot more gravity-defying boobs and T&A than in the earlier volumes of this run. (Though I was happy to see both Black Canary & Huntress wearing actual clothes in a fight for once at the end of this one.)

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is volume 4, and there's some great Oracle plot in it. In one trade, we get several arcs with different villains. (And if you thought Nikki on Heroes was kind of a wimp, the villain Rose/Thorn is a much better treatment of the same idea). Some slightly soap-opera-y team drama, but it's not overdone.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stuff. It's nice that Batman is a minor character in this narrative, since he steals the spotlight in most Gotham narratives. Simone continues the action and the character development. I could read many, many volumes like this.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of my massive Barbara Gordon Re-read which I had a glorious amazing time with. Birds of Prey, under the hands of Gail Simone, was a gorgeous thing and It made me super happy to have all my amazing women back together doing amazing things!

[Nicolas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as fun as previous volumes, but still some good moments.

We talk about this classic run and the Birds of Prey in general on a special episode of the All the Books Show: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/ep...

[Cassie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oddly enough, I think I prefer the scenes with the ladies out of costume. Their missions and mortal peril didn't really intrigue me as much as their friendships do. I love Black Canary and Huntress and Zinda is fun, but Oracle kinda fell flat for me a bit.

[Tomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm done with this series. I was reading it only because I like Huntress and Canary but the stories became weird and too girly for me. They are constantly angry at each other and they are "betraying" each others trust and no epic moments are happening.

[Anne Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great and funny book.