Quick thought on Barbara Gordon's role in the new Birds of Prey...
Spoilers for Birds of Prey (2023-) #7
....
Okay so; I am really, really happy that they actually told Barbara about the situation and what was going on this time. After the ending of the #6 I was kinda afraid they were going to do something like keep Babs in the dark while they chose the "Secret Barbara Gordon Defence Squad" route, so I have to say it was quite the relief when they instead went "Work with Oracle to solve this mystery" route.
I guess this fear was mostly due to how they excluded Barbara from the first arc, and kept her entirely in the dark about even the existence of the mission. And then at the end of #6 they made a point of showing that Barbara was indeed hurt by this and they only revealed the reasons after Barbara had already left the roof.
So it was nice to have Barbara immediately get brought into the loop. I've complained a bit about the first arc of this run; and I suppose the heart of my personal issues with it was I felt it was all a tad contrived, between excluding Barbara and having a hero vs hero conflict with the Amazons.
But in #7 not only is Barbara informed of the situation, but she's working alongside Dinah and also acting as Oracle.
Between all of the dead alternate Barbaras being shown wearing their Batgirl outfits and Barbara being dressed as Batgirl in the cover of #7, it was a pleasant surprise to find that Barbara was indeed taking the lead as Oracle instead Batgirl. In fact despite the cover art, she doesn't even use her Batgirl outfit in #7.
Still feel like they should've just told Babs all the way back in #1 and had her take the lead as Oracle back then, but I digress.
With contrived conflict and lack of communication being the main thing which I felt distracted my enjoyment of the first arc, the fact that this new arc is getting kicked off with significantly less of that has made me really enjoy #7 and am looking forward to more.
38 notes
路
View notes
Dinah headcanon reboot
In my headcanon reboot, Superman is the first superhero.
Dinah is Dinah Drake Lance. She was born in 1968 (I didn't want to be working in "the future" but had some of the younger generation worked up to adulthood). She never lived in Gotham. Owned a flower shop, became a superhero, met and married Larry, was widowed, joined the JL then started dating Ollie later.
Her father was a PBX installer (union job), and her mom was a secretary. Mom quit work when Dinah was born, but went back to work when Dinah's little brother started school. She really did not like being a stay at home mom, though she loves her kids dearly.
Dinah's parents have no idea she is a superhero. She didn't live in the same city as they did as an adult (her brother does - he has two boys, by the way). They liked Larry, and I'm trying to work out exactly what she tells them about his death. They are concerned about her after he dies, of course. It was rough on her.
They like Ollie, too. And they are really curious about some things, but don't pry, because she's an adult and she'll tell them what she wants them to know. And they do talk about some things - Roy's addiction, Connor's surprise existence, etc. But they are really confused how the two are living together and yet both acquired additional offspring (Mia and Sin) independently, rather than together. And exactly what Dinah was doing in Asia when she met Sin is also something they don't know. I think she might have to open up at that point - what do you think?
Dinah moves to Star City just over a year after Larry dies. Ollie proposes, but Dinah feels it's too soon. Later, they move in together around the time Roy gains custody of Lian. While she and Ollie do work together a lot, they also work separately, and both are members of the JL. She starts traveling more when she starts working with Barbara in the Birds of Prey. Once she adopts Sin, that dies down a lot, because she needs to be home to parent Sin (and kinda Mia, too). Later Ollie and Dinah marry.
1 note
路
View note
Thoughts of Birds of Prey (2023-) #6
Spoilers for Birds of Prey (2023-) #6
So the newest issue of the current Birds of Prey comic has recently come out and I guess since I took the time to make multiple fairly long-ish posts about this run, I should go over my thoughts here.
To sum things up... I thought it okay but also not really too big of a fan by the end of it. I didn't exactly dislike it, but I guess it left me with too many questions and felt a bit too contrived. It was enjoyable enough, but kinda felt like my enjoy-ness of it decreased with each subsequent issue. It wasn't bad, but I guess that's my knee-jerk fresh reaction.
Of course, it still possible that there is more to the story than there is now and that future issues will reveal new information which might clear up some of my issues more, I'll be discussing that as well...
Note again that I am a novice in comics, and Gotham Academy was one of the first I read fully so perhaps I'm biased in that area. But to go over my thoughts for why I kinda feel slightly disappointed in more detail...
What was the point of Meridian?
Warning of future doom, apparently. So as it turns out, the real reason that Barbara wasn't include was because she died eleven times already
(the fact that this was far from Meridian's first attempt was foreshadowed last issue with her noting where the last battle "always is"). So someone is out to get the Birds of Prey, and they're possibly using Future Maps time travel tech to do it.
