Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #3 Review

Writers: Julie Benson, Shawna Benson / Artists: Claire Roe, Roge Antonio / DC Comics

Y’all really gonna make me talk about Black Canary, huh? -deep sigh- Aiight. Let’s start by saying I actually don’t have any beef with Dinah Laurel Lance Drake and I really liked her as a character despite the odd ups and downs she’s had pre-Flashpoint (remember when she and Ra’s al Ghul were a thing? That happened, y’all). In fact, one of the things that made her more fascinating than her other Justice League counterparts was her relationship to her mother and the idea of heroism as lineage especially in taking on the mantle of your own living family member. There’s some deep psychological stuff there. So it strikes me as odd in a continuity where Dinah never even had a mother that the Bensons insist on bringing it up every few pages with Dinah’s conversations to her absence. It’s almost the same effect as punching a hole through a wall, haphazardly hanging an attractive painting over it, and then proceeding to interject into every conversation how that picture never used to be there. Why draw attention to the gap you already know fans are going to notice (and yes, this backstory has been in place for a few years, but not nearly as long as the previous iteration)?

I suppose the constant barrage of flashbacks are supposed to make us empathize more with Dinah, but they really feel odd and out of place in the high-paced action genre the rest of the comic seems to be going for. There’s no or…