Birds of Prey 2: Your Kiss Might Kill

Comic Info

Birds of Prey (3) #9

Reprints Birds of Prey (3) #0, 8-12 (June 2012-November 2012).   The Birds of Prey try to stop the Owl invasion of Gotham and find Poison Ivy clinging to life.  Travelling to South America to connect with the Green, the Birds of Prey are about to learn Poison Ivy’s true agenda with the team…and it could be deadly.  Facing death and getting deeper and deeper involved in illegal activities, Black Canary finds that running a team of “heroes” isn’t what she planned.

Written by Duane Swierczynski, Birds of Prey 2:  Your Kiss Might Kill follows up Birds of Prey 1:  Trouble in Mind.  The collection features the Night of the Owl story (Birds of Prey #9) which was included in Batman:  Night of the Owls and Birds of Prey (3) #0 which was part of DC’s origin month.

I like weird team combinations, and Birds of Prey has always been an interesting combo.  I don’t always love the basic team of Black Canary and Batgirl, but I often love the variations by writers which include other major DC female heroes, and in this case, you also get villains.

The inclusion of Katana, the mysterious Starling, and the villain Poison Ivy has made this book more interesting than it really is.  I like seeing Poison Ivy being a featured player (especially in this volume) and both Katana and Starling deserve more “page-time”.  This is where the Black Canary and Batgirl combo does get a little tiring since we’ve seen this team-up for years…I prefer the variety and odd members of the team to be featured.

Birds of Prey (3) #11

The despite liking the team make-up, I do think the story is a little unbalanced.  Like many continuing comic books, the writers are at the mercy of the “big events” that have bigger sweeping aspects.  Here, Birds of Prey gets caught up in “Night of the Owls” from the Batman storyline…it kind of hinders the overall plot and keeps the Poison Ivy story from possibly being developed even more in this collection.

Also, the art of the volume is all over the place.  I don’t like it when artists are changed out throughout a comic storyline and find it a bit distracting.  I like Travel Foreman’s style and wish he had handled the whole volume.  He is different than many of the mainstream artists and always does interesting things with characters.

Birds of Prey 2:  Your Kiss Might Kill is an enjoyable read despite a few shortcomings.  I think the title has potential when compared to some of the other DC New 52 relaunches, but I also think that Birds of Prey has had multiple attempts to “get it right”.  That being said, I think the Birds are fighting an uphill battle in the comic book market despite their ties to Batman.  Birds of Prey 2:  Your Kiss Might Kill is followed by Birds of Prey 3:  A Clash of Daggers.

Related Links:

Birds of Prey 1:  Trouble in Mind

Batman:  Night of the Owls