While this does somewhat answer the question of why Barbara was specifically excluded; still doesn't explain the secrecy.
Like, all these visions of Barbara dying have her in her Batgirl outfit, so couldn't she just have been informed she'd die and asked to oversee the mission as Oracle? Or does that also somehow lead to her death?
Being kept in the loop would also presumably have greatly helped avoid awkward feelings like this. And from what I know of Barbara, her tactical mind is probably more valuable than her martial art skills. But I guess whatever evil time traveller is targeting the BoP would've found a way to get to Babs anyway? (also on a side note; Barbara getting hurt by not being included was at least one thing I kinda predicted. My other, more thougt-out predictions though... well I'll get to those in a bit)
It also confirms that Dinah indeed did not apparently get any explanation for why she had to exclude Barbara until after the mission was complete and.... that feels weird?
Like I said, I'm a novice on comics (although I am now definitely adding more Birds of Prey stuff to my to-read list) so I'm not the biggest expert on these characters. Nevertheless it feels that Black Canary here would've agreed to attack Wonder Woman and her people while excluding Oracle all on the word of a time traveller she's likely never met before (and in the present is a teenager who she's likely never met before either) without even demanding a damn good explanation first.
I guess it was more dramatic from a story perspective for Meridian to reveal this stuff now and set up the next arc. But it still just feels contrived to me. Maybe I'm overlooking/overthinking something though?
Meridian's Motives
So I've gone over a theory before that Meridian was in fact evil and possibly even connected to Megaera. That theory was not confirmed, or overly supported, by this. And it does seem like Meridian is probably on the up-and-up.
Perhaps I'm a tad biased/sunk-cost fallacy right now since I spent a decent amount of time on the theory of Meridian being evil, but still worth noting that this mission ended up Megaera possessing Sin, albeit with Sin in control (and presumably actually in control because Megaera said Sin was in control while Sin used the lasso on her).
There's still quite a few similarities between Meridian and Megaera which are a bit difficult to overlook (you can check out the link I placed above where i went into more detail into that).
Its worth noting as well that Meridian mentioned that whichever evil time traveller is targeting the BoP, they're using her technology most likely. An interesting detail, and one which raises q
Could it be Meridian is hiding something still? All the information we know about the future and her motives comes from her after all.
Or could it be she's being controlled without her knowledge? Or a second Meridian is up and about?
Perhaps it seems like I'm still focusing a disproportionate amount on Meridian, but she still remains the driving force behind all this issues of the narrative which have somewhat hurt my enjoyment and given me questions.
And to repeat what I've said before. Meridian seems like a strange direction for the character of Maps Mizoguchi.
As I've alluded to before, I'm probably quite biased in this area because I've read Gotham Academy years ago before I really got into comics like I have recently and it was one of the first runs I've finished and stuff.
Maps is a character who wants to be Robin. And that's the path which she seems to have been developed upon during her fairly recent return.
Given how still early she is in her storyline of becoming Robin (or some other kind of vigilante) it just still feels like a strange choice for Maps Mizoguchi of all people to show up as a time traveling hero with a persona and skillset which seems in stark contrast to her every prior appearance.
Meridian does not appear to be a martial artist, Maps doesn't appear to be a tech genius. Magic would seem like a more likely 'superpower' than super-tech for Maps considering the more supernatural focus of Gotham Academy.
Maps has been established with a preference for swords while Meridian is only shown fighting using a fancy taser.
Am I thinking too deeply into it? Probably, yes.
But still feels like an overall strange decision to introduce Future Maps in such a manner. Especially when Present Maps has only returned to semi-focus in recent years and still hasn't really developed too much in her own current goals (such as being Robin).
So taking a character who's still in need of a bit more focus and development and then giving them a future persona which is at contrast to their current development chain? Seems odd.
Also at first i just assumed Meridian comes from a post-apocalyptic future which would be retconned out of the timeline by this arc. But Meridian's comments about how she doesn't take time travel lightly and is trying to right the timeline suggests she does not in fact come from a post-apocalyptic timeline.
So does that mean Maps is destined to become Meriden?
Again, this is probably my bias due to Gotham Academy nostalgia. But I'm not sure if I'm too much of a fan of this direction for her.
Especially, as I keep noting, Present Maps has only barely gotten started on working on becoming Robin (or any-kind of vigilante); but Meridian seems to suggest Maps is going to drop her current direction and go in a completely different direction at some point in the future.
Well those of my thoughts I guess. I suppose I'll see how things develop from here.
While I did find the Birds of Prey quite well-drawn so far and fairly enjoyable. All this thoughts I've gone over and the general feeling this arc was a tad contrived has all somewhat mitigated my enjoyment.
8 notes
路
View notes