DC Comics and Batman: Urban Legends #14 Spoilers and Review follows.
Who and Why Are The NEW Birds Of Prey?! Demythify!
The book has two variant covers below that supplement the main cover above.
The promise of the issue can be gleaned from its solicitation.
BATMAN: URBAN LEGENDS #14
Written by VITA AYALA, MARK RUSSELL, CHE GRAYSON, and RYAN CADY
Art by NIKOLA ČIŽMEŠIJA, KARL MOSTERT, BELÉN ORTEGA, TREVOR SCOTT, CAM SMITH, and GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI
Cover by KARL MOSTERT
Variant covers by KIM JACINTO and GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI
$7.99 US | 64 pages | Prestige
ON SALE 4/12/22Batman and Zatanna are at the mercy of the DCU’s newest magic! Ace the Bat-Hound and the Super-Pets versus Gotham’s worst villains! A new Birds of Prey led by Lady Shiva and Katana? And a team-up between Batman and the Question!
The new Birds of Prey story is one of four tales in the issue.
So, inconceivably Lady Shiva has been asked by Batman to put a team together for a mission; it may well be a lie by Shiva, but we’ll see.
Shiva recruits Katana, who logic would dictate Batman would/should have asked to form the team since he worked with her and recruited her to his Outsiders team almost 40 years ago.
The team also includes Ghost, from the pages of Catwoman I believe, and Miracle Molly from the recent epic run by James Tynion IV.
There mission is to find kidnapped-as-a-boy, but now possibly grown-up Noah Grove who has a scary super-power.
Each team member was chosen for a reason as we see Noah’s powers at play later against Lady Shiva.
The story ends with the team confronted by, presumably, a masked Noah Grove.
The Birds of Prey story continues in May.
BATMAN: URBAN LEGENDS #15
Written by VITA AYALA, MARK RUSSELL, CHE GRAYSON,
and JOEY ESPOSITO
Art by NIKOLA ČIŽMEŠIJA, KARL MOSTERT, SERG ACUÑA, and JASON HOWARD
Cover by NIKOLA ČIŽMEŠIJA
Variant cover by KARL MOSTERT and TRISH MULVIHILL
Variant cover by RILEY ROSSMO
$7.99 US | 64 pages | Prestige
ON SALE 5/10/22
Zatanna has to save Batman’s soul! Ace the Bat-Hound must confront the source of his trauma…The Joker! Meanwhile, the night of Batman’s auction is finally here! Katana doesn’t buy what Lady Shiva is selling for a second about the new Birds of Prey, and she’s going to let her know personally. Batman has to team up with Plastic Man to save a criminal from having his life taken by the Penguin and KGBeast!
The BoP tale concludes in June 2022.
BATMAN: URBAN LEGENDS #16
Written by VITA AYALA, MARK RUSSELL,
CHE GRAYSON, and JOSH TRUJILLO
Art by NIKOLA ČIŽMEŠIJA, KARL MOSTERT, SERG ACUÑA, and ROSI KÄMPE
Cover by KARL MOSTERT and TRISH MULVIHILL
Variant cover by EJIKURE
Variant cover by DERRICK CHEW
$7.99 US | 64 pages | Prestige
ON SALE 6/14/22
Batman and Zatanna stand up against the curse they’ve been facing throughout their whole relationship! Ace and his Super-Pet compatriots make their last stand. Will the new Birds of Prey crumble because of their lack of trust in each other? And we go back in time for a Batman and Alfred team-up story where Alfred’s taking the lead on the action!
The Pulse With Added DEMYTHIFY!
An interesting BoP tale in Batman: Urban Legends #14. However, this motley crew of “birds” do not have the star power that first iterations did over 25 years ago. It featured former Batgirl as Oracle and Black Canary joined by Huntress and Catwoman on early missions.
Even the “bad girls” version for the 2020 film had cinematic icon Harley Quinn at its helm.
The lack of star power and appeal of this new team is problematic as the roster doesn’t seem thought out for endurance for trying to make readers clamor for more adventures of these ladies. Plus, after this first tale, the villain in Noah Grove seems intriguing, but readers likely don’t care if these “birds” survive the adventure.
While it’s possible the editorial mandate in 1996 in Showcase 93 #6 was to grab misfit heroines and see if he can make them interesting, drawn by a hot artist-on-the-rise then in Gary Frank, the misfits chosen in 2022 are not visually interesting costume wise nor personality wise nor are rendered by a hot up and coming artist (apologies Serg Acuña).
If DC wanted to create a BoP with some appeal mining some of James Tynion IV’s other creations and characters he used before he left the Batman and Joker series may have worked a bit better by anchoring the new team around a dysfunctional pairing of Punchline and Bluebird for example.
Also, the 2022 BoP don’t even get the cover treatment during Urban Legends until the last part of the three issue adventure un June 2022.
Dud rating, for this opening tale, sorry.
