A review by iam_griff
Birds of Prey, Vol. 1: Trouble in Mind by Duane Swierczynski

3.0

Having read the “Birds of Prey” in its entirety I found this New 52 series a bit lacking. While Duane Swierczynski’s writing at the start relatively interesting, but found that once you started getting into the third & fourth issues the flow of the story starts to get a bit confusing. I also didn’t care for the team line up. Birds of Prey just isn’t a team without Oracle (Barbara Gordon), with while she makes several appearances as Batgirl, Oracle was more effective as a crime fighter than Barbara ever was as Batgirl. Black Canary is always a solid character, but the backstory of being wanted for murder was only slightly dumber than the costume they put her in & erasing the Black Canary/Green Arrow legacy. Starling? WTF!? Might as well call her Lady Blackhawk without the WWII history & piloting. Guess this was giving Black Canary a friend while introducing the other characters that readers know & a touch of dichotomy. Katana has always been an under-utilised character & is good to see her in a well known book. Finally Poison Ivy seems powered down from what she could do prior to 52. There was no real epilogue to the storyline after 7 issues before launching into issue 8. This was no means the worst of the New 52 titles for me, but they tarnished a solid book.