2 out of 5

Here, again, I try to find a reviewerly mindset between understanding that I am not for whom books like this are written, and assessing the content for its effectiveness – as a comic book, as a story. So on both accounts, I hope I’m fairly assessing: that the Bensons ongoing foray into Batgirl and the BOPs falls pretty short.

What I allowed for as shorthand storytelling in the preceding one-shot – i.e. in order to fit everything into a one-shot – turns out to be the storytelling m.o. for these first six issues, immediately following on that setup (the at-the-time DC event of Rebirth doing a cyclical status quo rejiggering, allowing us to start the convening of the Birds of Prey anew, with Batgirl / Barbara Gordon out of her wheelchair and Huntress’ identity a secret to her teammates), and continuing the trio’s hunt for a faux-Oracle, who’s been parading around in Barbara’s stead, but using their knowledge to help mobsters, leading to an over-arching problem with the arc: who’s the threat? Yes, it’s this Oracle, stymieing the group’s every attempt at discovery, but it’s also the mob the BOPs are after, or their Snakemen heavies, and in all cases, the Bensons don’t do much to convince us any are really threats. It all feels a little sanitized, with snark wholly taking over the tone and all dialogue – everyone’s got a quip – such that this thing reads fairly campy, like the old Batman TV show. That could be fun, but it’s not wholly sold: our artists are expressive, but not going for Whiz! Bang! style art – it’s still moodily shadowed, with cartoon characters pasted into it; and our leads are, I think, intended to have real gravitas, trying to shuffle through background tragedy for Huntress in particular that’s almost painfully cringey when the narrator can’t stop making cutesy asides. (The worst: all of the location-naming panels have cutesy lil’ meta text underneath, i.e. the panel will say something like “At the antique warehouse,” and then the extra text says “it’s a warehouse for antiques, not an old warehouse.” Now apply that to every instance, including flashbacks and serious moments.)

This is where the storytelling falls short – a lack of stakes, and a tone that wants to play in a shadows-soaked Batman sandbox, but with Marvel movie-esque lightness.

On top of this, despite some conceptually sound plotting, in terms of what draws the team together and what’s connecting them to the Oracle / mob plot, and setting up a fair dynamic amongst the team – The Serious One, The Loner, The Wildcard – every character speaks with the same voice. Okay, perhaps Huntress grumbles a bit more, but she’s just as prone to a-punch-and-a-quip, or jumping quick to plot-moving conclusions during conversations. And this applies to the entirety of the book, good or bad guy, main or one-time-appearing character. Every. Damn. Person.

On the art front, setting aside the tone comment and just focusing on the acting / eye direction, Claire Roe handles the first half of the arc, Roge Antonio the latter, and both are mixed bags. Roe’s fisticuffs tend not to have much flow, but their pages look dynamic at a glance. Arguably, character faces are a bit too slapsticky for the book, better fitting for the comedic pacing I think the Bensons were hoping for, but getting stuck when trying to marry that to an action book – meaning both writers and artists have that struggle, and each side feeds off of the other, negatively. So stuff gives off a fun vibe, not translating when you actually sit down to read it.

Antonio is much more consistent with both choreography and the acting, with the humor timing still not landing. Additionally, their focus on character sacrifices a lot of background work; Roe’s pages are much richer.

As a collection, I appreciate that we get covers separating the chapters, and a slew of alternate covers in the back. For seven issues, this is priced right.

Circling back around, the over reliance on quips, and the quick-cut nature of the plot, moving from location to location very quickly, is where I sense the book is written for a not-me audience, but rather the modern-day demographic, drawn in by Rebirths and movies. That’s fine. As long as the story and characters shine through that, I can work with it. But both of those elements felt too vaguely defined in Who is Oracle?, making it hard to feel much investment in either.